On 3 Jun 2006 12:42:08 -0700, René Berber <rberber@mailandnews.com> wrote:
> andreas wrote:
>
>
>> I'd like to install an IMAP server to access my local stored mailbox
>> files.
>
> And those files are in which format?

mbox I guess. Each file starts with the message "DON'T DELETE THIS MESSAGE
-- FOLDER INTERNAL DATA"

But I'm not sure, whether the file format is relevant for my server
setup. But then, I'm asking here, as I don't have a clue what is going
on with this setup stuff.


>> I don't need a new system/software/thing to get the mail from my mail
>> provider. I'm happy with the current installation.
>
> And the current installation is...?
>
> At least you should say if you are working in a Unix environment, a
> Windows environment or whatever.

I'm running Linux, and some own scripts to get all the mails from the
different mail accounts and store them in the correct mail boxes.


<snip>

>> I read in the documentation that it's possible to change the
>> functions (definitions) where to read the mailbox files. But there
>> I'm lost.

>
> Yes, I usually change it to use a mail directory inside each user's
> home dir. That makes it cleaner when the user has many mailboxes.
>
> There are two ways to do that change:
>
> - Modify a string in the code, or
> - Create a file, /etc/c-client.cf which contains 2 lines:
> I accept the risk
> set mail-subdirectory mail

Well, this conflicted with pine, if running on the same system as the
server.


> All this is documented in the source code package. What it does is
> that the user's mailboxes are now in $HOME/mail, as in:
>
> /home/sample-user/mail/INBOX
> /home/sample-user/mail/Sent
> /home/sample-user/mail/Trash

I tried this anyway but I run into some other problem.

I compiled UW-IMAP with some other default and creating /etc/c-client.cf
both with no result. Then I started nmap and found out, that imap didn't
have any port open at all (yes, I started imap as root to use the lower
ports)

Is there some --verbose option for imap? How does one find out what is
wrong, if something does not work?


>> I tried some directories/files from my system and recompiled the server
>> but still wasn't able to read any mail.
>>
>> Now I prefer to keep UW IMAP with it's default configuration and change
>> my Mailbox installation (as I know the internals of my mail system but
>> not the one from UW IMAP). But what is the 'standard' way to store mails
>> so that UW IMAP will be able to read it?
>
> Do you mean format or place?
>
> Formats handled by UW IMAP are mbox and other I don't remember.

Standard place. But you gave the answer above being /var/mail/<username>
or /var/spool/mail/<username>.


<snip useful information>


>> Any appreciated, hints, documentation,
>
> All the documentation is on the UW site, and also comes with the
> sources, some of it (the part not recommended) is in the c-client
> library.

Ok, I'll check the source in this case. I read some of the files in the
docs directory but they still left me with lots of questions.

At the moment, I'm with the question as of why can't I see any open port
of IMAP (with nmap). There is no log what might be wrong in my
/var/log/* files.


Thanks for your time and information!
Andreas