cyrus authentication WITHOUT /etc/passwd

[Will Trillich <will@serensoft.com>]

is there a newbie-level HOWTO explaining how to get cyrus to
authenticate independently of /etc/passwd?

i've got cyrus operating, with imap and pop and webmail
(squirrelmail). don't yet have security, except for webmail, and
i'd like to keep email users separate from shell logins...
there's several thousand email users for the client, but few of
them will ever need shell access.

in multiple places, the documentation touts the ability to add
email users to the cyrus database without having any effect on
/home/* users; but the debian package seems to default to
/etc/passwd. (and -- the bane of linux in general -- it says
"sure you can" without specifying "how". grr. another newbiedoc
in the making, i hope...)

i've spent many a night looking at the PAM documentation and it
hasn't sunk in yet. at all.

maybe SASL is what i'm looking for? not sure... (i installed
libsasl7 but there are dozens of other sasl packages to choose
from as well...?)

the goal: i'd like to be able to [pseudocode]

	make-cyrus-newusers < list/from/file.txt

to create all the mailboxes under /var/spool/cyrus/mail/user and
not have to worry about hundreds of new directories under /home.

ideas?

-- 
I use Debian/GNU Linux version 3.0;
Linux boss 2.4.18-bf2.4 #1 Son Apr 14 09:53:28 CEST 2002 i586 unknown
 
DEBIAN NEWBIE TIP #112 from Karsten M. Self <kmself@ix.netcom.com>
:
It's easy to TEST ONE WINDOW MANAGER FROM WITHIN ANOTHER
by launching Xnest:
	$ Xnest :1 &
	$ twm -display :1 &
Use "apt-get install xnest" to get it.

Also see http://newbieDoc.sourceForge.net/ ...