                                  Courier-IMAP

     • Installation
     • Requirements
     • Upgrading
     • Manual compilation and installation
     • IMAP configuration file
     • Account initialization hook
     • Using shared folders
     • CRAM-MD5 Authentication
     • Certificate Authentication
     • Sending mail via an IMAP connection
     • Account OPTIONS
     • SMAP

INSTALLATION

  rpm and deb packages

   These are not the same packages as the ones from various distributions'
   repositories. These packages carry a higher internal revision level in
   order to prevent them from getting upgraded by the distribution packaging,
   and their installation layout may differ from the distributions' preferred
   package installation layout. This packaging exists in order to have a
   convenient way of updating after a release without waiting for the
   distribution's package to get built, and to have a better correspondence
   with the documentation.

   NOTE: If a distribution package is already installed it should be removed
   completely before switching to the upstream version (dnf remove or apt
   purge). Preserve any existing configuration files, beforehand, in order to
   restore it after switching packages. This applies to all Courier packages.
   A switch to this courier-imap package requires switching the
   courier-unicode and courier-authlib packages too.

   NOTE: these packages use their own, generic, installation layout that may
   deviate slightly from the package installation layout that's preferred by
   the distributions.

  rpm

   Run dnf install rpm-build if it's not installed already, then:

 rpmbuild -ta courier-imap-VERSION.tar.bz2

   If this fails due to any missing dependencies, install them.

   After installing the package, "systemctl enable courier-imap and systemctl
   start courier-imap starts the IMAP and the POP3 servers. Self-signed SSL
   certificates get generated and installed for the corresponding SSL ports
   too.

    Rocky/RHEL 8/9 notes

   Courier packages require C++17 support, but the default version of gcc
   does not fully support it, and a newer gcc is needed:

 dnf install --enablerepo=crb -y gcc-toolset-14
 scl enable gcc-toolset-14 "rpmbuild -ta courier-authlib-VERSION.tar.bz2"

  deb

   Run "apt install devscripts debhelper", if they're not installed already.
   Create an empty directory and copy/move the tarball into it:

 $ mkdir tmp
 $ mv courier-imap-VERSION.tar.bz2 tmp
 $ cd tmp

   Unpack the tarball and cd into the unpacked subdirectory:

 $ tar xvf courier-imap-VERSION.tar.bz2
 $ cd courier-imap-VERSION

   Run the courier-debuild script, this is a wrapper for debuild, and it
   forwards its parameters to it:

 $ ./courier-debuild -us -uc

   NOTE: the above steps must be followed strictly. The courier-debuild
   script expects the distributed tarball in its parent directory.

   NOTE: if the courier-debuild script stops with an error complaining about
   missing dependencies, then use "apt install" to install them, then try
   again.

 $ DEBGCC=10 ./courier-debuild -us -uc

   Setting the DEBGCC environment variable selects a non-default gcc version.

   NOTE: all Courier packages should be built using the same version of gcc.

   After installing the package, the IMAP and the POP3 servers get
   automatically started; and self-signed SSL certificates get generated and
   installed for the corresponding SSL ports too.

    Ubuntu and Debian

   Courier packages require C++17 support, but the default version of gcc on
   Ubuntu 20 does not fully support it, and a newer gcc is needed:

 $ sudo apt install -y gcc-10 g++-10
 $ DEBGCC=10 ./courier-debuild -us -uc

   make check requires both the ISO-8859-1 based en_US locale in addition to
   the default en_US.UTF-8, on all versions of Ubuntu and Debian.

  Maintainer Mode (see README in the git repository to set up)

   make rpm or make deb, as appropriate, will:

    1. Increment an internal release number.

    2. Run make dist.

    3. Proceed and build a new release, creating the native packages in the
       rpm or deb subdirectory.

  Manual installation

   To compile and install the Courier-IMAP server (this is the short version,
   a longer version follows):


 $ ./configure [ options, see below ]
 $ make
 $ make check       # Note - the --enable-workarounds-for-imap-client-bugs
                    # option to configure will result in make check FAILING.
 $ su root
 # make install     # Or, make install-strip, to strip the executables.
 # make install-configure   # Install configuration files.

