README

   1                          Courier Authentication Library
   2
   3    This is the Courier authentication library. Copies of this library code
   4    used to exist in other tarballs: Courier, Courier-IMAP, and SqWebMail.
   5    Building and installing any of these packages would've automatically
   6    installed this authentication code.
   7
   8    The authentication library is now a separate, standalone package. This
   9    authentication library must now be installed, separately, before upgrading
  10    to the following builds (or if installing them for the first time):
  11    Courier 0.48, Courier-IMAP 4.0, and SqWebMail 5.0. See [1]NEWS for more
  12    information.
  13
  14    Download: [2]http://www.courier-mta.org/download.php#authlib
  15
  16 Overview
  17
  18    The Courier authentication library provides authentication services for
  19    other Courier applications. In this context, the term "authentication"
  20    refers to the following functions:
  21
  22     1. Take a userid or a loginid, and a password. Determine whether the
  23        loginid and the password are valid.
  24     2. Given a userid, obtain the following information about the userid:
  25
  26          A. The account's home directory.
  27          B. The numeric system userid and groupid that owns all files
  28             associated with this account.
  29          C. The location of the account's maildir.
  30          D. Any maildir quota defined for this account. See the Courier
  31             documentation for more information on maildir quotas.
  32          E. Other miscellaneous account-specific options.
  33
  34     3. Change the password associated with a loginid.
  35     4. Obtain a complete list of all loginids.
  36
  37    The Courier authentication library provides alternative implementations of
  38    these authentication services:
  39
  40     1. Use the traditional system password files: /etc/passwd and
  41        /etc/shadow, possibly in conjunction with the PAM library.
  42     2. Maintain all this information in a GDBM or a DB database. The GDBM or
  43        the DB database is compiled from plain text files. Perl scripts
  44        provide a simple interface for creating and editing the authentication
  45        information, then a script compiles the plain text files into a
  46        database.
  47     3. Use an LDAP server for authentication.
  48     4. Use a table in a MySQL database for authentication.
  49     5. Use a table in a PostgreSQL database for authentication.
  50
  51    All Courier components that use this authentication library, therefore,
  52    will be able to authenticate E-mail accounts using any of the above
  53    methods.
  54
  55    Additional information can be found in the [3]INSTALL file.
  56
  57    The authentication API is [4]documented.
  58
  59 Further resources
  60
  61    Subscribe to the courier-users mailing list:
  62    [5]http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/courier-users.