Mail Archive Server software list
Piero Serini
Last-modified: Thu Sep 14 16:01:15 MET DST 1995
Version: $Id: archive_servers,v 2.8 1995/09/14 14:01:21 piero Exp $
Mail Archive Server Software List
A Summary of Available Mail Archive Server Software
---------------------------------------------------
by: Piero Serini - pi...@free.it
$Id: archive_servers,v 2.8 1995/09/14 14:01:21 piero Exp $
(C)Jonathan I. Kamens 1991,1992,1993 - All Rights Reserved
(C) Piero Serini 1994,1995 - All Rights Reserved
Mail Archive Servers are programs which receive incoming mail messages,
interpret them, and take action based on them. For example, two tasks which
might be performed by mail servers are handling subscriptions to mailing
lists and redistributing messages sent to the lists; and delivering files to
users based on incoming requests.
This posting focuses, primarily, on mail servers which run under UNIX. For
each server listed below, I provide the following information, if known:
Name
Author
Maintainer
Latest known version
How to get it
Implementation language
Supported platforms
Comments
If you can fill any of the blanks or have comments about anything written
below, or if you have new servers to add to the list, please let me know. If
you would like to ask me to change this posting in some way, the method I
appreciate most is for you to actually make the desired modifications to a
copy of the posting, and then to send me the modified part or a context diff
between my posted version and your modified version. Submitting changes in
this way makes dealing with them easier for me and helps to avoid misunder-
standings about what you are suggesting.
Please send all updates to MAS...@free.it
0.0 Organization and availability
This FAQ is posted monthly, around the 15th, on comp.mail.misc,
comp.sources.wanted, comp.answers and news.answers.
It is available:
- from the above USENET groups
- from all the USENET archives
- ftp://ftp.free.it/pub/FAQs/archive_servers.gz
- ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/wu/wuapub/archive_servers/FAQ
- http://www.free.it/FAQs/archive_servers.html
A context diff file containing the differences between this FAQ
and the previous release is posted on comp.mail.misc,
comp.sources.wanted and is available from:
- ftp://strider.free.it/pub/FAQs/archive_servers.diff.gz
- ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/wu/wuapub/archive_servers/diffs.Z
Many thanks to Larry Alexander and the maintainers of the other
ftp sites for their cooperation.
This FAQ is NOT reposted if modified, until the next issue date.
I will modify the ftp file only. I suggest using ftp to get
the latest version of this document.
This FAQ consists of four parts:
0.* Organization.
(0.1 Copyright)
1.* Software List.
2.* Archivers, what they archive, how to download.
3.* History and Contributors' list.
At the end of this file you can also find:
- Copyright Notice
- Warranty Disclaimer
- Publishing Notes
0.1 Copyright
This FAQ is Copyright (C) 1991,1992,1993 by Jonathan I. Kamens
This FAQ is Copyright (C) 1994,1995 by Piero Serini.
All Rights are reserved.
Please check the full Copyright notice, Warranty disclaimer and
Publishing notes at the end of this document.
1.0 Software List
Name: Apple Internet Mail Server (formerly MailShare)
Version: 1.0
Author: Glenn Anderson
Maintainer: Not currently maintained (but Apple promises to have a
supported version soon)
Platform: Macintosh
How to get it: http://www-abs.apple.com/HomePage/Products/MailServer/
Comments:
* (Paul Hoffman <phof...@proper.com>)
Apple Internet Mail Server (AIMS) is a combination SMTP and POP
server in a single package. It's small, free, works pretty well,
and there is a mailing list that is fairly good at supporting it.
If you've ever had to set up sendmail or smail, you'll not be-
lieve that setting up AIMS takes all of about 2 minutes. You fill
in a couple of fairly descriptive dialog boxes and that's it; in
fact, half of the dialog boxes are for the POP side.
Of course, it can archive mail messages. You can tell AIMS to
save mail into a text file in UNIX mail format, to save each mes-
sage as a separate file in a particular directory, to launch an
application (through a hacked-up mechanism involving AppleScript
and finger daemons), or to explode the message to a list.
The current version still has a few nasty crash bugs, but people
on the mailing list believe that they are fixable and that what-
ever Apple does next will probably be robust.