                    # Start the authdaemond process

   > NOTE

   > You MUST run the configure script as normal user, not root. Did you
   > extract the tarball as root? It won't work. Remove the extracted source
   > code. Log in as a normal user. Extract the source code as a normal user,
   > then run configure. You will do everything as a normal user, except for
   > the final step of installing the compiled software.

Requirements

     • C++ compiler - A C++ compiler is required. The server is written in C,
       but there are some configuration scripts that use C++ code.
     • make - The GNU make is recommended. Solaris's make is to be avoided.
       xBSD already has a gmake port, install it and use it (use gmake
       everywhere this document refers to make).
     • GDBM/DB - either the GDBM or the Berkeley DB library is required.
     • The GNU IDN library (https://www.gnu.org/software/libidn/).
     • The Courier authentication library. Before installing Courier-IMAP,
       download and install https://www.courier-mta.org/authlib/.
     • The GNU IDN) library is required.
     • The Courier unicode library. Before installing Courier-IMAP, download
       and install https://www.courier-mta.org/unicode/.

UPGRADING

  Upgrading from Courier-IMAP 5.0.13, and earlier

   Courier-IMAP switched to using the inotify kernel API directly instead of
   the legacy FAM/Gamin daemon. When using virtual mail accounts it will be
   necessary to increase the kernel's configured limit on the maximum number
   of inotify file descriptors, see the installation notes, below.

  Upgrading from Courier-IMAP 4.18.2, and earlier

   Courier-IMAP 5.0 added IMAP UTF8 support, and converted maildir folders'
   names to Unicode. Updating an existing system to Courier-IMAP 5.0, and
   later, requires a manual one-time conversion of all existing maildirs
   using the maildirmake command. See the maildirmake(1) manual page for more
   information.

   NOTE: If Cone is installed, Cone also must be updated to 0.97, or later.

  Upgrading from Courier-IMAP 4.14, and earlier

   Version 4.15 removes the TLS_DHCERTFILE parameter from imap, and pop3d
   configuration files. DH parameters, and DH parameters only, get read from
   the new TLS_DHPARAMS file (and the other functionaly of TLS_DHCERTFILE,
   for DSA certificates, is merged into TLS_CERTFILE). After upgrading, run
   the mkdhparams script to create a new TLS_DHPARAMS file.

  Upgrading from Courier-IMAP 4.9.3, and earlier

   In 4.10.0, the IMAP server resets the epoch for an internal sequence
   number generator for new mailboxes. This is an internal attribute of
   individual IMAP folders, that's defined by the IMAP specification. Each
   folder in a mailbox carries an individual sequence number, it is defined
   as a 32 bit integer value, and required to be a monotonically increasing
   value. and RFC 2060 recommended that "... a good value to use for the
   unique identifier validity value is a 32-bit representation of the
   creation date/time of the mailbox."

   On modern platforms, the system time is now a 64 bit value (even on the
   remaining 32 bit platforms). With Y2038K on the horizon, it's time to
   reset the epoch (the new epoch, for anyone who cares, runs until the year
   2069). The upgrade impact on existing systems is as follows.

   There is no impact on existing folders in existing mailboxes. New folders
   will have their internal sequence number in the new epoch.

   One potential issue exists if a folder gets deleted by the IMAP client,
   and then recreated later. The new folder will now get a lower sequence
   number. Although this is technically not allowed, it's unlikely to cause
   problems with most IMAP clients. If the same IMAP client deletes and
   recreated the mailbox, the client should be completely up to speed. If,
   however, there's an IMAP client that accesses the same folder, and some
   other IMAP client deletes and recreates the same folder, this might cause
   confusion. Most IMAP clients are likely to recover automatically; most
   IMAP clients only care that the new sequence number they see is different
   from the previous one, in order to trigger a full resynchronization with
   the server. In case an IMAP client fails to resynchronize, the remedy is
   to remove the IMAP account configuration from the client, and add it back
   in.

   Copying a mailbox by directly copying the files in maildirs preserves each
   folder's epoch. However if a mailbox gets migrated by copying its contents
   over IMAP, the folders on the destination IMAP server will not necessarily
   have a monotonically higher value -- neither does IMAP guarantee that
   different IMAP servers must be in agreement with each other on the subject
   of sequence numbers -- and if IMAP clients are repointed to a new server
   they may experience problems opening existing mailboxes. To remedy this
   situation it will be necessary to completely remove and then reconfigure
   the IMAP account, in the IMAP client. Again, verbatim copying of maildirs
   has no issues.

