Installing NaSMail
==================
Table of Contents:
0. (QUICK!) Quick install guide
1. (PHP) Configure your webserver to work with PHP
2. (IMAP) Setting up IMAP (not covered)
3. (INSTALL) Obtaining and installing NaSMail
4. (RUN) Running NaSMail
5. (LOCALES) Translations of NaSMail
0. QUICK INSTALL GUIDE
----------------------
Each of these steps is covered in detail below.
- Install webserver and PHP (at least 4.1.0).
- Install IMAP server (see docs of that server).
- Unpack the NaSMail package in a web-accessible location.
- Select a data-dir and attachment dir, outside the webtree (e.g. in /var).
The data-dir (for user prefs) should be owned by the user the webserver
runs as (e.g. www-data). The attachment dir (for uploading files as
attachments) should be file mode 0730 and in the same group as the
webserver.
- Run config/conf.pl from the command line. Use the D option to load predefined
options for specific IMAP servers, and edit at least the Server Settings and
General Options (datadir).
- Browse to http://www.example.com/yourwebmaillocation/src/configtest.php
to test your configuration for common errors.
- Browse to http://www.example.com/yourwebmaillocation/ to log in.
1. CONFIGURE YOUR WEBSERVER TO WORK WITH PHP
--------------------------------------------
If your webserver does not already have PHP you must configure it to work
with PHP. You need at least PHP v4.1.0. NaSMail uses the standard suffix .php
for all PHP files.
You can find PHP at http://www.php.net. See the documentation that
comes with PHP for instructions how to set it up.
The PHP IMAP extension is NOT necessary at all (but won't harm)! NaSMail
needs PHP instalation with session and pcre extensions. Below is a list of
optional PHP extensions:
--enable-mbstring
Interface will work, if this extension is not present, but some features
might be broken.
--with-gettext
If extension is not present, translations will use slower php-gettext
classes.
--with-ldap
Required for LDAP address books
--with-pear and --with-mysql
For MySQL storage of preferences or address books. You will need PHP
compiled with --with-pgsql option, if you want to use PostgreSQL instead
of MySQL. You will need PHP with appropriate database extension, if you
want to use any other database.
--with-openssl
Required for encrypted IMAP or SMTP connections (TLS)
--with-iconv or --with-recode
Can be used by some character set decoding functions.
It is highly advised to NOT turn on register_globals, as this can lead
to security holes. If you must use register_globals for some applications,
turn it on locally for only those directories, or turn it off for the
NaSMail folder.
If you want your users to attach files to their mails, make sure
File Uploads in php.ini is set to On.
2. SETTING UP IMAP
------------------
This depends a lot on the server your choose. See the documentation that
comes with your server.
If you're concerned about people accessing it directly, you can limit access
to only the IP of the webserver.
3. OBTAINING AND INSTALLING NASMAIL
-----------------------------------
NaSMail is constantly being improved. Therefore you should always get the
newest version around. Look at http://www.nasmail.org to see what it is. If
you want to be bleeding edge you might want to consider using the latest
development version (with the latest and most fashionable bugs).
a. Download NaSMail
Get NaSMail from the address above if you do not have it or are uncertain if
you have the newest version. Untar (again tar xvfz filename.tgz) NaSMail in
a directory that is readable for your webserver.
b. Setting up directories
NaSMail uses two directories to store user configuration and attachments that
are about to be sent. You might want to have these directories outside of
your web tree.
The data directory is used for storing user preferences, like signature, name
and theme. When unpacking the sources this directory is created as data/ in
your NaSMail directory. This directory must be writable by the webserver. If
your webserver is running as the user "nobody" you can fix this by running:
$ chown -R nobody:nobody data
Keep in mind that with different installations, the web server could
typically run as userid/groupid of nobody/nobody, nobody/nogroup,
apache/apache or www-data/www-data. The best way to find out is to read the
web server's configuration file.
There also needs to be a directory where attachments are stored before they
are sent. Since personal mail is stored in this directory you might want to
be a bit careful about how you set it up. It should be owned by another user
than the webserver is running as (root might be a good choice) and the
webserver should have directory write and execute permissions, but should not
have read permissions. You could do this by running these commands (still
granted that the webserver is running as nobody/nobody):
$ cd /var/local/nasmail/
$ mkdir attach
$ chgrp -R nobody attach
$ chmod 730 attach
If you trust all the users at your system not to read mail they are not
supposed to read, you can simply use /tmp as you attachments directory.
If a user is aborting a mail but has uploaded some attachments to it the
files will be lying around in this directory forever if you do not remove
them. To fix this, it is recommended to create a cron job that deletes
everything in the attachment directory. Something similar to the following
will be good enough:
$ cd /var/local/nasmail/attach
$ rm -f *
However, this will delete attachments that are currently in use by people
sending email when the cron job runs. You can either (1) make sure that the
cron job runs at an obscure hour and hope that nobody gets upset, or (2) you
can run a modified version of the commands above. Check out the man pages
for other commands such as 'find' or 'tmpreaper'.
One sample script you could set up that would erase all attachments, but
wouldn't erase preferences, address books, or the like (just in case your
attachment directory is the same as your data directory) might look like
this:
$ rm `find /var/local/nasmail/attach -atime +2 | grep -v "\." | grep -v _`
Remember to be careful with whatever method you do use, and to test out the
command before it potentially wipes out everyone's preferences.
c. Setting up NaSMail
There are three ways to configure NaSMail. In the config/ directory, there
is a perl script called conf.pl that will aid you in the configuration
process. This is the recommended way of handling the config.
There's also a plugin called 'administrator' for the web interface but you'll
have to be able to at least log in to NaSMail first.
You can also copy the config/config_default.php file to config/config.php and
edit that manually.
After you've created a configuration, you can use your web browser to browse
to http://your-nasmail-location/src/configtest.php. This will perform some
basic checks on your configuration to make sure everything works like it
should.
4. RUNNING NASMAIL
------------------
Point your browser at the URL at which NaSMail is installed. A possible
example of this is:
http://www.example.com/nasmail
It should be pretty straight forward to use. Some more documentation might
show up one day or another.
5. TRANSLATIONS
---------------
In order to use translated versions of NaSMail, you need to download and
install locale packages that contain translations that you want to use with
NaSMail.
Locale packages can be downloaded from NaSMail site.
http://www.nasmail.org/downloads.shtml
Each translation contains an install script that copies the required files
into their appropriate locations. If you can't run that script, you can
extract the contents of a translation package into your NaSMail directory.
NOTE No.1: *-src.tar.gz, *-src.tar.bz2 and *-src.zip archives do not contain
compiled translation files. You will need to run the "compilelocales" script
in order to get all gettext binary translations.
NOTE No.2: You might have to restart your webserver before using translations.
If you can't do that, install your translations _before_ you use NaSMail.
Documentation generated on Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:37:13 +0200 by phpDocumentor 1.4.3