- The Account Form
- The List Form
- The SMTP Aliases Form
- The Greeting Form
- The Information Form
| This
chapter covers the forms used to maintain the account database:
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The Account Form and Other Account Forms |
post.office account forms are used to create and maintain the account database, which is the sum of the information that determines under what conditions E-mail is accepted into your system and what happens to it from there.
Once post.office is up and running, account administration will be your main task. This section contains step-by-step instructions on how to manage accounts. (Go back to chapter 2 for a quick description of what an account is if you are not clear on the concept.)
Note: Chapter 4 contains a good general conceptual overview of accounts and forms. This includes a discussion of what the rules are regarding how to use forms, what your role as the postmaster is, and important information about accounts and aliases. This is good reading and you should at least skim it if you are making a lot of use of this product as it should save you some time trying to figure things out.
The account form can be used to set up and edit user accounts, which are the "generic" kind of account which allow users to receive and send E-mail via post.office, as well as to set up more specialized accounts such as alias accounts and other special accounts discussed in this section as follows:
The list form will provide you with a list of all the accounts on your host. If you retrieve this form using your web browser, you can then select any of the listed accounts and you will receive the account form for that account.
The SMTP aliases form lets you set up channel aliases to efficiently forward messages on to other hosts.
The greeting and information forms allow users to make limited changes to their own accounts.
Note: Don't forget to include the postmaster password every time you submit an E-mail account form. The "Postmaster-Password:" field is located at the top of E-mail forms, as appropriate.
Requesting a form is discussed in detail in chapter 4, section 4.22.
In order to obtain an E-mail form send a message to "Accounts@your.host" with the name of the form you want in the body of the message. If you wish to request the account form for a specific account, you should include the name or address of the form in the body of the message as follows:
account <Jane Doe>
or
account <Jane.Doe@Software.com>
Note: You can request as many forms as you wish in a single E-mail message. simply put the names of all the forms on different lines in your form request. Also, you need only enter the minimum number of letters to identify the form, so that "acc" will do instead of "account," and so forth. You may also request a form without the appended help by adding an asterisk ("*") at the end of the form name (in this case "acc*").
In order to obtain a web form, point your web browser at you host, enter the postmaster address (e.g., postmaster@host.domain) and password, and select the form you wish from the menu which is presented to you.
The account form is your principal tool for modifying the account database.
The account form is shown below, first as it is blank (figure 5.1.2a) and then when it is filled out (fig. 5.1.2b). A portion of the blank web form is also shown (fig. 5.1.2c). Note that the differences are purely cosmetic. The fields perform exactly the same role.
Following the figures is a field by field break down of just what the fields mean, and what you should do in order to fill out the account form correctly.
Postmaster-Password: [] (REQUIRED FOR THE FORM TO BE ACCEPTED)
Reply to this form, placing the desired information between square brackets.
For help with individual fields, see the descriptions following the form.
Example Field Name: [Entries belong in brackets] (Hints appear here)
===== GENERAL ACCOUNT INFORMATION =========================================
User's-Real-Name: [Last, First Name]
Mail-Account-Password: [Lock]
Finger-Information: []
[]
----- E-MAIL ADDRESSING INFORMATION -- INTERNET (SMTP Channel) ------------
Internet-Addresses: [First.Last@oslo.software.com]
[]
[]
From-Address-Rewrite: [comment]
----- LOCAL DELIVERY INFORMATION ------------------------------------------
POP3-Delivery: [yes]
POP-Login-Name: [LastFirstI]
UNIX-Delivery: [] ("Yes" or "No")
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Figure 5.1.2a - A blank account form
Above, a blank account form. Below, what it will look like filled out.
Postmaster-Password: [] (REQUIRED FOR THE FORM TO BE ACCEPTED)
Reply to this form, placing the desired information between square brackets.
For help with individual fields, see the descriptions following the form.
Example Field Name: [Entries belong in brackets] (Hints appear here)
===== GENERAL ACCOUNT INFORMATION =========================================
User's-Real-Name: [Doe, Jane]
Mail-Account-Password: [Sur+Fer]
Finger-Information: [Software.com, Inc.]
[827 State Street]
[Santa Barbara, CA 93101]
[Office: 805-882-2470]
----- E-MAIL ADDRESSING INFORMATION -- INTERNET (SMTP Channel) ------------
Internet-Addresses: [Jane.Doe@Software.com]
[jane.doe@chicago.software.com]
[jane@software.com]
[doej@software.com]
From-Address-Rewrite: [comment]
----- LOCAL DELIVERY INFORMATION ------------------------------------------
POP3-Delivery: [yes]
POP-Login-Name: [DoeJ]
UNIX-Delivery: [no] ("Yes" or "No")
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figure 5.1.2b - A filled-out account form for Jane Doe.
