popper man page on BSDOS

Man page or keyword search:  
man Server   6284 pages
apropos Keyword Search (all sections)
Output format
BSDOS logo
[printable version]



qpopper(8)					       qpopper(8)

NAME
       qpopper -- pop 3 server (v3.0)

SYNOPSIS
       /usr/local/lib/popper  [	 -b  buildir ] [ -c ] [ -d ] [ -e
       login_delay=nn,expire=nn ] [ -k ] [ -K service ] [ -R ]	[
       -s ] [ -S ] [ -t trace-file ] [ -T timeout ]

DESCRIPTION
       Qpopper	is  a  POP3 server to enable POP3 clients to read
       and download mail. This server implements the POP protocol
       defined	in  RFC	 1939  and the RFC 2449 extensions.  This
       implementation runs on a variety of Unix platforms.

       The server also enables clients to send	mail  using  XTND
       XMIT, which is handed over to sendmail(8).

OPTIONS
       -b bulldir
	      Turns  on	 the  bulletin	feature and specifies the
	      bulletin directory path.	The  command  line  over-
	      rides  the  compiled  value  if  it is defined.  To
	      enable bulletins by default and specify  a  default
	      bulletin	directory during compilation, include the
	      --enable-bulletins=bull-directory flag when running
	      ./configure.    The  usual  bulletin  directory  is
	      /var/spool/bulls.

	      A bulletin database can be used to track	the  bul-
	      letins  instead of the users' home directory.  This
	      feature  is  enabled  by	including  the	--enable-
	      bulldb=bull-directory  flag  when running ./config-
	      ure. This also requires creating two blank files in
	      the   bulletin  directory,  called  bulldb.pag  and
	      bulldb.dir.

       -c     Downcases user names.  This permits users	 to  con-
	      figure  their  clients  with user names in UPPER or
	      MiXeD case, and still login, assuming their  actual
	      user name is all lower case.

       -d     Turns  on debug logging if compiled (pass --enable-
	      debugging to ./configure).  All debugging	 informa-
	      tion is saved using syslog(8).

       -e x=value,...
	      Sets  POP3  extensions.	Sets  x	 to the specified
	      value.  Used to  announces  a  Login  Delay  and/or
	      Expire response tags to the CAPA command.

	      Remember neither Expire nor Login Delay is enforced
	      by qpopper;  Sysadmins have to  implement	 them  by
	      some  other means.  However, you can enforce EXPIRE

Local			    April 2000				1

qpopper(8)					       qpopper(8)

	      0 (no retention at all) by using the --enable-auto-
	      delete flag with ./configure.  This causes messages
	      to be automatically deleted after	 they  are  down-
	      loaded.

       -R     Disables reverse lookups on client IP addresses.

       -t trace-file
	      Turns  on debug logging if compiled (pass --enable-
	      debugging to  ./configure)  and  writes  the  trace
	      information in trace-file using fprintf(3V).

       -k     Enables  kerberos	 authentication	 when qpopper has
	      been compiled with the KERBEROS define.	You  must
	      already have libraries that support Kerberos.

       -K service
	      The specified Kerberos service will be used instead
	      of the compiled in default of "rcmd", "pop" is com-
	      mon.

       -s     Turns   on  statistics  logging  using  syslog(8)or
	      trace-file.  At the end of each popper session, the
	      following	 information  is logged: username, number
	      of messages deleted, number of bytes deleted,  num-
	      ber of message left on server, number of bytes left
	      on server.

       -S     Enables server mode.  This mode  reduces	disk  I/O
	      and  disk space usage when popper is used on a sys-
	      tem that serves POP only users exclusively.

       -T timeout
	      option changes the default compiled value POP_TIME-
	      OUT for terminating a session with a pop client.

	      When  the server is waiting for a command to arrive
	      from the client, it times out after  the	specified
	      number of seconds and terminates the session.  This
	      avoids having popper processes hang forever waiting
	      for  command  input  from clients which have termi-
	      nated abnormally or are hung.

	      A small value is ok for small  to	 medium	 networks
	      where  the  network  delay is within a few seconds.
	      In this case 15-30  seconds  is  not  unreasonable.
	      Networks	with  large  delays  in	 sending  packets
	      (e.g., SLIP links) may require a larger value.   In
	      this  case 300 seconds (5 minutes) is not unreason-
	      able.

       Processing Options are described below.

