Tech Arsenal 1/Tech Arsenal (Arsenal Computer).ISO/tek-01/smailsrc.zip/DOC2.ZIP/README.DOS

Text File | 1990-05-05 | 9KB | 185 lines

              Random Notes About smail/PC
            smail 2.5, PC Release 1.0 beta
                   Stephen C. Trier
                 April 2, 1990

Installing smail
----------------

     These notes are NOT meant to be followed literally.  I will describe a
typical smail/PC installation; you must extend this to fit your own situation.
Please note that smail/PC is fully upward compatible with UUPC or Mush-PC; it
is perfectly possible to use one of the older packages for e-mail while
installing smail/PC.

    1.  Make the directories d:\uucp, d:\uucp\bin, d:\uucp\lib, d:\uucp\etc,
    d:\uucp\mail, d:\uucp\spool, d:\uucp\src, and d:\uucp\homes.
    2.  Make a home directory for each user within d:\uucp\homes.
    3.  Unpack the archive files into the proper directories.
    4.  Copy the file d:\uucp\bin\smail.exe to d:\uucp\bin\rmail.exe.
    5.  Change directories into d:\uucp\lib; copy the USER.RC file into each
    user's home directory, naming it "UUPC.RC".  Rename the SYSTEM.RC file
    UUPC.RC, if you wish.
    6.  Edit the SYSTEM.RC file to reflect your local setup, including the
    directory names you may have used instead of the ones given.
    7.  Edit all of the user .RC files to reflect their names, etc.
    8.  Edit the d:\uucp\etc\passwd file to reflect your local users:
        The first field is the users' login name (less than eight
        characters and all lowercase, please.)
        The second field is for a password for the user.  This field is not
        used by smail.
        The third field is the user's group ID.  This is not used by smail.
        The fourth field is the user's user ID.  This number must be
        different for each user in the file.
        The fifth field is the user's full name.
        The sixth field is the path to the user's home directory.
        The last field is the user's shell.  This is not used by smail.
    The passwd file will be used to determine if incoming mail is to a
    valid username, to determine a user's full name if needed, and to
    locate a user's forward file in his home directory.
    9.  Install Mush as per the instructions included with it.  Note, however,
    that the Mush uuio.exe and mailer.exe programs are not needed and are
    incompatible with smail.  Also note that the "set sendmail" line in
    the system Mush.RC file should be set to 'set sendmail="smail"'.
   10.  Test the system by sending mail to yourself.  Then, try sending mail
    to yourself via your mail neighbor.  For me, that would be (from
    seldon) "mush skybridge!seldon!sct".  If that works, all should be
    well.


UUPC.RC Parameters
------------------

     smail expects to read the following fields from the .rc files specified
in $UUPCUSRRC and $UUPCSYSRC:
    NodeName        Local host name
            Default: host
    Domain          Fully qualified local name, e.g. "host.domain"
            Default: host.domain
    MailServ        Nearest smart host
            Default: looks up smart-host in path table
    Mailbox         User ID of the current user
            Default: noone
    Aliases         Path of the system mail alias file
            Default: /usr/lib/aliases
    Fullnames       Path of the system fullname table
            Default: /usr/lib/fullnames
    Paths           Path to the mail path table
            Default: /usr/lib/uucp/paths
    SmailLog        Path to the smail logfile
            Default: /usr/spool/uucp/mail.log
    Passwd          Path to the password file
            Default: Specified in environment variable PASSWD
            Last resort: /etc/passwd
    LocalMail       Name of local mail delivery program
            Default: lmail

     I recommend that you establish more appropriate values for most of these
variables.  The defaults are provided for those people who feel that they must
configure their computers to look as much like a UNIX system as possible.
Besides, these are the defaults smail uses when it is fresh out of the box on a
UNIX system.

     Please note that many of these parameters should be specified in the
system RC file, while others are appropriate for the user files.  Sample RC
files have been provided, under the names SYSTEM.RC and USER.RC.