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Figure 5.1.2c: The account form as it appears on the web. Although its appearance is very different, the fields on the web are identical to those on the E-mail form. Note that you can get help simply by selecting a field on the web form, which gives you a link to a short description of what the field is for.
The remainder of this section covers the individual fields one at a time.
Postmaster-Password The postmaster password at the very top of the form is required in order for post.office to accept the form. Postmaster E-mail forms contain this field, when appropriate, and will be returned if it is not correctly entered.
If you receive a form which does not include the postmaster-password field it is not a form but rather a notification message (see chapter 6, section 6.2).
post.office passwords are case-senSiTive and can be as long as you like (6 characters minimum), though they must fit on a single line.
User's-Real-Name There are several instances where the "user's real name" is used by post.office:
Since this name will appear on all outgoing messages if the "From-Address-Rewrite:" option is selected (see description below), the name should appear as the user wishes it to be seen by those who will read it, for example, "Jane Doe" may be preferable to "JD" for this reason.
You can have more than one account with the same user's-real-name (unlike addresses, which must be unique) just in case you have two people who actually have the same name. While it is a little confusing to have two accounts with the same name, it's less confusing than giving someone a name that's not really theirs.
If you want to keep track of accounts with this field, that's fine, but it's kind of counter to the application. From the perspective of post.office, the E-mail address is more important than the account name. I keep track of addresses, and post.office and I get along well as a result.
Mail-Account-Password
Users who retrieve their E-mail via the network (e.g. POP3) need to use this password in order to get their messages.
Users also use their password to change their delivery or finger information or use the vacation feature of the auto-reply handler. They do this using the information form which is discussed later in this chapter.
post.office passwords are case-senSiTive and can be as long as you like, though they must fit on a single line.
TIP! The mail account password should be something that is easy to remember but difficult to guess. For example, Jane Doe's password is Sur+Fer!, in honor of her favorite pastime. The use of special characters and capital letters makes passwords safer.
An account may also be locked by the postmaster (place the word "Lock" in this field - it is case senSiTive). This prevents any type of access to the account's mail or the account's information form. To restore access to the account, place the word "Unlock" in the field (the prior password will now be valid) or create a new password and put it in the field.
Finger-Information is provided when the account receives a finger query from someone who has authorized finger access (see finger-access-domain, below). If it's a simple message you can just put it between brackets, using as many lines as you want. If you need more lines, you can add extra brackets in order to do so. You cannot let the text between the brackets run over to another line.
Alternatively, with an E-mail form you can insert a MIME attachment, if your user agent is up to it. Not all user agents can handle MIME, so this might not work for you. Section 4.2.2. discusses the use of MIME attachments with forms.
Jane Doe's account form illustrates how finger can be used to make your address and phone number available.
Internet-Addresses should include one or more correctly formatted SMTP addresses. These addresses are used to select an account for delivery. A message arriving for any of the listed addresses will be directed to this account and then delivered per the local delivery selected for the account (see below).
You can have as many addresses per account as you like, but they must all be unique among the addresses on this host, just as all Internet addresses should be unique no matter where they are located. Two accounts cannot share the same Internet address unless you set up an alias account in order to do so (see section 4.2.3 for a description of an alias account).
The first address listed is considered the primary address and post.office will put it on the "From:" line of all outgoing mail if a rewrite option is selected for the from-address-rewrite field below. It will also be the address returned in response to a finger query.
Addresses are not case sensitive. For example, post.office will not distinguish between Software.com and software.com.
post.office can accept messages for any number of domains; it is not in any way limited to your "official" domains specified during installation.
The local part of the address, which is that part of the address to the left of the "@" symbol, can be anything you want as long as it is a legal Internet E-mail address. Addresses do not need to correspond to the user's name or UNIX ID.
On the E-mail form, feel free to add brackets as necessary in order to accommodate more addresses. Make sure to put each set of brackets on a separate line.
There are two formats you can use for Internet addressing:
an address which does not specify a host:
Jane.Doe@Software.com
or an address which specifies a host:
Jane.Doe@chicago.software.com
Consult section 4.2.3 for information about using more than one address.
From-Address-Rewrite
It is generally a good idea to have post.office rewrite the "From:" address on all messages leaving your E-mail system.
The rewrite is done using the primary address: the first address listed in the account. You should choose a primary address so that mail is delivered to the machine that is most likely to be available to receive incoming mail, and so post.office will know how to deliver incoming replies to users who send messages out. Rewriting the "From:" address increases the odds that returned messages and replies to outgoing messages will be processed correctly.
It is an especially good idea to use this feature if your system is being used by people who are inexperienced with E-mail. Oftentimes the address which a user agent inserts in the "From:" line is not the best choice, and users may not be aware of, or know how to change this.