   A marginal situation exists where if a server completely runs of disk
   space, or if there's a hardware failure, and the IMAP server is unable to
   retrieve or save an existing folder's sequence number, and must now start
   afresh and generate a new one, the IMAP server running on a new epoch will
   recover with a lower sequence than the one that existed before. The
   rememdy is the same: remove the IMAP account configuration from the
   client, and then recreate it.

  Upgrading from Courier-IMAP 3, and earlier.

   Beginning with 4.0, the authentication library that used to be a part of
   Courier-IMAP's source has been spun off into a standalone authentication
   library.

   You must download and install the Courier Authentication Library from
   https://www.courier-mta.org/authlib/ before upgrading. Review the
   documentation in the courier-authlib package for more information.

   After upgrading to 4.0, or later, to avoid future confusion the old copies
   of these configuration files (including the .dist files), should be
   removed from Courier-IMAP's configuration directory. They now live in
   Courier-authlib's configuration directory (/usr/local/etc/authlib, or
   whatever was specified to Courier-authlib's configure script).

  Upgrading from Courier-IMAP 1.7.3, and earlier.

   After upgrading from Courier-IMAP 1.7.3, or earlier, any existing mail in
   POP3 mailboxes may show up as new mail, by some mail clients. Other mail
   clients may end up downloading a second copy of any message that was left
   in the mailbox before the upgrade. This is a one-time event. Courier-IMAP
   2.0.0 uses a different mechanism for generating POP3 message identifiers.
   Mail clients that use POP3 identifiers will behave as if all messages,
   that were left in the POP3 mailbox before the upgrade, were removed, and
   replaced by new messages that happen to be the same content. Depending on
   how the POP3 mail client works, it will either flag all messages in the
   mailbox as unread, or download a second copy of the message.

   Upgrading from Courier-IMAP 1.3.0, and later versions, is a
   straightforward process. Follow the instructions in the INSTALLATION
   section, below, to install the new version. The "make install-configure"
   command automatically preserves the existing system configuration.
   However, note that new versions of Courier-IMAP will often introduce
   additional configuration options. After make install-configure a cursory
   inspection of configuration files in /usr/lib/courier-imap/etc (the
   default location of the configuration directory) is recommended, in order
   to identify any new configuration settings that might need adjustment.

  Upgrading from Courier-IMAP 1.3.8.2 and earlier

   The default configuration options have slightly changed. The default
   configuration script will now always build the authdaemon module, and
   build all real authentication modules inside authdaemond. This is true
   even with the authvchkpw module.

  Upgrading from Courier-IMAP 1.2.3 and earlier

   Courier-IMAP 1.3.0 introduced a new configuration file format that allows
   configuration files to be automatically upgraded. Additionally, several
   existing configuration files have been renamed in order for their names to
   be consistent with the Courier build:

 Courier-IMAP < 1.3  Courier-IMAP 1.3.0
 --------            ---------
 imapd.config        imapd
 imapd-ssl.config    imapd-ssl
 pop3d.config        pop3d
 pop3d-ssl.config    pop3d-ssl

   The NEWS file has a detailed explanation of how configuration files are
   now installed. Basically, make install now installs configfilename.dist,
   and make install-configure copies configfilename.dist to configfilename,
   becoming the actual configuration file. If there is an existing
   configfilename, the old settings in configfilename which are still valid
   will be kept in the new configfilename.

   This only works as long as both the old and the new configuration files
   are in the new format, so this will actually take effect with your next
   upgrade Courier-IMAP. If the previous installed version of Courier-IMAP
   did not use the new format for configuration files (1.2.3 and earlier),
   the old configuration file is backed up to configfilename.bak.

   The recommended procedure for upgrading from versions 1.2.3 and earlier is
   as follows:

   The recommended upgrade procedure is as follows:

     • Back up /usr/lib/courier-imap/etc
     • Follow the installation procedures, below
     • After installing, manually edit all configuration files. Restore, by
       hand, any custom configuration settings.

