TPOP3D(8)TPOP3D(8)NAME
tpop3d - small, fast, extensible POP3 server
SYNOPSIS
tpop3d -h | [ -f file ] [ -p file ] [ -dvP ]
DESCRIPTION
tpop3d is a server which implements the RFC1939 POP3 protocol, includ‐
ing UIDL support. tpop3d supports virtual domain authentication via a
number of mechanisms, POP-before-SMTP relaying, TCP wrappers, Maildir
mailboxes and various other useful features. It is a daemon which
waits in the background and accepts incoming connections. It cannot be
operated from inetd(8).
tpop3d logs most diagnostics via syslog(3), using facility mail or
another which is defined in its configuration file.
Detailed control over the operation of tpop3d is exercised by editing
its configuration file, by default /usr/local/etc/tpop3d.conf. See the
manual entry for tpop3d.conf(5) for more information.
OPTIONS-h Print a summary of usage and the compile-time options of this
tpop3d.
-f file
Read configuration from file, instead of from
/usr/local/etc/tpop3d.conf.
-p file
Write the PID of the server process to file. By default, no PID
file is written.
-d Do not fork to become a daemon, but stay attached to a control‐
ling terminal and print log messages to standard error as well
as the syslog
-v Log traffic being sent to/from the server, for debugging pur‐
poses; tpop3d will log commands and responses sent, but not
passwords or the actual content of messages.
-P If tpop3d is compiled with TLS support, and is configured to use
a key protected by a passphrase, tpop3d will wait to read the
passphrase at startup. Do not use this option when starting
tpop3d from a boot script; it might wait forever for input on
the console.
SIGNALS
SIGTERM, SIGINT
Cause the daemon to exit, closing any active connections.
SIGHUP Cause the daemon to restart, re-reading its configuration file.
This will not close active connections which have already been
authenticated.
other signals
Most other signals are ignored, though some (SIGSEGV etc.) will
cause the daemon to terminate prematurely. In these circum‐
stances, tpop3d should clear up all of its lock files. However,
if this happens, it indicates either a bug in tpop3d, or a hard‐
ware problem. In the former case, please contact me (see below
for contact details) with information about your configuration
and (if known) steps which may be taken to reproduce the bug.
In particular, the configuration options which you used to com‐
pile tpop3d and the operating system and version under which you
are running it are essential information for a bug report.
BUGS
Locking of mailspools under Unix is problematic, mostly because of past
brokenness which has now been fixed. tpop3d's locking scheme should
suffice in most cases (and should work reliably over NFS) but it is
naive: it locks the mailspool for exclusive access, so that an MTA can‐
not deliver mail to the mailspool whilst it is being accessed by a
tpop3d user. As a result, it is configured by default to time out users
rather rapidly (after 30s of inactivity). This is one of several places
where it is marginally noncompliant with RFC1939. Note that the locking
issues do not apply to maildir mailboxes.
Authentication drivers block the main daemon; this means that a failure
in NIS or an external program could prevent tpop3d from handling new
connections. A future version may support asynchronous authentication
drivers.
If TCP Wrappers support is enabled, then reverse-DNS resolution of con‐
nected client addresses may also block the main daemon.
FILES
/usr/local/etc/tpop3d.conf
SEE ALSOtpop3d.conf(5), exim(8), inetd(8), syslog(3), mysql(1), TPOP3D::Auth‐
Driver(1), RFC1939,
http://www.ex-parrot.com/~chris/tpop3d/,
http://www.ex-parrot.com/~chris/vmail-sql/,
http://www.mysql.com/,
http://lists.beasts.org/pipermail/tpop3d-discuss/.
AUTHOR
Chris Lightfoot <chris@ex-parrot.com>. Portions by Mark Longair and
Paul Makepeace.
If you have a query about tpop3d, please do not send me personal email.
Instead, please send it to the tpop3d mailing list, to which you can
subscribe by sending an email with the subject `subscribe' to
<tpop3d-discuss-request@lists.beasts.org>. There is a mailing list ar‐
chive at
http://lists.beasts.org/pipermail/tpop3d-discuss/.
VERSION
$Id$
COPYING
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MER‐
CHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General
Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
TPOP3D(8)