Rewrite options are "Quoted", "Comment", and blank (these principally refer to the placement of the account name in the re-written From: line). For example:
Only messages originating from users with post.office accounts will have their addresses re-written, if a rewrite option is chosen. Therefore, it is necessary that the mail client program is configured by the user to use a From address which matches at least one of the addresses in the user's account. That way when mail is submitted from the mail client program to post.office the system can match the user to an account and determine how the address should be rewritten. It doesn't matter which address in the account matches, but is has to match one of them. This feature is highly useful in providing an easy method to hide the host name in outgoing E-mail addresses.
All accounts must accept mail and deliver mail. The Internet-address (above) defines the parameter for accepting mail, the delivery you select defines what happens to it from there.
You can deliver mail as many times and in as many ways as you like, though there's usually no need to have a message delivered more than once unless an account is shared by several people (in which case it is an alias account).
POP3-Delivery: Options are "yes" or "no." Mail is held by post.office until the user checks for mail using a POP 3 mail client ( same thing as a user agent). Users who employ POP3 delivery must also have a POP login name below. While users can turn POP3 delivery on and off using the information form, only the postmaster can specify a POP login name (below).
POP-LoginName This is the name that the user provides post.office in order to retrieve any waiting messages via POP3 delivery.
Choosing the user's first or last name makes it easy to remember and is not a security risk since the password must also be provided, and the user's Access-Domain protects access to the messages.
It is also noteworthy that the POP login is in no way tied to the E-mail address, so you may choose anything you wish; however, it is important to note that some E-mail client programs cannot accommodate different POP login names and E-mail address user names.
The POP-LoginName must be unique, e.g. there cannot be two users with the POP-LoginName "Jane."
The POP-LoginName is unrelated to the account or host address. Therefore, it does not need an "@" symbol and hostname when you enter it in the account form. Some E-mail clients require you to enter the POP login name in the form POPlogninname@hostname which can be a little confusing and misleading since all that is actually passed to the POP server during login is the POP login name.
UNIX-Delivery:
Options are "yes" or "no" . Messages are
delivered to a maildrop file within a user's UNIX account located
on the same host as post.office. UNIX delivery is available
only on the UNIX platform, and a UNIX login name (see field below)
must be specified. This option enables pick-up with legacy UNIX
mail clients. While users can turn UNIX delivery on and off using
the information form, only the postmaster can specify a UNIX login
name (below).
UNIX-Login-Name:
The UNIX Login name is used by post.office to deliver
mail to user's maildrop file and determines the permissions used
when delivering mail to other programs (see program delivery fields
below).
Program-Delivery:
Options are "yes" or "no". This option allows
users to deliver messages to external programs such as procmail.
A UNIX login name must be specified to use this feature. Programs
to receive mail are listed in the programs to run below. There
are special security considerations involved in using this feature
and you should familiarize yourself with them before using it.
Note: There is an extensive discussion of program delivery in appendix E which you must read in order to understand the security issues associated with program delivery as well as to find out how to enable this feature (default configuration does not allow you to make use of program delivery).
Programs-To-Run:
The programs listed here are run by post.office when
mail arrives for the account if the program delivery option is
selected. Programs are run with the permissions of the user specified
by the UNIX Login name above, and receive the incoming message
as input. The format for entries is a complete command line statement
including options, such as:
[/usr/local/bin/procmail -f-]
See the appendix on the Program Delivery feature for more on this.
Forwarding-Addresses: One or more E-mail addresses: you may have mail forwarded to another address by inserting an address in this field. Follow the same rules as you would for an SMTP address (an Internet address). You may forward mail for an account to as many addresses as you like.
An account where the delivery consists only of one or more E-mail addresses is called an alias account because all it does is deliver mail to other accounts, in effect acting as an alias for them. A common example of an alias account (albeit a special case) is the "postmaster" account.
On E-mail forms, you can add extra sets of brackets on subsequent lines if you need to add in more deliveries than there are brackets.
While the fields discussed below are optional -- just as locking the front door to your house is your choice -- it is a good idea when living in most neighborhoods to give a modicum of consideration to security. The Internet is certainly that kind of a neighborhood. post.office security measures are relatively painless and quite effective.
Access-Domains
If you have not already done so, you may want to peruse the explanation of access domains in section 4.2.1. Access domains are a crucial component of post.office security.
This field can be used to limit the access that users have to their accounts. Users can make changes to their account and retrieve their mail via POP3 only from within their access-domains.
An access-domain can be as restrictive as a single computer (e.g. chicago.software.com or [198.17.234.1]), a list of several computers, or an incomplete domain (e.g. the access domain software.com would include any computer whose DNS address includes the suffix software.com).