Local			    April 2000				2

qpopper(8)					       qpopper(8)

   Processing Options
       Here  are some options the values of which  are	announced
       to clients. Syntax of the options is:

		      opt=value,...

       This sets option opt to be value.  Multiple options can be
       specified at one instance and are comma separated.

       The following are the options supported:
	      login_delay
	      expire

BULLETINS
       The bulletin feature gives system administrators a way  to
       send important announcements to all POP users without hav-
       ing to do mass mailings.

       The bulletin directory contains	one  file  per	bulletin.
       Each file contains a single mail message with a header and
       body in normal mailbox format. The first line of each such
       bulletin	 must  be  a  "From  " line.  The easiest way for
       sysadmins to create such bulletins is to mail themselves a
       copy  of the bulletin using the account to which they want
       replies to be sent, then use their mail	program	 to  save
       the message to a file in the bulletin directory in mailbox
       format. The bulletin directory must be world readable.

       The name of each bulletin file begins  with  the	 bulletin
       number, and may optionally continue with any other charac-
       ters. E.g., the file name of bulletin number 23	might  be
       "23.pophost_down_sunday".

       Popper creates a file named .popbull in the home directory
       of each user.  This file contains a single line	recording
       the highest numbered bulletin received by the user.

       Each  time  a  POP  client connects to the server, any new
       bulletins which the user has not received  previously  are
       automatically appended to the user's mail.

       When  a	bulletin  is  copied,  the  "To"  header  line is
       replaced by "To:	 username@thishost",  and  any	"Status:"
       header  lines  are  deleted.  Otherwise,	 the  bulletin is
       copied as is.

       When a new user checks for mail	the  first  time,  popper
       creates the .popbull file in the user's home directory and
       seeds it with the current maximum  bulletin  number.  Thus
       new users do not get old bulletins.

       Bulletins  can  be  enabled  by	default, and the bulletin
       directory  specified,  by  including   the   --enable-bul-
       letins=bull-directory flag when running ./configure.

Local			    April 2000				3

qpopper(8)					       qpopper(8)

       To use a database instead of .popbull files in users' home
       directories for tracking the highest bulletin  seen  by	a
       user, include the --enable-bulldb=bull-directory flag when
       running ./configure.  You must also create two empty files
       in   the	  bulletin   directory,	  called  bulldb.pag  and
       bulldb.dir.  When a bulletin  database  is  used,  qpopper
       checks  for and uses any .popbull files in the user's home
       directory, to provide continuity.

       To specify the maximum number of	 bulletins  sent  to  new
       users,  include	the  --with-new-bulls  flag  when running
       ./configure.  For example, --with-new-bulls=10  says  that
       new users get at most ten bulletins.

THE POP TRANSACTION CYCLE
       The  Qpopper  server  is	 a single program (called popper)
       that is launched by inetd when it gets a	 service  request
       on  the POP TCP port.  (The official port number specified
       in RFC 1939 for POP version 3 is port 110.  However,  some
       POP3  clients  attempt  to contact the server at port 109,
       the POP version 2 port.	Unless you are running both  POP2
       and POP3 servers, you can simply define both ports for use
       by the POP3 server.  This is explained in the installation
       instructions later on.)

       The qpopper program initializes and verifies that the peer
       IP address is registered in the local domain  (unless  the
       -R command-line option is used), logging a warning message
       when a connection is made with a client whose  IP  address
       does not have a canonical name.	For systems using BSD 4.3
       bind, it also checks to see if a	 cannonical  name  lookup
       for the client returns the same peer IP address, logging a
       warning message if it does not.

       The server enters the authorization  state,  during  which
       the  client  must correctly identify itself by providing a
       valid Unix  userid  and	password  on  the  server's  host
       machine (or successfully authenticate using APOP or AUTH).
       No other exchanges are allowed during  this  state  (other
       than a request to quit.)	 If authentication fails, a warn-
       ing message is logged and the session ends.

       Once the user is identified, qpopper changes its user  and
       group  ids to match that of the user and enters the trans-
       action state.  The server makes a temporary  copy  of  the
       user's  maildrop which is used for all subsequent transac-
       tions (unless running in server mode ).	These include the
       bulk  of	 POP  commands	to  retrieve  mail,  delete mail,
       undelete mail, and so forth.

       When the client quits, the server enters the final  update
       state,  during  which the network connection is terminated
       and the user's maildrop is  updated  with  the  (possibly)
       modified temporary maildrop.

