John Stoffel via WLUG <wlug@lists.wlug.org> writes:
"Keith" == Keith Wright via WLUG <wlug@lists.wlug.org> writes:
My big project for the past few weeks was begun in a hurry when the company that hosts the VPS that runs both mail and web servers sent me a message saying they are going out of business.
I got another; am sending this mail throught it.
The old SVP ran PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)" while the new one "Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie)"
Do you run dovecot for IMAP(s) access to your mail? Or do you just deliver it locally and read it using some other mail program?
I log into the VPS and use emacs (rmail-get-new-mail ... ...), which is bound to a single keystroke, to copy mbox file from /var/... to RMAIL in /home/kwright. Diane uses thunderbird on Windows which (I think) uses imap to interact with dovecot on VPS. From time to time I use rsync to copy RMAIL@VPS to RMAIL@laptop where I can read it again, write this reply, maybe copy it to thumb drive or web page.
I ask because with Trixie, dovecot was upgraded to v2.4.x and it's a big problem because the configuration language has been changed, and it's not as stable as the old 2.3.x version is, and some features have been pulled.
But that part seems to be working. Whatever Hostinger put in the Debian boot image together with a few "apt install"s of my own, just does it.
So I'd be careful upgrading. I've been thinking about deployin "Mail-in-box" instead, just to get more spam filtering, and more integration with DNS, DKIM, SPF, rspam, etc.
Doing mail well is a pain.
My current pain is fail2ban, which seems like a good idea but seems to be having a fight with systemd. I get error messages that seem to indicate I need to install nft (nftables), otherwise fail2ban can put an IPaddr in jail, but that has no effect.
There were several web pages that said that Debian 13 could not run fail2ban without special configuration. Either they were just wrong or it was fixed in some 13.N release. (Does anyone know how to see N?) It seemed to install just fine.
I now think there is no N. Debian 13 is one thing, after that the problem is to apt install (and configure) the right versions of postfix, dovecot, fail2ban, and ... ... ...
But now I have learned enough to reach a higher plane of confusion.
-- Keith