If you leave this field blank the access domain will be unlimited. If you write "none" you prevent all access to account information (except by the postmaster).
In the above example (figure 5.1.2b), Jane Doe's access domain is limited to the only computer she uses: "chicago." This is a very good idea for users who mostly use a single machine.
You can specify as many access domains as you like.
Finger-Access-Domains Finger-access works on the same principle as the access domain above. You can make your finger information available to anybody by leaving this field blank, you can limit finger access to a specific domain or deny access to anybody by specifying "none." You could limit finger access to a single computer, though I don't see the point.
For example, by limiting finger access to computers within the company you work for, you can make confidential finger information available only to those who should be in the know.
Jane Doe's finger information (see figure 5.1.2b above) is accessible by anybody, and she uses it to make generic information -- her address -- available to the public at large.
There are three ways to configure the auto-reply feature. They are discussed in detail in chapter 7 and briefly below:
AutoReply-Delivery: select "yes" or "no." You must select a reply mode if you select "yes."
Reply-Mode: select "vacation", "reply" or "echo" per description above.
Reply-Message is used when you select the auto-reply feature. If it is a simple message you can just put it between brackets. In E-mail forms if you need more lines, you can add extra bracket pairs. You cannot let the text between the brackets run over to another line. You must have a new set and no more than one set of brackets on every line.
Alternatively in E-mail forms you can insert a MIME attachment, if your user agent is up to it. Section 4.2.2 discusses the use of MIME attachments with forms.
With Web forms, you simply enter the message (by typing or pasting it there) in the text box so you don't have to worry about brackets or the size of your message.
To make a change to an existing account you must request the account form for the specific account you wish to change. Since the account already exists, post.office will send you a form that is already filled out with all the information for that account.
You should include the Account-name of the account you wish to change between angle brackets in the body of the message like so (fig. 5.1.3a):
To: Accounts@your.host.domain Subject: <can be blank or anything desired> Other-Headers: Date:, cc:, etc.... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- account <Account-name>
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Figure 5.1.3a - To request an existing account form by account name simply add the account name in angle brackets to a standard account request.
Alternatively, you can retrieve an account form by specifying any of the user's E-mail addresses as follows (fig. 5.1.3b):
To: Accounts@your.host.domain Subject: <can be blank or anything desired> Other-Headers: Date:, cc:, etc.... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- account <E-Mail-address>
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Figure 5.1.3b - To request an existing account form by address add the address in angle brackets to a standard account request.
When using an Account-Name to retrieve an account form it must be typed exactly as it was specified in the form. E-mail addresses are not case-sensitive so they are often easier to use when requesting account forms.
For example, to make a change to Jane Doe's account, you would first need to request her account form (the name is case senSiTive):
To: Accounts@your.host.domain Subject: <can be blank or anything desired> Other-Headers: Date:, cc:, etc.... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- account <Jane Doe>
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Figure 5.1.3c - Requesting Jane Doe's account form by using her account name.
Alternatively using one of her addresses (not case sensitive):
To: Accounts@your.host.domain Subject: <can be blank or anything desired> Other-Headers: Date:, cc:, etc.... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- account <jane.doe@software.com>
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Figure 5.1.3d - Requesting Jane Doe's account form by using her address. You can also simply use "account <jane.doe>" which is easier to type.
post.office will provide you with an account form within a few seconds of receiving your request. Make the desired changes to the form, and then submit it.
As with any post.office form, you must include the postmaster password with the form in order for it to be accepted.
Note: When submitting a form request, you only need to specify the minimum number of characters so that post.office will be able to establish which form you are talking about. So in this case, entering "ac" instead of "account" will do just fine.
In order to obtain a web form for an existing account, log on to the post.office web server as described in section 4.2.2. and enter the name of the form you wish to retrieve in the box provided for that purpose . Figure 5.1.3e illustrates how you request the form for Jane Doe.
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Figure 5.1.3e: From the web menu, enter the name or address for the account you wish to edit, select the account form, then press the "REQUEST Selected Form" button.
Alternatively, on the web it is often easiest to get the list form and then click on the specific account form you want to alter.
In order to delete an existing account you must request the account form for the specific account (which you desire to delete) as outlined above in section 5.1.3. When you submit the form you should simply replace the account name entry with the word "delete".
Postmaster-Password: [D'ont_Forget!] (REQUIRED FOR THE FORM TO BE ACCEPTED)
Reply to this form, placing the desired information between square brackets.
For help with individual fields, see the descriptions following the form.
Example Field Name: [Entries belong in brackets] (Hints appear here)
===== GENERAL ACCOUNT INFORMATION =========================================
User's-Real-Name: [Delete]
Mail-Account-Password: [ ]
Finger-Information: [This, of all accounts,]
[is an account worth deleting]
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Figure 5.1.4a - To delete an existing account: after post.office sends you the E-mail form for the account you want to delete, enter both the word "delete" in the Account-name field and the postmaster password and send the form in.
