# HG changeset patch # User meillo@marmaro.de # Date 1226845799 -3600 # Node ID 8db526d7a678779340ca67dc9fa4fb1fa7589194 # Parent e83eada077fdebca5938e0429f449f2d0cac108a reorganized preface and introduction (feels better now) diff -r e83eada077fd -r 8db526d7a678 thesis/tex/0-preface.tex --- a/thesis/tex/0-preface.tex Sun Nov 16 15:29:30 2008 +0100 +++ b/thesis/tex/0-preface.tex Sun Nov 16 15:29:59 2008 +0100 @@ -2,15 +2,16 @@ \chapter*{Preface} \addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{Preface} -\section*{Preface} %FIXME: write about the motivation to cover this topic: what is it I want? % preface == target of the book, related to the reader % make the topic more concrete and limit it %TODO: have text by oliver here? +preface text (about 1 page) -\section*{Audience} -%TODO: maybe merge mit the intention of the document + +\textbf{Audience} + This document is targeted for \masqmail\ users and for people interested in mail systems in general. Security problems in electronic mail, \unix\ and the \NAME{C} programming language will also be discussed. Additional ones planning to take over an unmaintained software project will find real life experience in here. @@ -34,38 +35,7 @@ %FIXME: write about organisation of the book: parts, chapters, sections. And more thats useful to know. %FIXME: explain where the main part lies (theory vs. implementation) - -\section*{Conventions used} -%TODO: check if this tells what is really used! -%FIXME: make it complete! -%FIXME: remove everything not needed. Maybe write only a few sentences text. -The following typographic conventions are used in this book: - -\begin{tabular}{ p{0.15\textwidth} p{0.8\textwidth} } -\emph{Italic} & -is used for names, including command names, file name, hostnames, usernames and email addresses. -Further more it is used to emphasize text. -\\ &\\ - -\texttt{Constant Width} & -is used for source code, contents of files and output from programs. -\\ &\\ - -\texttt{\$} & -indicates the the user shell prompt. -\\ &\\ - -\texttt{\#} & -indicates the the root shell prompt. -\\ -\end{tabular} - - - -\section*{Additional sources} -%FIXME: specify the really important external documents here %TODO: write about the bundled CD, and tell what's included -\NAME{RFC}s, other books, source code, websites \section*{Acknowledgements} diff -r e83eada077fd -r 8db526d7a678 thesis/tex/1-Introduction.tex --- a/thesis/tex/1-Introduction.tex Sun Nov 16 15:29:30 2008 +0100 +++ b/thesis/tex/1-Introduction.tex Sun Nov 16 15:29:59 2008 +0100 @@ -1,108 +1,19 @@ \chapter{Introduction} \label{chap:introduction} -% say what you want to say +<< say what you want to say >> - -\section{Transporting mail} - - -\subsection{History of electronic mail} -%FIXME: shorter!!! -%TODO: have a quote from Bell Labs about email here - -Electronic mail\index{electronic mail} (short: \name{email})\citeweb{wikipedia:email} is a basic concept in \unix.\citeweb{unix-mail-intro} On \unix\ machines, a lot of information is distributed by \name{system mail}, which is email sent by the operating system. Beside that, email is the common communication system between humans working on computers. - -The \unix\ operating system supports email through the \name{mail user agent} (short: \NAME{MUA}) \name{/bin/mail}. - -Development of \unix\ was not only made in the \name{Bell Labratories} of \NAME{AT\&T}. The \name{Univerity of California at Berkeley} worked on their version of a \unix\ operating system, too. It is refered to as \NAME{UCB} \unix, or \name{Berkeley} \unix\index{Berkeley Unix}. - -The few features of \name{/bin/mail} lead to a second \NAME{MUA} from Berkeley: \name{Mail} (with a capital `M'). Later, the superior functionality of \name{Mail} went back to \name{Bell Labs} and into the program \name{mailx}, the successor of \name{/bin/mail}. - -Nowadays, \name{mailx} and \name{Mail} are quite equivalent and \name{/bin/mail} is linked to either of them---whichever is installed. - -At that time, computers were connected by various kinds of networks. \name{Bell Labs} had invented the \NAME{UUCP} program and protocol suite (for ``\unix\ to \unix\ copy'')\citeweb{wikipedia:uucp}. Berkeley however had an own creation called \name{Berknet} in use. And the \name{United States Department of Defence Advanded