Email Question?

[Rayn]

I am currently making a email system but I cannot figure out how to start email accounts without doing it manually. Does anyone know how to do this?

Thanks for your time
- Dan

[carmstrong]

If you are using Unix or Linux, you can write a php script that
runs over inetd. Please note that you need to compile PHP as
statical binary.

The script could look something like this:

Create a new file /usr/local/il/il.phx:

#!/usr/local/bin/php -q
<?

$pass = "your_password";

function sread(&$string)
{
global $STDIN;
$string = '';
$x = $string;
while ($x!="\n")
{
$x = fread($STDIN, 1);
$string.=$x;
}
$string = trim($string);
return("$string");
}

$STDIN = fopen('php://stdin', 'r');
print("+OK\n");
sread($password);
if($password != $pass) {
print("-ER\n");
} else {
print("+OK\n");

$loop = true;
while($loop) {
sread($input);

// $input[0] is the function that you want to execute
// $input[x] are the arguments
$input = explode(" ",$input);

switch($input[0]) {
   case 'quit':
     print("bye\n");
     $loop = false;
     break;
   case 'addaccount':
     // Do what ever you want as user root
     print("Your input was: $input\n");
     print("+OK\n");
     break;
   default:
     print("unknown command\n");
     break;
}

}
}

?>

Then edit /etc/inetd.conf and add following line:

il stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd /usr/local/il/il.phx

After that, edit /etc/services and add following:

il 2000/tcp # Comment

Now restart the inet service and everything is done.

/etc/rc.d/init.d/inet restart

OK, now you should be able to telnet to the port 2000.

telnet localhost 2000

your_password
+OK
addaccount [e-mail] <next arg> <next arg>
+OK
quit
bye
--

You are now able to connect to port 2000 over a web frontend using the php socket functions.

$fp = fsockopen ("yourhost", 2000, $errno, $errstr, 30);

fputs ($fp, "addaccount [e-mail] <next arg> <next arg>\n");
while (!feof($fp)) {
echo fgets ($fp,128);
}
fclose ($fp);

You should use mcrypt to encrypt the data that is transfered
between the web frontend and the il.phx script.

In case you're unable to understand what i'm trying to tell you,
feel free to contact me. Maybe there are some mistakes since it's
pretty early in the morning here and i just had my second beer.

Please aswell note, that i have been writting this script with PHP
4.0.x and not with the newest version. So maybe you'll have to
do some little adjustments.

Please aswell ensure, that you create rules in hosts.allow and hosts.deny, so that the script can only be executed by you:

hosts.deny:
ANY: ANY

hosts.allow:
il.phx: <ip address from the host with the web frontend>

I'm shure that this will help you to create your email accounts in plain text files, ldap or elsewhere.

Cheers
Chris