1. Controlling the appearance of outgoing messages

1.1. How do I set up host masquerading?

1.2. How do I set up user masquerading?

1.3. How do I set up Mail-Followup-To automatically?

2. Routing outgoing messages

2.1. How do I send local messages to another host?

2.2. How do I set up a null client?

2.3. How do I send outgoing mail through UUCP?

2.4. How do I set up a separate queue for a SLIP/PPP link?

2.5. How do I deal with ``CNAME lookup failed temporarily''?

3. Routing incoming messages by host

3.1. How do I receive mail for another host name?

3.2. How do I set up a virtual domain?

3.3. How do I set up several virtual domains for one user?

4. Routing incoming messages by user

4.1. How do I forward unrecognized usernames to another host?

4.2. How do I set up a mailing list?

4.3. How do I use majordomo with qmail?

4.4. How do I use procmail with qmail?

4.5. How do I use elm's filter with qmail?

4.6. How do I create aliases with dots?

4.7. How do I use sendmail's .forward files with qmail?

4.8. How do I use sendmail's /etc/aliases with qmail?

4.9. How do I make qmail defer messages during NFS or NIS outages?

4.10. How do I change which account controls an address?

5. Setting up servers

5.1. How do I run qmail-smtpd under tcpserver?

5.2. How do I set up qmail-qmtpd?

5.3. How do I set up qmail-pop3d?

5.4. How do I allow selected clients to use this host as a relay?

5.5. How do I fix up messages from broken SMTP clients?

5.6. How do I set up qmail-qmqpd?

6. Configuring MUAs to work with qmail

6.1. How do I make BSD mail generate a Date with the local time zone?

6.2. How do I make pine work with qmail?

6.3. How do I make MH work with qmail?

6.4. How do I stop Sun's dtcm from hanging?

7. Managing the mail system

7.1. How do I safely stop qmail-send?

7.2. How do I manually run the queue?

7.3. How do I rejuvenate a message?

7.4. How do I organize a big network?

7.5. How do I back up and restore the queue disk?

7.6. How do I run a supervised copy of qmail?

7.7. How do I avoid syslog?

8. Miscellany

8.1. How do I tell qmail to do more deliveries at once?

8.2. How do I keep a copy of all incoming and outgoing mail messages?

8.3. How do I switch slowly from sendmail to qmail?

1. Controlling the appearance of outgoing messages

1.1. How do I set up host masquerading? All the users on this host,

zippy.af.mil, are users on af.mil. When joe sends a message to fred, the

message should say ``From: joe@af.mil'' and ``To: fred@af.mil'', without

``zippy'' anywhere.

Answer: echo af.mil > /var/qmail/control/defaulthost; chmod 644

/var/qmail/control/defaulthost.

1.2. How do I set up user masquerading? I'd like my own From lines to

show boss@af.mil rather than god@heaven.af.mil.

Answer: Add MAILHOST=af.mil and MAILUSER=boss to your environment. To

override From lines supplied by your MUA, add QMAILINJECT=f to your

environment.

1.3. How do I set up Mail-Followup-To automatically? When I send a

message to the sos@heaven.af.mil mailing list, I'd like to include

``Mail-Followup-To: sos@heaven.af.mil''.

Answer: Add QMAILMFTFILE=$HOME/.lists to your environment, and put

sos@heaven.af.mil into ~/.lists.

2. Routing outgoing messages

2.1. How do I send local messages to another host? All the mail for

af.mil should be delivered to our disk server, pokey.af.mil. I've set up

an MX from af.mil to pokey.af.mil, but when a user on the af.mil host

sends a message to boss@af.mil, af.mil tries to deliver it locally. How

do I stop that?

Answer: Remove af.mil from /var/qmail/control/locals. If qmail-send is

running, give it a HUP. Make sure the MX is set up properly before you

do this. Also make sure that pokey can receive mail for af.mil---see

question 3.1.

2.2. How do I set up a null client? I'd like zippy.af.mil to

send all mail to bigbang.af.mil.

Answer: echo :bigbang.af.mil > /var/qmail/control/smtproutes;

chmod 644 /var/qmail/control/smtproutes. Disable local delivery as in

question 2.1. Turn off qmail-smtpd in /etc/inetd.conf.

2.3. How do I send outgoing mail through UUCP? I need qmail to send all

outgoing mail via UUCP to my upstream UUCP site, gonzo.

