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9 | <title>README</title> |
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10 | </head> |
11 | |
12 | <body> |
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13 | <h1>Courier Authentication Library</h1> |
14 | |
15 | <p>This is the Courier authentication library. Copies of this |
16 | library code used to exist in other tarballs: Courier, |
17 | Courier-IMAP, and SqWebMail. Building and installing any of these |
18 | packages would've automatically installed this authentication |
19 | code.</p> |
20 | |
21 | <p>The authentication library is now a separate, standalone |
22 | package. This authentication library must now be installed, |
23 | separately, before upgrading to the following builds (or if |
24 | installing them for the first time): Courier 0.48, Courier-IMAP |
25 | 4.0, and SqWebMail 5.0. See <a href="NEWS.html">NEWS</a> for more |
26 | information.</p> |
27 | |
28 | <p>Download: <a target="_blank" href= |
29 | "http://www.courier-mta.org/download.php#authlib">http://www.courier-mta.org/download.php#authlib</a></p> |
30 | |
31 | <h2>Overview</h2> |
32 | |
33 | <p>The Courier authentication library provides authentication |
34 | services for other Courier applications. In this context, the |
35 | term "authentication" refers to the following functions:</p> |
36 | |
37 | <ol> |
38 | <li>Take a userid or a loginid, and a password. Determine |
39 | whether the loginid and the password are valid.</li> |
40 | |
41 | <li>Given a userid, obtain the following information about the |
42 | userid: |
43 | |
44 | <ol type="A"> |
45 | <li>The account's home directory.</li> |
46 | |
47 | <li>The numeric system userid and groupid that owns all |
48 | files associated with this account.</li> |
49 | |
50 | <li>The location of the account's maildir.</li> |
51 | |
52 | <li>Any maildir quota defined for this account. See the |
53 | Courier documentation for more information on maildir |
54 | quotas.</li> |
55 | |
56 | <li>Other miscellaneous account-specific options.</li> |
57 | </ol> |
58 | </li> |
59 | |
60 | <li>Change the password associated with a loginid.</li> |
61 | |
62 | <li>Obtain a complete list of all loginids.</li> |
63 | </ol> |
64 | |
65 | <p>The Courier authentication library provides alternative |
66 | implementations of these authentication services:</p> |
67 | |
68 | <ol> |
69 | <li>Use the traditional system password files: |
70 | <code>/etc/passwd</code> and <code>/etc/shadow</code>, possibly |
71 | in conjunction with the PAM library.</li> |
72 | |
73 | <li>Maintain all this information in a GDBM or a DB database. |
74 | The GDBM or the DB database is compiled from plain text files. |
75 | Perl scripts provide a simple interface for creating and |
76 | editing the authentication information, then a script compiles |
77 | the plain text files into a database.</li> |
78 | |
79 | <li>Use an LDAP server for authentication.</li> |
80 | |
81 | <li>Use a table in a MySQL database for authentication.</li> |
82 | |
83 | <li>Use a table in a PostgreSQL database for |
84 | authentication.</li> |
85 | </ol> |
86 | |
87 | <p>All Courier components that use this authentication library, |
88 | therefore, will be able to authenticate E-mail accounts using any |
89 | of the above methods.</p> |
90 | |
91 | <p>Additional information can be found in the <a href= |
92 | "INSTALL.html">INSTALL</a> file.</p> |
93 | |
94 | <p>The authentication API is <a href= |
95 | "authlib.html">documented</a>.</p> |
96 | |
97 | <h2>Further resources</h2> |
98 | |
99 | <p>Subscribe to the courier-users mailing list: <a href= |
100 | "http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/courier-users"><code> |
101 | http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/courier-users</code></a>.</p> |
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102 | </body> |
103 | </html> |