Testing qmail delivery of local email

The first stage after getting qmail installed is to make sure it can at least accept and deliver local email. To do this we need to make sure there is a Maildir set up for some local user (doug in this instance), since we told qmail in our setup that it should deliver to the Maildir of each directory.

Making the maildir

The first step is to create a Maildir in which the mail will be queued.

Sending test mail

To send mail for testing there is a program /var/qmail/bin/qmail-inject (for which you should read the man page that you have installed). The script qmail-test.sh runs this for us.

For us the command to use is given below: it just sends to any user in /etc/passwd at this host, addressed to user@me, where me is the domain name in the file /var/qmail/control/me.

Checking the test mail was delivered

Of course we should now look in the Maildir of user doug and see if the mail is there. Since we have not yet set up any mail presentation agent (usually called a MUA or Mail User Agent) we will just go into the proper directory and look to see if the proper file is there.

Under the Maildir approach the proper place will be the directory Maildir/new/ under some random filename. After the mail has been read by an MUA that MUA will then move it under the directory cur and the name of the user who sent it, or as otherwise directed through the MUA.

Checking the logging

We have told qmail to log the activity of the qmail-send daemon in the directory /var/log/qmail: the most recent activity will be in the file current. So that file is shown below right after the preceding mail was sent.

Code links

ls.var.qmail.control.out

qmail-test.sh

first-email.out

var.log.qmail.current.out

Listings

^ ls.var.qmail.control.out

concurrencyincoming
====================
20
defaultdelivery
====================
./Maildir/
me
====================
uc2.lab.mscs.mu.edu
rcpthosts
====================
uc2.lab.mscs.mu.edu

^ qmail-test.sh

/var/qmail/bin/qmail-inject doug@uc2.lab.mscs.mu.edu </etc/group

^ first-email.out

Return-Path: <doug@uc2.lab.mscs.mu.edu>
Delivered-To: doug@uc2.lab.mscs.mu.edu
Received: (qmail 14790 invoked by uid 199); 7 Oct 2007 22:08:34 -0000
Date: 7 Oct 2007 22:08:34 -0000
Message-ID: <20071007220834.14789.qmail@uc2.lab.mscs.mu.edu>
From: doug@uc2.lab.mscs.mu.edu
Cc: recipient list not shown: ;
root::0:
other::1:root
bin::2:root,daemon
sys::3:root,bin,adm
adm::4:root,daemon
uucp::5:root
mail::6:root
tty::7:root,adm
lp::8:root,adm
nuucp::9:root
staff::10:
daemon::12:root
sysadmin::14:
smmsp::25:
gdm::50:
webservd::80:
nobody::60001:
noaccess::60002:
nogroup::65534:
doug::199:
nofiles::200:
qmail::201:

^ var.log.qmail.current.out

@400000004703eeed1385c3bc status: local 0/10 remote 0/20
@40000000470958ec2a7d8294 new msg 1539082
@40000000470958ec2a7fa574 info msg 1539082: bytes 538 from <doug@uc2.lab.mscs.mu.edu> qp 14790 uid 199
@40000000470958ec2aa7e624 starting delivery 1: msg 1539082 to local doug@uc2.lab.mscs.mu.edu
@40000000470958ec2aa82c74 status: local 1/10 remote 0/20
@40000000470958ec2b73e8b4 delivery 1: success: did_1+0+0/
@40000000470958ec2b77c4fc status: local 0/10 remote 0/20
@40000000470958ec2b7a97a4 end msg 1539082