The Files Used By smail/PC
--------------------------

     smail/PC requires the existence of several files to function properly.
These are all described in the *.man files included with the documentation, so
only a short discussion will follow.  Note that even if you choose not to use
one of the features, an empty file of the appropriate name _must_ exist, or
else smail will not function.

     The paths file is perhaps the most significant file used by smail/PC.
This file contains the path information used by smail to automatically route
your mail to its destination.  Several methods of generating this file exist;
you should choose the one appropriate for your situation.

    The simplest method is to generate the path table by hand.  To do this, use
must use a text editor capable of creating tabs.  Make a table of two fields
per line, separated by a tab.  The first field should contain the name of a
host or domain, and the second should contain the path to follow to get there.
At the end of the path, add a "!%s".  For example, my entry for the computer
"cwphysbb" is:

    cwphysbb    skybridge!cwphysbb.phys.cwru.edu!%s

     A better method for creating the database is to use a program that can
take the UUCP maps distributed on Usenet and convert them into an
smail-compatible format.  Unfortunately, such programs only run on UNIX systems
at the moment, so you will need to find a friendly site to make the maps for
you.  It is usually quite easy for them to run off a copy of the maps at the
time they do their own.  By doing this, you can build a path database of all
the sites you might need.  Your geographical area might be a good section of
the maps to use, or you could use the full map for automatic mail routing
anywhere in the world.

     After you create the path table by either method, be _sure_ to sort it.
smail uses a binary search technique to find each table entry, and the table
must be sorted for this to work correctly.  If your table is more than 64K
long, you will have to abandon the MS-DOS sort command to QSORT or another
replacement, or you could have the site that generates your maps sort the file
for you before sending it.  For more information on the paths file, see the
manual page paths.man.

     Another important file for smail is the aliases file.  This file allows
you to create "aliases" for users on your system or elsewhere.  This allows you
to forward mail to other locations for users, to create e-mail "mailing lists"
where a single message to the list alias sends copies to every member, and
permits other flexible uses.  As a minimum, your aliases file should contain
definitions for "postmaster" and "uucp".  "root" is also a good idea.  These
three addresses are methods by which outside users will try to contact the
administrator of your machine if needed, so they should point to a valid
address (probably yours).  See the file aliases.man for more information.

    The full-name database, fullnames, is similar to the alias file but is for
a different purpose.  In it, you may place the full names of all of your users,
so that an outsider can say, "I don't remember his ID, but I do remember his
name.  I'll try that," and the mail will get through.  Like the paths database,
this file needs to be sorted ahead of time.  You can generate it with the help
of the nptx program, which is used to create all the sensible permutations of a
person's name and initials.  See nptx.man for more information.


Notes About The smail Source
----------------------------

     The UNIX smail source requires several add-on modules for successful
compilation.  I have included a minimal implementation of popen, pclose, and
the pwd.h password file library.  The password file functions reside in the
directory src/passwd.  They must be compiled independently into a library file
before smail will compile correctly.

     smail/PC was originally compiled with Turbo C 2.0 Professional.  It should
be reasonably portable to other compilers, but no effort has been made to test
it on those others.  I am interested in any portability modifications you make.


A Word About Memory Usage
-------------------------

     Smail is a bit memory-hungry, compared to plain UUPC.  In normal use, it
will not require more than about 180K to function, but if it must return some
mail to the sender, memory consumption will increase to roughly 260K.  I
consider this a bug, but a fix will be very difficult.  For now, watch your
memory usage, especially if you are using Mush 6.5 as your mail user agent.
With Mush, you may need to use the overlay version if you have less than
approximately 475K of free memory.

     If you would like to check (and I highly recommend doing so), use the
uuxdummy.exe program provided in this package.  First, rename uux.exe to
uuxreal.exe.  Then copy uuxdummy.exe to uux.exe.  Run Mush and send mail to a
nonexistent user on your system, such as johndoe.  If you get mail back
reporting the problem, you probably have sufficient memory free.  If the mail
fails silently, with no error message, it is time to either switch to a smaller
version of Mush or to unload a few TSR programs.

     Remember to restore the filenames of uux.exe and uuxdummy.exe, or else
_ALL_ outbound mail will fail.