Install qmail (OPTIONAL)

Qmail is a Mail Transfer Agent. It handles incoming and outgoing mail. Install qmail if you want your OpenACS server to send and receive mail, and you don't want to use an alternate MTA.

Red Hat 9: all djb tools (qmail, daemontools, ucspi) will fail to compile in Red Hat 9 because of changes to glibc (patches)

  1. Install ucspi. This program handles incoming tcp connections. Download ucspi and install it.

    [root root]# cd /usr/local/src
    [root src]# wget http://cr.yp.to/ucspi-tcp/ucspi-tcp-0.88.tar.gz
    [root src]# tar xzf ucspi-tcp-0.88.tar.gz
    cd /usr/local/src 
    wget http://cr.yp.to/ucspi-tcp/ucspi-tcp-0.88.tar.gz
    tar xzf ucspi-tcp-0.88.tar.gz 

    Red Hat 9 only

    wget http://moni.csi.hu/pub/glibc-2.3.1/ucspi-tcp-0.88.errno.patch
    cd ucspi-tcp-0.88
    patch -p1 <../ucspi-tcp-0.88.errno.patch
    cd ..

    All platforms continue:

    [root src]# cd ucspi-tcp-0.88
    [root ucspi-tcp-0.88]# make
    ( cat warn-auto.sh; \
    echo 'main="$1"; shift'; \(many lines omitted)
    ./compile instcheck.c
    ./load instcheck hier.o auto_home.o unix.a byte.a
    [root ucspi-tcp-0.88]# make setup check
    ./install
    ./instcheck
    [root ucspi-tcp-0.88]#
    
    cd ucspi-tcp-0.88 
    make 
    make setup check

    Verify that ucspi-tcp was installed successfully by running the tcpserver program which is part of ucspi-tcp:

    [root ucspi-tcp-0.88]# tcpserver
    tcpserver: usage: tcpserver [ -1UXpPhHrRoOdDqQv ] [ -c limit ] [ -x rules.cdb ] [ -B banner ] [ -g gid ] [ -u uid
    ] [ -b backlog ] [ -l localname ] [ -t timeout ] host port program
    [root ucspi-tcp-0.88]#
    

    (I'm not sure if this next step is 100% necessary, but when I skip it I get problems. If you get the error 553 sorry, that domain isn't in my list of allowed rcpthosts (#5.7.1) then you need to do this.) AOLserver sends outgoing mail via the ns_sendmail command, which pipes a command to the sendmail executable. Or, in our case, the qmail replacement wrapper for the sendmail executable. In some cases, though, the outgoing mail requset is apparently sent through tcp/ip, so that it comes to qmail from 127.0.0.1 (a special IP address that means the local machine - the "loopback" interface). Unless this mail is addressed to the same machine, qmail thinks that it's an attempt to relay mail, and rejects it. So these two commands set up an exception so that any mail sent from 127.0.0.1 is allowed to send outgoing mail.

    [root ucspi-tcp-0.88]# cp /tmp/openacs-5.2.0/packages/acs-core-docs/www/files/tcp.smtp.txt /etc/tcp.smtp
    [root ucspi-tcp-0.88]# tcprules /etc/tcp.smtp.cdb /etc/tcp.smtp.tmp < /etc/tcp.smtp
    cp /tmp/openacs-5.2.0/packages/acs-core-docs/www/files/tcp.smtp.txt /etc/tcp.smtp 
    tcprules /etc/tcp.smtp.cdb /etc/tcp.smtp.tmp < /etc/tcp.smtp 
  2. Install Qmail. 

    Download qmail, set up the standard supporting users and build the binaries:

    [root root]# cd /usr/local/src
    [root src]# wget http://www.qmail.org/netqmail-1.04.tar.gz
    [root src]# tar xzf netqmail-1.04.tar.gz
    --15:04:11--  http://www.qmail.org/netqmail-1.04.tar.gz
               => `netqmail-1.04.tar.gz'
    Resolving www.qmail.org... done.
    Connecting to www.qmail.org[192.203.178.37]:80... connected.
    HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
    Length: 242,310 [application/x-gunzip]
    
    88% [===============================>     ] 214,620       22.93K/s ETA 00:01
    
    15:04:21 (24.04 KB/s) - `netqmail-1.04.tar.gz' saved [242310/242310]
    