Alternatively, with the web form:
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Figure 5.1.4b: To delete an account using the web form, enter the word delete in the "User's Real Name" field of the account you wish to delete.
Submit the form and the account will be deleted. There is no way to undo a deletion, so you should be fairly ginger about this.
An alias account is an account which forwards incoming messages (addressed to the alias account) on to other accounts. For example, Homer is the postmaster of the software.com E-mail system. Any mail addressed to postmaster is forwarded to him through a special account set up for the address "postmaster" which turns out to be an alias for Homer. A more complete description of what an alias account is can be found in section 4.2.3.
The way an alias account works is that instead of specifying POP or UNIX delivery, an E-mail address is inserted in the Delivery field, so that messages to the alias account are forwarded to another account rather than delivered directly.
Note: In the interest of brevity, only E-mail forms are used in these examples. Of course you can do the same thing with web forms. It just looks a little different.
For example, the account form for the postmaster looks like this (the illustration only shows certain fields filled-in so as to make the single point that the address "Postmaster" is delivered to Homer):
===== GENERAL ACCOUNT INFORMATION ========================================= User's-Real-Name: [Postmaster] ----- E-MAIL ADDRESSING INFORMATION -- INTERNET (SMTP Channel) ------------ Internet-Addresses: [Postmaster@Software.com] ----- LOCAL DELIVERY INFORMATION ------------------------------------------ POP3-Delivery: [no] Forwarding-Addresses: [Homer@Software.com]
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Figure 5.1.5a: Alias accounts: the postmaster account shows how messages addressed to postmaster are forwarded to Homer. Note the "Internet-Addresses" and "Forwarding-Addressees" fields (full form is not shown).
The example below illustrates how an alias account can deliver messages to several recipients:
===== GENERAL ACCOUNT INFORMATION =========================================
User's-Real-Name: [Sales Account]
----- E-MAIL ADDRESSING INFORMATION -- INTERNET (SMTP Channel) ------------
Internet-Addresses: [Sales@Software.com]
----- LOCAL DELIVERY INFORMATION ------------------------------------------
POP3-Delivery: [no]
Forwarding-Addresses: [Homer@Software.com]
[Jane@chicago.software.com]
[Narcisus@fresno.software.com]
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figure 5.1.5b: The alias account for the address "sales@software.com" forwards messages to Homer, Jane, and Narcissus. Note the "Internet-Addresses" and "Forwarding-Addressees" fields (full form is not shown).
Alias accounts are often useful when delivery is intended for several people in a single conceptual group such as the sales staff, as illustrated above in figure 5.1.5b.
Don't confuse an alias account like this with a channel alias, which is a specialized way to forward messages only to other hosts and is discussed later in section 5.3.
There are a few accounts that are used to run post.office that have special features necessary for the operation of the program. You will need to be familiar with these accounts to operate the system.
These are the postmaster, default, account-manager, configuration-manager, and error-handler accounts.
Most everything that you do to operate post.office you do in the guise of "Postmaster". post.office will not process your forms unless it thinks you are the postmaster; you shouldn't be reading this unless you're postmaster; people will feel free to ask you lots of questions about E-mail because you're postmaster; and so on.
Along with all this there is an account whose account-name is "postmaster." The postmaster account does the following:
For example, the postmaster account form can look like this. Only fields which are mandatory are included and filled out:
===== GENERAL ACCOUNT INFORMATION =========================================
User's-Real-Name: [postmaster]
Mail-Account-Password: [Le/me\seE]
----- E-MAIL ADDRESSING INFORMATION -- INTERNET (SMTP Channel) ------------
Internet-Addresses: [Postmaster@Software.com]
[]
----- LOCAL DELIVERY INFORMATION ------------------------------------------
POP3-Delivery: [no]
POP-Login-Name: [LastFirstI]
Forwarding-Addresses: [Homer@Software.com]
----- ACCOUNT SECURITY PARAMETERS -- ** Optional ** -----------------------
Access-Domains: [One.host.only@software.com]
----- AUTOMATIC REPLY INFORMATION -- ** Optional ** -----------------------
AutoReply-Delivery: [no]
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Figure 5.1.6a - The postmaster account: post.office always has an account for postmaster. The delivery specifies whose job it is to run the E-mail system, and the all-important password allows the postmaster to fill out forms and do all the groovy things that postmasters do. The fields are the same as for any other account form.
