6.4 Using the Qmail mail server

+
+6.4 Using the Qmail mail server +

+There are some issues that users of the qmail mail transport agent have +encountered. None of the core maintainers use qmail, so all of this +information has been contributed by the Mailman user community, especially +Martin Preishuber and Christian Tismer, with notes by Balazs Nagy (BN) and +Norbert Bollow (NB). + +

+ +

You might need to set the mail-gid user to either qmail, + mailman, or nofiles by using the + --with-mail-gid configure option. + +

+BN: it highly depends on your mail storing policy. For example + if you use the simple ~alias/.qmail-* files, you can use + `id -g alias`. But if you use /var/qmail/users, the + specified mail gid can be used. + +

+If you are going to be directing virtual domains directly to the + mailman user (using ``virtualdomains'' on a list-only domain, for + example), you will have to use --with-mail-gid=gid + of mailman user's group. This is incompatible with having list aliases + in ~alias, unless that alias simply forwards to + mailman-listname*. + +

If there is a user mailman on your system, the alias + mailman-owner will work only in ~mailman. You have to do + a touch .qmail-owner in ~mailman directory to create + this alias. + +

+NB: An alternative, IMHO better solution is to chown + root ~mailman, that will stop qmail from considering mailman to + be a user to whom mail can be delivered. (See ``man 8 qmail-getpw''.) + +

In a related issue, if you have any users with the same name as one of + your mailing lists, you will have problems if list names contain + "-" in them. Putting .qmail redirections into the user's + home directory doesn't work because the Mailman wrappers will not get + spawned with the proper GID. The solution is to put the following lines + in the /var/qmail/users/assign file: + +

+  +zope-:alias:112:11:/var/qmail/alias:-:zope-:
+  .
+

+ +

+where in this case the listname is e.g. zope-users. + +

+NB: Alternatively, you could host the lists on a virtual domain, + and use the /var/qmail/control/virtualdomains file to put the + mailman user in charge of this virtual domain. + +

BN:If inbound messages are delivered by another user than + mailman, it's necessary to allow it to access ~mailman. + Be sure that ~mailman has group writing access and setgid bit is + set. Then put the delivering user to mailman group, and you can + deny access to ~mailman to others. Be sure that you can do the + same with the WWW service. + +

+By the way the best thing is to make a virtual mail server to handle all + of the mail. NB: E.g. make an additional "A" DNS record for the + virtual mailserver pointing to your IP address, add the line + lists.kva.hu:mailman to /var/qmail/control/virtualdomains + and a lists.kva.hu line to /var/qmail/control/rcpthosts + file. Don't forget to HUP the qmail-send after modifying + ``virtualdomains''. Then every mail to lists.kva.hu will arrive to + mail.kva.hu's mailman user. + +

+Then make your aliases: + +

+          .qmail              => mailman@...'s letters
+          .qmail-owner        => mailman-owner's letters
+

+ +

+For list aliases, you can either create them manually: + +

+          .qmail-list         => posts to the 'list' list
+          .qmail-list-admin   => posts to the 'list's owner
+          .qmail-list-request => requests to 'list'
+          etc
+

+ +

+or for automatic list alias handling (when using the lists.kva.hu + virtual as above), see contrib/qmail-to-mailman.py in the Mailman + source distribution. Modify the ~mailman/.qmail-default to + include: + +

+          |preline /path/to/python /path/to/qmail-to-mailman.py
+

+ +

+and new lists will automatically be picked up. + +

You have to make sure that the localhost can relay. If you start qmail + via inetd and tcpenv, you need some line the following in your + /etc/hosts.allow file: + +

+      tcp-env: 127. 10.205.200. : setenv RELAYCLIENT
+

+ +

+where 10.205.200. is your IP address block. If you use tcpserver, then + you need something like the following in your /etc/tcp.smtp file: + +

+      10.205.200.:allow,RELAYCLIENT=""
+      127.:allow,RELAYCLIENT=""
+

+ +

BN: Bigger /var/qmail/control/concurrencyremote values + work better sending outbound messages, within reason. Unless you know + your system can handle it (many if not most cannot) this should not be + set to a value greater than 120. + +

More information about setting up qmail and relaying can be found in the + qmail documentation. +

+BN: Last but not least, here's a little script to generate aliases to +your lists (if for some reason you can/will not have them automatically picked +up using contrib/qmail-to-mailman.py): + +

+This script is for the Mailman 2.0 series: + +

+#!/bin/sh
+if [ $# = 1 ]; then
+    i=$1
+    echo Making links to $i in the current directory...
+    echo "|preline /home/mailman/mail/mailman post $i" > .qmail-$i
+    echo "|preline /home/mailman/mail/mailman mailowner $i" > .qmail-$i-admin
+    echo "|preline /home/mailman/mail/mailman mailowner $i" > .qmail-$i-owner
+    echo "|preline /home/mailman/mail/mailman mailowner $i" > .qmail-owner-$i
+    echo "|preline /home/mailman/mail/mailman mailcmd $i" > .qmail-$i-request
+fi
+

Note: + +This is for a new Mailman 2.1 installation. Users upgrading from +Mailman 2.0 would most likely change /usr/local/mailman to +/home/mailman. If in doubt, refer to the --prefix +option passed to configure during compile time. +

+#!/bin/sh
+if [ $# = 1 ]; then
+    i=$1
+    echo Making links to $i in the current directory...
+    echo "|preline /usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman post $i" > .qmail-$i
+    echo "|preline /usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman admin $i" > .qmail-$i-admin
+    echo "|preline /usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman bounces $i" > .qmail-$i-bounces
+    # The following line is for VERP
+    # echo "|preline /usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman bounces $i" > .qmail-$i-bounces-default
+    echo "|preline /usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman confirm $i" > .qmail-$i-confirm
+    echo "|preline /usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman join $i" > .qmail-$i-join
+    echo "|preline /usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman leave $i" > .qmail-$i-leave
+    echo "|preline /usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman owner $i" > .qmail-$i-owner
+    echo "|preline /usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman request $i" > .qmail-$i-request
+    echo "|preline /usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman subscribe $i" > .qmail-$i-subscribe
+    echo "|preline /usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman unsubscribe $i" > .qmail-$i-unsubscribe
+fi
+

+ +

+ +6.4 Using the Qmail mail server +

+
+6.4 Using the Qmail mail server +