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- From: serini@ghost.dsi.unimi.it (Piero Serini)
- Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc,comp.sources.wanted,comp.answers,news.answers
- Subject: Mail Archive Server software list
- Followup-To: poster
- Date: 16 Feb 1994 04:12:32 +0100
- Organization: Computer Science Dept. - Milan University
- Lines: 731
- Sender: serini@ghost.sm.dsi.unimi.it
- Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu
- Distribution: world
- Expires: +1 month
- Message-ID: <2js2v0$8g1@ghost.sm.dsi.unimi.it>
- Reply-To: MAS-FAQ@strider.st.dsi.unimi.it
- NNTP-Posting-Host: ghost.dsi.unimi.it
- Summary: This posting contains the list of known Mail Archive Servers Software
-
- Archive-name: mail/archive-servers
- Last-modified: 1994/02/15
- Version: 2.0
-
-
- Mail Archive Server Software List
- A Summary of Available Mail Archive Server Software
- ---------------------------------------------------
-
- by: Piero Serini
- piero@strider.st.dsi.unimi.it
- serini@ghost.dsi.unimi.it
-
- Last Update: Tue Feb 15 19:42:58 MET 1994
- This FAQ's version: 2.0
- (C) Jonathan I. Kamens 1991,1992,1993 - All Rights Reserved
- (C) Piero Serini 1994 - All Rights Reserved
-
- Mail Archive Servers are programs which receive incoming mail messages,
- interpret them, and take action based on them. For example, two tasks which
- might be performed by mail servers are handling subscriptions to mailing
- lists and redistributing messages sent to the lists; and delivering files to
- users based on incoming requests.
-
- This posting focuses, primarily, on mail servers which run under UNIX. For
- each server listed below, I provide the following information, if known:
-
- Name
- Author
- Maintainer
- Latest known version
- How to get it
- Implementation language
- Supported platforms
- Comments
-
- If you can fill any of the blanks or have comments about anything written
- below, or if you have new servers to add to the list, please let me know. If
- you would like to ask me to change this posting in some way, the method I
- appreciate most is for you to actually make the desired modifications to a
- copy of the posting, and then to send me the modified part or a context diff
- between my posted version and your modified version. Submitting changes in
- this way makes dealing with them easier for me and helps to avoid misunder-
- standings about what you are suggesting.
- Please send all updates to MAS-FAQ@strider.st.dsi.unimi.it
-
-
- 0.0 Organization and availability
-
- This FAQ is posted monthly, the 15th, on comp.mail.misc,
- comp.sources.wanted, comp.answers and news.answers.
-
- It is available:
- - from the above USENET groups
- - from all the USENET archives
- - ftp//ghost.dsi.unimi.it[149.132.2.1]:~ftp/pub/FAQs/MAS.Z
-
- Note: the ftp directory will be set up shortly. I haven't root per-
- missions on ghost. If ~ftp/pub/FAQs doesn't exist, try again
- in a day or two. Thank you.
-
- A context diff file containing the differences between this FAQ and
- the previous release is posted on comp.mail.misc,comp.sources.wanted
- and is available from the same sites in the file:
- ~ftp/pub/FAQs/MAS.diffs.Z.
-
- This FAQ is NOT reposted if modified, until the next issue date.
- I will modify the ftp file only. I suggest using ftp to get the
- latest version of this document.
-
- This FAQ consists of four parts:
- 0.* Organization.
- (0.1 Copyright)
- (0.2 Warranty)
- (0.3 Publishing Notes)
- 1.* Software List.
- 2.* Archivers, what they archive, how to download.
- 3.* History and Contributors' list.
-
- 0.1 Copyright
-
- This FAQ is Copyright (C) 1993, 1994 by Piero Serini.
- All Rights are reserved.
- Permission to use, copy and distribute this FAQ, or parts thereof,
- by any means and for any purpose EXCEPT PROFIT PURPOSES is hereby
- granted, provided that both the above Copyright notice and this
- permission notice appear in all copies of the FAQ itself.
- Reproducing this FAQ or parts thereof by any means, included, but
- not limited to, printing, copying existing prints, publishing by
- electronic or other means, implies full agreement to the above
- non-profit-use clause, unless upon explicit prior written permission
- of the author.
-
- 0.2 Warranty
-
- THIS FAQ IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR ``AS IS'', AND ANY EXPRESS OR
- IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WAR-
- RANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
- DISCLAIMED.
- IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
- INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING,
- BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES;
- LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER
- CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
- LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN
- ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THE INFORMATIONS HEREIN CONTAINED, EVEN IF
- ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
-
- 0.3 Publishing Notes
-
- If you want to publish this FAQ by any means, electronically or
- otherwise, you can do it, provided the following conditions are met:
- 1) The above Copyright notice and Warranty appear in their entirety
- in all copies you publish;
- 2) You notify me by e-mail that you will publish this FAQ;
- 3) You use the latest version of the FAQ you can get;
- 4) You let people know where to find updated versions of the FAQ;
- 5) Any modifications (other than typesetting changes) you make to it
- are clearly designated as your modifications;
-
- You shall also send me a copy of the published material, in its
- entirety, free of charge. Should this not be possible, due to legal
- or other restrictions, please send me the part containing this FAQ,
- with full references to the published material (i.e. ISDN or any-
- thing else to identify it), free of charge.
-
-
- 1.0 Software List
-
- Name: Almanac
- Author: Erik Bennett
- Author: Chris Hansen
- Maintainer: almanac-admin@oes.orst.edu
- Implementation language: C (configured with Bourne shell)
- How to get it: ftp oes.orst.edu:~ftp/pub/almanac-x.x.tar.Z
- (where x.x is the current version)
- Latest version: 1.5
- Supported platforms: SunOS, HP/UX, UTek, AIX (RS 6000), most BSD 4.3
- Comments: (Chris Hansen <hansenc@oes.orst.edu>)
- - Requires sendmail and gdbm
- - Can split files on user-defined size limit
- - Good user & admin documentation
- - Has blacklist
- - Logging (through syslog) and usage utilities
- - Comes with supplement for automatic mailing list management
- - Load checking or queuing left to sendmail
- - Main advantage is configuration table:
- Maps user commands to shell commands
- Can have any number of user commands
- Encoding, Filtering, Compression all configurable
- - Most other things configurable
- - Possible disadvantages:
- Table can get complicated.
- Good knowledge of shell advised).
-
- Name: B-Server
- Author: Budi Rahardjo <rahardj@ccu.umanitoba.ca>
- Implementation language: bourne shell
- How to get it: Get "b-server.shar" from grasp1.
- Comments: (Dave Shaver <shaver@convex.com>):
- - Don't need to create system-wide alias (uses sendmail
- .forward file)
- - One shell script
- - Can refuse to provide service to certain people
- - Has file and request limits
- - 4 user commands: help, index, send, get
-
- Comments: (john.Latala@Waterloo.NCR.COM):
- - Only does text files
-
- Name: Bart (Brode's Archive Retrieval Thang)
- Author: Jon Brode <brode@icpsr.umich.edu>
- Latest known version: beta release
- How to get it: Send E-mail to <brode@icpsr.umich.edu> and ask for it.
- Implementation Language: C
- Support platforms: Expects BSD, sendmail and ndbm, but might work with
- some tweaking in other environments.
- Comments: (from the author)
- - Beta release can be obtained from the author but should not
- be redistributed; the final release will have more lenient
- distribution conditions.
- - Runs from alias or .forward file
- - Very careful about not overloading server.
- (does load checking on BSD machines, in addition to the
- other things)
- - 5 commands: help, index, path, send, sendb
- "sendb" automatically encodes the file, "send" determines
- whether the file needs to be encoded first
- - Can request files by parts. Useful for requesting files
- larger than quota and retrieving pieces that get lost in
- the mail
- - Can do per-user quota checking.
- - It has a man page!
- - Has uuencode encoding built into C code, does not support
- other encoding types yet.
- - No user error notification on bad requests.
-
- Name: Clarkson
- Author: Michael DeCorte
- How to get it: Get "archive-server" from CLARKSON.
- Implementation language: bourne shell, awk
- Comments: (Tom Fitzgerald <fitz@wang.com>)
- Advantages:
- - Most flexible options for archiving, compressing, encoding
- and slicing result.
- - Very nice load-limiting.
- Disadvantages:
- - Many BSDism's (I tried porting it to SysV without much luck).
- - Can't return several requested items, one item per mail
- message.
- - It insists on packaging up all requests into a single
- archive, splitting the archive at random points and mailing
- the result.
