*BSD News Article 53441


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From: gary@palmer.demon.co.uk (Gary Palmer)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.mail.misc
Subject: Re: Using POP without allowing login's
Date: 24 Oct 1995 23:13:26 +0100
Organization: none
Lines: 27
Message-ID: <46joe6$5ap@palmer.demon.co.uk>
References: <46ashl$t16@shiva.usa.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: pc.my.org
X-NNTP-Posting-Host: palmer.demon.co.uk
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:7749 comp.mail.misc:23090

In article <46ashl$t16@shiva.usa.net>,
Chris Erskine <cigcos.cerskine@eds.com> wrote:
>I have a box running Free BSD on it.  Does anyone know how to set the
>system up to support mail users only without allowing them to login.

>The problems which I see are that:
>  1) Sendmail needs the user ID in the passwd file to know that the
>user is a registered user.

You can use /etc/aliases to over-ride this and have the mail delivered
to a file.

>  2) Qpopper requires the user to have a valid user id and password to
>connect to the POP server.

You can set the shell to /usr/bin/false (or even /usr/bin/true if you
want :-) ).

Alternatively, investigate the pop server supplied in the MH system.
I believe it can be setup to look for username/password details in a
private file rather than in /etc/passwd. You will not find the POP
server in the package, you'll have to use the port and hack it by
hand.

Gary