TPOP3D(8)                                               TPOP3D(8)



NAME
       tpop3d - small, fast, extensible POP3 server

SYNOPSIS
       tpop3d -h | [ -f file ] [ -p file ] [ -dvP ]

DESCRIPTION
       tpop3d  is a server which implements the RFC1939 POP3 pro-
       tocol, including UIDL  support.  tpop3d  supports  virtual
       domain  authentication  via  a  number of mechanisms, POP-
       before-SMTP relaying, TCP wrappers, Maildir mailboxes  and
       various other useful features.  It is a daemon which waits
       in the background and  accepts  incoming  connections.  It
       cannot be operated from inetd(8).

       tpop3d logs most diagnostics via syslog(3), using facility
       mail or another which  is  defined  in  its  configuration
       file.

       Detailed control over the operation of tpop3d is exercised
       by   editing   its   configuration   file,   by    default
       /etc/tpop3d.conf.  See the manual entry for tpop3d.conf(5)
       for more information.


OPTIONS
       -h     Print a  summary  of  usage  and  the  compile-time
              options of this tpop3d.

       -f file
              Read  configuration  from  file,  instead  of  from
              /etc/tpop3d.conf.

       -p file
              Write the PID of the server  process  to  file.  By
              default, no PID file is written.

       -d     Do  not  fork to become a daemon, but stay attached
              to a controlling terminal and print log messages to
              standard error as well as the syslog

       -v     Log  traffic  being  sent  to/from  the server, for
              debugging purposes; tpop3d will  log  commands  and
              responses  sent,  but  not  passwords or the actual
              content of messages.

       -P     If tpop3d is compiled with TLS support, and is con-
              figured  to  use  a  key protected by a passphrase,
              tpop3d will wait to read the passphrase at startup.
              Do  not use this option when starting tpop3d from a
              boot script; it might wait forever for input on the
              console.


SIGNALS
       SIGTERM, SIGINT
              Cause  the  daemon to exit, closing any active con-
              nections.

       SIGHUP Cause the daemon to restart, re-reading its config-
              uration  file.  This  will not close active connec-
              tions which have already been authenticated.

       other signals
              Most  other  signals  are  ignored,   though   some
              (SIGSEGV  etc.)  will cause the daemon to terminate
              prematurely. In these circumstances, tpop3d  should
              clear  up  all  of its lock files. However, if this
              happens, it indicates either a bug in tpop3d, or  a
              hardware  problem.  In the former case, please con-
              tact me (see below for contact details) with infor-
              mation  about  your  configuration  and  (if known)
              steps which may be taken to reproduce the bug.   In
              particular,  the  configuration  options  which you
              used to compile tpop3d and the operating system and
              version  under  which you are running it are essen-
              tial information for a bug report.


BUGS
       Locking of mailspools under Unix  is  problematic,  mostly
       because  of  past  brokenness  which  has  now been fixed.
       tpop3d's locking scheme should suffice in most cases  (and
       should  work  reliably over NFS) but it is naive: it locks
       the mailspool for exclusive access, so that an MTA  cannot
       deliver  mail to the mailspool whilst it is being accessed
       by a tpop3d user. As a result, it is configured by default
       to  time  out  users rather rapidly (after 30s of inactiv-
       ity). This is one of several places where it is marginally
       noncompliant with RFC1939. Note that the locking issues do
       not apply to maildir mailboxes.

       Authentication drivers block the main daemon;  this  means
       that a failure in NIS or an external program could prevent
       tpop3d from handling new connections. A future version may
       support asynchronous authentication drivers.

       If TCP Wrappers support is enabled, then reverse-DNS reso-
       lution of connected client addresses may  also  block  the
       main daemon.


FILES
       /etc/tpop3d.conf


SEE ALSO
       tpop3d.conf(5),  exim(8),  inetd(8),  syslog(3), mysql(1),
       TPOP3D::AuthDriver(1), RFC1939,
       http://www.ex-parrot.com/~chris/tpop3d/,
       http://www.ex-parrot.com/~chris/vmail-sql/,
       http://www.mysql.com/,
       http://lists.beasts.org/pipermail/tpop3d-discuss/.


AUTHOR
       Chris Lightfoot <chris@ex-parrot.com>.  Portions  by  Mark
       Longair and Paul Makepeace.

       If  you  have  a query about tpop3d, please do not send me
       personal email. Instead, please  send  it  to  the  tpop3d
       mailing  list,  to  which  you can subscribe by sending an
       email with the subject `subscribe' to
       <tpop3d-discuss-request@lists.beasts.org>.  There   is   a
       mailing list archive at
       http://lists.beasts.org/pipermail/tpop3d-discuss/.


VERSION
       $Id: tpop3d.8,v 1.16 2003/08/21 15:51:57 chris Exp $


COPYING
       This  program  is  free  software; you can redistribute it
       and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
       License  as  published  by  the  Free Software Foundation;
       either version 2 of the License, or (at your  option)  any
       later version.

       This  program  is  distributed in the hope that it will be
       useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
       warranty  of  MERCHANTABILITY  or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
       PURPOSE. See the  GNU  General  Public  License  for  more
       details.

       You  should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
       License along with this program; if not, write to the Free
       Software  Foundation,  Inc.,  675  Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA
       02139, USA.




                                                        TPOP3D(8)