[CLUE-Tech] IMAP Server Recommendations...

[Jeffery Cann]

On Thursday 24 July 2003 16:50, Ryan Kirkpatrick wrote:
>   *) Courier fails this for the same reason, and even the standalone
>      IMAP server's configuration and init.d scripts are kludge to say the
>      least.

In what way do you think they are a kludge?  I use them in straight from 
source build - unmodified.   Works great.

> *) Supports MailDirs.
>   *) UW IMAP fails this as it only supports mbox.

Right - this is why I went with courier imap.  And I wanted virtual mailboxes.

> I may be over picky in my needs here, but this does not seem too difficult
> of a set of requirements. It appears that almost all of the IMAP servers
> seem to use an overly complex sequence of port listener, authentication
> daemon, login handler, and actual IMAP server processes, all chained
> together in a rather complex and commentless init.d script (i.e.
> courier-imap). 

Hmm - as a fellow postfix user, I am surprised that you're complaining about a 
plethora of processes.  Postfix (as described by the author) was built with 
several separate daemons to increase security.  So was qmail.  These two mail 
servers were in response to the monolithic (and relatively buggier) sendmail.  
Courier IMAP uses this same architecture style in hopes of being as secure as 
well.  As I recall, this is described in the courier-imap documentation.

> and forcing all subfolders to be hidden directories (start with a dot) on
> the filesystem. 

The . folders are prescribed by the maildir format.  Go read about it on qmail 
home page - the author invented this format.  Note that *any* IMAP server (or 
email client for that matter) which supports maildir format will have .folder 
names.   My Kmail has it, for example.

> 	Does anyone know of any IMAP servers that could satisfy all of
> these requirements? 

Well - I was a *total* newbie with IMAP a few weeks ago and I choose 
courier-imap because it supports maildir and virtual accounts.  Once 
configured, everything is working great - no errors, no problems, nada.  I 
think it's highly flexible.  The expense of this is added complexity which 
certainly overwhelmed me initially.  However, I think many of the advanced 
features (like virtual accounts and so many authentication methods) are a 
huge bonus.

I would recommend spending some time trying to setup various IMAP servers.  
You'll know soon enough which ones are truly difficult.  Sometimes, it takes 
a few hours of research and reading for things to gel.  For me, it took a 
while - maybe 10 hours?  The book 'Postfix'  by Richard Blum was certainly 
helpful.  It also includes several pages on setting up popular IMAP servers 
like UW and Courier. 

Jeff
-- 
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