[aclug-L] Re: Virtual POP3 and IMAP server

[Carl D Cravens <raven@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 20 Oct 2001, Jonathan Hall wrote:

> For my particular application (and I realize this is not the same as
> everyone else's), that's not a concern, b/c nobody will have shells on my
> mail server machine.

Do keep in mind that without proper precautions, CGI scripts could write
to that directory if your users can do CGI.

> Since when does an MTA handle mailing lists anyway?  I'd much rather use
> majordomo or listar or some other 3rd party mailing list package than my
> MTA... regardless of what MTA I use.  And even if my MTA does support that,
> I wouldn't use it, I'd still use some other app.

Well, if it's user-managed distribution lists, I think that function
should be left to the user's mail client.  If it's a true mailing list
server, it seems to me like I *wouldn't* want any Tom, Dick or Harry on my
system setting up mailing lists without going through me.  I want control
over my resource usage and mailing lists can use a lot of resources.

> powerful" mean "power hungry"?  In reading some things by qmail's author,
> I'm beginning to think so... I think he wants to "take over" all mail
> aspects with a single program.  I'm not sure that's wise.

That's not the traditional Unix paradigm of breaking tasks down into small
parts.  Granted, your MTA and POP/IMAP servers have to agree on how to
store/access mail boxes, but they can do that through well-written
standards instead of making one program do it all.

> My only comment here is... Jump out of the 1980s and stop using pine.  :P

I read my mail through a telnet connection (through a proxy) a lot of the
time.  I need something that can let me read my mail no matter where I'm
at.  If it weren't for the proxy, I could probably use an IMAP client, but
we don't have a proxy that will let me do that.  And I'd have to set up
said client on every machine I access from, including my mother-in-law's
and the company laptop when I go on a trip.  With Pine, my mail and all my
settings are in one place, accessable from anywhere I can get out with a
telnet client.

I also have a personal "requirement" of being able to read mail and news
through the same interface.  They're essentially the same function (they
just get messages from different sources), and I think that I should be
able to read both through essentially the same interface.  Pine's news
reader is somewhat primative, but I've got a couple external scripts that
help me manage my filters and the like.  Pine also meets several other
critera...  can use an external editor, can get sig files from a script,
can customize sig sources and lots of other things on a
per-folder/newsgroup basis.

Pine is not ideal... it lacks a lot of "nice to have" features.  But it
has all of my "got to have" features that no other mail/news client does.

--
Carl D Cravens (raven@xxxxxxxxxxx)
Life is complex. You know - part real, part imaginary.

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