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- @(#) SLAVE.ins 2.1 90/01/22 13:01:12
-
- This document describes how to install an MS-DOS pc-mail user in an
- environment where the user's mail directories are mounted from a UNIX
- file server, and where PC/NFS is used for file access. It is assumed
- that the UNIX host uses sendmail for message routing. You will have to
- adapt the examples if you are using different mechanisms for remote file
- access or message routing.
-
- THE UNIX SIDE
-
- The installation of daemon programs on the file server is documented
- with the source of the pc-mail and pc-maild programs (these are provided
- in the `daemon' subdirectory. The following text assumes that the
- daemon programs have already been installed.
-
- Add the user to the password data base. In the pc-mail spool area on
- the server, create a subdirectory for the pc-mail user. The directory
- must be owned by that user; for reasons of privacy, mode 0700 is
- recommended. In the following example, replace username by the actual
- login name of the user, and the name of the spool area by its actual
- name.
-
- # mkdir /var/spool/pc-mail/username
- # chown username /var/spool/pc-mail/username
- # chmod 700 /var/spool/pc-mail/username
-
- The next step is to inform the UNIX mailer of how to deliver mail for
- this user. This is described in the documentation of the pc-mail
- and pc-maild programs.
-
- After the list of pc-mail users has been updated, kill the sendmail
- daemon and restart it.
-
- Note that the sendmail program ON THE NFS SERVER will not read the
- user's .forward file. The file will still be useful, however, if the
- user's home directory is exported to OTHER hosts running sendmail. In
- that case you will want to create a .forward file in the user's home
- directory containing
-
- username@fully-qualified-hostname-of-the-mail-server
-
- The same effect can be achieved with an alias in a network-wide alias
- data base.
-
- THE PC SIDE
-
- Copy the appropriate makefile.whatever file to makefile and edit it.
- Make sure that the DAEMON macro is defined, and that the large memory
- model is selected. You may also use the SLAVE.bat file if no decent
- make utility is available.
-
- Typing `make' should produce the following programs:
-
- mail, the user interface program
- cmail, checks for new mail
- nmail, extracts sender and subject from new mail
- smail, performs alias expansion and queues outgoing messages
-
- Create a dedicated directory on the file server to install the mail
- binaries.
-
- On the PC, adjust the AUTOEXEC.BAT, NETWORK.BAT or DRIVES.BAT files so
- that the following commands are executed upon startup (replace `server'
- by the name of the NFS server host, and replace `username' by the login
- name of the actual user):
-
- net name username *
- net use m: \\server\var\spool\pc-mail\username
- set MAILDIR=m:\
-
- The trailing \ in the last command is needed, or the mail program will
- complain that it "cannot access some essential data files".
-
- Other environment variables that need to be set are:
-
- PATH, should include the location of the pc-mail binaries
- EDITOR, the editor command to be used; if this is a batch
- file, the `.bat' suffix should be included.
-
- It is advisable to specify absolute path names, including drive names.
-
- Optional environment variables are:
-
- MAILPRN, destination of printed output
- MAILCMD, command to be executed upon exit from the mail program.
- At our site, MAILPRN is the name of a file, and MAILCMD is
- the command that sends that file to a postscript printer. If
- this is a batch file, the `.bat' suffix should be included.
-
- Reboot the pc.
-
- Test the mail programs by creating a small mail message addressed to
- yourself. Since the message will automatically be picked up by the
- pc-maild daemon program on the server, the message may arrive before you
- had a chance to type a DIR command!
-
- ALIAS DATABASE
-
- The user can define aliases for (groups of) mail addresses. The alias
- data base is a text file with on each line:
-
- alias replacement_part
-
- The alias should be a single word; words are separated by blanks, tabs
- or commas. The replacement part may be one or more words. Whenever the
- smail (mail spooler) program recognizes an alias, it is replaced by the
- `replacement part'. Aliases may be defined in terms of other aliases;
- the order in which they appear in the alias data base is not important
- (except when an alias is defined more than once; the program remembers
- only the last definition of an alias). The alias expansion software is
- smart enough to detect infinite loops and to suppress multiple
- occurrances of the same recipient. Alias substitution is not case
- sensitive.
-
- BATCH-MODE OPERATION
-
- The cmail program can be run from a batch file (say, each time the PC is
- turned on), to report if there is new mail. Also, you may want to
- auto-execute the cmail command when exiting from the interactive mail
- shell (using the MAILCMD environment variable described above).
-
- TEMPLATE FILES
-
- The user can provide message templates with standard header and trailer
- lines. If the file "header" is present in the mail directory, its
- contents will be included at the beginning of every mail message created
- by the user. Similarly, the contents of a file "trailer" will be
- included at the end of mail messages. The "header" and "trailer" files
- should be ordinary text files.
-