masqmail

annotate README @ 38:ac0233b5f6f8

removed trigraph warning
author meillo@marmaro.de
date Mon, 10 May 2010 10:57:23 +0200
parents
children bce7604e0465
rev   line source
meillo@0 1 MasqMail README
meillo@0 2
meillo@0 3 MasqMail is a mail server designed for hosts that are not permanently
meillo@0 4 connected to the internet. It handles outgoing messages, i.e. those
meillo@0 5 that are to be sent over the non-permanent link (usually a ppp or slip
meillo@0 6 connection over a modem or ISDN adapter) specially and delivers them
meillo@0 7 only when explicitely told to do so. There is support for multiple
meillo@0 8 providers, it is possible to write different configurations for each
meillo@0 9 one. The configuration chosen is selected at delivery time, so that if
meillo@0 10 for example a delivery of a message failed while connected with
meillo@0 11 provider 1, it may be delivered when connected to provider 2. For each
meillo@0 12 provider another mail host (or none) can be specified.
meillo@0 13
meillo@0 14 MasqMail provides (a yet simple) mechanism to rewrite headers, also
meillo@0 15 depending on the current connection. This makes it possible to deliver
meillo@0 16 messages with a return address on the local network which will be
meillo@0 17 rewitten at delivery time. The purpose of this is:
meillo@0 18
meillo@0 19 - to allow delivery failure messages that are produced on the local
meillo@0 20 network to be delivered immediately, while those that are produced
meillo@0 21 outside can be delivered to a mailbox on the internet, to be retrieved
meillo@0 22 later.
meillo@0 23
meillo@0 24 - to give mail servers a return address which they can accept if they
meillo@0 25 check for spam mail. Many mail servers require a return address which
meillo@0 26 has the same domain as the server it is getting the message from. If
meillo@0 27 you normally connect to only one provider, this is usually not a
meillo@0 28 problem as you can configure your mailer to a fixed address (but then
meillo@0 29 there is still the problem with the failure messages...), but it is a
meillo@0 30 problem if you use different ones from time to time.
meillo@0 31
meillo@0 32 MasqMail shall once be a complete replacement for sendmail (or other
meillo@0 33 MTAs such as exim, qmail or smail) on a local network, but it is NOT
meillo@0 34 supposed to be installed in a network with a permanent internet
meillo@0 35 connection (at least if it is not behind a secure firewall) because
meillo@0 36 it has no ability to check for undesired relaying or spam filtering.
meillo@0 37
meillo@0 38 Missing, but soon to be realized features:
meillo@0 39
meillo@0 40 - .forward file support (alias file is supported)
meillo@0 41 - mailer demon messages (mail from the server in cases of delivery failures
meillo@0 42 or malformed addresses)
meillo@0 43
meillo@0 44 Future plans are:
meillo@0 45
meillo@0 46 - initiate connections on its own
meillo@0 47 - integration to the masqdialer system (mserver) as an option
meillo@0 48 - possibly a pop3 server
meillo@0 49
meillo@0 50 For installation instructions, see INSTALL.
meillo@0 51
meillo@0 52 Bugs: MasqMail is still very young, and there are probably at lot of
meillo@0 53 bugs in it. I need every bug reported to me! If you do, please send me
meillo@0 54 the configuration files, the logs, the version, and a good description
meillo@0 55 on how to reproduce the error. The more bug reports I get, the better
meillo@0 56 masqmail will get!
meillo@0 57
meillo@0 58 CREDITS:
meillo@0 59 --------
meillo@0 60
meillo@0 61 I would like to thank everyone who has submitted suggestions and bug
meillo@0 62 reports. Special thanks to:
meillo@0 63
meillo@0 64 Gregor Hoffleit for beta testing and his suggestions for delivering
meillo@0 65 mail immediately when online.
meillo@0 66 Gregor Hoffleit again for supplying a patch which made maqmail work with mutt.
meillo@0 67 And again for making the Debian package. And more patches.
meillo@0 68
meillo@0 69 Dale Perkel for patiently trying to make MM compile and run with libc5 and
meillo@0 70 various bug reports.
meillo@0 71
meillo@0 72 Andre Masloch for finding most bugs.
meillo@0 73
meillo@0 74 Edouard G. Parmelan for many patches and bug reports
meillo@0 75
meillo@0 76 Iain Lea for the Redhat spec file
meillo@0 77
meillo@0 78 ...and many others
meillo@0 79 --
meillo@0 80 Oliver Kurth <oku@masqmail.cx>
meillo@0 81 http://masqmail.cx/
meillo@0 82 last change: Feb. 3, 2000