Expert: Matt Blecha - 5/20/2008

Question
dear sir,
how can i split users mail in mail server? suppose i have user saroj@info.com.np, there is 100 mails in his mailbox sized 100 mb. now how can i split them so that i can send 10 mails only so that user can download mail from server easily. i have sendmail server in linux 6.2 machine. will be grateful
saroj

Answer
Saroj,

    Unfortunately, I do not have good news for you. Downloading mail from the server is a bit more complicated than simply altering any configuration of sendmail. When downloading mail from a mailserver, you're generally using POP3 or IMAP, not SMTP. As sendmail deals only with SMTP and variants, instead of POP3 and IMAP, you would probably need to alter the configurations for a program like dovecot IMAP server or the POP3 daemon configurations on your server.

    Also, unfortunately, most of these daemons are not sophisticated enough to understand that multiple directories all contain the same folder's worth of emails.

    On the plus side of the coin, if you have the disk space, you may wish to try and implement IMAP mail stores on the server. Using IMAP, all email is stored directly on the server and downloaded "on demand" only when needed, similar to Microsoft Exchange.

    I would think that the last option you would have is to install a web based email client, such as SquirrelMail http://www.squirrelmail.org/ or the like in order to manage your user's ease of download.