Answer: Put

   :alias-uucp

into control/virtualdomains and

   |preline -df /usr/bin/uux - -r -gC

      -a"${SENDER:-MAILER-DAEMON}" gonzo!rmail "($DEFAULT@$HOST)"

(all on one line) into ~alias/.qmail-uucp-default. (For some UUCP

software you will need to use -d instead of -df.) If qmail-send is

running, give it a HUP.

2.4. How do I set up a separate queue for a SLIP/PPP link?

Answer: Use serialmail (http://pobox.com/~djb/serialmail.html).

2.5. How do I deal with ``CNAME lookup failed temporarily''? The log

showed that a message was deferred for this reason. Why is qmail doing

CNAME lookups, anyway?

Answer: The SMTP standard does not permit aliased hostnames, so qmail

has to do a CNAME lookup in DNS for every recipient host. If the

relevant DNS server is down, qmail defers the message. It will try again

soon.

3. Routing incoming messages by host

3.1. How do I receive mail for another host name? I'd like our disk

server, pokey.af.mil, to receive mail addressed to af.mil. I've set up

an MX from af.mil to pokey.af.mil, but how do I get pokey to treat

af.mil as a name for the local host?

Answer: Add af.mil to /var/qmail/control/locals and to

/var/qmail/control/rcpthosts. If qmail-send is running, give it a HUP

(or do svc -h /var/run/qmail if qmail is supervised).

3.2. How do I set up a virtual domain? I'd like any mail for

nowhere.mil, including root@nowhere.mil and postmaster@nowhere.mil and

so on, to be delivered to Bob. I've set up the MX already.

Answer: Put

   nowhere.mil:bob

into control/virtualdomains. Add nowhere.mil to control/rcpthosts. If

qmail-send is running, give it a HUP (or do svc -h /var/run/qmail if

qmail is supervised).

Now mail for whatever@nowhere.mil will be delivered locally to

bob-whatever. Bob can set up ~bob/.qmail-default to catch all the

possible addresses, ~bob/.qmail-info to catch info@nowhere.mil, etc.

3.3. How do I set up several virtual domains for one user? Bob wants

another virtual domain, everywhere.org, but he wants to handle

nowhere.mil users and everywhere.org users differently. How can we do

that without setting up a second account?

Answer: Put two lines into control/virtualdomains:

   nowhere.mil:bob-nowhere

   everywhere.org:bob-everywhere

Add nowhere.mil and everywhere.org to control/rcpthosts. If qmail-send

is running, give it a HUP (or do svc -h /var/run/qmail if qmail is

supervised).

Now Bob can set up separate .qmail-nowhere-* and everywhere-* files. He

can even set up .qmail-nowhere-default and .qmail-everywhere-default.

4. Routing incoming messages by user

4.1. How do I forward unrecognized usernames to another host? I'd like

to set up a LUSER_RELAY pointing at bigbang.af.mil.

Answer: Put

   | forward "$LOCAL"@bigbang.af.mil

into ~alias/.qmail-default.

4.2. How do I set up a mailing list? I'd like me-sos@my.host.name to be

forwarded to a bunch of people.

Answer: Put a list of addresses into ~me/.qmail-sos, one per line. Then

incoming mail for me-sos will be forwarded to each of those addresses.

You should also touch ~me/.qmail-sos-owner so that bounces come back to

you rather than the original sender.

Alternative: ezmlm (http://pobox.com/~djb/ezmlm.html) is a modern

mailing list manager, supporting automatic subscriptions, confirmations,

archives, fully automatic bounce handling (including warnings to

subscribers saying which messages they've missed), and more.

4.3. How do I use majordomo with qmail?

Answer: See ftp://ftp.eyrie.org/pub/software/majordomo/mjqmail and

http://www.qmail.org for various methods. majordomo 2.0 is expected to

support qmail directly.

Beware that majordomo's lists are not crashproof.

4.4. How do I use procmail with qmail?

Answer: Put 

   | preline procmail

into ~/.qmail. You'll have to use a full path for procmail unless

procmail is in the system's startup PATH. Note that procmail will try to

deliver to /var/spool/mail/$USER by default; to change this, see

INSTALL.mbox.

4.5. How do I use elm's filter with qmail?

Answer: Put 

   | preline filter

into ~/.qmail. You'll have to use a full path for filter unless filter

is in the system's startup PATH.

4.6. How do I create aliases with dots? I tried setting up

~alias/.qmail-P.D.Q.Bach, but it doesn't do anything.

Answer: Use .qmail-p:d:q:bach. Dots are converted to colons, and

uppercase is converted to lowercase.

4.7. How do I use sendmail's .forward files with qmail?

Answer: Install the dot-forward package

(http://pobox.com/~djb/dot-forward.html).

