# VMailMgr HOWTO

## Bruce Guenter mailto:bruceg@em.ca, Dan Kuykendall mailto:dan@kuykendall.org

v1.w, 2000-09-15

This document explains how to setup VMailMgr support pop3 virtual domain services in conjunction with Qmail.

## 1. Introduction

VMailMgr (short for Virtual MAIL ManaGeR) is a package of programs designed to manage multiple domains of mail addresses and mailboxes on a single host. It co-operates with qmail for mail delivery and program control.

## 1.1 What is VMailMgr and why should I use it?

VMailMgr is:

A series of utilities for managing virtual domains which include a password checking interface for qmail which replaces the usual checkpassword, and an authentication module for Courier IMAP, that provide access to the virtual mailboxes by one of three methods:

- IP-based virtual server access (invisible to the POP3 user)
- username-based access (username-virtualuser)
- hostname-based access (virtualuser@virtual.host or virtualuser:virtual.host)

You should use it if you prefer to have each domain controlled by a seperate username, allowing the use of system quotas and better security

## 1.2 New versions

The newest version of this can be found on the VMailMgr homepage http://www.vmailmgr.org/ in its HTML version as well as in the source package SGML source, HTML, and text. Other versions may be found in different formats at the LDP homepage http://www.linuxdoc.org/.

## 1.3 Comments

Comments on this HOWTO should be directed to the VMailMgr mailing list. To subscribe, send an email to vmailmgr-subscribe@lists.em.ca.

## 1.4 History

This document was started by Bruce Guenter and reworked by Dan Kuykendall.

## 1.5 Copyrights and Trademarks

Copyright (c) Dan Kuykendall. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation

A copy of the license is available at GNU Free Documentation License.

## 1.6 Acknowledgements and Thanks

Thanks to Bruce Guenter for VMailMgr and the core of this HOWTO. Thanks to Mike Bell, who always seems to have the answers to my questions. Finally, thanks to all those on the vmailmgr@lists.em.ca mailing list who have helped me, or asked the same stuff so many times that I had to write this to stop the repeat questions.

## 2. Installation

## 2.1 Get the files

Visit the VMailMgr website http://www.vmailmgr.org/ to get the package.

If you get the binary RPMS you will need at least the vmailmgr package.

## 2.2 Install with RPMS

### Compiling SRC.RPM's

Simply compile the src.rpm file with the ``rpm --rebuild`` command. -Example-

      rpm -ivh vmailmgr-0.96.9-1.src.rpm

### Installing RPM's

After compiling the source rpms, the binaries will be located in ``/usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386/`` or something similar.

Simply run the following command for each package

      rpm -ivh <location>/<package.i386.rpm>

-Example-

      rpm -ivh /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386/vmailmgr-0.96.9-1.i386.rpm
      rpm -ivh /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386/vmailmgr-daemon-0.96.9-1.i386.rpm

## 2.3 Install with source

If you dont ue RPMS you can install from source.

Run the following command

      (As non-root user)
      tar zxf <package.tar.gz>
      cd <newly created dir>
      ./configure
      make
      (As root)
      make install

-Example-

      (As non-root user)
      tar zxf vmailmgr-0.96.9.tar.gz
      cd vmailmgr-0.96.9
      ./configure
      make
      (As root)
      make install

That should do it.

## 3. Setup

In the following setup examples, it is assumed that your binaries are installed in ``/usr/bin``, and configuration is in ``/etc/vmailmgr``, as is the case if you installed from the RPMs. If you installed from source, configure puts the binaries into ``/usr/local/bin`` and the configuration into ``/usr/local/etc/vmailmgr`` by default.

## 3.1 Setting Up a Virtual Domain

The following steps are necessary to set up a virtual domain with vmailmgr (assuming vmailmgr has been compiled and installed). As an example, we'll set up a virtual user ``me@mydomain.org``, with aliases of ``myself@mydomain.org`` and ``myname@mydomain.org``.

1. Set up a DNS entry for the domain. This is not covered here, as it is dependant on far too many other things. I will mention that to make IP based virtual domains work a PTR record which matches an entry in virtualdomains is nessesary, for example, if nslookup 10.56.33.122 returns `mail.mydomain.com`, ``virtualdomains`` needs an entry like ``mail.mydomain.com:myuser`' For the example, we'll assume that the mail exchanger for mydomain.org is already set up to point to your computer.
2. Set up a base user for the domain. Create a user, with a name of your choosing. Since the maildirs for all the users in the virtual domain will be stored under this user's home directory, make sure you set the user up in a partition or disk that is appropriate for such storage. The tools that you should use to accomplish this step vary greatly between different systems. For our example, I'll add a user ``myuser``.
3. Configure qmail to recognize the domain. To do this, you need to modify two of qmail's configuration files in ``/var/qmail/control`` ``rcpthosts`` and ``virtualdomains``.
   - To ``rcpthosts`` : add the line ``mydomain.org``.
   - To ``virtualdomains`` : add the line ``mydomain.org:myuser``.
   If you wish to have mail to ``anything.mydomain.org`` be delivered in the same way, add the following
   - To ``rcpthosts`` : add the line ``.mydomain.org``.
   - To ``virtualdomains`` : add the line ``.mydomain.org:myuser``.
4. Configure qmail-popup/qmail-pop3d to use ``checkvpw`` as the password checker. This step is dependant on how you have installed qmail.
   - Replace ``checkpassword`` in the command you use to invoke qmail-popup/qmail-pop3d (either in ``/etc/inet.conf`` or in a ``tcpserver`` command) with ``checkvpw``.
   - And/Or at the prompt type: ``echo checkvpw > /var/qmail/control/checkpassword``
5. Set up the vmailmgr files:
   - Either change user to the user you just created (for example, type ``su - myuser``) or log in (with either telnet or at the console) as the new user.
   - Set up the base vmailmgr files by running ``vsetup``.
   - Use the included programs to add users and aliases. For our example, we would type the following commands:

           vadduser me
           vaddalias myself me
           vaddalias myname me

After you have completed all these steps, you will need to kill and restart ``qmail-send`` to make it read the new ``virtualdomains`` table.

If you are using ``inetd`` to launch ``qmail-popup``, ``kill -HUP`` the ``inetd`` process as well.

## 3.2 Using one IP address for mutiple domains

There are two ways to log in without using multiple IP addresses.

1. The first way is to log in as ``userSEPvirtual.domain.org``, where ``user`` is the mailbox name of the virtual user, SEP is one of ``@`` or ``:`` (by default, this is configurable in the ``/etc/vmailmgr/`' directory), and ``virtual.domain.org`' is the virtual domain's name, as listed in ``/var/qmail/control/virtualdomains`'.
2. The second way is to use the internal form of the mailbox name -- that is, ``baseuser-user`', where ``user`' is the same as above, and ``baseuser`' is the username of the managing user.

Example: ``/var/qmail/control/virtualdomains`' contains

      testdomain.org:testuser

User ``myuser`' exists, and has set up a virtual mailbox with the name ``me`'. The ``separators`' variable in ``/etc/vmailmgr/`' contains ``@:`'. This virtual user could log in as ``me@mydomain.com`', ``me:mydomain.cm`', or ``myuser-me`'.

## 3.3 Catching all misdirected mail in a virtual domain

In the ``vmailmgr/`' configuration directory, there is an entry called ``default-username`'. If mail to a virtual domain does not match any users or aliases in that domain, it is delivered to the name listed in this configuration item if it exists (which defaults to ``+`'). To make this deliver to you, simply type:

      vaddalias + me

## 3.4 VMailMgr IMAP support

VMailMgr supports Courier-IMAP, but Courier-IMAP does not come with an authentication module for VMailMgr. This means that some minor work is required for making the two work together.

- You must copy ``/usr/bin/authvmailmgr`` to ``/usr/lib/courier-imap/libexec/authlib/authvmailmgr``.
- Then modify the ``AUTHMODULES`` statement in ``/usr/lib/courier-imap/etc/imapd.config`` and add ``authvmailmgr`` as the first authentication module.

## 3.5 Enabling enforcement of virtual user quotas

VMailMgr supports per-virtual-user quotas, but not out of the box, as it is not needed by the majority of users, and requires an extra program to be run on each delivery. To configure quota support, create the file ``/etc/vmailmgr/vdeliver-predeliver``, containing the following:

      #!/bin/sh
      /usr/bin/vcheckquota

This is executed as a shell script, so you will need to make it executable by running the following command:

      chmod +x /etc/vmailmgr/vdeliver-predeliver

## 3.6 Enabling processing of autoresponses

Download and install the qmail-autoresponder package, found at http://em.ca/~bruceg/qmail-autoresponder/. As with the above section, create a shell script ``/etc/vmailmgr/vdeliver-postdeliver``, containing the following:

      #!/bin/sh
      if test -s $MAILDIR/autoresponse/message.txt
      then
        qmail-autoresponder $MAILDIR/autoresponse/message.txt $MAILDIR/autoresponse
      fi

## 3.7 Web-based interfaces for vmailmgr

There are currently a few working solutions to administrate your vmailmgr system via a web interface. Only requirement is that the vmailmgrd daemon is running, and that you have a webserver on your system.

1. For Python fans, there is vpyadmin by Bruce Guenter. The files can be downloaded at http://em.ca/~bruceg/vpyadmin/, and the development code is online at http://bruce-guenter.dyndns.org/cgi-bin/vpyadmin/ (sample.org / samplevm).
2. And if you like PHP, you can use oMail-admin by Olivier Müller: it fully supports all vmailmgr functions, and speaks englich, french, italian, spanish, german and russian. Project homepage: http://omail.omnis.ch. Online demo: http://admin.omnis.ch/omail/ (test.com / test).
3. And there are also C-based CGI scripts in the `cgi` directory of the vmailmgr distribution.