README


This is the GNU Mailutils package
=================================

This package contains a series of useful mail clients, servers, and
libraries.  These are the primary mail utilities of the GNU system.

Specifically, this package contains a POP3 server, an IMAP4 server,
and a Sieve mail filter. It also provides a POSIX `mailx' client,
and a collection of other tools.

The central library is capable of reading mail from an `mbox' mailbox,
as well as off of local or remote POP3 and IMAP4 servers.

You're welcome to use this library in your own programs, please see
the examples subdirectory or these other applications.  All libraries
are licensed using the GNU LGPL.  The documentation is licensed under
the GNU FDL, and everything else is licensed using the GNU GPL. The
complete texts of the corresponding licences are included in the files
COPYING.LIB, COPYING and doc/texinfo/COPYING.DOC.

This software is part of the GNU Project and belongs to the Free Software 
Foundation.

Why use this package?
=====================

This package started off to try and handle large mailbox files more
gracefully then current POP3 servers did.  While it handles this task,
it also allows you to support a variety of different mailbox formats
without any real effort on your part.  Also, if a new format is added
at a later date, your program will support that new format
automatically as soon as it is compiled against the new library.

This server is also released as part of Debian, so you should expect
it to compile cleanly on all the platforms supported there.

How to install
==============

Please see the INSTALL file in this directory for the generic instructions
on how to use configure. The following short summary describes the mailutils-
specific configuration options:

    --enable-debug

	Compile Mailutils with debugging support. This disables compiler
	optimizations and adds debugging information to the binaries.

    --disable-pam

	Do not build PAM support. By default configure will build PAM support
	if the host system supports it. Use this option to suppress this
	behaviour.

    --disable-pthread

	Do not build thread-safe libraries.

    --with-mysql

	Enable support for authentication via MySQL. Note that depending
	on how your MySQL system is installed, this may require adding
	appropriate directories to the library and include paths, e.g.:

	./configure LIBS='-L/usr/local/mysql/lib' \
                    CPPLAGS='-I/usr/local/mysql/include' --with-mysql

    --with-postgres

	Enable support for authentication via PostgreSQL. You may 
        have to explicitly specify LIBS and CPPFLAGS (see above).

    --enable-mh-utils

        Build a suite of MH utilities. The GNU implementation of MH is
        primarily aiming to provide an interface between Mailutils and
        Emacs using mh-e module. For more information, refer to files
        README and TODO in the mh subdirectory.

    --with-mh-bindir=DIR

        By default the MH binaries are installed in ${exec_prefix}/bin/mu-mh.
        To change this, use --with-mh-bindir option. If DIR starts with '/'
	it is taken as an absolute path specification, otherwise ${prefix} is
	prepended to it. 

    --with-virtual-pwddir=DIR

	Use DIR instead of $sysconfdir/domain as the location of
	virtual mail domain database. This option is ignored if
        --disable-virtual-domains is specified.

    --without-readline

	Build 'mail' without readline support.

    --with-gnutls

	Enable the TLS/SSL server-side encryption via GnuTLS
	(a Transport Layer Security Library) in IMAP4/POP3 daemons.

    --with-gsasl

	Enable GNU SASL support (Simple Authentication and Security Layer
	framework). IMAP4d supports this mechanism.

    --with-gssapi

	Enable GSSAPI authentication. For this to work, you will have
	to have Kerberos V installed on your system.

    --without-guile

	Do not build Guile interface library.

    --with-mail-rc=FILE

	Set the location of the system-wide configuration file for mail
	utility. FILE must be an absolute filename specification. Default
	is $sysconfdir/mail.rc

    --with-mail-spool=PATH

	Override the location of the mailspool. The default value depends
	on the system. Usually it is either /var/spool/mail or /var/mail.
	PATH is either an absolute directory name, or a valid `mbox' URL
	in the form:

		mbox:path;type=TYPE;param=N;user=

	This method allows you to use indexed mailspools. For servers with
	a really big number of users this may provide a significant speedup
	in opening the mailbox. 

	TYPE is one of:
		hash       --  The user's mailbox is kept in a subdirectory
			       whose name is determined by hashing first
			       N characters of the user name. There are
			       256 subdirectories named from 00 through FF.
		index	   --  The user's mailbox is located PARAM directories
                               down the `path'. The directories are named
                               after the first N letters of a login name.
			       For example, when N=2 the mailbox for
			       user `smith' is `/var/spool/mail/s/m/smith'.
	        rev-index  --  Same as above, except that the last letters
			       are used, thus the mailbox for `smith' will
	                       be /var/spool/mail/h/t/smith. This may provide
	                       a better average distribution than the `index'
			       method.
	
If you wish to use APOP authentication in POP3 daemon, you will have
to enable DBM support in Mailutils. To do so, use one of the following
options:

    --with-gdbm

	Use GNU DBM

    --with-db2

	Use Berkeley DB

    --with-ndbm

	Use NDBM

    --with-dbm

	Use old DBM

        Only one dbm option may be specified. Which one depends on the flavor
        of DBM you are using. GDBM is most common for GNU system.

    --with-log-facility=facility

	Enable logging to the given syslog facility. Default is `mail'.

    --without-included-regex

	Don't compile regex; this is the default on systems with version
	2 of the GNU C library (use with caution on other systems)

    --disable-nls

        Do not use Native Language Support

    --with-included-gettext

       Use the GNU gettext library included in the Mailutils distribution.

    --with-included-argp

        Use the argp library supplied with the package, instead of the
        one from your libc. You will need this option if the libc library
        on your system was compiled without NLS support.


Use following options to disable support for particular protocols or
features:

    --disable-imap        Disables IMAP protocol support. 
    --disable-pop         Disables POP protocol support. 
    --disable-smtp        Disables support for SMTP mailer. With this
                          option `mail.remote' is not built.
    --disable-sendmail    Disables support for `Sendmail' mailer.
    --disable-mh          Disables support for MH mailbox format.  
    --disable-virtual-domains 
                          Disables support for authentication using virtual
                          mail domains.


Where to report BUGS
====================

Please report any bugs to <bug-mailutils@gnu.org>.  We encourage sysadmins
who will be using this package to subscribe to this list by sending an email
to <bug-mailutils-request@gnu.org> with the word `subscribe' in the body of
the message. Another way to subscribe is by visiting
http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-mailutils.