Chris Tyler - Fedora Linux

Require valid-user

Create the password file using the htdigest command instead of htpasswd . htdigest requires one additional argument in front of the username, called the realm ; copy the value from the AuthName directive and use it for the realm. Here is an example:

# htdigest -c /var/www/digest prices chris

Adding password for chris in realm prices.

New password:

confidentialpassword

Re-type new password:

confidentialpassword

# htdigest /var/www/digest prices diane

Adding user diane in realm prices

New password:

bigsecret

Re-type new password:

bigsecret

htdigest does not accept the -b option used with htpasswd .

 The Apache documentation from the Apache Software Foundation is on their web site at http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/ and on the web server of any Fedora system at http:/// (to disable access to the manual, remove /var/www/manual ).

 The manpages for httpd , htpasswd , htdigest , and httpd_selinux .

sendmail is a robust email server. Like Apache, it has an enormous number of configuration options to handle many different service scenarios, even though many of these scenarios are pretty rare. With a small amount of configuration, sendmail can be configured to handle most mail-serving tasks.

Fedora's default sendmail configuration will:

 Start the sendmail service at each boot

 Accept mail from local users for local mailboxes and place it in those mailboxes

 Accept mail from local users for remote systems, place it in a queue, and attempt to deliver it directly to the remote mail hosts

This configuration may or may not work for you, depending on how you are connected to the Internet.

To configure sendmail easily, install the sendmail-cf package:

# yum install sendmail-cf

Changes to the sendmail configuration are made to the file /etc/mail/sendmail.mc . However, this isn't the sendmail configuration file! Instead, it's a file that is used to generate the sendmail configuration file, /etc/mail/sendmail.cf .

To generate a new sendmail.cf file:

# cd /etc/mail

# make

This must be done after each change is made to sendmail.mc . Reload the sendmail server to make your changes take effect:

# service sendmail reload

(You can also use the Restart button in the Services tool.)

Some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) block email traffic to all mail servers except their own. This is intended to block viruses that set themselves up as a mail server, but it also interferes with Fedora's default sendmail configuration, which expects to be able to send email directly to the destination system.

To configure sendmail to send your outbound email through your ISP's mail server, find the line in /etc/mail/sendmail.mc that contains the word SMART_HOST :

dnl # Uncomment and edit the following line if your outgoing mail needs to

dnl # be sent out through an external mail server:

dnl #

dnl define(\QSMART_HOST',\Q smtp.your.provider ')

In this file, dnl means discard to newline , which effectively turns this line into a comment. Uncomment the SMART_HOST line by removing the dnl and then replace smtp.your.provider with the name of your ISP's mail server:

define(\QSMART_HOST',\Q mailserver.yourisp.com ')

Fedora's standard sendmail configuration does not accept email from remote systems, a feature that must be enabled if the system is going to act as an Internet email host.

To enable remote inbound connections, locate the line in sendmail.mc that contains the loopback address 127.0.0.1:

dnl # The following causes sendmail to only listen on the IPv4 loopback address

dnl # 127.0.0.1 and not on any other network devices. Remove the loopback

dnl # address restriction to accept email from the internet or intranet.

dnl #

DAEMON_OPTIONS(\QPort=smtp,Addr=127.0.0.1, Name=MTA')dnl

Add dnl to the start of this line to comment it out:

dnl DAEMON_OPTIONS(\QPort=smtp,Addr=127.0.0.1, Name=MTA')dnl

sendmail will then accept connections on all network interfaces and deliver mail that is addressed to a user on the local host. For example, if the hostname is bluesky.fedorabook.com , then email addressed to chris@bluesky.fedorabook.com will be delivered to the mailbox of the local user chris , which is /var/spool/mail/chris .

To configure sendmail to accept mail for other destinations, add those destinations to the file /etc/mail/local-host-names :

# local-host-names - include all aliases for your machine here.

fedorabook.commailserver.fedorabook.comglobal.proximity.on.ca

Remember to enable inbound connections on port 25 (SMTP) in your firewall configuration.

There are many standard email addresses that people expect to be able to use: webmaster to reach the person responsible for the web server and content, abuse to report spam problems, info as a general information contact, and so forth. Mail sent to these standard addresses can be redirected to the mailbox of chosen users through the sendmail alias facility.

Aliases are configured in the file /etc/aliases , which looks like this:

#

# Aliases in this file will NOT be expanded in the header from

# Mail, but WILL be visible over networks or from /bin/mail.

#

# >>>>>>>>>> The program "newaliases" must be run after

# >> NOTE >> this file is updated for any changes to

# >>>>>>>>>> show through to sendmail.

#

# Basic system aliases -- these MUST be present.

mailer-daemon: postmaster

postmaster: root

# General redirections for pseudo accounts.

bin: root

daemon: root

adm: root

...(Lines snipped)...

info: postmaster

marketing: postmaster

sales: postmaster

support: postmaster

# trap decode to catch security attacks

decode: root

# Person who should get root's mail

#root: marc

You'll notice that all of the standard aliases are redirected to root but on most systems, no one checks the root mailbox, so you should start by defining who is to receive mail addressed to root . Uncomment the last line of this file and replace marc with a valid user ID: