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9 <title>Courier Authentication Library
</title>
13 <h1>Courier Authentication Library
</h1>
15 <p>Download:
<a target=
"_blank" href=
16 "http://www.courier-mta.org/download.html#authlib">http://www.courier-mta.org/download.html#authlib
</a></p>
20 <p>The Courier authentication library provides authentication
21 services for other Courier applications. In this context, the
22 term
"authentication" refers to the following functions:
</p>
25 <li>Take a userid or a loginid, and a password. Determine
26 whether the loginid and the password are valid.
</li>
28 <li>Given a userid, obtain the following information about the
32 <li>The account's home directory.
</li>
34 <li>The numeric system userid and groupid that owns all
35 files associated with this account.
</li>
37 <li>The location of the account's maildir.
</li>
39 <li>Any maildir quota defined for this account. See the
40 Courier documentation for more information on maildir
43 <li>Other miscellaneous account-specific options.
</li>
47 <li>Change the password associated with a loginid.
</li>
49 <li>Obtain a complete list of all login ids.
</li>
52 <p>The Courier authentication library provides alternative
53 implementations of these authentication services:
</p>
56 <li>Use the traditional system password files:
57 <code>/etc/passwd
</code> and
<code>/etc/shadow
</code>, possibly
58 in conjunction with the PAM library.
</li>
60 <li>Maintain all this information in a GDBM or a DB database.
61 The GDBM or the DB database is compiled from plain text files.
62 Perl scripts provide a simple interface for creating and
63 editing the authentication information, then a script compiles
64 the plain text files into a database.
</li>
66 <li>Use an LDAP server for authentication.
</li>
68 <li>Use a table in a MySQL database for authentication.
</li>
70 <li>Use a table in a PostgreSQL database for
73 <li>Use a table in an SQLite file for authentication.
</li>
76 <p>All Courier components that use this authentication library,
77 therefore, will be able to authenticate E-mail accounts using any
78 of the above methods.
</p>
80 <p>Additional information can be found in the
<a href=
81 "INSTALL.html">INSTALL
</a> file.
</p>
83 <p>The authentication API is
<a href=
84 "authlib.html">documented
</a>.
</p>
86 <h2>Further resources
</h2>
88 <p>Subscribe to the
<i><a target=
"_blank" href=
89 "http://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/courier-users">courier-users
</a></i>
91 <code>http://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/courier-users
</code>
92 to subscribe to
<i>courier-users
</i>, or send a message to
93 <code><courier-users-request
</code><code>@lists.sourceforge.net
></code>
94 and put
"subscribe" in the subject line. Search the list archives
95 at
<a target=
"_blank" href=
96 "http://markmail.org/browse/net.sourceforge.lists.courier-users">http://markmail.org/browse/net.sourceforge.lists.courier-users
</a>.
</p>