Research Projects Agency}'s (\NAME{ARPA}) effort on designing a new wide area network, led to the \NAME{ARPANET}\citeweb{wikipedia:arpanet}, based on the \name{transmission control protocol} (\NAME{TCP}). There were also other, minor, kinds of networks in use. - -Email was transfered between different machines within the same networks. The file transfer itself was made uniformly using \NAME{FTP}, but the higher layered logic of the transfer was different. For example was addressing done different: \NAME{UUCP} used a flat-style schema, while \NAME{ARPANET}'s was hierachical. - -Mail transport from one machine connected to one kind of network to a second machine connected to another was a problem. This showed up at Berkeley where some departments of the university had switched to \NAME{ARPANET}, and some to \NAME{UUCP}, while the rest used \name{Berknet}. - -It was around 1982, when Eric Allman, then a student at Berkeley, wrote \name{delivermail}. Its purpose was to transform email from one network to another. \name{delivermail}, like its successor---the more flexible \sendmail---intermediated between the different networks. They were able to transform email messages from any network to any other. - -Todays email structure is basicly the same as then. The major difference is the uniformity of the underlying network, which is nearly always the \NAME{ARPANET}-based \name{Internet}. Hence lowering the importance of the transformation capabilities of \MTA{}s, that was essential to \sendmail's success---yet being the primary motivation for the program. - -More information about the history of electronic mail can be found at: \citeweb{email:griffiths}, \citeweb{email:crocker}, \citeweb{email:vleck}, \citeweb{email:akkad}, \citeweb{email:murakami}, and \citeweb{email:tomlinson}. A good starting point for general information on internet history is \citeweb{wikipedia:historyoftheinternet}. -%TODO: check the websites which ones are the important ones; remove unnessesary ones - - - -\subsection{Definition of \MTA} -%FIXME: better title; work text over! -%TODO: when was the term ``mail transfer agent'' established? - -This thesis is about a \name{mail transfer agent} (or \index{mail transport agent|see{mail transfer agent}}\name{mail transport agent}, short \NAME{MTA}): \masqmail. \sendmail\ is one too---the most important one. - -The basic job of a \mta\ is to transfer/transport electronic mail from one host to another. - -Here are definitions from others: - -\begin{quote} -A mail transfer agent (MTA) is a highly specialized program that delivers mail and transports it between machines, like the post office. -\cite{costales97} -\end{quote} - -\begin{quote} -A mail transfer agent (MTA) (also called a mail transport agent, message transfer agent, or smtpd (short for SMTP daemon)), is a computer program or software agent that transfers electronic mail messages from one computer to another. -\citeweb{wikipedia:mta} -\end{quote} - -\begin{quote} -mail server (also known as a mail transfer agent or MTA, a mail transport agent, a mail router or an Internet mailer) is an application that receives incoming e-mail from local users (people within the same domain) and remote senders and forwards outgoing e-mail for delivery. -\citeweb{website:techtarget} -\end{quote} - -\begin{quote} -Message Transfer Agent - (MTA, Mail Transfer Agent): Any program responsible for delivering e-mail messages. Upon receiving a message from a Mail User Agent or another MTA, [...] it [...] delivers it to any local addressees and/or forwards it to other remote MTAs (routing) for delivery to remote recipients. -%Any program responsible for delivering e-mail messages. Upon receiving a message from a Mail User Agent or another MTA, often by SMTP over the Internet, it stores it temporarily locally and analyses the recipients and delivers it to any local addressees and/or forwards it to other remote MTAs (routing) for delivery to remote recipients. In either case it may edit and/or add to the message headers. -% -%The most widely used MTA for Unix is sendmail, which communicates using SMTP. -% -%RFC 2821 (SMTP) expands MTA as ``Mail Transfer Agent'' though this is less common. Alternatives with ``Transport'' are also seen but less correct. -\citeweb{website:thefreedictionary} -\end{quote} - -Common