   All configuration files are kept in the configuration directory. Nothing
   else in /usr/lib/courier-imap is configurable. Do not simply overwrite
   1.3.0 configuration files with configuration files from the previous
   version. It's tempting, but don't do it. It may work, but you will lose
   the automatic upgrade capability for future releases.

  Upgrading from Courier-IMAP 1.1 or earlier

   Note that Courier-IMAP 1.2 includes a compatible POP3 server, and the
   installation script will also install a POP3 server on your system. Even
   though it is installed, you are not required to use it, but you still need
   to be aware of its existence. If you install the RPM build of
   Courier-IMAP, you're going to get the POP3 server started at system boot.
   If you do not need POP3 services, edit both the pop3d.config and
   pop3d-ssl.config configuration files, and set POP3DSTART and POP3DSSLSTART
   to NO

  Upgrading from Courier-IMAP 1.0 or earlier

   If the server is running, manually stop the server before installing the
   new version.

Manual compilation and installation

   As mentioned above an installable package should be prepared and installed
   using the system's package manager. If the included script that create
   installable rpm or deb packages won't work, for some reason, the following
   instructions provide additional information for manual installation.

  Configuration and installation

   As mentioned in "Requirements", above, if you are using xBSD, you must use
   gmake instead of make.

   ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

   NOTE: The configure script may run as much as 5-10 minutes on slow
   machines. It may appear that configure is stuck in a loop, but that's an
   illusion. Courier-IMAP is built from a collection of modular components,
   each with its own configuration script. The configuration scripts share a
   lot of common code, leading to an initial impression that the same
   configuration script is being repeatedly run.

   See below for a description of the options to the configure script.

   WARNING: set your umask to 022 before running make install or make
   install-strip.

   You should try make install-strip first. Use make install if make
   install-strip fails.

   The configure script accepts certain options, but the defaults should be
   fine most of the time. make install puts everything in
   /usr/lib/courier-imap. If the directory /etc/pam.d exists, make install
   creates /etc/pam.d/imap and /etc/pam.d/pop3, overwriting any existing
   files. If you have some other IMAP server installed, this means that you
   will want to save your existing configuration in /etc/pam.d/{imap|pop3}.

   "make check" performs some internal sanity checks. If make check fails,
   something is wrong, and Courier-IMAP may not work for you reliably.
   Certain options are documented to cause make check to fail, due to
   different IMAP protocol behavior. If you need to use those options, first
   compile Courier-IMAP without them, run make check, and if all goes well
   extract the source code again in a different directory, then build it for
   the second time using your options.

   After installation, you will need to review the files in
   /usr/lib/courier-imap/etc and make any changes you deem necessary.

   After running make install or make install-strip you will then have to
   modify your system's startup scripts to run Courier-IMAP when your system
   boots.

   Use the following command to start the Courier-IMAP server:


 $ /usr/lib/courier-imap/libexec/imapd.rc start

   This assumes that Courier-IMAP is installed in /usr/lib/courier-imap. Use
   the following command to stop Courier-IMAP:


 $ /usr/lib/courier-imap/libexec/imapd.rc stop

   You will have to add these commands to your system startup/shutdown
   scripts.

    IMAP over SSL

   To add SSL support you have to install OpenSSL or GnuTLS before installing
   Courier-IMAP. Download OpenSSL from http://www.openssl.org/, or GnuTLS
   from http://www.gnutls.org.

   Follow OpenSSL's or GnuTLS's installation instructions, then build
   Courier-IMAP.

   > NOTE: Most systems already have an available OpenSSL or GnuTLS package.
   > Do not build OpenSSL or GnuTLS yourself, if a prebuilt package is
   > already available. Just install the prebuilt package.

   > NOTE: The development libraries must be installed in addition to the
   > runtime package, in order to build Courier-IMAP. On most systems, the
   > development files (header files, libraries, etc...) are provided in a
   > separate "devel" package. The base OpenSSL/GnuTLS package is not
   > sufficient to build Courier-IMAP, the development libraries must be
   > installed.

   The OpenSSL library is selected when both OpenSSL and GnuTLS libraries are
   found by the configure script. Use the --with-gnutls option to explicitly
   select the GnuTLS library over OpenSSL.