* (from the Apple Web site)
Apple has bought MailShare from Glenn Anderson and is supporting
it's continued availability on the net. This version of the Apple
Internet Mail Server (formerly MailShare) is freeware that is
owned but not supported by Apple Computer, Inc.
Name: Almanac
Version: 1.5.1b
Author: Erik Bennett
Author: Chris Hansen
Maintainer: almana...@oes.orst.edu
Implementation language: C (configured with Bourne shell)
How to get it: ftp://oes.orst.edu/pub/almanac/almanac-1.5.1b.tar.Z
URL: ftp://oes.orst.edu/pub/almanac/almanac-1.5.1b.tar.Z
Supported platforms: SunOS, HP/UX, UTek, AIX (RS 6000), most BSD 4.3
Comments: (Chris Hansen <han...@oes.orst.edu>)
- Requires sendmail and gdbm
- Can split files on user-defined size limit
- Good user & admin documentation
- Has blacklist
- Logging (through syslog) and usage utilities
- Comes with supplement for automatic mailing list management
- Load checking or queuing left to sendmail
- Main advantage is configuration table:
Maps user commands to shell commands
Can have any number of user commands
Encoding, Filtering, Compression all configurable
- Most other things configurable
- Possible disadvantages:
Table can get complicated.
Good knowledge of shell advised).
Name: B-Server
Author: Budi Rahardjo <rah...@ccu.umanitoba.ca>
Implementation language: bourne shell
How to get it: Get "b-server.shar" from grasp1.
Comments: (Dave Shaver <sha...@convex.com>):
- Don't need to create system-wide alias (uses sendmail
.forward file)
- One shell script
- Can refuse to provide service to certain people
- Has file and request limits
- 4 user commands: help, index, send, get
Comments: (john....@Waterloo.NCR.COM):
- Only does text files
Name: Clarkson
Author: Michael DeCorte
How to get it: Get "archive-server" from CLARKSON.
Implementation language: bourne shell, awk
Comments: (Tom Fitzgerald <fi...@wang.com>)
Advantages:
- Most flexible options for archiving, compressing, encoding
and slicing result.
- Very nice load-limiting.
Disadvantages:
- Many BSDism's (I tried porting it to SysV without much luck).
- Can't return several requested items, one item per mail
message.
- It insists on packaging up all requests into a single
archive, splitting the archive at random points and mailing
the result.
- Can't store items compressed and have them mailed back to
the requestor decompressed.
Name: DECWRL
Author: Brian Reid.
Implementation language: bourne shell, awk, a little bit of C
How to get it: - Get "decwrl.shar" from grasp1.
- ftp.cs.widener.edu:/pub/src/mail/archive.tar.Z
(slightly modified).
Comments: (Dave Shaver <sha...@convex.com>)
- Written with many shell scripts and a few AWK scripts
- Very careful about not overloading server machine
(Remember, this used to run on an over-worked VAX.)
- Very easy to install; best of the group?
- Code is all quite generic
- Good at letting person making request know what happened
(No black holes for mail.)
- Good user-level docs (especially the "help" file)
- Very fair queuing system; people can't make "pigs" of
themselves
- 4 user commands: help, index, send, path
Comments: (Tom Fitzgerald <fi...@wang.com>)
Advantages:
- Simplest.
- Very nice load-limiting, can be set up to run only at night.
- Easily configurable, and portable to Sys V with a little work.
Disadvantages:
- All items in archive must be text, and are sent out as-is. No
packaging options at all.
- Written in sh, may be a heavy system load (when running).
Comments: (Chris Siebenmann <c...@hawkwind.utcs.toronto.edu>)
We use the DECWRL server for the CA*NET info server; I picked
it over the other ones (primarily the Clarkson one) because it
was sufficiently small and clear that I could read all the
shell scripts and be pretty confidant that it had no surprises
and I understood what was going on. One could probably run it
out of a .forward file with some work writing at-based
frontends, but it prefers to be installed and run with cron
and an alias.
Name: deliver
Version: 2.1, patchlevel 10
Author: Chip Salzenberg <ch...@tct.com>
How to get it: From the comp.sources.reviewed archives.
Implementation language: C
Comments:
This isn't a full-fledged archive server, it's just a
program to reroute incoming mail. Which isn't to say that it
can't be used to write an archive server....