is the transfer of mail to other machines; this is the actual job. \MTA{}s work with mail, received from local users and/or remote machines. Mail delivery however is \emph{not} what \mta{}s are for, although probably every \MTA\ is able to deliver mail, and many do. \name{mail delivery agents} (short: \NAME{MDA}) are the programs for this job. Two of the best known \NAME{MDA}s are \name{procmail} and \name{maildrop}. - - - -\subsection{\name{sendmail-compatibility}} -\label{sec:sendmail} -%FIXME: rewrite! - -Allman wrote it to transfer emails between different networks, thus giving \sendmail\ mighty address rewriting abilities. In contrast to its predecessor \name{delivermail}, was \sendmail\ designed to offer greatest flexiblity in configuration; this enabled it to deal with any type of network. - -\sendmail\ was, and still is, very successful. So successful that it stands, like no other, for the whole group of \MTA{}s: \name{sendmail} actually is the \emph{de facto standard} for \mta{}s. - -Its author, Allman, sees three reasons for the huge success: the ``sloopy'' approach (accepting badly formed messages); its focus on the routing function; and the flexible configuration (this was important in \sendmail's early days). -\cite[page xviii]{costales97} - -Others see \sendmail's success more critical. One of them is quoted in the \name{MMDF} FAQs \citeweb{faqs:mmdf}: -\begin{quote} -Sendmail was once compared by one old Internet hand to ``those killer bees that escaped from the laboratory---and now they're everywhere and you can't get rid of 'em''. -\end{quote} -He definately hints here at \sendmail's many security vulnerabilities that came to light and on its complexity, in particular its obscure configuration file \path{sendmail.cf}. - -No matter how \sendmail\ is seen, one must admit its influence on \unix\ emailing programs. Most existing substitutes mimic \sendmail's interface and behavior. Most notable, they create a symbolic link named ``sendmail'' pointing to their own executable. The reason herefor are the many programs assuming an executable called ``sendmail'' on every computer system existing. - -\sendmail\ is not only ported to many platforms, even including \name{Microsoft Windows}, but also it is still the prefered \MTA\ on many systems. - -For deeper knowledge on \sendmail's history, see \cite{costales97} and \cite{vixie01}. - +<< the overall goal of the book >> \section{The \masqmail\ project} -%FIXME: explain why masqmail is old and why it is interesting/important however! + +<< about masqmail (some history) >> + +(include history of email, definition of MTA and sendmail-compatibility in text) + + \subsubsection{Target field} Its original author, Oliver Kurth, sees \masqmail\ so: @@ -143,14 +54,62 @@ Workstations use %FIXME - -\subsubsection{Alternatives?} +\textbf{Alternatives?} % http://anfi.homeunix.org/sendmail/dialup10.html +<< explain why masqmail is old and why it is interesting/important however! >> %FIXME + + + \section{Problems to solve} -%FIXME: what problems has masqmail? -%FIXME: what's the intention of this document? -%FIXME: why is it worth the effort? +<< what problems has masqmail? >> %FIXME + +<< what's the intention of this document? >> %FIXME + +<< why is it worth the effort? >> %FIXME + + + + +\section{How to read the book} + +\subsubsection*{Conventions used} +%TODO: check if this tells what is really used! +%FIXME: make it complete! +%FIXME: remove everything not needed. Maybe write only a few sentences text. +The following typographic conventions are used in this book: + +\begin{tabular}{ p{0.15\textwidth} p{0.8\textwidth} } +\emph{Italic} & +is used for names, including command names, file name, hostnames, usernames and email addresses. +Further more it is used to emphasize text. +\\ &\\ + +\texttt{Constant Width} & +is used for source code, contents of files and output from programs. +\\ &\\ + +\texttt{\$} & +indicates the the user shell prompt. +\\ &\\ + +\texttt{\#} & +indicates the the root shell prompt. +\\ +\end{tabular} + + + + +\section{Further reading} + +<< specify the really important external documents here >> %FIXME + +<< write about the bundled CD, and tell what's included >> %FIXME + +\NAME{RFC}s, other books, source code, websites + +