IMAP

IMAP servers

There are basically three main IMAP server solutions:

UW IMAP

IMAP server developped by the University of Washington. Uses a proprietory mailbox format mbx, which is more or less a binary version of the usual mailbox format. A binary package exists on cygwin, but it regularly suffers from locking problems. A patch exists to use maildir format though, but patch seems outdated.

Courier IMAP

Courier-IMAP is a fast, scalable, enterprise IMAP server that uses Maildirs.

Cyrus IMAP

Developped by Carnegie Mellon. Also uses a private mailbox format.

Courier IMAP

References

• Courier IMAP homepage
  • maildir - E-mail directory
  • Courier FAQ
• On openSUSE, check package documentation at /usr/share/doc/packages/courier-authlib and /usr/share/doc/packages/courier-imap.
• Manpages & package documentation:
  • maildirmake(1)
  • couriertcpd(1)
  • imapd(8)
  • userdb(8)
  • makeuserdb(8)
  • /usr/share/doc/courier-doc (on Ubuntu, with package courier-doc installed)

Courier IMAP on openSUSE

Binary package for Courier IMAP is available on openSUSE (package courier-authlib and courier-imap). However it conflicts with the default IMAP server, (UW IMAP), which must first be uninstalled.

Courier IMAP on Cygwin

There is no binary package for Cygwin. And building Courier IMAP on that platform is a true pain in the neck, if not something else. 2 packages must be built: courier-authlib and courier-imap. Some links I found on Internet:

• Building courier-authlib
  • http://readlist.com/lists/cygwin.com/cygwin/1/6668.html
  • http://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2005-04/threads.html#00614
• Building courier-imap
  • There is a README.cygwin that provides some direction on how to build this package on Cygwin.

In summary, this is the furthest I went:

# First, installed these packages in Cygwin: gdbm, libgdbm-devel, minires-devel, libgdbm, libgdbm3, libtool
tar -xvjf courier-authlib-0.61.0.tar.bz2
cd courier-authlib-0.61.0
# Fix Makefile that builds makedatprog
sed -i 's/noinst_PROGRAMS = @makedatprog_target@/noinst_PROGRAMS = @makedatprog_target@$(EXEEXT)/' makedat/Makefile.in
./configure --with-mailuser=SYSTEM --with-mailgroup=SYSTEM --with-db=gdbm
make
# ... ERRORS!

Configuration

• Configuration file:
  • /etc/courier/