Comments: (Bria...@Canada.Sun.COM)
I've written our mail based archive server entirely in Deliver
shell scripts. It's not as full featured as the other ones,
but it can easily be expanded to become that. The beauty of
deliver is that it is entirely shell script based.
Comments: (Daniel Simmons <sim...@kenya.isu.edu>)
The real beauty of deliver is that it is an extension allowing
you to implement mail handling in ANY language: shell scripts,
perl, C, awk... haskell if you want and can make it understand
environment variables and read/write to stdin/stdout (I don't
know haskell well enough to know if this is possible).
I have written a very successful mail processing system which
installs data files in our local Campus Wide Information
System using a single (and fairly short) perl script in
conjunction with deliver.
One other comment is that deliver is very comparable to
procmail but much cleaner/simpler.
Name: ftpmail
Version: 1.23
Author: Lee McLoughlin <lm...@doc.ic.ac.uk>
How to get it: ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/ftpmail/ftpmail.tar.gz
URL: ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/ftpmail/ftpmail.tar.gz
Implementation language: perl
Supported platforms: SunOS, HP/UX, AIX (RS 6000), BSD 4.3, System 5.4
Comments:
- Can use both mail and sendmail to send reponses.
- With sendmail can also return MIME multipart responses.
- Supports mime, uuencode, atob, user selectable splitting.
- Built in logging.
- Very easy to install.
- Command compatible with ftpmail server at Decwrl.
Name: KISS
Version: 1.0
Author: T. William Wells <bi...@twwells.com>
How to get it: - Get "kiss.shar" from grasp1.
- Get "misc/kiss.shar" from JASON-ARCHIVE (slightly modified).
Implementation language: Bourne shell
Comments: (Dave Shaver <sha...@convex.com>)
- Simple. 8-)
- One shell script, plus a user-supplied program
- No batching, quotas, or scheduling.
- 5 user commands: help, index, send, path, quit
- Good install docs
Name: ListProcessor
Version: 6.0c
Author: Anastasios C. Kotsikonas (ta...@cs.bu.edu)
How to get it: - ftp://cs-ftp.bu.edu/pub/listserv/
- Via email to list...@avs.com with the request:
"get listproc listproc6.0c.940712.0.sh".
URL: - ftp://cs-ftp.bu.edu/pub/listserv/
Implementation language: C, plus some UNIX-style shell scripts.
Supported platforms: UNIX, presumably.
Comments: (from the author)
This is a system that implements various mailing lists with
one list manager. It is automated, and obliterates the need
for user intervention and maintenance of multiple aliases of
the form "list, list-owner, list-request", etc. There is
support provided for public and private hierarchical archives,
moderated and non-moderated lists, peer lists, peer servers,
private lists, address aliasing, news connec- tions and
gateways, mail queueing, digests, list ownership, owner
preferences, crash recovery, batch processing, confi- gurable
headers, regular expressions, archive searching, and live user
connections via TCP/IP.
Name: Logix
Version: 1.01
Author: Jan-Piet Mens
How to get it: Get the posting entitled "Mail-Server Part 01/01" from
the alt.sources archives. An improved version (Bill Silvert's
-- see his comments below) is available via anonymous ftp from
/dfo/net/mail-servers/mail-server.tar.Z on biome.bio.ns.ca.
Implementation language: C
Comments: (Bill Silvert <sil...@biome.bio.ns.ca>)
Changes I have made include support for optional (as opposed
to compulsary) uuencoding using the Dumas uuencode, which
makes it possible to run uudecode (the Dumas version) on a
complete multi-part mail file without editing it first, and
improved messages.
Name: MailServ
Version: 1.4
Author: Dave DeBry <de...@peruvian.cs.utah.edu>
How to get it: Get the posting entitled "MailServ 1.4" from the
alt.sources archives.
Implementation language: C
Comments: (from the author)
- allows for as many users as you want per list,
- users can be mailed to "quietly" (ie: their name won't be
found anywhere in the mailing... good for nosy sysadmins at
other sites),
- has a request server so users can get any files you make
available for them,
- handles subscribes and unsubscribes without bothering you,
- can archive off reflector mailing list posts,
- can announce to all list readers when someone subscribes or
unsubscribes,
- can be set to let people request a list of readers,
- does all the digest handling work for you,
- can upload (via ftp) each days digest to a given site for
archiving,
- can backup the userlist to a different disk/area/whatever,
- can post a FAQ to USENET periodically,
- announces when a message has been taken from USENET, so
people don't get that horrible deja vu feeling while reading
their mail,
- sends you a log of all the day's activities every night,
- lets you toggle all of these things for complete
customization,
- and much, much more! (I should be an announcer for those
Remco ads, I know it.)
