7.7. Configuring IMAP and POP3 EmailHaving mail delivered to the system mailboxes in /var/spool/mail is fineas long as the users are using an MUA running on the Fedora system. If a user is running his MUA on another systemEvolution on another Fedora system in the local network, or perhaps Outlook on a Windows machinethen the user needs IMAP or POP3 access to the remote mailbox. 7.7.1. How Do I Do That?Fedora's Dovecot server provides IMAP and POP3 access. When freshly installed, Dovecot will not successfully start. Dovecot requires security certificates to enable encrypted communications. There are three solutions to this problem:
7.7.1.1. Creating your own certificateFirst, edit the file /etc/pki/dovecot/dovecot-openssl.cnf and find the CN= and emailAddress= lines: [ req ] default_bits = 1024 encrypt_key = yes distinguished_name = req_dn x509_extensions = cert_type prompt = no [ req_dn ] # country (2 letter code) #C=FI # State or Province Name (full name) #ST= # Locality Name (eg. city) #L=Helsinki # Organization (eg. company) #O=Dovecot # Organizational Unit Name (eg. section) OU=IMAP server # Common Name (*.example.com is also possible) CN=imap.example.com # E-mail contact emailAddress=postmaster@example.com [ cert_type ] nsCertType = server Edit these two lines to contain the hostname of the system and the mail administrator's email address: # Common Name (*.example.com is also possible) CN=bluesky.fedorabook.com # E-mail contact emailAddress=postmaster@fedorabook.com Then generate the certificates: # SSLDIR=/etc/pki/dovecot /usr/share/doc/dovecot-1.0/examples/mkcert.sh 7.7.1.2. Disabling EncryptionTo disable encryption, edit /etc/dovecot.conf and locate the ssl_disable line: # Disable SSL/TLS support. #ssl_disable = no Uncomment this line and change the value to yes: # Disable SSL/TLS support. ssl_disable = yes 7.7.1.3. Starting DovecotStart the dovecot service using the Services tool or from the command line: # service dovecot start
7.7.2. How Does It Work?Dovecot enables MUAs to access mailboxes over a network connection using the POP3 or IMAP protocols. POP3 is primarily used to fetch mail from a mailbox so that it can be used elsewhere; IMAP is used to manipulate email messages and folders while leaving them on the server. Like SMTP, POP3 is a human-readable protocol, and you can use telnet to manually conduct a POP3 session to see how it works: $ telnet bluesky.fedorabook.com pop3 Trying 172.16.97.102... Connected to 172.16.97.102 (172.16.97.102). Escape character is '^]'. +OK Dovecot ready. USER chris +OK PASS bigsecret +OK Logged in. LIST +OK 2 messages: 1 615 2 609 . RETR 1 +OK 616 octets Return-Path: <root@localhost.localdomain> Received: from localhost.localdomain (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by localhost.localdomain (8.13.5/8.13.5) with ESMTP id k232Hf26026693 for <chris@localhost.localdomain>; Thu, 2 Mar 2006 21:17:41 -0500 Received: (from root@localhost) by localhost.localdomain (8.13.5/8.13.5/Submit) id k232HfOb026692 for chris; Thu, 2 Mar 2006 21:17:41 -0500 Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2006 21:17:41 -0500 From: Jason Smith <root@localhost.localdomain> Message-Id: <200603030217.k232HfOb026692@localhost.localdomain> To: chris@localhost.localdomain Subject: Book Cover Nice! . QUIT +OK Logging out. IMAP is also human-readable, but a bit more complex. In its default configuration, Dovecot uses the input mailboxes in /var/spool/mail as the IMAP INBOX folder and the POP3 data source. This ensures that other applications (such as a local MUA like Evolution) can be used to access the same messages. 7.7.3. What About...7.7.3.1. ...IMAP folders other than the INBOX?Dovecot creates these in the user's home directory. 7.7.4. Where Can I Learn More?
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