maildrop 2.4

When maildrop is configured to use system accounts, if a maildrop filtering recipe runs an external program, the group id of the external program may now be different then what it was in previous version of maildrop, if the maildrop binary is installed with the set-group-id bit set.

Previously, maildrop started the external process using either the recipient's group id, or the group id of the process that invoked maildrop (presumably your mail server's group id), depending on the system configuration. This was not immediately apparent, or very intuitive, and could've been overlooked leading to security-related implications.

Starting with this version of maildrop, the external program's userid will be either the recipient's group id, or the group id specified by the set-group-id bit on maildrop's binary.

If in earlier versions of maildrop, maildrop's group id was the recipient's group id, there is no change. If in earlier version of maildrop, maildrop's binary had the set-group-id bit set, processes started by maildrop will run using the same group id.

You are impacted by this change if:

You have maildrop installed with the set group id bit set on the binary
You have maildrop configured to deliver mail to system accounts
Your mailbox directory (usually /var/spool/mail) does not have the sticky bit set

If all of the above is true, you will need to verify and confirm that the new maildrop behavior meets your security model.

maildrop 2.0

Version 2.0 introduces a new pattern matching engine that uses the PCRE library, that uses a completely different syntax. However, very few changes should be required to upgrade existing maildrop recipes to the new syntax.

Review the maildropfilter manual page which has been revised to document the new pattern matching syntax. The legacy pattern matching engine is still available by setting MAILDROP_OLD_REGEXP to 1. See also the "Conversion of maildrop 1.x pattern to 2.0" section in the manual page, for more information.

maildrop 1.2

If you're upgrading from maildrop 0.74 or earlier, read the next section, then come back here.

Starting with maildrop 1.2, the installation directories will use the GNU layout. It might be painful, but it has to be done. The previous installation directories were based on two years' worth of legacy code, and had to go, in order for maildrop to be able to be shipped in a distribution.

The installation layout used by maildrop 1.1 and earlier:

/usr/local/lib/maildrop/bin - binaries.

/usr/local/lib/maildrop/man - manual pages.

/usr/local/lib/maildrop/html - HTML documentation.

/usr/local/bin - soft links to binaries in /usr/local/lib/maildrop/bin.

Starting with maildrop 1.2, maildrop will use the GNU installation layout:

{bindir} - binaries.

{mandir} - manual pages.

{datadir}/maildrop - scripts and HTML documentation.

For scripts that are intended to be invoked from the shell command line, there will be soft links from {bindir} to {datadir}/maildrop.

This means that the default installation layout will be as follows:

/usr/local/bin - binaries.

/usr/local/man - manual pages.

/usr/local/share/maildrop - scripts and HTML documentation.

maildrop 1.2 also installs development libraries. They are optional, and can be removed after installation, if not needed. The development files will be installed in {libdir} and {includedir}. The default installation layout would be:

/usr/local/include - include files.

/usr/local/lib - libraries.

Manually upgrading from earlier versions of maildrop

The recommended upgrade path is to first manually remove the previous version of maildrop, then install the new version of maildrop afterwards.

Upgrading using the packaged RPM build script

The packaged RPM build script now installs maildrop in /usr/bin, instead of the previous /usr/local/bin. This is because the build script now uses the platform build defaults.

The new script also puts manual pages into a separate RPM, as well as creating a separate devel RPM with the libraries and include files.

maildrop 0.75

Read this document if you're upgrading from 0.74, or earlier.

Maildrop 0.75 includes several bug fixes to the userdb scripts, however the main change in 0.75 is a different installation layout.

