ucspi-tcp | The qmail Handbook

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qmail's SMTP server doesn't run as a stand-alone daemon. A helper program such as tcpserver, inetd, or xinetd runs as a daemon. When it receives a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection to port 25, the SMTP port, it runs qmail-smtpd.

Inetd is the de facto standard network server "super-server." It can be configured through /etc/inetd.conf to run qmail-smtpd, but the recommended server tool for qmail is tcpserver, which is part of the ucspi-tcp package. ucspi-tcp is an acronym for Unix Client-Server Program Interface for TCP, and it's pronounced ooks-pie tee see pee.

Chapter 2, "Installing qmail," compares tcpserver to inetd. Chapter 8, "Controlling Junk Mail," covers installing and configuring rblsmtpd, an ucspi-tcp tool for checking DNS blacklists.

Gerrit Pape distributes the documentation for ucspi-tcp as man pages from http://innominate.org/~pape/djb/.

ucspi-tcp was written by Daniel Bernstein, who maintains a Web page for it (http://cr.yp.to/ucspi-tcp.html).

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