Re: [vchkpw] Converting existing qmail installation to use vpopmail

[X-Istence]

Roger Lipscombe wrote:

I've got an existing qmail installation (installed according to LWQ).  I've
got the SMTP AUTH patch from
http://members.elysium.pl/brush/qmail-smtpd-auth/.
Currently, I'm processing the mail for several domains on the box, using
system accounts for all users (of which there are 7 -- it's a personal box).
This means that all users have email addresses on all of the domains that
this box serves (of which there are 5).  They generally only give one of
them out, though.
I'd like to start handling email for yet another domain, but I'd like to
start separating the user accounts.
The machine handles SMTP (using SMTP AUTH for roaming users) and POP3.  It
also hosts several top-level (/var/qmail/alias) mailing lists (using
ezmlm-idx).  I'd like to add IMAP.
So, I'm thinking of installing vpopmail to do this.  I have some questions:

1. Can I install it incrementally?
  I'd like to break as little as possible.
  Can I install it solely for the new domain,
  and then gradually migrate the other domains across?
 

Compile vpopmail with the configure line to allow for authenticating 
system users, that way current users will not be affected. I forget 
which option it is, just a ./configure --help should tell you. Then 
users can keep logging in normally, and it should be no problem. This 
way users with a Maildir in their homedir can still get mail.

Note: Have not tested this myself

2. Can I use the vchkpw program with the SMTP AUTH patch?
  Currently I'm using cmd5checkpw from
  http://members.elysium.pl/brush/cmd5checkpw/.
 

I am not sure if vchkpw can do md5 checking, but yes it can do smtp 
auth, you will have to run qmail-smtpd as root to do so, but that should 
not be a problem

3. Can I use the vchkpw program with BincIMAP?
  This is the IMAP server that I'm currently investigating.
 

I would not know, but another good imapd is courier-imapd. This is from 
inter7 as well, so it is easy to use with vpopmail.

4. Is it easy to use the CDB authentication?  With only 7 or so users,
  it seems like overkill to use mysql.
 

You should not notice the difference, personally i use cdb as i do not 
trust MySQL, if MySQL goes down, and my mail server is still up, i am 
still screwed as i can not fetch my mail, so i do it hd based, rather 
than MySQL, as i have had MySQL crash quite a few times. So yes CDB is 
standard for vpopmail, so it should be no problem at all.

Cheers,
Roger.
 

Hope that helps.

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