    [root src]# mkdir /var/qmail
    [root src]# groupadd nofiles
    [root src]# useradd -g nofiles -d /var/qmail/alias alias
    [root src]# useradd -g nofiles -d /var/qmail qmaild
    [root src]# useradd -g nofiles -d /var/qmail qmaill
    [root src]# useradd -g nofiles -d /var/qmail qmailp
    [root src]# groupadd qmail
    [root src]# useradd -g qmail -d /var/qmail qmailq
    [root src]# useradd -g qmail -d /var/qmail qmailr
    [root src]# useradd -g qmail -d /var/qmail qmails
    [root src]# cd netqmail-1.04
    [root netqmail-1.04]# ./collate.sh
    
    You should see 7 lines of text below.  If you see anything
    else, then something might be wrong.
    [1] Extracting qmail-1.03...
    [2] Patching qmail-1.03 into netqmail-1.04.  Look for errors below:
         20
    [4] The previous line should say 20 if you used GNU patch.
    [5] Renaming qmail-1.03 to netqmail-1.04...
    [6] Continue installing qmail using the instructions found at:
    [7] http://www.lifewithqmail.org/lwq.html#installation
    [root netqmail-1.04]# cd netqmail-1.04
    [root netqmail-1.04]# make setup check
    ( cat warn-auto.sh; \
    echo CC=\'`head -1 conf-cc`\'; \(many lines omitted)
    ./install
    ./instcheck
    cd /usr/local/src 
    wget http://www.qmail.org/netqmail-1.04.tar.gz
    tar xzf netqmail-1.04.tar.gz
    mkdir /var/qmail 
    groupadd nofiles 
    useradd -g nofiles -d /var/qmail/alias alias 
    useradd -g nofiles -d /var/qmail qmaild 
    useradd -g nofiles -d /var/qmail qmaill 
    useradd -g nofiles -d /var/qmail qmailp 
    groupadd qmail 
    useradd -g qmail -d /var/qmail qmailq 
    useradd -g qmail -d /var/qmail qmailr 
    useradd -g qmail -d /var/qmail qmails
    cd netqmail-1.04
    ./collate.sh
    cd netqmail-1.04
    make setup check

    Replace sendmail with qmail's wrapper.

    [root qmail-1.03]# rm -f /usr/bin/sendmail /usr/sbin/sendmail
    [root qmail-1.03]# ln -s /var/qmail/bin/sendmail /usr/sbin/sendmail
    [root qmail-1.03]#
    rm -f /usr/bin/sendmail /usr/sbin/sendmail
    ln -s /var/qmail/bin/sendmail /usr/sbin/sendmail

    Configure qmail - specifically, run the config script to set up files in /var/qmail/control specifying the computer's identity and which addresses it should accept mail for. This command will automatically set up qmail correctly if you have correctly set a valid host nome. If not, you'll want to read /var/qmail/doc/INSTALL.ctl to find out how to configure qmail.

    [root qmail-1.03]# ./config-fast yourserver.test
    Your fully qualified host name is yourserver.test.
    Putting yourserver.test into control/me...
    Putting yourserver.test into control/defaultdomain...
    Putting yourserver.test into control/plusdomain...
    Putting yourserver.test into control/locals...
    Putting yourserver.test into control/rcpthosts...
    Now qmail will refuse to accept SMTP messages except to yourserver.test.
    Make sure to change rcpthosts if you add hosts to locals or virtualdomains!
    [root qmail-1.03]#
    ./config-fast yourserver.test

    All incoming mail that isn't for a specific user is handled by the alias user. This includes all root mail. These commands prepare the alias user to receive mail.

    [root qmail-1.03]# cd ~alias; touch .qmail-postmaster .qmail-mailer-daemon .qmail-root
    [root alias]# chmod 644 ~alias/.qmail*
    [root alias]# /var/qmail/bin/maildirmake ~alias/Maildir/
    [root alias]# chown -R alias.nofiles /var/qmail/alias/Maildir
    [root alias]#
    cd ~alias; touch .qmail-postmaster .qmail-mailer-daemon .qmail-root 
    chmod 644 ~alias/.qmail* 
    /var/qmail/bin/maildirmake ~alias/Maildir/ 
    chown -R alias.nofiles /var/qmail/alias/Maildir

    Configure qmail to use the Maildir delivery format (instead of mbox), and install a version of the qmail startup script modified to use Maildir.

