Maildrop is a
Mail delivery agent
A message delivery agent (MDA), or mail delivery agent, is a computer software component that is responsible for the delivery of e-mail messages to a local recipient's mailbox. It is also called a local delivery agent (LDA).
Within the Internet ...
used by the
Courier Mail Server
The Courier Mail Server is a mail transfer agent (MTA) server that provides Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, SMTP, IMAP, POP3, Simple Mail Access Protocol, SMAP, webmail, and electronic mailing list, mailing list services with individual components ...
. The maildrop
Mail Delivery Agent (MDA) also includes filtering functionality.
Maildrop receives mail via stdin and delivers in both
Maildir
The Maildir e-mail format is a common way of storing email messages on a file system, rather than in a database. Each message is assigned a Computer file, file with a unique name, and each mail folder is a file system directory containing these fil ...
and
mbox
Mbox is a generic term for a family of related file formats used for holding collections of email messages. It was first implemented in Research Unix, Fifth Edition Unix.
All messages in an mbox mailbox are Concatenation, concatenated and store ...
formats.
Features
Maildrop can optionally read filtering configuration from a file to determine whether the message is delivered to an alternate mailbox or forwarded. The structured filtering language is robust enough to allow maildrop to work with virtual mailboxes. If the filtering configuration contains syntax errors maildrop does not deliver the message but the message is not lost.
Maildrop can run in different modes, depending on the calling environment. ''Delivery'' mode is the "normal" mail filtering mode; that is, during final delivery, after the message left the
SMTP
The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is an Internet standard communication protocol for electronic mail transmission. Mail servers and other message transfer agents use SMTP to send and receive mail messages. User-level email clients typi ...
environment. However, maildrop can also run in ''embedded'' mode; that is, during an SMTP transaction. Running in embedded mode allows a filter to reject a message before the server accepts it for local delivery. Finally, maildrop can run in ''manual'' mode, like any other
interpreter
Interpreting is translation from a spoken or signed language into another language, usually in real time to facilitate live communication. It is distinguished from the translation of a written text, which can be more deliberative and make use o ...
.
Maildrop is written in C++. However, it uses resources more efficiently than procmail (written in C) by saving large messages to a temporary file rather than reading them into memory. If the input to maildrop is a file then a temporary file is not used.
See also
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Email filtering
Email filtering is the processing of email to organize it according to specified criteria. The term can apply to the intervention of human intelligence, but most often refers to the automatic processing of messages at an SMTP server, possibly ap ...
*
fdm
*
procmail
procmail is an email server software component — specifically, a message delivery agent (MDA). It was one of the earliest mail filter programs. It is typically used in Unix-like mail systems, using the mbox and Maildir storage formats.
pr ...
*
Sieve
A sieve (), fine mesh strainer, or sift is a tool used for separating wanted elements from unwanted material or for controlling the particle size distribution of a sample, using a screen such as a woven mesh or net or perforated sheet m ...
References
External links
*
/www.courier-mta.org/maildrop/ maildrop home pagebr>
Postfix + maildrop how-to
Mail delivery agents
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