This is the account that is used to pre-configure the "blank" form that you get every time you request a new account form.
post.office will not pay any attention to the information in this account except when it is sending you a blank account form. If you manage a large system and fill out a ton of Account Forms, then you may want them to be pre-configured with some fields already filled-out with a standard default value. To do so, you request the default form:
To: Accounts@your.host.domain Subject: <can be blank or anything desired> Other-Headers: Date:, cc:, etc.... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- account <Default>
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Figure 5.1.6b - Requesting the default account form. Of course, you can do this through the post.office web server as well (not shown).
post.office will send you the current default account form (which may be blank if you haven't set it up before):
===== GENERAL ACCOUNT INFORMATION =========================================
User's-Real-Name: [default]
Mail-Account-Password: [Lock]
----- E-MAIL ADDRESSING INFORMATION -- INTERNET (SMTP Channel) ------------
Internet-Addresses: []
[]
----- LOCAL DELIVERY INFORMATION ------------------------------------------
POP3-Delivery: [Yes]
POP-Login-Name: [LastFirstI]
Forwarding-Addresses: []
...
(The full form is not shown)
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Figure 5.1.6c - The "blank" default account form. Again, we are showing the E-mail form, but you can do this just as easily using web forms.
You can enter all the default values you desire on this form as long as you don't remove any fields or violate the basic rules for forms (see chapter 4, section 4.2.2 for the basic rules).
For example, you can pre-configure all accounts to have a certain kind of delivery, addresses within such and such a domain, default access domain, finger access restrictions, and so on. Once you have all the stuff in there that you don't want to type in over and over and over again, send the form in. You can only change what appears inside the brackets, not the actual form itself. Don't forget to put in the postmaster password at the top of the form if you are using the E-mail version of the form.
If you make a mistake setting up the default form, post.office will not accept it and you'll get an error message. This only happens if you get the password wrong or if you mess up the fields. Remember the rule: every field must be followed by at least one set of brackets and there cannot be more than one set of brackets on a single line.
For example, a default form might look like this:
Postmaster-Password: [] (REQUIRED FOR THE FORM TO BE ACCEPTED)
Reply to this form, placing the desired information between square brackets.
For help with individual fields, see the descriptions following the form.
Example Field Name: [Entries belong in brackets] (Hints appear here)
===== GENERAL ACCOUNT INFORMATION =========================================
User's-Real-Name: [User's Real Name]
Mail-Account-Password: [Lock]
Finger-Information: [827 State Street]
[Santa Barbara, CA 93101]
[Office: 805-882-2470]
----- E-MAIL ADDRESSING INFORMATION -- INTERNET (SMTP Channel) ------------
Internet-Addresses: [@Software.com]
[@host.software.com]
[]
From-Address-Rewrite: [comment]
----- LOCAL DELIVERY INFORMATION ------------------------------------------
POP3-Delivery: [yes]
POP-Login-Name: [Lastname]
Forwarding-Addresses: [] (to forward mail to others)
[] (enter as many as desired)
----- ACCOUNT SECURITY PARAMETERS -- ** Optional ** -----------------------
Access-Domains: [software.com] ("none", host.domain, domain,)
[] (IP address, or blank)
UNIX-Delivery: [] ("Yes" or "No")
UNIX-Login-Name []
Program-Delivery: [] ("Yes" or "No")
Programs-To-Run: [] (programs to deliver to --)
[] (requires a UNIX-Login-Name above)
Finger-Access-Domains: [] ("none", host.domain, domain,)
[] (IP address, or blank)
----- AUTOMATIC REPLY INFORMATION -- ** Optional ** -----------------------
AutoReply-Delivery: [no]
Reply-Mode: [vacation]
Reply-Message: []
[]
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Figure 5.1.6d - An example of a customized default form. This one has limited preset finger information that applies to everybody (a corporate address) and some clues for the postmaster as to what to put where. Three fields, "Finger-Information," "From-Address-Rewrite," and "POP3-Delivery" are pre-set.
Other fields are not preset but include pointers on how to fill out the form in the future. The information in the "Internet-Addresses" field, for example, indicates that the postmaster who set up this default form is implementing host name hiding, since the primary address for the account does not include the name of the post.office host.
Note that the substitution of "User's Real Name" for the word "Default" may cause you some confusion down the line when you request the default form and find no convincing evidence of the fact that what you have is the default form. What in the heck is the "User's Real Name" account, you'll ask yourself, and why is it in my mailbox? ...And it'll be the sneaky default form up to its usual wily tricks.
Of course this example doesn't mean all your accounts must have POP delivery. Rather, when you requested a blank account form in order to set up a new account, it will be delivered to you pre-configured with POP delivery specified in the "Delivery" field. This can easily be changed to another delivery, such as "UNIX" before you submit the form. You would use a POP pre-set if over time, the majority of the accounts you create require POP delivery.