   The /usr/lib/courier-imap/etc/imapd-ssl configuration file sets some
   additional options for SSL support, which you may need to adjust. Consult
   that configuration file for additional information. Then, you also have to
   run the /usr/lib/courier-imap/libexec/imapd-ssl.rc script from your system
   startup and shutdown scripts, just like the
   /usr/lib/courier-imap/libexec/imapd.rc script. You may accept both SSL and
   non-SSL connections by running both scripts.

   Note that SSL requires a valid, signed, X.509 certificate to be installed
   where Courier-IMAP expects to find it. The default location for the X.509
   certificate, in PEM format, is /usr/lib/courier-imap/share/imapd.pem. The
   X.509 certificate must be signed by a certificate authority that is known
   to the IMAP client. You can generate your own self-signed certificate by
   running the script /usr/lib/courier-imap/share/mkimapdcert which will work
   too, except that IMAP clients using SSL will display a warning message the
   first time they connect to the server. To get rid of the warning message
   you'll have to pay for a signed X.509 certificate. The gory details of
   setting up SSL is beyond the scope of this document, and you should
   consult the OpenSSL documentation for more information.

   The mkimapdcert script will not overwrite an existing imapd.pem
   certificate, in order to allow precompiled packages to simply call
   mkimapdcert after installation, without worry.

    Initial parameters, and a monthly cron job to generate DH parameters

   Run the mkdhparams script to create a DH parameter file. A monthly cron
   job should be created to run the mkdhparams script, in order to
   periodically generate a new set of DH parameters. mkdhparams checks if the
   DH parameter file's timestamp is older than 25 days, and creates a new
   file if it is. DH parameters are used to set up encrypted connections.

    The bundled POP3 server

   The POP3 server included with Courier-IMAP provides POP3 access to INBOX,
   and that's about it. Enabling the POP3 server is very similar to enabling
   the IMAP server, with the following differences:

   The configuration files are /usr/lib/courier-imap/etc/pop3dand
   /usr/lib/courier-imap/etc/pop3d-ssl.

   The startup/shutdown scripts are /usr/lib/courier-imap/libexec/pop3d.rcand
   /usr/lib/courier-imap/libexec/pop3d-ssl.rc.

   The SSL certificate is /usr/lib/courier-imap/share/pop3d.pem, and the
   /usr/lib/courier-imap/share/mkpop3dcert script can be used to create a
   self-signed SSL certificate for testing purposes.

    System-V style startup

   If your system uses System-V style startup scripts, take a look at
   courier-imap.sysvinit - this is a sample /etc/init.d script.
   courier-imap.sysvinit is created by configure. In most cases it can be
   merely copied to /etc/init.d and /etc/rc?.d directories (with the execute
   permission bit turned on).

   The sample startup script will check if IMAP or POP3 over SSL is enabled.
   The sample startup script automatically creates dummy SSL certificates the
   first time it is executed.

    Options to configure:

     • --prefix=pathname - install here, instead of /usr/lib/courier-imap
     • --without-ipv6 - do not compile IPv6 support. The configure
       automatically checks if IPv6 support is available, and enables it
       automatically. This option suppresses IPv6 support, even if it's
       available. IPv6 support means that Courier-IMAP will create an IPv6
       socket and accept IPv6 connections. --without-ipv6 should be used if
       your system does not fully support IPv6, or if its implementation is
       buggy. Most Linux distributions now ship with IPv6 support in glibc,
       but without compiling the kernel for IPv6 support. This results in
       modprobe regularly complaining in /var/log/messages about the fact
       that it can't load the IPv6 module. Use --without-ipv6 to turn off
       IPv6 support, if that bothers you.
     • --bindir=pathname , --mandir=pathname - override default names of
       subdirectories under prefix. See below for more information.
     • --with-db=db - Use the DB library instead of the GDBM library You must
       have either the GDBM or the DB library installed. If both are present,
       GDBM is selected unless you use this option. The GDBM/DB library is
       used by Courier for certain functions.
     • --with-gnutls - Use the GnuTLS library even if the OpenSSL library is
       also installed. Courier-IMAP automatically uses whichever one is
       available. The OpenSSL library is selected if both are present. Use
       this option to override and select GnuTLS instead.
     • --with-piddir=dir - use dir/imapd.pid to store couriertcpd's process
       ID.
     • --with-userdb=file - use file instead of /etc/userdb (also means that
       userdb.dat and userdbshadow.dat are appropriately renamed).
     • --enable-workarounds-for-imap-client-bugs - there are a number of
       various bugs in certain IMAP clients. The current list of broken IMAP
       clients consists of Netscape Messenger and Sun's StarOffice. This
       option enables some workarounds for some bugs in these clients,
       however, note that this may break compatibility with software that
       correctly implements IMAP4rev1. Additionally, "make check" will fail
       when this option is used. See imap/BUGS.(html|txt) for more
       information. NOTE - if this option is used, make check WILL FAIL. You
       should first configure Courier-IMAP without this option, run make
       check, then reconfigure Courier-IMAP with this option.
     • --with-trashquota - include deleted messages, and the Trash folder, in
       the estimated quota usage for maildirs. Quotas are optional, see the
       file maildir/README.maildirquota.html for more information. The
       default configuration does not count messages marked as deleted (but
       not yet expunged) and the contents of the Trash folder (which are
       automatically purged by the server) against the quota usage. NOTE - if
       this option is used, make check WILL FAIL. You should first configure
       Courier-IMAP without this option, run make check, then reconfigure
       Courier-IMAP with this option.
     • --with-dirsync - after saving a new message to a maildir (the IMAP
       COPY and APPEND commands) explicitly sync the maildir's directory
       directory. There's a school of thought which believes that the Linux
       ext2 filesystem requires the parent directory to be synced, in
       addition to the new message file that's just been written to disk.
       There's another school of thought that thinks that this issue is
       completely blown out of proportion, and is really nothing more than a
       tempest in a teapot. However -- to accomodate the former school of
       thought -- this option adds a little bit of extra code to sync the
       parent directory.

    Installation directories

   Unless the options --prefix, --bindir, or --mandir are used, everything
   will be installed in the directory /usr/lib/courier-imap.

   Use the --prefix option to specify a different directory. This directory
   will have the following subdirectories:

     • etc - configuration files
     • bin - binaries
     • sbin - superuser binaries
     • libexec - additional binaries
     • man - manual pages
     • share - scripts and data files
     • var - temporary files used by the authdaemond, daemon process (if the
       authdaemon authentication module is selected).

   Having everything installed underneath one directory allows its contents
   to be easily backed up, before a newer version of courier-imap is
   installed. Reverting to a previous version is as simple as restoring from
   backup.

   Because some binaries in bin and sbin may be executed from the command
   line, it will be necessary to change your systemwide global startup script
   to add this directory to the default PATH. Additionally, it will also be
   necessary to modify the configuration of the man(1) command so that it can
   find Courier-IMAP's manual pages in this directory:

         PATH="/usr/lib/courier-imap/bin:$PATH"
         if test -w /etc
         then
                 PATH="/usr/lib/courier-imap/sbin:$PATH"
         fi
         export PATH
         MANPATH="/usr/lib/courier-imap/man:$MANPATH"
         export MANPATH

   As an alternative, you may use the --bindir and --mandir options in order
   to install binaries to /usr/local/bin and the manual pages to
   /usr/local/man, which should already be searched by default:

         ./configure --bindir=/usr/local/bin --mandir=/usr/local/man

   Other familiar configure options, such as --sysconfdir and --datadir work
   too, for those who know how to properly use them.

Configure the maximum number of inotify file descriptors

   If courier-authlib gets set up to use virtual mail accounts that share the
   system userid, it will be necessary to adjust the Linux kernel's limit on
   the maximum number of file descriptors per userid,
   /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_instances. A good rough metric would be the
   maximum number of concurrent IMAP logins multiplied by 4. On very large
   servers it may also be necessary to increase
   /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches, a rough metric would be at least 5
   times the max_user_instances setting.

Configuration file

   The /usr/lib/courier-imap/etc/imapd configuration file sets some
   configurable options. Each setting has a brief description. Review each
   setting, and make any necessary adjustments.

   The /usr/lib/courier-imap/etc/imapd-ssl configuration file sets additional
   configuration setting for the server running IMAP over TLS or SSL on port
   993. Note that, by default, the regular IMAP server on port 143 also
   supports encrypted connections, and the default startup script for the
   port 143 server reads both configuration files.

   The /usr/lib/courier-imap/etc/pop3d and the
   /usr/lib/courier-imap/etc/pop3d-ssl configuration files set options of the
   POP3 server.

