I am moving an application onto a Raq4i from an Exim based host and wondered if somebody could help me understand how things are done on the Raq.

To make a long story short: I have perl applicaton that allow users to create/update/delete a (free) email alias on the server from a web interface.

They basically maintain a MySQL database entry and every time there is an update I used to write out the file to a file in /etc/valiases/ - this automatically was "picked up" by Exim without further ado.

I understand that /etc/mail/aliases works in a similar way on the Raq - however, having to run newaliases every time sbdy update their email aliase - something that could happen every minute - does not seem very efficient.

Maybe virtusertable could be used, though I think it still needs to have done a makemap after each update.

Procmail perhaps?

I am quite open for other ways of doing this? I recall seing a host using a .forward file which seemed to work in a similar way.

Basically I would prefer creating a file in the format

forwardname@forward.domain.com: realname@real.domain.com
anotehrforwardname@forward.domain.com: anotherrealname@anotherreal.domain.com
... etc

Any help or suggestion appreciated!

Hm, no takers .. maybe I'm asking the wrong question ... or the right question in a wrong way ....

In 100% of my other experience (two previous hosts) it was just a matter of putting in the aliases in a file and the forwarding was done - no commands such as newaliases etc was required to make it take effect.

Example: say my domain was www.abc.com, and the file was called .forward (that was the case once):

.forward:
myfirstalias@abc.com: firstaliasesrealemailaddy@somewhereelse.com
mysecondalias@abc.com: second@aplace.com
... etc

I see "Free aliases and forwarders" on lots of Raq based hosting services - so there MUST be an easy way of doing this.

The CP has provisions of making aliases and forwarders to "real" users only. In other words, how can you say "100 pop users, unlimited forwarders" if you can only have a forwarder when you have a real pop user?

I *can* modify virtusertable adding new aliases below the "dont change anything before this line" but that quickly become really messy - besides every time you create a new domain with the CP you automatically also create a new user and thus update both aliases and virtusertable.

If anyone has tried doing something like this please share your knowledge... even if it just confirms my feeling that it just isn't possible .....

Can I maybe swap out sendmail for exim or qmail? I know it would "invalidate my blablah" but is it possible? Did anybody do it?

Rene

Originally posted by madsere
I see "Free aliases and forwarders" on lots of Raq based hosting services - so there MUST be an easy way of doing this.

The CP has provisions of making aliases and forwarders to "real" users only. In other words, how can you say "100 pop users, unlimited forwarders" if you can only have a forwarder when you have a real pop user?

Rene, I think when hosts say, 'free aliases and forwards', they are talking about aliases and forwards for a user.

I'm not sure how you did it before, but in general, an alias must alias something, and the whole *point* is to alias an actual *user* with another name. Same with forwarding... where is the email being delivered in the first place and then forwarded. They must have users.

The only thing I can think of how you did it before without actual users is, the domain was set up with a catch-all and email forwarding and aliasing was done through either a script on the server, or a file (that I'm not aware of).

I know OLM had PlusMail which was something like this. One actual email box, and the software provided additional 'boxes' (off of that one account) and you could modify cvertain things about those additional 'boxes' such as alias and forward.

This manual (just found it off google) provides an explanation of PlusMail that seems to closely resemble your request and needs above: http://www.site-works.com/help/part5.html

Damn, Chicken, this seems to be exactly what I've been looking for!!! If it wasn't for Chicken Pox and whatnot I'd kiss you,.. you'll have to make do with a virtual beer!

:beer:

Thanks a ton mate!

Uhm... I was all exiting there for a second ... Plusmail by the description does look exactly what I'm after but ...

I looked high and low, and although it is used by a LOT of hosting services, I have not been able to find any real information on it.

The closest I got was this post fro 1999 - http://isp-lists.isp-planet.com/isp-perl/9908/msg00010.html - which basically says it is a proprioritary hacked sendmail made by olm.net for their own use only. It is probably phased out by now.

I have not been able to find any similar product, but have found a lot of other people looking for one. Maybe this is an opportunity :-)

I suppose installing exim or qmail instead might be an option. Has anybody tried that? (replacing sendmail on the Raq) I expect it will not pass unnoticed by the CP - but how big are the changes ? Will it completely stop working or is it just some functionality being moved?

Is it possible to install both in parallel?

Sorry, I should have mentioned that it was only an OLM thanngg, though you could try emailing them. If they don't list it on their site, maybe they'd be willing to license it or ???

I don't run anything else on the server, nor do I know of similar scripts, so I can't much help ya' there.

Well, since Plusmail seems to really be a hacked sendmail, I might as well go with Exim. I am still collecting information on this. It seems that one person a few months ago replaced Cobalt-Sendmail with Exim and I've mailed him to see if he could be helpful in pointing out eventual pitfalls before I take the thing apart.

Thanks though, at least I'm not stuck at this point :-)

I ended up disabling standard sendmail and installing Exim. Exim is fairly easy to setup to do what I describe above.

(Don't do this if you're not 100% sure what you're doing though, it may have some impact on functionality of the CP and it most probably invalidates your warrenty - FWIW :-)