Specifications

186 Chapter 12 Managing Mail Service
If you make a manual change to the configuration file of Postfix, Server Admin
overwrites your changes the next time you use it to modify the Mail service
configuration.
The spool files for Postfix are located in /var/spool/postfix/ and the log file is /var/log/
mail.log. For more information about postfix, see www.postfix.org.
Cyrus
Cyrus was developed at Carnegie Mellon University to create a highly scalable
enterprise mail system for use in small- to large-enterprise environments. Cyrus
technologies can scale from independent use in small departments to a system
centrally managed in a large enterprise.
Each message is stored as a separate file in a mail folder for each user. The mailbox
database is stored in parts of the file system that are private to the Cyrus IMAP system.
This design gives the server advantages in efficiency, scalability, and administration.
All user access to mail is through software using the IMAP or POP3 protocol.
Cyrus uses the configuration file /etc/imapd.conf. Server Admin uses the defaults file
/etc/imapd.conf.default. Cyrus logs its events in /etc/mailaccess.log. The Cyrus database
is located in /var/imap/ and user folders are located in /var/spool/imap/.
In brief, Cyrus works as follows: The Cyrus delivery application receives mail from the
Postfix delivery agent, updates the mailboxes database located at /var/imap/
mailboxes.db, and stores the mail in user spool files located at
/var/spool/imap/
username/folder. The user can then use IMAP or POP to retrieve messages.
For more information about Cyrus, see asg.web.cmu.edu/cyrus.
Mailman
Mailman is a Mailing List service with support for built-in archiving, automatic bounce
processing, content filtering, digest delivery, spam filters, and other features. Mailman
provides a customizable web page for each mailing list. Users can subscribe and
unsubscribe themselves, as well as change list preferences. List and site administrators
can use the web interface for common tasks such as account management, approvals,
moderation, and list configuration. The web interface requires that you have the
Apache web server running.
You can access Mailman at www.yourdomain.com/mailman/listinfo.
Mailman receives mail from the local postfix process by configuring alias maps.
Messages destined for a mail list are piped by the local process to Mailman processes.
The mapping is provided in /var/mailman/data/aliases.
You can find more information about configuring and administering mail lists using
Mailman at www.list.org and at /Library/Documentation/Services/mailman.