MailServ isn't for the weak at heart. It's not pretty, and
I'm releasing it to the net because several people have asked
for copies, and I'd like to know what changes are made to it.
If you don't know much about UNIX or mail, I wouldn't suggest
using MailServ until it gets a little bit nicer.
Name: MailShare
Version: 1.0b7
Author:
Maintainer:
How to get it: ftp://ftp.qualcomm.com/quest/mac/servers/MailShare1.0b7.sea.hqx
URL: ftp://ftp.qualcomm.com/quest/mac/servers/MailShare1.0b7.sea.hqx
Implementation language:
Supported platforms: Macintosh
Comments:
This software has been acquired by Apple.
See: Apple Internet Mail Server
Name: Mailagent
Version: 3.0
Author: Raphael Manfredi <r...@acri.fr>
How to get it: mail r...@acri.fr, Subject: Command, Body: @SH mailhelp PATH
Comments: (From the README):
- This is a mailagent program, and it will take care of all your
incoming mail by applying a set of rules: a message can be saved
in a folder, left in the main mailbox, posted to a newsgroup,
forwarded to other people, split if it is a digest, etc...
- There is a mailing list hosted in Japan and set up by Shigeya Suzuki
<shi...@foretune.co.jp>, for discussion about the mailagent package
as a whole. It's a good place to ask questions (or answer them) and
to send your patches. I will post official patches to the net, as
well as to the agent-users list.
- I have an automatic patch sender. Send me the following mail:
Subject: Command
@SH mailhelp PATH
and you'll get instructions (PATH stands for YOUR e-mail address)
I would recommend you to get all the issued patches before you
start making some modifications on this package.
Comments: (Edward Feustel <efeu...@ida.org>):
- Mailagent has a distribution feature in which mail can request
that software be sent. In addition you get a good filtering
mechanism for regular mail.
Name: Majordomo
Version: 1.92
Author: D. Brent Chapman <br...@GreatCircle.COM>
Maintainer: John P. Rouillard <rou...@cs.umb.edu>
How to get it: ftp://FTP.GreatCircle.COM:/pub/majordomo/
Also, to get the FAQ send an e-mail message to
majo...@pop.psu.edu, with the line "get file majordomo-faq
in the BODY.
URL: ftp://FTP.GreatCircle.COM:/pub/majordomo/
Implementation language: Perl and some C
Supported platforms: UNIX
Comments: (from the author)
Majordomo is more of a mailing-list manager than an archive
server. It has the concept of an "owner" for each list. The
owner of a given list approves certain user "subscribe" and
"unsubscribe" commands (the ones that majordomo doesn't
automatically approve; for instance, if someone tries to
unsubscribe something other than their own email address from
a list, majordomo asks for approval). Most list maintenance
is done for the owner by majordomo, and the rest can be done
by the owner using emailed commands to majordomo; the owner
doesn't need an account on the machine majordomo runs on.
Name: MReply
Version: 1.6
Author: Tor Slettnes <t...@netcom.com>
Maintainer: Tor Slettnes <t...@netcom.com>
How to get it: - ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/tor/mreply/mreply16.tar.Z
- E-mail to t...@netcom.com, body: "SEND MREPLY".
URL: ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/tor/mreply/mreply16.tar.Z
Implementation language: C
Supported platforms: Unix. Developed under SunOS 4.1.3.
Comments: (from the author)
* List maintenance via SUBSCRIBE, UNSUBSCRIBE, WHICH, CHANGE, etc.
* File server: SEND or receive plaintext or uuencoded files.
* Optional ACCESS codes to prevent unauthorized submissions.
* Built-in uudecode, uuencode, shar, and splitmail.
* Define your own commands in the configuration file.
* Let mailer optionally specify his/her own reply address.
* A number of built-in functions for flexible configuration.
* Automatically separates request mail from regular text.
