The qmail Handbook

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DAVE SILL

Copyright © 2002 by Dave Sill

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher.

ISBN (pbk): 1-893115-40-2

Printed and bound in the United States of America 12345678910

Trademarked names may appear in this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, we use the names only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark.

Editorial Directors: Dan Appleman, Gary Cornell, Jason Gilmore, Karen Watterson

Technical Reviewer: Charles Cabazon

Project Manager: Grace Wong

Copy Editor: Kim Wimpsett

Production Editor: Sofia Marchant

Compositor: Impressions Book and Journal Services, Inc.

Indexer: Ron Strauss

Cover Designer: Tom Debolski

Marketing Manager: Stephanie Rodriguez

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For my mother

Acknowledgments

Thanks to dan bernstein for giving us qmail and many other packages including the daemontools and ucspi-tcp support utilities. Thanks also to the many people who helped make my online guide "Life with qmail" what it is today and to the members of the qmail mailing list who have helped me learn a great deal about qmail over the years.

Thanks also to the fine folks at Apress: Jason Gilmore and Gary Cornell, for not only taking a chance on a first-time author but actively recruiting him; Grace Wong, for managing the project; Kim Wimpsett, for turning my crude writings into clear and consistent text; Tory McLearn and Sofia Marchant, for laying out the book; Stephanie Rodriguez, for her marketing efforts; and the many others behind the scenes who I didn't deal with directly. Working with Apress was a joy: They were supportive and committed to producing a high-quality book.

Thanks to Charles Cazabon, the technical reviewer. His suggestions were valuable and dramatically improved the quality of the finished product. This will come as no surprise to anyone who has seen his contributions to the qmail list.

Finally, special thanks to my family and friends who encouraged, supported, and tolerated me throughout the project. My wife, Mary Jane, convinced me to write this book even though she knew it would be painful for the family at times. My children Andy, Rachel, and Erica enthusiastically supported me and helped out in many ways. Andy tested the installation instructions in Chapter 2 on four Linux distributions and three BSD distributions. My father took over most of my chores around the house and farm for six months in addition to his usual cooking and house/dog/kid-sitting duties. My mother has supported me throughout my life. Her strength is inspiring. Many other friends and family members supported this effort. Some are acknowledged throughout the book in the names used in examples, but I'm sure I left some out.

—Dave Sill, September 2001

About the Author

Dave sill is a professional system administrator and technical support engineer with more than 15 years of experience. He's been using qmail since its first public release in 1996 and is the author of the popular online qmail guide, "Life with qmail." He's also an active contributor to online qmail support groups including the qmail mailing list and Usenet newsgroup. He lives with his wife, children, and an assortment of dogs, cats, cows, chickens, and turkeys on a 31-acre farm in east Tennessee. When he has spare time, he brews his own beer and trains in Isshinryu karate.

About the Technical Reviewer

Charles Cazabon is a software systems developer with 15 years of experience in computing and information technology. He has been using and configuring qmail since 1998 and is the author of several free software programs, including getmail, queue-repair, and memtester. He is also an active participant in the qmail mailing list. He lives in Saskatoon, Canada, with his significant other, two salamanders, six hamsters, and two mice.

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