My Net – Computer, Internet, Blogging

UPDATE June 2020. Courier on a Fedora 32 machine.

Personal memo on how I did install a working mail server Courier on my personal desktop machine, a Fedora 26 32 one.

Thanks so much to Sam Varshavchik without whose step by step help I couldn’t have made.

My goals:
1. to retrieve mail from my remote server (managed by a professional provider). I do that by fetchmail, and it transfers mails to courier;
2. to manage mails by courier as my local mail server, in particular to be able to check them by the bundled webmail SqWebMail;
3. to download mails by my local mail client (Evolution) from the local mail server. To do that, courier needs to listen to a pop3 port;
Let’s see how I did

I downloaded (June 2020) the following four tarball source codes:

courier-1.0.13.tar.bz2
courier-authlib-0.70.0.tar.bz2
courier-sox-0.12.tar.bz2
courier-unicode-2.1.tar.bz2

rpmbuild -ta each of them:

dnf install rpm-build 
rpmbuild -ta courier-1.0.13.tar.bz2
rpmbuild -ta courier-authlib-0.70.0.tar.bz2
rpmbuild -ta courier-sox-0.12.tar.bz2
rpmbuild -ta courier-unicode-2.1.tar.bz2

Note: I had missing dependencies; I could install every missing package (packages required by courier-authlib-0.70.0.tar.bz2):

dnf install  courier-unicode-devel expect gdbm-devel libtool mysql-devel openldap-devel pam-devel postgresql-devel perl-generators sqlite-devel libtool-ltdl-devel

hence, root and myself’s RPMS folders contain:

/root/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/courier-authlib-0.68.0-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm
/root/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/courier-authlib-debuginfo-0.68.0-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm
/root/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/courier-authlib-devel-0.68.0-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm
/root/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/courier-authlib-ldap-0.68.0-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm
/root/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/courier-authlib-mysql-0.68.0-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm
/root/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/courier-authlib-pgsql-0.68.0-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm
/root/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/courier-authlib-pipe-0.68.0-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm
/root/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/courier-authlib-sqlite-0.68.0-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm
/root/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/courier-authlib-userdb-0.68.0-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm
/root/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/courier-sox-0.12-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm
/root/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/courier-sox-debuginfo-0.12-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm
/root/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/courier-sox-devel-0.12-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm
/root/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/courier-sox-server-0.12-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm
/root/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/courier-sox-utils-0.12-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm
/root/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/courier-unicode-2.0-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm
/root/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/courier-unicode-debuginfo-2.0-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm
/root/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/courier-unicode-devel-2.0-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm

/home/myself/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/courier-0.78.2-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm
/home/myself/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/courier-debuginfo-0.78.2-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm
/home/myself/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/courier-fax-0.78.2-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm
/home/myself/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/courier-imapd-0.78.2-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm
/home/myself/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/courier-ldap-0.78.2-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm
/home/myself/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/courier-maildrop-0.78.2-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm
/home/myself/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/courier-maildrop-wrapper-0.78.2-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm
/home/myself/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/courier-mlm-0.78.2-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm
/home/myself/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/courier-mlm-web-0.78.2-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm
/home/myself/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/courier-mysql-0.78.2-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm
/home/myself/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/courier-pgsql-0.78.2-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm
/home/myself/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/courier-pop3d-0.78.2-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm
/home/myself/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/courier-webadmin-0.78.2-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm
/home/myself/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/courier-webmail-0.78.2-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm

and I could rpm -ivh all the rpm’s:

rpm -ivh courier-authlib-0.68.0-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm courier-authlib-debuginfo-0.68.0-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm courier-authlib-devel-0.68.0-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm courier-authlib-ldap-0.68.0-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm courier-authlib-mysql-0.68.0-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm courier-authlib-pgsql-0.68.0-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm courier-authlib-pipe-0.68.0-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm courier-authlib-sqlite-0.68.0-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm courier-authlib-userdb-0.68.0-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm

rpm -ivh courier-sox-0.12-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm courier-sox-debuginfo-0.12-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm courier-sox-devel-0.12-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm courier-sox-server-0.12-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm courier-sox-utils-0.12-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm

rpm -ivh courier-0.78.2-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm courier-debuginfo-0.78.2-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm courier-fax-0.78.2-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm courier-ldap-0.78.2-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm courier-maildrop-0.78.2-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm courier-maildrop-wrapper-0.78.2-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm courier-mlm-0.78.2-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm courier-mlm-web-0.78.2-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm courier-mysql-0.78.2-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm courier-mysql-0.78.2-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm courier-pgsql-0.78.2-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm courier-pop3d-0.78.2-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm courier-webadmin-0.78.2-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm courier-webmail-0.78.2-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm

Note: for courier-unicode, a older version seems to be sitting on Fedora 26, so first I needed to:

 rpm -e courier-unicode-devel-1.4-4.fc26.x86_64

then

rpm -Uvh courier-unicode-debuginfo-2.0-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm
rpm -Uvh courier-unicode-devel-2.0-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm
rpm -Uvh courier-unicode-2.0-1.fc26.x86_64.rp

Now I had to define my mail users. I followed instruction at A simple userdb setup: it is asked to create a system user, say vmail; I did that.
I created file:
```
# cp /dev/null /etc/authlib/userdb
# chmod 700 /etc/authlib/userdb
```
(note, for some reason, on my machine it did not work with file at /usr/local/etc/authlib/userdb)
I retrieved info about vmail by (check vmail line):
```
pw2userdb
```
and wrote them within /etc/authlib/userdb:
```
vmail uid=1001|gid=1001|home=/home/vmail|shell=/bin/bash|systempw=$ long long long pw
1001= vmail
```
for each of my users, I created MailDir:
```
# su vmail
$ cd ~vmail
$ mkdir myuser_mydomain_glt
$ maildirmake myuser_mydomain_glt/Maildir
$ exit
#
```
and wrote the relevant line of info within /etc/authlib/userdb (note I use gid, uid as vmail’s ones)
```
myuser@mydomain_glt  gid=1001|home=/home/vmail/myuser_mydomain_glt|uid=1001
```
to include the password I launched
```
userdbpw | userdb "myuser@mydomain_glt" set  systempw
```
inserted the password at the prompt and got the file overwritten as
```
myuser@mydomain_glt systempw= short pw|gid=1001|home=/home/vmail/myuser_mydomain_glt|uid=1001
```
I still needed to define the hosted domain. I looked for file /etc/courier/hosteddomains/hosteddomains, wrote therein the line mydomain.glt, and launched
```
/usr/lib/courier/sbin/makehosteddomains
```
there was still a last step: to select Courier’s sendmail as the preferred mta (since Fedora seems to be shipped with postfix and original sendmail too)
```
alternatives --set mta /usr/lib/courier/bin/sendmail
```
I may check with (long output is not pasted)
```
alternatives --display mta
```

Now I may launch the program I wish to use:

/usr/lib/courier/sbin/courier start  <<<< mail server
/usr/lib/courier/sbin/pop3d start    <<<< to listen to my email client
/usr/lib/courier/libexec/courier/sqwebmaild  <<<< to get into the webmail

Also, I may check:

authtest myuser@mydomain_glt

Authentication succeeded.

Authenticated: myuser@mydomain.glt (uid 1001, gid 1001)
Home Directory: /home/vmail/myuser_mydomain_glt
Maildir: (none)
Quota: (none)
Encrypted Password: short pw
Cleartext Password: (none)
Options: (none)

If I try to ship a mail by

echo "Subject: hello world" | sendmail myuser@mydomanin.gtl

I may check that it pops up within the MailDir

and I see it from within the webmail, at url http://localhost/cgi-bin/webmail?index=1

Note: if you get a error msg, try >> setenforce Permissive.

