Disk Directory usage of EMWAC Internet Mail Services

This page describes how the EMWAC Internet Mail Services make use of disk directories.

Mailbox Directory

If a registered user on the Windows NT system wishes to receive incoming mail, she must create an "incoming mail" directory. This directory must match the "Mailbox Template" which is configured through the EMWAC IMS Control Panel applet. Mail is delivered into this directory by the SMTP Delivery Agent, and may be removed from the directory by the POP3 Server under control of a POP3 client.

Any user's "incoming mail" directory must be an NTFS directory.

This directory can be configured to be created automatically through the EMWAC IMS applet. When an "incoming mail" directory is created automatically, the POP3S and SMTPDS will try to create it based on the following rules:

if your mailbox template has a pattern "%HOME%\...", POP3S can be used to create a mailbox directory for a user. The user will have "Full Control" of it, and the System user will have "Add" permission for it. A user home directory represented here by %HOME%) should be created by User Manager (for Domains).
if your mailbox template has a pattern "...\%USERNAME%", both POP3S and SMTPDS can create a mailbox directory for a user. The SYSTEM user will have "Full Control" of it. For example, if you have this template as "C:\Mail\%USERNAME%", you have to create "C:\Mail" directory manually with at least SYSTEM user "Full Control"; and then POP3S or SMTPDS can create "incoming mail" directories for users.

If you plan to create users' mail inbox directories manually, please follow the above rules to set permissions on each inbox directory.

It is recommended that you run all the IMS Services as the Local System user (the default). Otherwise, you need set up all the above permissions manually, which is difficult to get right.

Again, if you have a "%HOME%\..." template, SMTPDS will try to create a mailbox directory for a user, and if it is sucessful, the user may not have the right permissions on the directory. Therefore, it is not recommended to create mailboxes this way.

Mail Spool Directory

You can use the configuration program to specify the "Mail Spool Directory" for the Internet Mail Services. The spool directory contains a number of subdirectories which are used as "staging posts" for messages. Some of these subdirectories and the files within them will have names which exceed the DOS 8.3 filename limitation; therefore it is vital that the Mail Spool Directory is placed on a disk partition which supports long file names (eg an NTFS partition).

The directory structure under the Mail Spool Directory is as follows. See the How it works page for detailed information on how messages are passed around between directories.

incoming: This directory holds messages received by the SMTP receiver. The SMTP Delivery Agent also places messages here - eg non-delivery reports and messages which are sent to mailing lists.
holding: Messages are moved from the incoming directory into this directory by the SMTP Delivery Agent.
domains: When a message is moved into the holding directory, the Delivery Agent creates a subdirectory within the domains directory for each separate domain to which the message is addressed. If the message is for a local user, it creates a subdirectory called $local. In each subdirectory it stores routing information and information about the message recipients in that domain. (The message itself stays in the holding directory.)
dead: This directory contains non delivery messages which are addressed to the Postmaster but fail to delivery to the Postmaster.
inlog: This directory contains log files created by the SMTP Receiver.
outlog: This directory contains log files created by the SMTP Delivery Agent.
pop3log: This directory contains log files created by the POP3 Server.
lists: This directory contains subdirectories corresponding to mailing lists. For every mailing list, two directories are created, one corresponding to the list itself, and one corresponding to the -request address for the list.