   NOTE: the actual location of the configuration file directory is itself
   configured at compilation time.

ACCOUNT INITIALIZATION HOOK

   If there is a file or a symbolic link in the maildir called "loginexec",
   and if it is executable, then the executable file will be invoked after a
   succesful login. If the program terminates with an exit code of 0, the
   "loginexec" file (or a symbolic link) will be removed.

USING SHARED FOLDERS

   Courier-IMAP supports shared folders. See the file
   README.sharedfolders.html for information on how to set up shared folders.

CRAM-MD5 AUTHENTICATION

   CRAM-MD5 authentication allows IMAP clients to authenticate themselves
   without sending the password in clear-text over the network. Courier-IMAP
   now supports CRAM-MD5 by default, but is not enabled for reasons explained
   below. CRAM-MD5 support is implemented by the authcram module, with one
   exception - authldap, authpgsql, and authmysql support CRAM-MD5
   authentication if the LDAP or the MySQL/PostgreSQL server stores
   clear-text passwords, and not crypt-ed passwords.

   To use CRAM-MD5 it is necessary to use an IMAP client that support
   CRAM-MD5 authentication, of course. That's the easy part.

   The problem is that it is not possible to use the system password when
   logging in using CRAM-MD5. That's because CRAM-MD5 requires the knowledge
   of the actual password, in the clear, in order to calculate authentication
   tokens (even though that the password itself is not sent in the clear over
   the network).

   So, implementation of CRAM-MD5 is an advanced task that should be
   attempted only when you are comfortable with, and fully understand how
   Courier-IMAP works in general. Here's an overview of this procedure:

     • Install and implement /etc/userdb, because CRAM-MD5 authentication
       uses the /etc/userdb database (but see below for LDAP-specific notes).
     • Figure out which accounts are going to use CRAM-MD5 authentication.
       People who do not use an IMAP client that supports CRAM-MD5 can
       continue and log in with the existing system password. But everyone
       who runs a client that supports CRAM-MD5 authentication will need a
       new password. Also, it will be necessary to set up CRAM-MD5 passwords
       for everyone at the same time. As soon as CRAM-MD5 authentication is
       enabled, all CRAM-MD5 enabled clients will attempt to use it. If no
       password is available, Courier-IMAP has no choice but to reject the
       authentication attempt. Once that happens, the client will correctly
       interpret it as an authentication failure (and it is), and the client
       will not even try to authenticate using the system password. Use the
       following command to assign a CRAM-MD5 password:

 userdbpw -hmac-md5 | userdb userdb set hmac-md5pw


       Then run the makeuserdb command, as always.
     • NOTE: CRAM-MD5 authentication is also be supported by authldap,
       authpgsql and authmysql, as long as clear-text passwords are used. See
       below for more information. Therefore, if you use LDAP, PostgreSQL, or
       MySQL, and you store clear-text passwords, you should all set and
       ready to go, and you do not need to install /etc/userdb, as described
       in this section.

  Enabling CRAM-MD5 authentication

   Because of these unfortunate complexities, CRAM-MD5 authentication is
   disabled after installation. When you're ready to use CRAM-MD5, edit the
   imapd configuration file and add the "AUTH=CRAM-MD5" keyword to the
   IMAP_CAPABILITY environment variable, then restart Courier-IMAP. There are
   instructions in the imapd configuration file to that effect.

   If you do not intend to ever use CRAM-MD5 authentication, you can either
   specify --without-authcram option to the configure script, or simply edit
   imapd and remove authcram from the AUTHMODULES setting.

CERTIFICATE AUTHENTICATION

   Courier-IMAP can use SSL certificates for authentication purposes. For
   certificate authentication purposes, one of the fields in your
   certificates' subject must match the login ID in the authentication
   database. Consider the following certificate:

   ...
   Subject: C=US,ST=New York,L=New York,O=Acme Widgets Inc,CN=John Smith,emailAddress=johnsmith@example.com

   If the emailAddress field is configured as the login ID, the
   authentication database must provide login details for
   johnsmith@example.com. To enable certificate authentication, edit the
   imapd-ssl and pop3d-ssl configuration files, and make the following
   changes:

     • Set TLS_TRUSTCERTS to the filename with your certificate authority's
       X.509 certificate.