The defaults simply reduce you workload if you usually want a particular field to contain a specific value.
The other special accounts required for the operation of post.office are those of the account-manager, the configuration-manager, and the error-handler.
You can change the E-mail address of these accounts in the event it interferes with your system. Otherwise it is a good idea to leave them the way they are. For example, "accounts" is the primary address for the Account-Manager, and you may already be using the address "accounts" for something else. Or maybe you want to add alias addresses to these accounts so that they are easier for you to remember or quicker to type. When customizing your system this way, it is preferable to use additional alias addresses rather than to remove the primary default values unless they interfere with your particular system (as they will no longer match this documentation).
In order to make a change to one of these accounts, just request the account form for the account you want to change. For example:
To: Accounts Subject: <can be blank or anything desired> Other-Headers: Date:, cc:, etc.... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- account <Accounts>
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Figure 5.1.6e - Requesting the "Accounts" alias E-mail account form. You may need to change the name of the account if it interferes with your system.
Make your change to the "Internet-Address" field, enter the postmaster password, and mail the form in.
post.office includes two forms which are provided to orient users and allow them to make limited changes to their accounts. These are the greeting and information forms.
The greeting form is simply a letter that goes out to users to let them know that an account has been opened in their name and let them know a little bit about it.
Users can make various changes to their accounts using the information form. None of the changes users can make can affect the integrity of your mail system. They will simply make your life as postmaster simpler and provide the user with a small degree of autonomy.
The greeting form tells users that they have just had an E-mail account opened for them and gives them a bit of information about the account, as well as how to obtain the information form (below, figure 5.1.7a), in the event they should like to make a change to their account.
The first portion of the greeting form is shown below. Note that the greeting form is not, strictly speaking, a true form, since it cannot be submitted to post.office. However, due to its contents it is conceptually related to a form. It contains the necessary information for users to obtain the information form, which is a true form.
An electronic mail account has just been opened for you. This account is
configured as indicated below. Make sure you note your password and safeguard
it since this is the only time it will be sent to you. See the instructions
below the account summary for information on how to make changes to your mail
account as well as for explanations about each of the fields.
Your-Name: [Jane Doe]
(Note: your name is sometimes referred to as your account name)
Mail-Account-Password: [Sur+Fer]
Internet-Addresses: [Jane.Doe@Software.com]
Finger-Information: [827 State Street...]
==========================================================================
Here's some information about changing your account:
...
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Figure 5.1.7a: The greeting form is sent to users when they initially get a post.office account. Only the first portion of the form is shown here. There is not web equivalent to the greeting form, which is not actually a true form.
After telling the user what the contents of the above four fields is, the greeting form goes on to explain how users can obtain the information form (discussed next) in order to change their password or account information. The greeting from also includes a description of each of the four fields so that even a complete E-mail novice shouldn't be completely confused.
Postmasters may also want to distribute the user manual which is included as an appendix in the post.office manual. This manual consists of the first chapter of the regular manual (a general description of E-mail) as well as a second chapter (provided in the users manual appendix) which was written specifically to address the needs of users.
The information form allows users to make certain changes to their accounts:
If a user decides to make a change to her account, she can follow the instructions provided at the end of the greeting form above (the instructions are not shown in the figure) to obtain the information form.
The information form (below, 5.1.7b&c) can then be used to make any of the above changes to the account. As with any form, the user must include her password for the form to be processed, either when logging onto the post.office web server or when submitting an E-mail form.
Only the fields that the user can actually change are shown in brackets in the E-mail form below. All other fields are shown for reference purposes only.
Note: The fields on the information form are the same as those on the account form. Turn to section 5.1.2 for details of what the fields mean.
Account-Password: [] (REQUIRED FOR THE FORM TO BE ACCEPTED)
Reply to this form, placing the desired information between square brackets.
For help with individual fields, see the descriptions following the form.
Example Field Name: [Entries belong in brackets] (Hints appear here)
===== GENERAL INFORMATION FOR YOUR ACCOUNT ==============================
Change-Password-To: [(Not Shown)]
(Note: leave as "(Not Shown)" to retain current password)
Finger-Information: [Software.com]
[827 State Street]
[Santa Barbara, CA 93101]
[Office 805-882-2470]
[]
Send-Vacation-Notices: [no]
Vacation-Message: []
[]
----- INCOMING MAIL DELIVERY INFORMATION --------------------------------
(Note: A login name is required to turn on POP delivery. Only
the Postmaster can provide or modify your login name.)
POP3-Delivery: [yes]
POP-Login-Name: DoeJ
UNIX-Delivery: [no]
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Figure 5.1.7b: Users can take advantage of the information form (shown above) to make certain changes to their accounts.