Maildrop versions 0.74 and earlier used the following installation layout. Typically, the following files were installed in the directory /usr/local/bin:

/usr/local/bin/dotlock
/usr/local/bin/maildrop
/usr/local/bin/reformail
/usr/local/bin/reformime - core maildrop binaries

/usr/local/bin/maildirmake - soft link to maildrop.maildirmake
/usr/local/bin/maildrop.maildirmake

/usr/local/bin/makedat - soft link tomaildrop.makedat
/usr/local/bin/maildrop.makedat - optionally installed if GDBM/DB support is selected during configuration

/usr/local/bin/deliverquota - soft link tomaildrop.deliverquota
/usr/local/bin/maildrop.deliverquota - optionally installed if maildir quota support is selected during configuration

/usr/local/bin/makeuserdb - soft link to maildrop.makeuserdb
/usr/local/bin/pw2userdb - soft link to maildrop.pw2userdb
/usr/local/bin/userdb - soft link to maildrop.userdb
/usr/local/bin/maildrop.makeuserdb
/usr/local/bin/maildrop.pw2userdb
/usr/local/bin/maildrop.userdb - optional scripts installed if userdb support is selected during configuration
/usr/local/man - various manual pages were installed underneath this directory.

There was a reason why I initially decided to use this particular installation layout. At least, I think I had one.

Although I haven't received any comments on this layout, I believe that this layout is not very convenient, and may be confusing. So I've decided to try a new installation layout starting with maildrop 0.75. My goals were:

A logical, straightforward layout
Try to avoid breaking any existing stuff
Allow easier management. For example, permit a quick and painless way to roll back to a previous release of maildrop (for some future releases, of course).

Maildrop 0.75 and onward will use the following installation layout by default:

/usr/local/lib/maildrop/bin - all base and optional binaries will be installed here

/usr/local/lib/maildrop/man - all manual pages will be installed here

/usr/local/lib/maildrop/html - all HTML versions of manual pages, and additional documentation, will be installed here.

Soft links in /usr/local/bin. The installation script will install the following soft links in the /usr/local/bin directory. The following soft links will point to the binaries that are installed in the /usr/local/lib/maildrop/bin directory:

/usr/local/bin/maildrop
/usr/local/bin/reformail
/usr/local/bin/reformime
/usr/local/bin/dotlock
/usr/local/bin/maildirmake
/usr/local/bin/makedat
/usr/local/bin/deliverquota
/usr/local/bin/makeuserdb
/usr/local/bin/pw2userdb
/usr/local/bin/userdb

Configuration switches that select whether or not certain optional binaries are installed will remain the same.

Basically, anything that expects to find things in /usr/local/bin should continue to work.

However, when you are ready to install a later release of maildrop, you can simply move your current /usr/local/lib/maildrop directory before installing the later release. In the event that you need to back out to the previous version of maildrop, you can do that simply by removing the newly installed /usr/local/lib/maildrop directory, and moving the previous one in its place.

I think that this is a definite improvement from the previous layout.

Upgrading from maildrop 0.74 and earlier

If you compile and install maildrop 0.74 from the original source code tarball, you can proceed to configure, compile, and install maildrop as usual. You can use the --prefix option to the configure script to change the main installation directory from /usr/local/lib/maildrop to something else. If your previous version of maildrop was not installed in the default directory /usr/local/bin, you can use the --bindir option to the configure script to specify your non-default installation directory.

make install should be able to create the correct soft links. After running make install, or make install-strip, you will need to manually perform the following steps:

Manually remove any old maildrop binaries from /usr/local/bin, such as maildrop.makedat, maildrop.deliverquota, and others. Anything maildrop.* can be removed.
New manual pages are installed underneath the main /usr/local/lib/maildrop directory. You will need to remove old manual pages from the /usr/local/man directory. Find all files underneath /usr/local/man that begin with "maildrop". You will also need to look for a corresponding soft link that points to each manual page.
Configure your man(1) command to search /usr/local/lib/maildrop/man for manual pages, which is where maildrop's manual pages are now installed. In most cases, you need to simply add the path /usr/local/lib/maildrop/man to the MANPATH environment variable. If you use the Bourne or Bash shells, simply add the following code to /etc/profile:

MANPATH="/usr/local/lib/maildrop:$MANPATH"
export MANPATH

Upgrading binary RPMS for Red Hat Linux

I recommend that instead of using the rpm -U command to upgrade your binary RPM, you should first remove the old maildrop rpm, using rpm -e, then install the new RPM using rpm -i.

The binary RPM takes care of setting the MANPATH variable. Also, note that the binary RPM installes the HTML version of manual pages, plus additional documentation, in /usr/doc instead of /usr/local/lib/maildrop/html.