* Philip Hazel
> Let me see if I've understood this right. You don't have any real user
> accounts, but you want to implement facilities whereby the users may
> attempt to do things that could interfere with each others' files.
Not speaking for Robert, _my_ primary goal was to enable virtual IMAP
users to sort their mail into different folders on delivery. I
implemented this using an LDAP-stored exim filter, a forwardfile
director where almost everything is forbidden and a transport using
the maildir-enabled "create_file = belowhome" setting.
> And you want to implement special, ad hoc facilities to manage this?
>
> Why?
>
> If you want to let users do things other than retrieve their mail by
> POP or IMAP, why not use the facilities that the operating system
> already has built into it - that is, user accounts? These are well
> understood and well debugged. You don't have to allow the users login
> access.
No, but unless you du fancy things with the usernames you're stuck
with a single namespace for mail adresses. I'm hosting several mail
domains, with distinct local namespaces, on this configuration.
With real users you get security concerns in the other end as well.
While you don't have to allow these former virtual users login access,
you need to actually do the work to set this up and make sure you
don't. This might be simple or it might be hard, depending on your
level of paranoia and the number of services having the potential for
unwanted privilege or information spill running on your box.
(All this aside, I think "create_file"-functionality makes sense for
maildir as well as mailbox deliveries, be your users virtual or
actual.)
Arne.