- - Can't store items compressed and have them mailed back to
- the requestor decompressed.
-
- Name: DECWRL
- Author: Brian Reid.
- Implementation language: bourne shell, awk, a little bit of C
- How to get it: - Get "decwrl.shar" from grasp1.
- - ftp.cs.widener.edu:/pub/src/mail/archive.tar.Z
- (slightly modified).
- Comments: (Dave Shaver <shaver@convex.com>)
- - Written with many shell scripts and a few AWK scripts
- - Very careful about not overloading server machine
- (Remember, this used to run on an over-worked VAX.)
- - Very easy to install; best of the group?
- - Code is all quite generic
- - Good at letting person making request know what happened
- (No black holes for mail.)
- - Good user-level docs (especially the "help" file)
- - Very fair queuing system; people can't make "pigs" of
- themselves
- - 4 user commands: help, index, send, path
- Comments: (Tom Fitzgerald <fitz@wang.com>)
- Advantages:
- - Simplest.
- - Very nice load-limiting, can be set up to run only at night.
- - Easily configurable, and portable to Sys V with a little work.
- Disadvantages:
- - All items in archive must be text, and are sent out as-is. No
- packaging options at all.
- - Written in sh, may be a heavy system load (when running).
- Comments: (Chris Siebenmann <cks@hawkwind.utcs.toronto.edu>)
- We use the DECWRL server for the CA*NET info server; I picked
- it over the other ones (primarily the Clarkson one) because it
- was sufficiently small and clear that I could read all the
- shell scripts and be pretty confidant that it had no surprises
- and I understood what was going on. One could probably run it
- out of a .forward file with some work writing at-based
- frontends, but it prefers to be installed and run with cron
- and an alias.
-
- Name: deliver
- Author: Chip Salzenberg <chip@tct.com>
- Latest known version: 2.1, patchlevel 10
- How to get it: From the comp.sources.reviewed archives.
- Implementation language: C
- Comments:
- This isn't a full-fledged archive server, it's just a
- program to reroute incoming mail. Which isn't to say that it
- can't be used to write an archive server....
- Comments: (Brian.Onn@Canada.Sun.COM)
- I've written our mail based archive server entirely in Deliver
- shell scripts. It's not as full featured as the other ones,
- but it can easily be expanded to become that. The beauty of
- deliver is that it is entirely shell script based.
- Comments: (Daniel Simmons <simmdan@kenya.isu.edu>)
- The real beauty of deliver is that it is an extension allowing
- you to implement mail handling in ANY language: shell scripts,
- perl, C, awk... haskell if you want and can make it understand
- environment variables and read/write to stdin/stdout (I don't
- know haskell well enough to know if this is possible).
-
- I have written a very successful mail processing system which
- installs data files in our local Campus Wide Information
- System using a single (and fairly short) perl script in
- conjunction with deliver.
-
- One other comment is that deliver is very comparable to
- procmail but much cleaner/simpler.
-
- Name: ftpmail
- Author: Lee McLoughlin <lmjm@doc.ic.ac.uk>
- Latest known version: 1.19
- How to get it: src.doc.ic.ac.uk:/packages/ftpmail/ftpmail.shar
- Implementation language: perl
- Supported platforms: SunOS, HP/UX, AIX (RS 6000), BSD 4.3, System 5.4
- Comments:
- - Can use both mail and sendmail to send reponses.
- - With sendmail can also return MIME multipart responses.
- - Supports mime, uuencode, atob, user selectable splitting.
- - Built in logging.
- - Very easy to install.
- - Command compatible with ftpmail server at Decwrl.
-
- Name: KISS
- Author: T. William Wells <bill@twwells.com>
- Latest known version: 1.0
- How to get it: - Get "kiss.shar" from grasp1.
- - Get "misc/kiss.shar" from JASON-ARCHIVE (slightly modified).
- - hydra.helsinki.fi:/pub/archives/alt.sources/kiss-server_bill
- Implementation language: bourne shell
- Comments: (Dave Shaver <shaver@convex.com>)
- - Simple. 8-)
- - One shell script, plus a user-supplied program
- - No batching, quotas, or scheduling.