To download mail from the remote server, I use fetchmail. It needs a config file .fetchmailrc (to be saved within the main vmail folder) whose content is:

set daemon 600
poll pop3.mydomain.gtl protocol pop3 port 110 username "myuser@mydomain.gtl" password "remote server pw" mda "/usr/lib/courier/bin/sendmail -i -f %F -- %T" is "myuser@mydomain.gtl" here;
[similar for any other mail accounts]
set syslog set logfile "/home/vmail/logs/fetchmail.log"

last but not least, I wish to launch all I need at booting. This seems has to be done by creating files .desktop under the /root/.config/autostart/ folder
whose content is, say for courier.desktop
and similarly for the other ones.

UPDATE 31/12/2018. As I updated my machine to Fedora (27/28/) 29, I lost Courier. To have it back, I followed the following steps.

I downloaded the following five tarball sources:

courier-1.0.5.tar.bz2
courier-imap-5.0.5.tar.bz2
courier-unicode-2.1.tar.bz2   
courier-authlib-0.69.0.tar.bz2
courier-sox-0.12.tar.bz2  (I am not sure I needed this one)

them I build and rpm as it follows

rpmbuild -ta courier-unicode-2.1.tar.bz2  >>> to rpm unicode, you need to remove installed unicode and unicode-devel packeges
rpm -e courier-unicode-devel
rpm -e courier-unicode                     
rpm -ivh courier-unicode-2.1-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm  courier-unicode-debuginfo-2.1-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm  courier-unicode-debugsource-2.1-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm courier-unicode-devel-2.1-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm
rpmbuild -ta courier-authlib-0.69.0.tar.bz2 >>> authlib asks for unicode
rpm -ivh courier-authlib-0.69.0-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm courier-authlib-mysql-0.69.0-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm courier-authlib-sqlite-debuginfo-0.69.0-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm courier-authlib-debuginfo-0.69.0-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm courier-authlib-mysql-debuginfo-0.69.0-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm courier-authlib-userdb-0.69.0-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm courier-authlib-debugsource-0.69.0-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm courier-authlib-pgsql-0.69.0-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm courier-authlib-userdb-debuginfo-0.69.0-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm courier-authlib-devel-0.69.0-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm courier-authlib-pgsql-debuginfo-0.69.0-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm courier-authlib-devel-debuginfo-0.69.0-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm courier-authlib-pipe-0.69.0-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm courier-authlib-ldap-0.69.0-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm courier-authlib-pipe-debuginfo-0.69.0-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm courier-authlib-ldap-debuginfo-0.69.0-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm courier-authlib-sqlite-0.69.0-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm
rpmbuild -ta courier-imap-5.0.5.tar.bz2
rpmbuild -ta --define 'notice_option --with-notice=unicode' courier-1.0.5.tar.bz2
rpm -e courier-mysql-0.78.2-1.fc26.x86_64
rpm -e courier-pgsql-0.78.2-1.fc26.x86_64
rpm -ivh courier-1.0.5-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm courier-mlm-web-1.0.5-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm  courier-mlm-web-debuginfo-1.0.5-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm courier-mysql-1.0.5-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm   courier-debuginfo-1.0.5-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm courier-pgsql-1.0.5-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm  courier-debugsource-1.0.5-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm  courier-pop3d-1.0.5-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm    courier-fax-1.0.5-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm  courier-pop3d-debuginfo-1.0.5-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm courier-imapd-1.0.5-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm  courier-imapd-debuginfo-1.0.5-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm courier-ldap-1.0.5-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm   courier-ldap-debuginfo-1.0.5-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm courier-maildrop-1.0.5-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm  courier-webadmin-1.0.5-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm  courier-maildrop-debuginfo-1.0.5-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm courier-webadmin-debuginfo-1.0.5-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm courier-maildrop-wrapper-1.0.5-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm  courier-webmail-1.0.5-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm  courier-mlm-1.0.5-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm  courier-webmail-debuginfo-1.0.5-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm courier-mlm-debuginfo-1.0.5-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm

luckly, maildirs and users were not erased during the process. I may start services as before, albeit it seems I need to launch courier-authdaemon too:
```
/usr/lib/courier/sbin/courier start  
/usr/lib/courier/sbin/pop3d start
/usr/sbin/authdaemond start
/usr/lib/courier/libexec/courier/sqwebmaild
```