docs/diploma

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author meillo@marmaro.de
date Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:53:03 +0100
parents 664716b256e1
children f94b01639e2a
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meillo@274 1 \clearpage
meillo@8 2 \chapter*{Preface}
meillo@98 3 \addcontentsline{toc}{section}{Preface}
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meillo@370 5 This thesis is about \masqmail, a small mail transfer agent for workstations and home networks. In October 2007 I had chosen \masqmail\ for my machines because of its small size though it was a ``real'' mail transfer agent. \masqmail\ served me well since then and I have found no reasons to change.
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meillo@366 7 Unfortunately, the \masqmail\ package in \debian, which is my preferred \NAME{GNU}/Linux distribution, is unmaintained since the beginning of 2008. Unmaintained packages are likely to get dropped out of a distribution if critical bugs appear in them. Although \masqmail\ had no critical bugs, this was a situation I definitely wanted to prevent.
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meillo@356 9 Using my diploma thesis as a ``power-start'' for maintaining and developing \masqmail\ in the future was a great idea. As it came to my mind I knew this is the thing I \emph{wanted} to do. --- I did it! :-)
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meillo@366 11 \quad
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meillo@370 13 The overall goal of this document is to revive \masqmail\ in usage and development. \masqmail\ was not developed further in the last five years although the world of email has changed during this time. Hence quite some work needed to be done.
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meillo@370 15 I decided to start at the basis and analyze the environment and \masqmail\ throughout to end up in concrete plans of what should be done and how it should be done to turn \masqmail\ into a modern mail transfer agent again.
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meillo@374 17 The actual implementation of the proposed changes will follow-up this thesis. Here solutions are identified, described, discussed, and recommended but not implemented. I have been working in the code and have fixed bugs during the time I worked on the thesis, though.
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meillo@356 19 \quad
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meillo@370 21 This document is primary written with an audience of \masqmail\ developers and developers of other mail transfer agents in mind. But users of \masqmail\ and everyone who is interested in email systems in general may find this thesis an interesting literature too.
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meillo@370 23 However, at least basic knowledge about \unix\ and C programming is a prerequisite for chapters three, four, and five. \person{Kernighan} and \person{Pike}'s ``The \NAME{UNIX} Programming Environment'' \cite{kernighan84} is a valuable source to gain information about \unix. Programming in the C language is best learned from \person{Kernighan} and \person{Ritchie}'s ``The C Programming Language'' \cite{k&r}.
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meillo@316 32 \section*{Organization}
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meillo@370 34 The document consists of six chapters, each covering a delimited part of the overall topic and building upon the content and results of previous chapters. The first three chapters lead into the topic and create a solid base where the second part builds upon. The chapters four and five form the central part of the thesis as they focus on \masqmail.
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meillo@370 36 Chapter 1 \textbf{introduces} \masqmail\ to the reader. It presents the properties, goals, advantages, and problems of the program. Basic concepts of the email technology are also described and later assumed to be known.
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meillo@370 38 Chapter 2 \textbf{analyzes the market} of electronic communication and email. This chapter gives sound reasons for the sense of future development of \masqmail\ by showing that email will remain an important technology in the future. It tries to identify future trends too.
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meillo@370 40 Chapter 3 \textbf{deals with mail transfer agents} (\MTA{}s) which are the most important entities of the email transport structure. \MTA{}s are defined, classified, and the most important ones are presented and compared.
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meillo@352 42 Chapter 4 \textbf{focuses on \masqmail's present and future}. It is the core of the thesis. Requirements are identified and lead to a list of pending work tasks. Then possible strategies for future development are discussed.
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meillo@370 44 Chapter 5 \textbf{describes improvement plans} which are based on decisions in chapter four, in more detail. A proposed architecture for a redesigned \masqmail\ is presented, too.
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meillo@352 46 Chapter 6 \textbf{summarizes} the most important results and closes the thesis.
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meillo@280 53 \section*{Conventions}
meillo@302 54 %TODO: check it!
meillo@280 55 The following typographic conventions are used in this thesis:
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meillo@304 57 \begin{enumerate}
meillo@316 58 \item \emph{Italic shape} is used to emphasize text, to introduce new terms, and for names, including product, host, and user names, as well as email addresses.
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meillo@304 60 \item For names of persons \textsc{Small Caps} are used.
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meillo@356 62 \item File and path names, contents of files, and output from programs are displayed in \texttt{Typewriter font}.
meillo@304 63 \end{enumerate}
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meillo@302 65 References to external resources are marked using one of three styles, distinguished by the type of resource.
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meillo@302 67 \begin{enumerate}
meillo@370 68 \item References to books, articles, and similar documents look like this: \cite{kernighan84}. The letters represent the author(s) (here \person{Kernighan} and \person{Pike}), while the number represents the year of publication (here 1984).
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meillo@370 70 \item Websites are different from documents as they are less some text written by some author but more a place where information is gathered. Website may also change from time to time, thus the date of access is given to indicate the version to which was referred. References to websites have such appearance: \citeweb{masqmail:homepage}.
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meillo@370 72 \item \name{Request for Comments} are those documents that define the Internet. They are referenced directly by their unique number. For instance: \RFC\,821.
meillo@302 73 \end{enumerate}
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meillo@302 75 The Bibliography is located at the end of the thesis. It also includes a list of the relevant \RFC{}s and how they can be retrieved.
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meillo@98 81 \section*{Acknowledgments}
meillo@33 82 %FIXME: write this at the very end.
meillo@33 83 % dont forget: proove readers, suggestion makers, supporters, ...
meillo@362 84 %\input{/home/meillo/da-various/acknowledgments.tex}
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meillo@362 89 \vspace{9ex}
meillo@356 90 { \it
meillo@356 91 \hspace*{23em}markus schnalke\\
meillo@356 92 \hspace*{23em}February 2009
meillo@356 93 }