- - 5 user commands: help, index, send, path, quit
- - Good install docs
-
- Name: ListProcessor
- Author: Anastasios C. Kotsikonas (tasos@cs.bu.edu)
- Latest known version: 6.0c
- How to get it: - cs.bu.edu[128.197.2.1|128.197.10.1]:/pub/listserv/*
- - all of its mirrors (ftp.uu.net:/pub/networking/mail/listserv
- for example).
- - Via email to listproc@avs.com with the request:
- "get listproc listproc6.0c.sh".
- Implementation language: C, plus some UNIX-style shell scripts.
- Supported platforms: UNIX, presumably.
- Comments: (from the author)
- This is a system that implements various mailing lists with
- one list manager. It is automated, and obliterates the need
- for user intervention and maintenance of multiple aliases of
- the form "list, list-owner, list-request", etc. There is
- support provided for public and private hierarchical archives,
- moderated and non-moderated lists, peer lists, peer servers,
- private lists, address aliasing, news connec- tions and
- gateways, mail queueing, digests, list ownership, owner
- preferences, crash recovery, batch processing, confi- gurable
- headers, regular expressions, archive searching, and live user
- connections via TCP/IP.
-
- Name: Logix
- Author: Jan-Piet Mens
- Latest known version: 1.01
- How to get it: Get the posting entitled "Mail-Server Part 01/01" from
- the alt.sources archives. An improved version (Bill Silvert's
- -- see his comments below) is available via anonymous ftp from
- /dfo/net/mail-servers/mail-server.tar.Z on biome.bio.ns.ca.
- Implementation language: C
- Comments: (Bill Silvert <silvert@biome.bio.ns.ca>)
- Changes I have made include support for optional (as opposed
- to compulsary) uuencoding using the Dumas uuencode, which
- makes it possible to run uudecode (the Dumas version) on a
- complete multi-part mail file without editing it first, and
- improved messages.
-
- Name: MReply
- Author: Tor Slettnes <tor@netcom.com>
- Maintainer: Same
- Latest known version: 0.27
- How to get it: - netcom.com:/pub/tor/mreply/mreply027.taz
- - e-mail to tor@netcom.com.
- Implementation language: C (gcc)
- Supported platforms: Unix. Developed under SunOS 4.1.3.
- Comments: (from the author)
- - Mailing list AND file server in one. Commands available:
- JOIN/SUBSCRIBE, LEAVE/UNSUBSCRIBE, REVIEW, SEND, HELP.
- - List options are: MANUAL vs. AUTOMATIC; CONCEAL vs. REVEAL
- - File packet options are: PLAIN vs ENCODED.
- - Built-in uuencode, shell archive generator, splitmail.
- - Simple. Small. Source is < 30k; Typical config.
- executable file about 10k.
- - Sample configuration file w/lots of comments included.
- - Can be installed w/o root access; invoked via .forward
- mechanism (preferably via a preprocessor like "procmail"
- or ELM's "filter").
- - User definable mail headers (e.g. for support of MIME).
- - Personalize replies by including the mailer's first name.
- - Clever logging of requests.
- - Requires 'sendmail' or another mailer.
- - Free. Please notify me if you make changes/enhancments.
-
- For a demo, send an empty e-mail to notgnu-request@netcom.com.
-
- Name: MailServ
- Author: Dave DeBry <debry@peruvian.cs.utah.edu>
- Latest known version: 1.4
- How to get it: Get the posting entitled "MailServ 1.4" from the
- alt.sources archives.
- Implementation language: C
- Comments: (from the author)
- - allows for as many users as you want per list,
- - users can be mailed to "quietly" (ie: their name won't be
- found anywhere in the mailing... good for nosy sysadmins at
- other sites),
- - has a request server so users can get any files you make
- available for them,
- - handles subscribes and unsubscribes without bothering you,
- - can archive off reflector mailing list posts,
- - can announce to all list readers when someone subscribes or
- unsubscribes,
- - can be set to let people request a list of readers,
- - does all the digest handling work for you,
- - can upload (via ftp) each days digest to a given site for
- archiving,
- - can backup the userlist to a different disk/area/whatever,
- - can post a FAQ to USENET periodically,
- - announces when a message has been taken from USENET, so
- people don't get that horrible deja vu feeling while reading
- their mail,
- - sends you a log of all the day's activities every night,
- - lets you toggle all of these things for complete
- customization,
- - and much, much more! (I should be an announcer for those
- Remco ads, I know it.)