* Filtering/forwarding of mails to user, pipe or mailbox.
* Multiple site configurations; server/client or local lookup.
* 'Local mode' lets you give commands interactively.
* Easy installation; no root privileges needed.
* Simple, yet powerful configuration; example:
.IF FILE $HOME/lists/your-list CONTAINS :ADDRESS:
.AND NOT FILE $HOME/lists/blacklist CONTAINS :ADDRESS:
.FORWARD | $HOME/bin/msend -q $HOME/lists/your-list
.ENDIF
* Comes with sample configuration file and mass-mailer script.
* Comes with manual page.
For more information, demo's & such, send a HELP request to
either my private address or to notgnu-...@netcom.com.
Name: NETLIB
Author: Jack J. Dongarra, Eric Grosse
How to get it: Get "netlib from misc" from NETLIB.
Implementation language: C
Comments: (Dave Shaver <sha...@convex.com>)
- User-level docs a bit rough. Assumes user is quite mail
savvy. (Not a fair assumption in my case.)
- Catches "pigs" effectively, but no queuing system for
requests.
- Notices attempted security violations using magic shell
characters
- Install docs adequate, but not outstanding
- Hard to install since site-specific stuff not centralized
in a config file.
- Has almost no interal documentation (i.e. comments)
- Eclectic mix of shell scripts and C programs
- Some sections of code very specific to serving libs. Does
not generalize well to ASCII files.
Comments: Tom Fitzgerald <fi...@wang.com>
Advantages:
- Arbitrary directories can be made part of archives, archives
don't have to all be under a single directory tree.
- Written in C, probably imposes the least system load.
- Reasonably portable and configurable.
Disadvantages:
- Really complicated, with inadequate documentation
- No queuing or load-balancing. All requested items are sent
out immediately regardless of system load.
- Poorest at figuring out return addresses.
- All items in archive are sent out as-is.No packaging options.
(They can be binary, they will be sent out uuencoded).
Name: procmail
Version: 3.03
Author: Stephen R. van den Berg <be...@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de>
How to get it: - Get "procmail" from volume 43 of comp.sources.misc
archives.
- ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de:
/pub/packages/procmail/procmail.tar.gz
- By MIME mail, send
To: procmail...@informatik.rwth-aachen.de
Subject: archive get procmail*.tar.gz
- By uuencoded (non-MIME) mail, send
To: procmail...@informatik.rwth-aachen.de
Subject: archive get procmail*uue.*
Implementation language: C, plus some UNIX-style shell scripts.
Supported platforms: generic UNIX (or any posix compliant OS)
Comments:
Procmail is a program to parse incoming mail and sort/invoke other
programs based on the results, it can be used as a very reliable
frontend to some of the archive servers mentioned here.
It includes a utility program called formail, which is particularly
intelligent in figuring out return addresses and generating
auto-reply headers.
Comments: (from the author)
Included is an extensive mailinglist/archive server package (based
upon procmail/formail). Regarding the archive server part:
Advantages:
- Easy to install.
- Straightforward to operate (one tree, symbolic links allowed).
- Numerous others :-), but you'll have to get the FEATURES file
from the package.
Disadvantages:
- Doesn't do special handling for binary files.
- Doesn't autosplit large files.
- Partly dependent on sendmail, though sufficiently compatible
mailers will do.
- No load balancing or queueing, relying on sendmail for that.
Name: qdms
Version: 1.0
Author: Lars Magnusson <l...@z.amu.se>
How to get it: - Get "qdms - a simple mailserver for cramped disks."
from the alt.sources archives.
- Get a (possibly more up-to-date) version from
mails...@z.amu.se.
Implementation language: Bourne shell, requires shell functions
Comments:
Looks like it has some sort of access control and blacklisting.
I Don't know what else.
Name: Relcom
Version: 1.2
Author: v...@kiae.su (Serge Vakulenko)
Maintainer: v...@kiae.su (Serge Vakulenko)
How to get it: Send a message to mail...@kiae.su with
"get relcom/unix/ms12.tar.Z" in the body.
Implementation language: C
Name: RNALIB
Version: 2.2 beta-3
Author: Paolo Ventafridda <ve...@otello.sublink.org>
Author: Marco Lorenzini <mar...@gear.sublink.org>
Implementation language: bourne shell
How to get it: - Get "rnalib2" from volume 15 of comp.sources.misc
archives.