    [root alias]# echo "./Maildir" > /var/qmail/bin/.qmail
    [root alias]# cp /tmp/openacs-5.2.0/packages/acs-core-docs/www/files/qmail.rc.txt /var/qmail/rc
    [root alias]# chmod 755 /var/qmail/rc
    [root alias]# 
    echo "./Maildir" > /var/qmail/bin/.qmail 
    cp /tmp/openacs-5.2.0/packages/acs-core-docs/www/files/qmail.rc.txt /var/qmail/rc 
    chmod 755 /var/qmail/rc 
    

    Set up the skeleton directory so that new users will be configured for qmail.

    [root root]# /var/qmail/bin/maildirmake /etc/skel/Maildir
    [root root]# echo "./Maildir/" > /etc/skel/.qmail
    [root root]# 
    /var/qmail/bin/maildirmake /etc/skel/Maildir
    echo "./Maildir/" > /etc/skel/.qmail

    As recommended, we will run qmail with daemontools control files. Create daemontools control directories, set up a daemontools control script, copy the supervise control files, and set permissions. The last line links the control directories to /service, which will cause supervise to detect them and execute the run files, causing qmail to start.

    [root root]# mkdir -p /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-send/log
    [root root]# mkdir -p /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-smtpd/log
    [root root]# mkdir /var/log/qmail
    [root root]# chown qmaill /var/log/qmail
    [root root]# cp /tmp/openacs-5.2.0/packages/acs-core-docs/www/files/qmailctl.txt /var/qmail/bin/qmailctl
    [root root]# chmod 755 /var/qmail/bin/qmailctl
    [root root]# ln -s /var/qmail/bin/qmailctl /usr/bin
    [root root]# cp /tmp/openacs-5.2.0/packages/acs-core-docs/www/files/qmail-send-run.txt /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-send/run 
    [root root]# cp /tmp/openacs-5.2.0/packages/acs-core-docs/www/files/qmail-send-log-run.txt /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-send/log/run
    [root root]# cp /tmp/openacs-5.2.0/packages/acs-core-docs/www/files/qmail-smtpd-run.txt /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-smtpd/run
    [root root]# cp /tmp/openacs-5.2.0/packages/acs-core-docs/www/files/qmail-smtpd-log-run.txt /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-smtpd/log/run
    [root root]# chmod 755 /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-send/run
    [root root]# chmod 755 /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-send/log/run
    [root root]# chmod 755 /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-smtpd/run
    [root root]# chmod 755 /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-smtpd/log/run
    [root root]# ln -s /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-send /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-smtpd /service
    [root root]# ln -s /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-send /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-smtpd /service
    mkdir -p /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-send/log
    mkdir -p /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-smtpd/log
    mkdir /var/log/qmail
    chown qmaill /var/log/qmail
    cp /tmp/openacs-5.2.0/packages/acs-core-docs/www/files/qmailctl.txt /var/qmail/bin/qmailctl
    chmod 755 /var/qmail/bin/qmailctl
    ln -s /var/qmail/bin/qmailctl /usr/bin
    cp /tmp/openacs-5.2.0/packages/acs-core-docs/www/files/qmail-send-run.txt /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-send/run
    cp /tmp/openacs-5.2.0/packages/acs-core-docs/www/files/qmail-send-log-run.txt /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-send/log/run
    cp /tmp/openacs-5.2.0/packages/acs-core-docs/www/files/qmail-smtpd-run.txt /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-smtpd/run
    cp /tmp/openacs-5.2.0/packages/acs-core-docs/www/files/qmail-smtpd-log-run.txt /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-smtpd/log/run
    chmod 755 /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-send/run
    chmod 755 /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-send/log/run
    chmod 755 /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-smtpd/run
    chmod 755 /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-smtpd/log/run
    ln -s /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-send /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-smtpd /service
    

    Wait ten seconds or so, and then verify that that the four qmail processes are running. If uptimes don't rise above 1 second, this may indicate broken scripts that are continuously restarting. In that case, start debugging by checking permissions.

    [root root]# qmailctl stat
    /service/qmail-send: up (pid 32700) 430 seconds
    /service/qmail-send/log: up (pid 32701) 430 seconds
    /service/qmail-smtpd: up (pid 32704) 430 seconds
    /service/qmail-smtpd/log: up (pid 32705) 430 seconds
    messages in queue: 0
    messages in queue but not yet preprocessed: 0
    [root root]#

    Further verify by sending and receiving email. Incoming mail for root is stored in /var/qmail/alias/Maildir.

View comments on this page at openacs.org