Local			    April 2000				4

qpopper(8)					       qpopper(8)

LOGGING
       The POP server uses syslog to keep a record of its activi-
       ties.  On systems with BSD 4.3 syslogging, the server logs
       (by default) to the "local0" facility at priority "notice"
       for all messages except debugging which is logged at  pri-
       ority	 "debug".     The    default	log    file    is
       /usr/spool/mqueue/POPlog.   These  can  be   changed,   if
       desired.	  On systems with 4.2 syslogging all messages are
       logged	 to    the    local	log	file,	  usually
       /usr/spool/mqueue/syslog.

DEBUGGING
       Qpopper	logs  debugging information when the -d parameter
       is specified after its invocation in the inetd.conf  file.
       Care  should  be	 exercised  in using this option since it
       generates considerable output in the syslog file.   Alter-
       natively,  the  "-t  <file-name>"  option places debugging
       information into file "<file-name>" using fprintf  instead
       of syslog.

       For  SunOS  version 3.5, the popper program is launched by
       inetd from /etc/servers.	 This file does not allow you  to
       specify command line arguments.	Therefore, if you want to
       enable debugging,  you  can  specify  a	shell  script  in
       /etc/servers  to be launched instead of popper and in this
       script call popper with the desired arguments.

       You can confirm that the POP server is running on Unix  by
       telneting  to port 110 (or 109 if you set it up that way).
       For example:

       %telnet pop.qualcomm.com 110
       Trying...
       Connected to pop.qualcomm.com.
       Escape character is '^]'.
       +OK QPOP (version 3.0) at pop.qualcomm.com starting.
       quit
       +OK Pop server at pop.qualcomm.com signing off.
       Connection closed by foreign host.

EXTENSIONS
       The server implements several extended commands.

       XTND XMIT: Sends a mail message using /usr/lib/sendmail.

       XTND XLIST header [num]: Extracts and returns  the  speci-
       fied  header line for the specified message number. If the
       "num" parameter is missing, returns the	header	line  for
       all  the messages which are not currently marked for dele-
       tion.

       XMANGLE: Can be used as a modifier to the TOP, RETR,  LIST
       commands.  The  result is to condense MIME messages into a
       single part. For example:

Local			    April 2000				5

qpopper(8)					       qpopper(8)

	      RETR 10 XMANGLE(text=html;headers=to:,cc:,from:,date:)
       results in transforming message 10 into a single	 part  of
       content-type  text/html with only those headers which were
       requested.

       Qpopper also supports the "-no-mime" user name hack.  As a
       way  to enable MIME-mangling with clients that do not sup-
       port XMANGLE, add "-no-mime" to the user name.  For  exam-
       ple,  if	 the  userid is "mary", enter it in the client as
       "mary-no-mime".

FILES
       /var/mail	       mail files
       /etc/inetd.conf	       pop program invocation
       /etc/syslog.conf	       logging specifications
       /var/spool/bulls	       bulletins
       ~/.popbull	       largest bulletin number seen by user

SEE ALSO
       inetd(8), inetd.conf(4), sendmail(8)

AUTHORS
       Praveen Yaramada, Laurence Lundblade, Randall Gelles, Mark
       Erickson,  Bob  Campbell, Edward Moy, Austin Shelton, Mar-
       shall T Rose, and cast of thousands at  Rand,  UDel,  UCI,
       QUALCOMM Incorporated and the Internet user community.

Local			    April 2000				6

[top]
                             _         _         _ 
                            | |       | |       | |     
                            | |       | |       | |     
                         __ | | __ __ | | __ __ | | __  
                         \ \| |/ / \ \| |/ / \ \| |/ /  
                          \ \ / /   \ \ / /   \ \ / /   
                           \   /     \   /     \   /    
                            \_/       \_/       \_/ 
More information is available in HTML format for server BSDOS

List of man pages available for BSDOS

Copyright (c) for man pages and the logo by the respective OS vendor.

For those who want to learn more, the polarhome community provides shell access and support.

[legal] [privacy] [GNU] [policy] [cookies] [netiquette] [sponsors] [FAQ]
Tweet
Polarhome, production since 1999.
Member of Polarhome portal.
Based on Fawad Halim's script.
....................................................................
Vote for polarhome
Free Shell Accounts :: the biggest list on the net