4.8. How do I use sendmail's /etc/aliases with qmail?

Answer: Install the fastforward package

(http://pobox.com/~djb/fastforward.html).

4.9. How do I make qmail defer messages during NFS or NIS outages? If

~joe suddenly disappears, I'd like mail for joe to be deferred.

Answer: Build a qmail-users database, so that qmail no longer checks

home directories and the password database. This takes three steps.

First, put your complete user list (including local and NIS passwords)

into /var/qmail/users/passwd. Second, run

   # qmail-pw2u -h < /var/qmail/users/passwd > /var/qmail/users/assign

Here -h means that every user must have a home directory; if you happen

to run qmail-pw2u during an NFS outage, it will print an error message

and stop. Third, run

   # qmail-newu

Make sure to rebuild the database whenever you change your user list.

4.10. How do I change which account controls an address? I set up

~alias/.qmail-www, but qmail is looking at ~www/.qmail instead.

Answer: If you do

   # chown root ~www

then qmail will no longer consider www to be a user; see qmail-getpw.0.

For more precise control over address assignments, see qmail-users.0.

5. Setting up servers

5.1. How do I run qmail-smtpd under tcpserver? inetd is barfing at high

loads, cutting off service for ten-minute stretches. I'd also like

better connection logging.

Answer: First, install the tcpserver program, part of the ucspi-tcp

package (http://pobox.com/~djb/ucspi-tcp.html). Second, remove the smtp

line from /etc/inetd.conf, and put the line

   tcpserver -u 7770 -g 2108 0 smtp /var/qmail/bin/qmail-smtpd &

into your system startup files. Replace 7770 with your qmaild uid, and

replace 2108 with your nofiles gid. Don't forget the &. The change will

take effect at your next reboot.

By default, tcpserver allows at most 40 simultaneous qmail-smtpd

processes. To raise this limit to 400, use tcpserver -c 400. To keep

track of who's connecting and for how long, run (on two lines)

   tcpserver -v -u 7770 -g 2108 0 smtp /var/qmail/bin/qmail-smtpd \

   2>&1 | /var/qmail/bin/splogger smtpd 3 &

5.2. How do I set up qmail-qmtpd?

Answer: Two steps. First, put a

   qmtp 209/tcp

line into /etc/services. Second, put (all on one line)

   qmtp stream tcp nowait qmaild

   /var/qmail/bin/tcp-env tcp-env /var/qmail/bin/qmail-qmtpd

into /etc/inetd.conf, and give inetd a HUP.

If you have tcpserver installed, skip the inetd step, and set up

   tcpserver -u 7770 -g 2108 0 qmtp /var/qmail/bin/qmail-qmtpd &

replacing 7770 and 2108 with the qmaild uid and nofiles gid. See

question 5.1 for more details on tcpserver.

5.3. How do I set up qmail-pop3d? My old POP server works with mbox

delivery; I'd like to switch to maildir delivery.

Answer: Four steps. First, install the checkpassword program

(http://pobox.com/~djb/checkpwd.html). Second, make sure you have a

   pop3 110/tcp

line in /etc/services. Third, put (all on one line, including

qmail-popup twice)

   pop3 stream tcp nowait root

   /var/qmail/bin/qmail-popup qmail-popup

   YOURHOST /bin/checkpassword /var/qmail/bin/qmail-pop3d Maildir

into /etc/inetd.conf, and give inetd a HUP; replace YOURHOST with your

host's fully qualified domain name. Fourth, set up Maildir delivery for

any user who wants to read mail via POP.

If you have tcpserver installed, skip the inetd step, and set up (on two

lines)

   tcpserver 0 pop3 /var/qmail/bin/qmail-popup YOURHOST \

   /bin/checkpassword /var/qmail/bin/qmail-pop3d Maildir &

replacing YOURHOST with your host's fully qualified domain name. See

question 5.1 for more details on tcpserver.

Security note: pop3d should be used only within a secure network;

otherwise an eavesdropper can steal passwords.

5.4. How do I allow selected clients to use this host as a relay? I see

that qmail-smtpd rejects messages to any host not listed in

control/rcpthosts.

