The Linux Electronic Mail Administrator HOWTO

• Index
• Introduction, copyright and standard disclaimer
• Other sources of information
• How Electronic Mail Works
• Requirements
• Choosing a Mail Transport Agent
• Installing Transport Software
• User Agent Administration
• Handling remote mail
• Acknowledgements

2. Other sources of information

http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/Mail-User-HOWTO.html.

2.2 USENET

There is nothing special about configuring and running mail software under Linux (any more). Accordingly, you almost certainly do NOT want to be posting generic mail-related questions to the comp.os.linux.* newsgroups.

Don't post in comp.os.linux hierarchy unless it's really linux specific, for example : "Which options was Debian 1.2 sendmail compiled with ?" or "RedHat 5.0 smail crashes when I run it".

Let me repeat that.

There is virtually no reason to post anything mail-related in the comp.os.linux hierarchy any more. There are existing newsgroups in the comp.mail.* hierarchy to handle *ALL* your questions.

IF YOU POST TO COMP.OS.LINUX.* FOR NON-LINUX-SPECIFIC QUESTIONS, YOU ARE LOOKING IN THE WRONG PLACE FOR HELP. THE MAIL EXPERTS HANG OUT IN THE PLACES INDICATED ABOVE AND GENERALLY DO NOT RUN LINUX.

POSTING TO THE LINUX HIERARCHY FOR NON-LINUX-SPECIFIC QUESTIONS WASTES YOUR TIME AND EVERYONE ELSE'S AND IT FREQUENTLY DELAYS YOUR GETTING THE ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION.

GOOD PLACES are :

           comp.mail.elm           the ELM mail system.
           comp.mail.mh            The Rand Message Handling system.
           comp.mail.mime          Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions.
           comp.mail.misc          General discussions about computer mail.
           comp.mail.multi-media   Multimedia Mail.
           comp.mail.mush          The Mail User's Shell (MUSH).
           comp.mail.sendmail      the BSD sendmail agent.
           comp.mail.smail         the smail mail agent.
           comp.mail.uucp          Mail in the uucp environment.

2.3 Mailing Lists

There are many sendmail, smail and qmail mailing lists.

You can find addresses in /usr/doc/the_one_you_have_chosen.

2.4 Other documents from LDP

There is plenty of excellent material provided in the other Linux HOWTO documents and from the Linux DOC project.

In particular, you might want to take a look at the following:

• on your own computer in /usr/doc/ :-)
• the Linux Networking Administrators' Guide
• the Mail Users HOWTO
• the Serial Communications HOWTO
• the Ethernet HOWTO
• the UUCP HOWTO if you're fed via UUCP

2.5 Books

The following is a non-inclusive set of books that will help:

• "Managing UUCP and USENET" from O'Reilly and Associates is in my opinion the best book out there for figuring out the programs and protocols involved in being a USENET site.
• "Unix Communications" from The Waite Group contains a nice description of all the pieces (and more) and how they fit together.
• "Sendmail" from O'Reilly and Associates looks to be the definitive reference on sendmail-v8 and sendmail+IDA. It's a "must have" for anybody hoping to make sense out of sendmail without bleeding in the process.
• "The Internet Complete Reference" from Osborne is a fine reference book that explains the various services available on Internet and is a great source for information on news, mail and various other Internet resources.
• "The Linux Networking Administrators' Guide" from Olaf Kirch of the Linux Documentation Project is available on the net and is also published by (at least) O'Reilly and SSC. It makes a fine one-stop shop to learn about everything you ever imagined you'd need to know about Unix networking.