- Get "RNALIB 2.2 beta" and "upgrade to beta-3" from
alt.sources archive on valhalla.ee.rochester.edu.
Comments:
- Completely implemented in one bourne shell script plus
several data files.
- Allows libraries to be all over the filesystem hiearchy
(i.e. not in fixed data directory).
- Understands a variety of packing formats, and detects binary
file automatically (and uuencodes them).
- Requires bourne shell with support for functions.
- Very poor address parsing.
- No queueing.
- Has "blacklists" to prevent people from transferring and
"whitelists" to allow specific people to tell the server to
deliver to third parties.
- Detects "hogs" and imposes maximum credit limits.
Name: The ServiceMail Toolkit, by Enterprise Integration Technologies
Version: v2.0 5-10-93
Author: Jay C. Weber <we...@eitech.com>, et al.
Maintainer: servicem...@eitech.com
How to get it: ftp://eitech.com/svcmail-2.0.tar.Z
Implementation language(s): C, Tcl
Supported platforms: SunOS, Ultrix, (probably anything that supports Tcl)
Comments: (Bob Bagwill <bag...@swe.ncsl.nist.gov>)
- Easy to install (using default installation configuration).
- Multimedia Email SHell (MESH) uses MIME message formats.
- Services are implemented in Tcl.
- Includes subset of listserv functions.
- Documentation is skimpy.
Comments: (Jay Weber <we...@eitech.com>)
- Documentation is better in 2.0
- Includes support for queueing, logging
Name: SmartList
Version: 3.03
Author: Stephen R. van den Berg <be...@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de>
How to get it: - Get "SmartList" from volume 43 of comp.sources.misc
archives.
- ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de:
/pub/packages/procmail/SmartList.tar.gz
- By MIME mail, send
To: procmail...@informatik.rwth-aachen.de
Subject: archive get SmartList*.tar.gz
- By uuencoded (non-MIME) mail, send
To: procmail...@informatik.rwth-aachen.de
Subject: archive get SmartList*uue.*
Implementation language: C, plus some UNIX-style shell scripts.
Supported platforms: generic UNIX (or any posix compliant OS)
Comments:
A comprehensive mailinglist/archive server package (based upon
procmail/formail).
- Easy to install.
- An arbitrary number of mailinglists can be managed by any
number of individuals per mail (i.e. they do not need an account
on the server).
- Accepts arbitrary formats for (un)subscribe requests, i.e. people
will not need to remember any particular syntax.
- Automated handling of bouncing mails.
- The mailinglists and archive servers use the INTERNET-standard
-request convention for administrative requests.
- The archive server fully supports MIME. I.e. arbitrary length
files can be retrieved (they automatically become a multipart
message), binary files can be retrieved, auto-recognition of
the file types (i.e. particularly well suited as a document server).
- Limited load balancing, relies mostly on the mail system for that.
Name: Squirrel Mail Server
Version: 3.1B
Author: Johan Vromans <j...@NL.net>
How to get it: Send a mail message to <mail-...@NL.net> with
contents
begin
send mail-server
end
Implementation language: perl
Description: (from the author)
The Squirrel Mail Server is a mail response program. You can
send email to it, and it will try to react sensible to your
message.
Main purpose of the mail server is to obtain files from a
local archive or FTP server, but other functions can be added
easily.
The Squirrel Mail Server Software is distributed under the
terms of the GNU Public Licence.
New and improved features in version 3.1:
- Transparent (anonymous) FTP interface. You can fetch files
from remote FTP servers. Files retrieved are cached
locally, so subsequent requests can be honoured from the
cache.
- Delivery can take place via email or uucp or both.
Delivery via UUCP can be made preferred.
FTP requests can be restricted to UUCP delivery.
- Files can be automatically compressed, and directories can
be automatically packed using one of several common
methods (e.g. zip, zoo or compressed tar).
- Multiple servers can be installed using the same software.
- The server can be used interactively, e.g. from a
terminal, or via telnet/inetd.
- Command parsing and execution is table driven, so it is
very easy to extend the mail server functions.
- Rewritten and enhanced user documentation and
installation docs. Also available in nicely formatted
(PostScript) format.