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Figure 5.1.7c: The web form (only the first part of it is shown here) does the same thing that the E-mail form does, but it's a good deal slicker. If you've got a good Web browser you like, you'll probably find web forms easier to deal with than E-mail forms.
The list form provides you with a list of all the accounts in the account database.
The list form is a special form in that it's purpose is to answer the questions: "How many accounts are there anyway?", "Does so-and-so have an E-mail account on this system?" and so forth.
Note: The list form is useful when you need to access a whole bunch of accounts. With the E-mail version, you request the form, delete all the accounts you don't need, and send the form in to post.office. You'll get all the forms you need in a few seconds. (Don't forget that the form has to be at least ten lines long, so don't delete the instructions).
With the web version of the form, you simply select the name of the account you want to retrieve and it comes right up.
In order to access the E-mail list form you should send the following message:
To: Accounts@host.domain Subject: <can be blank or anything desired> Other-Headers: Date:, cc:, etc.... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- list
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Figure 5.1.8a: How to request the complete list of all mail accounts on a host.
You will receive the list form. For example:
Postmaster Accounts Mail Administrator - <Postmaster@chicago.software.com> Homer - <Homer@Software.com> Default Account Information Default Account - <Default> General Accounts Alias, Account - <Account.Alias@chicago.software.com> Art Test - <Art.Test@software.com> Jane Doe - <Jane.Doe@chicago.software.com> Special Accounts Account Manager - <Accounts@[198.17.234.101]> Configuration Manager - <Configuration@[198.17.234.101]> Error Handler - <Error-Handler@[198.17.234.101]> * - Indicates that different accounts had the same name ----------- Don't Modify Anything Below ________ Form: [List]
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Figure 5.1.8b: An example of what the E-mail list form will look like: account names are followed by the primary address for that account. Note that various types of accounts are listed separately. When you start to have a lot of accounts on one machine, it makes things easier.
  
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Figure 5.1.8c: An example of what the web list form will look like. If you select the form name, you'll get that form. For example, by clicking on "Mike D'Errico", you would get Mike's account form.
Channel aliases are the most efficient way to screen incoming messages and immediately re-route those which need to be forwarded to another host.
Be efficient! Keep your computer speeding down the information highway!
Note: only the E-mail form is shown in this example. Of course you can carry out all channel alias configuration using the web if you prefer.
The SMTP aliases form is used to set up channel aliases for the SMTP mail channel. To request this form mail the following request:
To: Accounts@host.domain Subject: <can be blank or anything desired> Other-Headers: Date:, cc:, etc.... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SMTP Aliases
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Figure 5.3.1a - How to request the SMTP aliases form
You will receive the SMTP alias form:
.
Postmaster-Password: [] (REQUIRED FOR THE FORM TO BE ACCEPTED)
.
[Entry] (Example)
------- ------------------
Alias: [] (<Jane.Doe@domain> goes to <Jane.Doe@host.domain>)
[] (<Bill.Smith@host.domain> <Smith@newhost.newdomain>)
[] (format is: <1st-address> goes to <2nd-address>)
[] ( where "<" and ">" are required )
[] ( but " goes to " is optional )
[] -add lines and brackets as req'd
.
.
.
(The full form is not shown)
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Figure 5.3.1b - this is the part of the SMTP aliases form that matters. The principle is simple: you match incoming addresses that post.office should accept messages for to the outgoing address where they should be sent out.
To set up an SMTP channel alias address fill out the incoming and outgoing addresses and submit the form. Each line is a separate alias where you enter first the address for which the SMTP channel will accept messages followed by the address to which it will redirect these messages.
You must set up channel aliases one address at a time. For example, if Ms. Doe leaves Software.com to serve you in Washington, and her account at Software.com had the following primary and alias addresses, all of which she uses:
Jane.Doe@Software.com
jane.doe@chicago.software.com
jd@chicago.software.com
jd@software.com
You would have to set up a channel alias for each address:
Alias: [<Jane.Doe@Software.com> <jd@whitehouse.gov>]
[<jane.doe@chicago.software.com> <jd@whitehouse.gov>]
[<jd@chicago.software.com> <jd@whitehouse.gov>]
[<jd@software.com> <jd@whitehouse.gov>]
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Figure 5.3.1c - An example of an SMTP aliases form (showing only the part that matters).
In order to delete a channel alias, simply request the SMTP aliases form, (above), and replace the outgoing address you wish to delete with the word "delete". For example, in order to delete the first two channel aliases in the form above, you would do this (highlighted):
Alias: [<Jane.Doe@Software.com> <delete>]
[<jane.doe@chicago.software.com> <delete>]
[<jd@chicago.software.com> <jd@whitehouse.gov>]
[<jd@software.com> <jd@whitehouse.gov>]
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Figure 5.3.1d - How to delete a channel alias.