Answer: Three steps. First, install tcp-wrappers, available separately,

including hosts_options. Second, change your qmail-smtpd line in

inetd.conf to

   smtp stream tcp nowait qmaild /usr/local/bin/tcpd

   /var/qmail/bin/tcp-env /var/qmail/bin/qmail-smtpd

(all on one line) and give inetd a HUP. Third, in tcpd's hosts.allow,

make a line setting the environment variable RELAYCLIENT to the empty

string for the selected clients:

   tcp-env: 1.2.3.4, 1.2.3.5: setenv = RELAYCLIENT

Here 1.2.3.4 and 1.2.3.5 are the clients' IP addresses. qmail-smtpd

ignores control/rcpthosts when RELAYCLIENT is set. (It also appends

RELAYCLIENT to each envelope recipient address. See question 5.5 for an

application.)

Alternative procedure, if you are using tcpserver 0.80 or above: Create

/etc/tcp.smtp containing

   1.2.3.6:allow,RELAYCLIENT=""

   127.:allow,RELAYCLIENT=""

to allow clients with IP addresses 1.2.3.6 and 127.*. Run

   tcprules /etc/tcp.smtp.cdb /etc/tcp.smtp.tmp < /etc/tcp.smtp

Finally, insert

   -x /etc/tcp.smtp.cdb

after tcpserver in your qmail-smtpd invocation.

5.5. How do I fix up messages from broken SMTP clients?

Answer: Three steps. First, put

   | bouncesaying 'Permission denied' [ "@$HOST" != "@fixme" ]

   | qmail-inject -f "$SENDER" -- "$DEFAULT"

into ~alias/.qmail-fixup-default. Second, put

   fixme:fixup

into /var/qmail/control/virtualdomains, and give qmail-send a HUP.

Third, follow the procedure in question 5.4, but set RELAYCLIENT to the

string ``@fixme'':

   tcp-env: 1.2.3.6, 1.2.3.7: setenv = RELAYCLIENT @fixme

Here 1.2.3.6 and 1.2.3.7 are the clients' IP addresses. If you are using

tcpserver instead of inetd and tcpd, put

   1.2.3.6:allow,RELAYCLIENT="@fixme"

   1.2.3.7:allow,RELAYCLIENT="@fixme"

into /etc/tcp.smtp, and run tcprules as in question 5.4.

5.6. How do I set up qmail-qmqpd? I'd like to allow fast queueing of

outgoing mail from authorized clients.

Answer: Make sure you have installed tcpserver 0.80 or above. Create

/etc/qmqp.tcp in tcprules format to allow connections from authorized

hosts. For example, if queueing is allowed from 1.2.3.*:

   1.2.3.:allow

   :deny

Convert /etc/qmqp.tcp to /etc/qmqp.cdb:

   tcprules /etc/qmqp.cdb /etc/qmqp.tmp < /etc/qmqp.tcp

Finally, set up

   tcpserver -x /etc/qmqp.cdb -u 7770 -g 2108 0 628 /var/qmail/bin/qmail-qmqpd &

replacing 7770 and 2108 with the qmaild uid and nofiles gid. See

question 5.1 for more details on tcpserver.

6. Configuring MUAs to work with qmail

6.1. How do I make BSD mail generate a Date with the local time zone?

When I send mail, I'd rather use the local time zone than GMT, since

some MUAs don't know how to display Date in the receiver's time zone.

Answer: Put

   set sendmail=/var/qmail/bin/datemail

into your .mailrc or your system-wide Mail.rc. Beware that BSD mail is

neither secure nor reliable.

6.2. How do I make pine work with qmail?

Answer: Put

   sendmail-path=/usr/lib/sendmail -oem -oi -t

into /usr/local/lib/pine.conf. (This will work with sendmail too.)

Beware that pine is neither secure nor reliable.

6.3. How do I make MH work with qmail?

Answer: Put

   postproc: /usr/mh/lib/spost

into each user's .mh_profile. (This will work with sendmail too.) Beware

that MH is neither secure nor reliable.

6.4. How do I stop Sun's dtcm from hanging?

Answer: There is a novice programming error in dtcm, known as ``failure

to close the output side of the pipe in the child.'' Sun has, at the

time of this writing, not yet provided a patch. Sorry.

7. Managing the mail system

7.1. How do I safely stop qmail-send? Back when we were running

sendmail, it was always tricky to kill sendmail without risking the loss

of current deliveries; what should I do with qmail-send?

Answer: Go ahead and kill the qmail-send process. It will shut down

cleanly. Wait for ``exiting'' to show up in the log. To restart qmail,

run /var/qmail/rc the same way it is run from your system boot scripts,

with the proper PATH, resource limits, etc.

Alternative, if qmail is supervised: svc -t /var/run/qmail. The

supervise process will kill qmail, wait for it to stop, and restart it.

Use -d instead of -t if you don't want qmail to restart automatically;

to manually restart it, use -u.