A brief survey of old and new features:
- All written in perl, hence portable and easily
maintainable. Code is readable; useful, plentiful
comments. Very extentable and easily modified.
- Easy to use and to install. Over 2000 lines of
documentation.
- Good at letting person making request know what happened.
Good "help" reply.
- Archives can be split over a number of directories or file
systems.
- Requests are queued and processed by a separate daemon
process (e.g. from cron). This cuts down on the system
load. Moreover, you can control when the queue is being
run.
- Requests can be honoured `as is' (name the file and you'll
get it), but the server can also perform directory
searches and index file lookup. You need GNU find and
locate for the index lookup feature.
- While looking for files, the server knows about commonly
handled filenames (e.g. ".tar.Z" in "foo.tar.Z") and
pseudo-standard version numbering (e.g. "gcc-2.1.tar.Z").
It is quite well possible that a simple request for
"emacs" will actually transmit the file
"gnu/emacs-18.58/dist/emacs-18.58.tar.Z".
- Requests can be encoded using a number of encoding
schemes, e.g. uuencode, xxencode, Dumas' uue and btoa.
- Requests that are too large to send in one piece are
automatically split and transferred in parts. The server
provides a smart unpacking program on request,
- Parts of requests can be re-transmitted in case of
failure.
- Requests can designate a directory. In this case the whole
directory tree is packed using some popular packing
programs (compressed tar, zoo or zip).
- Requests can be sent by email, or via uucp.
- The server can be asked to return a list of archive
entries that match a given request, thus obsoleting the
need to transfer huge "ls-lR" type index files to find out
whatsitcalled.
- All transfers are logged. Maintenance procedures
include a reporting tool.
Probable future directions:
- Automatic (and transparent) downloading of unknown archive
entries from other archive servers.
- Archive lookup by keyword.
- Notifier services (you'll be notified if archive entries
are added).
- Remote maintenance of the archives.
Requirements:
- Perl 4.0 patchlevel 36 or later.
- GNU find 3.6 or later (only if you want to exploit the
index features).
- A decent mail system that can deliver mail to a process
(sendmail, smail3, or smail2.5 w/ mods).
Mailing list:
A mailing list exists for sites that are running the
Squirrel Mail Server software. You can subscribe by sending
a mail to <squirrel-se...@NL.net>.
Name: Tristero
Version: 3.1.6
Author: Rhizomatics <j...@cix.compulink.co.uk>
Maintainer: Johnson Consulting <dal...@world.std.com>
How to get it: ftp:/world.std.com/pub/JCONSULT/demos/tristero.zip
URL: http://www.std.com/~dalewj/tristero.html
Supported platforms: Lotus cc:mail
Features: (Jeffrey_Burrows
<Jeffrey...@tjhouse.ccmail.compuserve.com>):
A cc:mail MLM which provides similiar functionality to the
Unix & VMS systems ListServ, ListProc and Majordomo:-
Subscriptions
dynamic mailing list creation, subscription, renaming
remote subscription to cc:mail bulletin boards from
cc:mobile or internet addresses
handles syntax of all common automatic listservers
automatic welcome, farewell, readme messages and file lists
built-in user help
multiple language support
open, closed or hidden mailing lists
new list announcement
confirmation of posting for all or receipt requested mail
Mail Presentation
Internet RFC header minimization
Colourizing of message text, quotations & RFC Header
mail digests at set intervals
digest summaries
optional message archiving
upload and download of archive files
indexing and searching of archives
public archive
Integration
access control by user or wildcarded address
gateway internet mail to bulletin boards
gateway bulletin boards to internet lists
proxy command sending to server mailhosts
Bypass the 256 address limit of cc:mail mailing lists
Handles non-standard mail produced by Link to SMTP
send ADE updates to host post office
Administration
remote list configuration
remote command processing and file fetching for superuser
hierarchial lists (lists within lists)
list moderation
detection and breaking of mail loops
optional truncation of mammoth posts
highly flexible access rights
optional password protection
message filtering by subject
redirection of admin commands missent to mailing-lists
2.0 Archivers, what they archive, how to download
Archive Site Instructions
-------------------------
CLARKSON:
Send mail to "archive...@sun.soe.clarkson.edu" with "send
<what you want>" as the text of the message, e.g. "send archive-
server". If you want it to be archived as a shar file, then add
a line saying "archiver shar" before the "send" line. You can
also use "archiver tar". If you don't specify an archiver, then
the files in the request will be separated by "--- cut here ---"
lines and you'll have to extract them by hand or write some sort
of script to do it.
grasp1:
Ftp to grasp1.univ-lyon1.fr and look in pub/unix/mail/mail-
servers, or use the FTP-by-mail server at ftp...@grasp1.univ-
lyon1.fr, or use an FTP-by-mail server closer to you if there is
one.
