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MV User's QMAIL FAQ
Qmail is an email delivery agent used by the MV Shell Server (shell.mv.net aka iridium). Qmail handles the receipt of email for MV Shell customers, as well as the delivery of email being sent by shell customers from their shell accounts.

Most shell users will not need to make changes to their accounts, or to the way email programs (such as elm, pine and mail) are used. There are a few exceptions which are listed below.

How do I set my outgoing email to use my domain?
How do I set a personal name that goes along with my address?
Where is my email, it appears to be gone?
How can I tell the email progam to use the Mailbox file?
Can I use a name other than Mailbox?
Can I store my email anyplace I want?
Can I forward my incoming email to another email address?
Can I use my existing .forward file?
Can I use procmail with qmail?
NOTE: In the sections below, all examples are based on csh. If you are using an alternate shell you may need to modify the examples.
How do I set my outgoing email to use my domain? and
How do I set a personal name to go along with my address?
If you have a domain name, such as mydomainname.com that you wish to use for your outgoing email, you can do that by setting an environment variable. Likewise, if you wish to use a different username, such as myspecialname that should appear to the left of the @ in the email address, that can also be set through an environment variable.

Example outgoing email address:
   myspecialname@mydomainname.com

Using an editor like vi, pico or jove, edit the file .login (see note below) in your home directory adding the following lines:

           setenv QMAILNAME "my name goes here"
           setenv QMAILHOST mydomainname.com
           setenv QMAILUSER myspecialname
           setenv QMAILINJECT f
After adding those commands into the file, save the file and exit the editor. At the command prompt, enter:
           source .login(see note below)
That will make the new variables available in your current login shell. Future logins should see them upon logging in.

Restart your email program and send yourself a test message, it should now show it as being sent from your domain.

Note on .login usage: You may find that you will need to move this to your .cshrc file. Ideally it should be part of your .login as it is an environment item that is being set. If you use more advanced things, such as procmail scripts to autoreply or cronjobs, you may find that you will need to enter them in the .cshrc file instead.

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Where is my email, it appears to be gone?
Your email isn't gone, the location it was stored in may have changed. Prior to QMAIL all incoming email was stored in a specific mail directory. The migration to QMAIL allowed us to move incoming mail to your home directory instead. This will provide you with far better control over your email and the associated files.

Unless you have changed the location of your folder, it will be in a file in your home directory called Mailbox. You can tell your email program to use this box by default, or you can open the folder from the command line to read your email.

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How can I tell the email progam to use the Mailbox file?
This should be done for you when you log into the system. If you find that it is not, please report it by sending a message to mv-admin@mv.com or by calling MV Customer Support at:
(603) 629-0000.

If the shell that you are using does not execute some of the system-wide files, you may have to set it by hand. The email clients (elm, pine, mail, etc.) look for new email in /var/mail/username. Users can override this location by setting an environment variable.

Using an editor like vi, pico or jove, edit the file .login (see note below) in your home directory adding the following line: 

	   setenv MAIL `/usr/local/bin/defaultmailbox`
After adding those commands into the file, save the file and exit the editor. At the command prompt, enter:
           source .login
IMPORTANT: It appears as though some MV Customers have a similiar line in their .cshrc file. That line may appear as:
   set MAIL=/usr/mail/$USER
You may find that you will need to change that line and then "source .cshrc".

That will make the new variables available in your current login shell. Future logins should see them upon logging in.

Restart your email program and send yourself a test message, it should now show it as being sent from your domain.

Note: If you alter the name of the inbox you will need to reflect the change in your environment variable as well.

Note on .login usage: You may find that you will need to move this to your .cshrc file. Ideally it should be part of your .login as it is an environment item that is being set. If you use more advanced things, such as procmail scripts to autoreply or cronjobs, you may find that you will need to enter them in the .cshrc file instead.

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Can I use a name other than Mailbox? and...
Can I store my email anyplace I want?
Yes. To change the name of the folder where email is stored, you add a folder storage line to the .qmail file. Using an editor like vi, pico or jove, edit the file .qmail in your home directory adding the following line:
          ./newmailboxname
Lines beginning with either . or / in a qmail configuration file are paths to the folder where mail should be stored. If you wish to use a location other than your home directory, you can specify a full path. Examples include:
    /www/users/myusername/mymail
   ./Mail/inbox
An example which will fail includes:
   inbox - Doesn't begin with a . or /

There are two formats in which mail can be stored.

mboxAll mail is in a single file. This format works best for UNIX email clients.
maildirAll email is in separate messages within a single directory. This format will not work with UNIX email clients.
If the last character in the folder name is a /, maildir format will be used. If the last character is a letter or number, mbox format will be used.

NOTE: All examples shown in this section use mbox format.

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Can I forward my incoming email to another email address?
Yes. To forward your email to another email address, you add an email forward line to the .qmail file. Using an editor like vi, pico or jove, edit the file .qmail in your home directory adding the following line:
          &user@someplace.com
Lines beginning with & or a letter or number in a qmail configuration file are expected to be full email addresses. Examples include:
    someOtherEmailAddress@someplaceelse.com
   &.an.address.with.dots@someplaceelse.com
   yet.another.address@someplaceelse.com
Examples which will fail include:
   -my-email@mydomain.com - Line starts with a -
   mymailbox - Not a full email address
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Can I use my existing .forward file?
If you do not have a file in your home directory named .qmail, the delivery portion of QMAIL will check for a .forward file. However, if you are using a .qmail file and still wish to use your .forward file it is possible by adding a line to your .qmail file. Lines beginning with a | (pipe) in a qmail configuration file indicate that the incoming message is to be forwarded off to an alternate program to be handled. Additionally, QMAIL has a built-in command that understands how to read and handle existing .forward files.

Using an editor like vi, pico or jove, edit the file .qmail in your home directory adding the following line:

          |dot-forward .forward

This will instruct QMAIL to execute a .forward file. You then supply the name of the file (relative to the home directory). In most cases it will be .forward.

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Can I use procmail with qmail?
Procmail help is available through the man pages using both man procmail and man procmailrc. If you already have a procmail script set up and avialable and in-use through your .forward file, you can either call the existing .forward file, or launch procmail directly from qmail.

This section discusses launching procmail directly from QMAIL and assumes you already have a procmail file called .procmailrc.

Using an editor like vi, pico or jove, edit the file .qmail in your home directory adding the following line:

          |preline /usr/local/bin/procmail .procmailrc

This will launch procmail. In addition to the standard email header, QMAIL's preline command will place the following three headers in your message:

FROM_ The address given to QMAIL by the sender
DELIVERED_TO The destination address given to QMAIL by the sender
RETURN_PATH UUCP-Style header showing the return path
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