[9fans] auth/cpu standalone and smtpd?

[9fans] auth/cpu standalone and smtpd?

[Ish Rattan]

Hello,

I would like to send and receive mail on a Plan9 auth/cpu standalone.

I am going through the e-mail section of `Getting started wirh Plan9'.
I am not clear about sending remote email to gateway:

 1. Is smtpd not capable of sending mail directly (to destination)?
    Can it accept e-mail directed to it?

 2. Also, there is mention of internal and external smtpd (smtpd.conf
    and spmtpd.conf.ext), what is the difference between the two?

Lastly, any one running smtpd would care to share the .conf
and rewrite files?

- ishwar

Re: [9fans] auth/cpu standalone and smtpd?

[bobf]

>  1. Is smtpd not capable of sending mail directly (to destination)?
>     Can it accept e-mail directed to it?

smtpd accepts incoming mail.  it passes it to the mail pipeline
where qer eventually queues it to disk and either executes
smtp (via remotemail) directly or allows a cron queue sweep
to actually send the mail.  so, to answer your question, smtpd
never sends mail directly; it only receives it.

>  2. Also, there is mention of internal and external smtpd (smtpd.conf
>     and spmtpd.conf.ext), what is the difference between the two?

our gateway system has two ethernets: one on our internal network
and one on our outside network exposed to the internet.
the smtpd.conf file only contains parameters to restrict the
functionality of the smtpd daemon on the outside interface;
for example, we don't allow relaying on that interface, but
we do allow it on our inside network.  we have two conf
files, smtpd.conf and smtpd.conf.ext, and we bind the
latter onto the former in /rc/bin/service.alt/tcp25,
the incoming mail service.  we also bind a special rewrite
file, suitable for the external network onto our internal
rewrite file.  the net effect is that the smtpd daemon receiving
mail on the external interface runs in a restricted mode
compared to the same program when receiving mail from our internal network.
i believe that the configuration files supplied with distribution
illustrate the different parameter settings.

> Lastly, any one running smtpd would care to share the .conf
> and rewrite files?

the rewrite files are often tailored to each domain, depending
on the specific mail routing and network configuration.  if you have
a specific question, send it to me.  same with the conf files.