JASON-ARCHIVE:
Send mail to "pen...@slc.com" with a subject line containing the
string "jason-archive-request" and a body containing "send <what
you want>", e.g. "send misc/kiss.shar". If you want multiple
files, you can specify multiple requests on separate lines of the
file.
NETLIB:
Send mail to "net...@research.att.com" with "send <what you
want>", e.g. "send netlib from misc", as the text of the message.
UTRECHT:
Anonymous ftp to ftp.cs.ruu.nl and look in the directory /pub, or
send mail to "mail-...@cs.ruu.nl" with the lines:
begin
send <filename>
end
You replace "<filename>" with the file you want to retrieve, e.g.
"send UNIX/mailserver.tar.Z".
3.0 History and Contributors
This FAQ was originally maintained by Jonathan I. Kamens
(j...@security.ov.com). He's now in the need of a subsitute, so
I'm taking care of it. Needless to say, most of the work herein
is Jonathan's.
The following people, in chronological order, provided comments
about and corrections to this posting:
- John Bazik <j...@cs.brown.edu>
- Stephen R. van den Berg <be...@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de>
- Warren Burstein <war...@itex.jct.ac.il>,
- Nigel Metheringham <nig...@ohm.york.ac.uk>
- Mike Northam <m...@fpssun.fps.com>
- Chip Salzenberg <ch...@tct.com>
- Serge Vakulenko <v...@kiae.su>
- Johan Vromans <j...@NL.net>
Tue, 1 Feb 1994 15:26:54 +0100 about Squirrel Mail Server
- Edward Feustel <efeu...@ida.org>
Wed, 16 Feb 94 10:02:14 EST asking Mailagent 3.0
- Robert Nicholson <rob...@steffi.demon.co.uk>
Sat, 16 Apr 94 15:21 BST about Procmail
- Tor Slettnes <t...@netcom.com>
Mon, 18 Apr 94 15:41:51 -0700 about MReply
- David Barr <ba...@pop.psu.edu>
Fri Sep 16 10:36:14 MET DST 1994 about Majordomo
- Jeffrey Burrows <Jeffrey...@tjhouse.ccmail.compuserve.com>
Tue, 29 Aug 95 19:17:11 EDT about Tristero
- Paul E. Hoffman <phof...@proper.com>
Mon, 11 Sep 1995 10:28:01 -0700 about Apple Internet Mail Server
I'm sorry if your name should appear here and it doesn't. Bug me
and I'll add you.
=+=+=+=+=+=+
Copyright Notice
This FAQ is Copyright (C) Piero Serini. All Rights are reserved.
Permission to use, copy and distribute this FAQ, or parts there-
of, by any means and for any purpose is hereby granted, provided
that both the above Copyright notice and this permission notice
appear in all copies of the FAQ itself.
Reproducing this FAQ or parts thereof by any means, included, but
not limited to, printing, copying existing prints, publishing by
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ing Notes (see below).
Distribution of this file via USENET news is always permitted.
Warranty Disclaimer
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IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY
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Publishing Notes
If you want to publish this FAQ by any means, electronically or
otherwise, you can do it, provided the following conditions are
met:
1) The above Copyright Notice and Warranty Disclaimer appear in
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2) You notify me by e-mail that you will publish this FAQ;
3) You use the latest version of the FAQ you can get;
4) You let people know where to find updated versions of the FAQ;
5) Any modifications (other than typesetting changes) you make to
it are clearly designated as your modifications;
You shall also send me a copy of the published material, in its
entirety, free of charge. Should this not be possible, due to le-
gal or other restrictions, please send me the part containing
this FAQ, with full references to the published material (i.e.
ISBN or any- thing else to identify it), free of charge.
----------------------
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