-
- MailServ isn't for the weak at heart. It's not pretty, and
- I'm releasing it to the net because several people have asked
- for copies, and I'd like to know what changes are made to it.
- If you don't know much about UNIX or mail, I wouldn't suggest
- using MailServ until it gets a little bit nicer.
-
- Name: Majordomo
- Author: D. Brent Chapman <brent@GreatCircle.COM>
- Maintainer: Same
- Latest known version: 1.54
- How to get it: FTP.GreatCircle.COM:/pub/majordomo/*
- Implementation language: Perl and some C
- Supported platforms: UNIX
- Comments: (from the author)
- Majordomo is more of a mailing-list manager than an archive
- server. It has the concept of an "owner" for each list. The
- owner of a given list approves certain user "subscribe" and
- "unsubscribe" commands (the ones that majordomo doesn't
- automatically approve; for instance, if someone tries to
- unsubscribe something other than their own email address from
- a list, majordomo asks for approval). Most list maintenance
- is done for the owner by majordomo, and the rest can be done
- by the owner using emailed commands to majordomo; the owner
- doesn't need an account on the machine majordomo runs on.
-
- Name: NETLIB
- Author: Jack J. Dongarra, Eric Grosse
- How to get it: Get "netlib from misc" from NETLIB.
- Implementation language: C
- Comments: (Dave Shaver <shaver@convex.com>)
- - User-level docs a bit rough. Assumes user is quite mail
- savvy. (Not a fair assumption in my case.)
- - Catches "pigs" effectively, but no queuing system for
- requests.
- - Notices attempted security violations using magic shell
- characters
- - Install docs adequate, but not outstanding
- - Hard to install since site-specific stuff not centralized
- in a config file.
- - Has almost no interal documentation (i.e. comments)
- - Eclectic mix of shell scripts and C programs
- - Some sections of code very specific to serving libs. Does
- not generalize well to ASCII files.
- Comments: Tom Fitzgerald <fitz@wang.com>
- Advantages:
- - Arbitrary directories can be made part of archives, archives
- don't have to all be under a single directory tree.
- - Written in C, probably imposes the least system load.
- - Reasonably portable and configurable.
- Disadvantages:
- - Really complicated, with inadequate documentation
- - No queuing or load-balancing. All requested items are sent
- out immediately regardless of system load.
- - Poorest at figuring out return addresses.
- - All items in archive are sent out as-is.No packaging options.
- (They can be binary, they will be sent out uuencoded).
-
- Name: procmail
- Author: Stephen R. van den Berg <berg@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de>
- Latest known version: 2.91
- How to get it: - Get "procmail" from volume 38 of comp.sources.misc
- archives.
- - ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de:/pub/unix/procmail.tar.zip
- Implementation language: C, plus some UNIX-style shell scripts.
- Supported platforms: generic UNIX (or any posix compliant OS)
- Comments:
- Procmail is a program to parse incoming mail and sort/invoke other
- programs based on the results, it can be used as a very reliable
- frontend to some of the archive servers mentioned here.
- It includes a utility program called formail, which is particularly
- intelligent in figuring out return addresses and generating
- auto-reply headers.
- Comments: (from the author)
- Included is an extensive mailinglist/archive server package (based
- upon procmail/formail). Regarding the archive server part:
- Advantages:
- - Easy to install.
- - Straightforward to operate (one tree, symbolic links allowed).
- - Numerous others :-), but you'll have to get the FEATURES file
- from the package.
- Disadvantages:
- - Doesn't do special handling for binary files.
- - Doesn't autosplit large files.
- - Partly dependent on sendmail, though sufficiently compatible
- mailers will do.
- - No load balancing or queueing, relying on sendmail for that.
-
- Name: qdms
- Author: Lars Magnusson <lmn@z.amu.se>
- Latest known version: 1.0
- How to get it: (1) Get "qdms - a simple mailserver for cramped disks."
- from the alt.sources archives. (2) Get a (possibly more
- up-to-date) version from mailserver@z.amu.se.
- Implementation language: Bourne shell, requires shell functions
- Comments:
- Looks like it has some sort of access control and blacklisting.
- I Don't know what else.
