SqWebMail

SqWebMail is a web interface to maildirs, i.e., it is a webmail system that works directly with maildirs, instead of via POP or IMAP.

Its main program is implemented in C and is deployed as a CGI program. It is supported by a number of auxiliary programs variously written in C, C++, Perl and shell.

SqWebMail is bundled with the Courier MTA and is also available as a separate package. In my case, I downloaded the standalone SqWebMail package for the purpose of integrating it with XMail.

Scanning through SqWebMail's INSTALL file, the big question is, "How do I get SqWebMail to use XMail's maildirs?"

SqWebMail supports both system accounts and virtual accounts. Virtual accounts may be managed via LDAP, MySQL, PostgreSQL or GDBM/DB files. I certainly won't use system accounts for this purpose, nor do I intend to put up LDAP, MySQL or PostgreSQL just for authentication. So I'm left with GDBM/DB files.

As it turns out, SqWebMail's GDBM/DB-based system, called userdb, is implemented to be a complete replacement for the /etc/passwd system. INSTALL claims, "/etc/userdb can also be used to completely supercede /etc/passwd. With many accounts it can be quite a drain to have to continuously linearly scan /etc/passwd in order to look up an account. Instead, a fast database lookup can retrieve the same information from the database file." Hmmm, I believe the claim about /etc/passwd isn't true on modern Unixen, but anyways, let's forge ahead.

So SqWebMail locates its maildirs according to the information in userdb. Should be no problem pointing them to XMail's maildirs, then.

(To be continued when I get back from vacation...)