Exec'ing a script from Cyrus when imapd has a client

[Greg A. Woods]

At Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:59:21 +0100, Xavier Bestel <xavier.bestel at free.fr> wrote:
Subject: Re: Exec'ing a script from Cyrus when imapd has a client
> 
> - not all mail providers do IMAP.

Too bad, so sad.  Seriously.  If you really want to use e-mail address
at some antique domain where IMAP access is still not available, and
where e-mail forwarding is also not available, then you can still just
set up your MUA so you can easily move messages from those antiquated
POP folders over to suitable IMAP folders on some other system.

You do not _need_ fetchmail to do this for you, and you certainly don't
need yet another IMAP server to do this for you.

Personally I would try desperately to get a forwarding alias set up at
any domain I needed to use which didn't offer IMAP access (and probably
even if it did offer IMAP).


> - not all mail providers doing IMAP guarantee unlimited storage or
> lifelong mail availability.

Quota limits are easily avoided with any useful modern IMAP client which
can move selected messages between folders, including between systems,
and including to the "local" system (wherever the MUA runs).


> - some users have accumulated mail providers and want to centralize
> everything in a trusted server

Normally we use forwarding aliases to do that.  :-)  NEVER EVER fetchmail.

I have e-mail addresses at a dozen or so domains, and I could probably
have many more if I wished, but I have only two main IMAP accounts (and
a few test IMAP accounts at sites where I manage systems and software).
All my scattered e-mail addresses forward to one of my main IMAP
accounts.  I don't need or would I ever want any e-mail address where I
cannot set up a forwarding alias.


> That you may find this solution not optimal isn't the question (nor
> really my problem, in fact), I just wanted my server to rest a bit when
> unused (spinning off the drives array has measurable power gains), so I
> wanted to be able to know when Cyrus has connected users.

Indeed it's really not a Cyrus problem in the first place.

You have created the situation for yourself within which you must now
either choose to exist, or to change.  :-)

If you really want a truly robust central e-mail server then you should
probably be hosting it at a dedicated co-location provider and then its
power consumption will likely be the least of your worries.  Ideally you
would set it up to run SMTP as well and then use forwarding aliases at
any other domains to collect all your e-mail at this one server.  You'd
still need to do off-site backups too of course.


Ignoring the questionable sanity of using fetchail to feed an IMAP
server, what you originally asked is really a systems programming
question, one more appropriate for a forum related to systems
programming for kind of OS you're running your server on.  There are
potentially dozens of various ways the same end result could be achieved
on any one given OS and system configuration.

-- 
						Greg A. Woods

+1 416 218-0098                VE3TCP          RoboHack <woods at robohack.ca>
Planix, Inc. <woods at planix.com>      Secrets of the Weird <woods at weird.com>