-
- Name: RNALIB
- Author: Paolo Ventafridda <venta@otello.sublink.org>
- Author: Marco Lorenzini <marlor@gear.sublink.org>
- Latest known version: 2.2 beta-3
- Implementation language: bourne shell
- How to get it: (1) Get "rnalib2" from volume 15 of comp.sources.misc
- archives. (2) Get "RNALIB 2.2 beta" and "upgrade to beta-3"
- from alt.sources archive on valhalla.ee.rochester.edu.
- Comments:
- - Completely implemented in one bourne shell script plus
- several data files.
- - Allows libraries to be all over the filesystem hiearchy
- (i.e. not in fixed data directory).
- - Understands a variety of packing formats, and detects binary
- file automatically (and uuencodes them).
- - Requires bourne shell with support for functions.
- - Very poor address parsing.
- - No queueing.
- - Has "blacklists" to prevent people from transferring and
- "whitelists" to allow specific people to tell the server to
- deliver to third parties.
- - Detects "hogs" and imposes maximum credit limits.
-
- Name: Relcom
- Author: vak@kiae.su (Serge Vakulenko)
- Maintainer: Same
- Latest known version: 1.2
- How to get it: Send a message to mailserv@kiae.su with
- "get relcom/unix/ms12.tar.Z" in the body.
- Implementation language: C
-
- Name: The ServiceMail Toolkit, by Enterprise Integration Technologies
- Author: Jay C. Weber <weber@eitech.com>, et al.
- Maintainer: servicemail-help@eitech.com
- Latest known version: v2.0 5-10-93
- How to get it: eitech.com:svcmail-2.0.tar.Z
- Implementation language(s): C, Tcl, make
- Supported platforms: SunOS, Ultrix, (probably anything that supports Tcl)
- Comments: (Bob Bagwill <bagwill@swe.ncsl.nist.gov>)
- - Easy to install (using default installation configuration).
- - Multimedia Email SHell (MESH) uses MIME message formats.
- - Services are implemented in Tcl.
- - Includes subset of listserv functions.
- - Documentation is skimpy.
- Comments: (Jay Weber <weber@eitech.com>)
- - Documentation is better in 2.0
- - Includes support for queueing, logging
-
- Name: Squirrel Mail Server
- Author: Johan Vromans <jv@NL.net>
- Version: 3.1B
- How to get it: Send a mail message to <mail-server@NL.net> with
- contents
- begin
- send mail-server
- end
- Implementation language: perl
- Description: (from the author)
- The Squirrel Mail Server is a mail response program. You can
- send email to it, and it will try to react sensible to your
- message.
-
- Main purpose of the mail server is to obtain files from a
- local archive or FTP server, but other functions can be added
- easily.
-
- The Squirrel Mail Server Software is distributed under the
- terms of the GNU Public Licence.
-
- New and improved features in version 3.1:
-
- - Transparent (anonymous) FTP interface. You can fetch files
- from remote FTP servers. Files retrieved are cached
- locally, so subsequent requests can be honoured from the
- cache.
-
- - Delivery can take place via email or uucp or both.
- Delivery via UUCP can be made preferred.
- FTP requests can be restricted to UUCP delivery.
-
- - Files can be automatically compressed, and directories can
- be automatically packed using one of several common
- methods (e.g. zip, zoo or compressed tar).
-
- - Multiple servers can be installed using the same software.
-
- - The server can be used interactively, e.g. from a
- terminal, or via telnet/inetd.
-
- - Command parsing and execution is table driven, so it is
- very easy to extend the mail server functions.
-
- - Rewritten and enhanced user documentation and
- installation docs. Also available in nicely formatted
- (PostScript) format.
-
- A brief survey of old and new features:
-
- - All written in perl, hence portable and easily
- maintainable. Code is readable; useful, plentiful
- comments. Very extentable and easily modified.
- - Easy to use and to install. Over 2000 lines of
- documentation.
- - Good at letting person making request know what happened.
- Good "help" reply.
- - Archives can be split over a number of directories or file
- systems.
- - Requests are queued and processed by a separate daemon
- process (e.g. from cron). This cuts down on the system
- load. Moreover, you can control when the queue is being
- run.
- - Requests can be honoured `as is' (name the file and you'll
- get it), but the server can also perform directory
- searches and index file lookup. You need GNU find and
- locate for the index lookup feature.
- - While looking for files, the server knows about commonly
- handled filenames (e.g. ".tar.Z" in "foo.tar.Z") and
- pseudo-standard version numbering (e.g. "gcc-2.1.tar.Z").
