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On 01/19/2018 05:29 AM, Patrick Goetz wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:9b8c9f8d-2c2f-a1e7-546a-86b6ccc80be3@mail.utexas.edu">The
biggest ongoing problem with Cyrus is the documentation, not that
it's harder to install. Cyrus is, if anything, easier to install
than Dovecot (modulo distro packaging, which is the main
difference here). The Dovecot guy writes very good documentation,
and until recently trying to get information about how to set up
Cyrus was like pulling teeth. I'm always having to appeal to this
list whenever an issue comes up. Recently I set up a vacation
notification system. Super easy AFTER A MONTH SPENT researching
how to do it. I'm still not completely clear on how to set up
multiple virtual mailhosts, either; my next onerous email research
project.
<br>
<br>
FastMail of course has no incentive or reason to write
documentation making it easier to set up your own Cyrus system(s);
that's going to be up to the community.
</blockquote>
<br>
I'm sorry, and don't wish to start a flame war here, but can't just
let this comment pass. Fastmail are dedicated to improving the
documentation of Cyrus, and have on staff a person, Nicola Nye
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:nicolan@fastmailteam.com"><nicolan@fastmailteam.com></a>, for that specific reason. They've
spent a bundle of money to improve the documentation, as have other
organizations like <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://kolabsystems.com/">Kolab</a> and <a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="https://www.onlight.com/">Onlight</a>
(my firm). Last year Onlight flew me to Melbourne for two weeks, to
set up camp in the Fastmail offices and write documentation.<br>
<br>
While I will agree that improvement is still needed, a remarkable
amount has been done in the past few years.<br>
<br>
It's the nature of almost all Open Source packages that
documentation often lags behind features, unless the docs and code
are being written by the same people. Another issue common to many
FOSS software is that people write documentation which addresses
needs they perceive, just like people write software which addresses
needs they perceive. For example, I recently needed to migrate
older Cyrus installations from 2.5.11 to 3.0.5, and to add Xapian
indexing. I couldn't make sense of the existing docs, so I
interrogated Bron and others, and rewrote those docs, along with
touching up other sections which dealt with the various supported
partitioning types.<br>
<br>
Cyrus is a very capable and scalable email platform, provides a lot
of flexibility and supports a lot of options. This necessarily
makes it more complex to configure, and more complex to document.<br>
<br>
My advice to anyone who is having trouble understanding or deploying
a feature is to come here or to the cyrus-dev list, and ask
questions:<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://cyrusimap.org/imap/support/feedback-mailing-lists.html">https://cyrusimap.org/imap/support/feedback-mailing-lists.html</a><br>
<br>
If you need to know how to do something and feel it isn't well
documented, ask in the lists, on IRC, or log a ticket at Github.
Seriously on that last one. If you log an issue on Github, it will
get seen to, by myself or others.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://github.com/cyrusimap/cyrus-imapd/issues">https://github.com/cyrusimap/cyrus-imapd/issues</a><br>
<br>
As for your next challenge, the term "virtual mailhosts" is a bit
vague, so I'm not sure which way to steer you. Do you mean Virtual
Domains; one server receiving and hosting mail for multiple email
domains? If so, start here:<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://cyrusimap.org/imap/concepts/features/virtual-domains.html?highlight=virtual">https://cyrusimap.org/imap/concepts/features/virtual-domains.html?highlight=virtual</a><br>
<br>
If you mean something else, please follow up with a separate message
on this list or IRC
(<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://cyrusimap.org/imap/support/feedback-irc.html">https://cyrusimap.org/imap/support/feedback-irc.html</a>).<br>
<br>
Lastly, I would remiss not to mention that we will always welcome
user contributions to the documentation. If you feel you solved an
undocumented, or poorly documented problem, please let us know what
you did, what you learnt, how you solved the issue. If you can even
just write up an email description of the problem and solution, we
can shape it into documentation. Often the best documentation
evolves out of a user solving a problem and then sharing their new
knowledge.<br>
<br>
Cheers,<br>
-nic<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Nic Bernstein <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:nic@onlight.com">nic@onlight.com</a>
Onlight Inc. <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.onlight.com">www.onlight.com</a>
6525 W Bluemound Rd., Ste 24 v. 414.272.4477
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53213-4073 f. 414.290.0335
</pre>
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