     • Change the TLS_VERIFYPEER setting to "PEER". The setting can also be
       changed to "REQUIREPEER" to require all SSL/TLS connections to provide
       a certificate. Otherwise, it is optional. If the mail client provides
       an SSL certificate, it may be used to authenticate. Without a
       certificate, password-based authentication remains an option.

     • Change the TLS_EXTERNAL setting to the name of the certificate subject
       field that gives the login ID. In the above example, this would be
       "TLS_EXTERNAL=emailaddress".

       > NOTE: GnuTLS's certtool uses "email" as the name of this field. If
       > Courier-IMAP is compiled with GnuTLS, you should still specify this
       > field as "emailaddress".

SENDING MAIL VIA AN IMAP CONNECTION

   This server allows using the IMAP connection to send E-mail. Normally, the
   IMAP protocol provides only access to mail in an existing mail account,
   and mail clients must use SMTP in order to send mail. The Courier-IMAP
   server has an optional setting to enable mail to be send via an IMAP
   connection in a manner that should work with all existing IMAP mail
   clients. This can be useful when an account is logged in from a shared
   access pool which normally blocks most access to the SMTP port.

   This is implemented by enabling a setting in the imapd configuration file
   that designates a folder as a special "Outbox" folder. The default setting
   is a folder called "Outbox" (IMAP path INBOX.Outbox), but the name can be
   changed to anything. This folder, for the most part, is no different than
   any other folder. If a folder by that name doesn't exist, it needs to be
   created, just like any other IMAP folder. It looks and acts like any other
   folder, except that each message added to the folder, via IMAP's APPEND or
   COPY command, will also be mailed out by the Courier-IMAP server to the
   addresses listed in the To:, Cc:, and Bcc: headers.

   It should be possible to use this to send mail from any IMAP client by:

    1. Composing a draft message, telling the IMAP client to save the draft
       message in its drafts folder on the IMAP server.
    2. Opening the drafts folder, and moving or copying the message to the
       Outbox folder.
    3. The act of copying the message into the Outbox folder will send the
       mail. There won't be any explicit notification to the fact that the
       message was sent, so it's a good idea to include your own E-mail
       address on the Cc: list.

   > NOTE: it is tempting to configure the IMAP mail client to use Outbox as
   > its default folder for saving drafts. Resist the temptation. If you
   > forget, you'll save a partially completed draft, which will be then
   > obediently mailed out.

   > NOTE: the message, in addition to being sent, will be saved in the
   > folder in the normal fashion. After saving the message, reopen the
   > Outbox folder and delete the sent message, or move it someplace else.

   > NOTE: when enabled, the Courier-IMAP server will advertize a private
   > XCOURIEROUTBOX IMAP capability. It is theoretically possible to code an
   > IMAP mail client that reads this capability and automatically configures
   > itself accordingly -- when this IMAP capability is present -- to send
   > E-mail in the normal way but using the IMAP connection. At this time,
   > I'm not aware of any actual mail clients that know how to do this.

   > NOTE: many mail clients save some additional internal information in
   > headers of draft messages. The internal information is normally removed
   > before the mail client sends the message. Make sure that none of this
   > extra information is something that should not be mailed out.

Account OPTIONS

   If the option 'disableimap' or 'disablepop3' is set to a non-zero value,
   then logins via IMAP or POP3 respectively will be disabled for that
   account. You can use the DEFAULTOPTIONS setting to disable a service
   globally and then re-enable it for individual accounts; for example,
   setting DEFAULTOPTIONS="disableimap=1" will disable IMAP access for all
   accounts except those which have option disableimap=0

   See README_authlib.html in the courier-authlib package for information on
   how to set per-account options.

SMAP

   Starting with Courier-IMAP 2.0, the server supports an experimental mail
   access protocol, dubbed "Simple Mail Access Protocol". SMAP is an
   experiment to provide enhanced mail processing beyond what's currently
   possible with IMAP. SMAP's purpose is to prototype and develop advanced
   mail access functionality that's not possible with IMAP. SMAP is disabled
   by default. Uncomment the SMAP_CAPABILITY setting in the imapd
   configuration file in order to enable SMAP. The Cone mail client supports
   SMAP.