- It is quite well possible that a simple request for
- "emacs" will actually transmit the file
- "gnu/emacs-18.58/dist/emacs-18.58.tar.Z".
- - Requests can be encoded using a number of encoding
- schemes, e.g. uuencode, xxencode, Dumas' uue and btoa.
- - Requests that are too large to send in one piece are
- automatically split and transferred in parts. The server
- provides a smart unpacking program on request,
- - Parts of requests can be re-transmitted in case of
- failure.
- - Requests can designate a directory. In this case the whole
- directory tree is packed using some popular packing
- programs (compressed tar, zoo or zip).
- - Requests can be sent by email, or via uucp.
- - The server can be asked to return a list of archive
- entries that match a given request, thus obsoleting the
- need to transfer huge "ls-lR" type index files to find out
- whatsitcalled.
- - All transfers are logged. Maintenance procedures
- include a reporting tool.
-
- Probable future directions:
-
- - Automatic (and transparent) downloading of unknown archive
- entries from other archive servers.
- - Archive lookup by keyword.
- - Notifier services (you'll be notified if archive entries
- are added).
- - Remote maintenance of the archives.
-
- Requirements:
-
- - Perl 4.0 patchlevel 36 or later.
- - GNU find 3.6 or later (only if you want to exploit the
- index features).
- - A decent mail system that can deliver mail to a process
- (sendmail, smail3, or smail2.5 w/ mods).
-
- Mailing list:
-
- A mailing list exists for sites that are running the
- Squirrel Mail Server software. You can subscribe by sending
- a mail to <squirrel-server-request@NL.net>.
-
-
- 2.0 Archivers, what they archive, how to download
-
- Archive Site Instructions
- -------------------------
-
- CLARKSON: Send mail to "archive-server@sun.soe.clarkson.edu" with
- "send <what you want>" as the text of the message, e.g. "send
- archive-server". If you want it to be archived as a shar
- file, then add a line saying "archiver shar" before the "send"
- line. You can also use "archiver tar". If you don't specify
- an archiver, then the files in the request will be separated
- by "--- cut here ---" lines and you'll have to extract them by
- hand or write some sort of script to do it.
-
- grasp1: Ftp to grasp1.univ-lyon1.fr and look in
- pub/unix/mail/mail-servers, or use the FTP-by-mail server at
- ftpmail@grasp1.univ-lyon1.fr, or use an FTP-by-mail server
- closer to you if there is one.
-
- JASON-ARCHIVE: Send mail to "penneyj@slc.com" with a subject line
- containing the string "jason-archive-request" and a body
- containing "send <what you want>", e.g. "send misc/kiss.shar".
- If you want multiple files, you can specify multiple requests
- on separate lines of the file.
-
- NETLIB: Send mail to "netlib@research.att.com" with "send
- <what you want>", e.g. "send netlib from misc", as the text of
- the message.
-
- UTRECHT: Anonymous ftp to ftp.cs.ruu.nl and look in the directory
- /pub, or send mail to "mail-server@cs.ruu.nl" with the lines:
- begin
- send <filename>
- end
- You replace "<filename>" with the file you want to retrieve,
- e.g. "send UNIX/mailserver.tar.Z".
-
- 3.0 History and Contributors
-
- This FAQ was originally maintained by Jonathan I. Kamens
- (jik@security.ov.com). He's now in the need of a subsitute, so
- I'm taking care of it. Needless to say, all the work herein
- is Jonathan's.
-
- The following people, in chronological order, provided comments
- about and corrections to this posting:
-
- - John Bazik <jsb@cs.brown.edu>
- - Stephen R. van den Berg <berg@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de>
- - Warren Burstein <warren@itex.jct.ac.il>,
- - Nigel Metheringham <nigelm@ohm.york.ac.uk>
- - Mike Northam <mbn@fpssun.fps.com>
- - Chip Salzenberg <chip@tct.com>
- - Serge Vakulenko <vak@kiae.su>
- - jv@NL.net (Johan Vromans)
- Tue, 1 Feb 1994 15:26:54 +0100 about Squirrel Mail Server
-
- ----------------------
- *** END of Mail Archive Servers FAQ *** This file has not been truncated
- --
- Piero Serini Computer Science Dept.
- <serini@ghost.dsi.unimi.it> Univ. Statale - Milano - ITALY
-
-
-