Chapter List
1 The Internet Mail ModelAppendices
2 What is IMAP ?
3 Anatomy of an IMAP Session
4 IMAP Clients
5 Web Based IMAP Clients
6 Introduction to the Cyrus IMAP Server
7 Installing the Cyrus IMAP Server
8 Configuring the Cyrus Server
9 Cyrus System Administration
10 Introduction to the UW IMAP Server
11 Installing UW IMAP
12 UW System Administration
13 Addressing IMAP Security
14 Running a Dedicated Server
15 Server Side Mail Filtering
16 Server Performance Tuning
17 Remote Configuration Storage
18 IMAP Tools
A Conversion from
Berkeley Mail format to Cyrus: Tools
B Adding SSL Support
to IMAP
C IMAP Commands
Synopsis
IMAP is probably not all that well understood within the bounds of the British Isles. Certainly I have asked many people about the use of IMAP and only two people out of several hundred administrators new what it was and how to configure it. This particular O'Reilly book is extremely good for configuration problems and gives an informed explanation in a country which would seem to be an IMAP desert.
Review
This is one of the better O'Reilly books about
internet based technology. It's a welcome addition to the O'Reilly
stable which has already grown to the size where a small stable is no longer
of any use. That's just Unix and Linux books. On the back cover
of the book there is a list of the topics that are covered.......
The first chapter gives a basic view of internet mail for those
people who haven't yet seen the internet. There are many millions
of people who haven't and probably never will see or touch the internet.
Chapter two gives an introduction to IMAP. Because I live in the
UK I found this to be very useful. Hardly anyone could tell me anything
about it. This is followed by some detailed explanations of the internal
workings of IMAP.
Chapter seven goes into some details of how to set up the Cyrus IMAP server. Chapter nine tells you how to use it and do some administration. The chapters on the University of Washington may not be all that useful for UK users but it's a good read and might even give a few clues about where you went wrong with your own box.
It's at chapter thirteen that the topic of most conversations about IMAP are discussed. Well, at least most of the IMAP chat that I've been through was about security. This chapter is about security and IMAP and the words in it are invaluable for the first time user of IMAP.
After looking around the shelves of the local bookshops for six months I haven't been able to find another book about IMAP that even gives a simple clue about how to configure IMAP. Managing IMAP does all of that for me and a lot more. I think that I would recommend this O'Reilly volume to anyone who has to do anything with IMAP.
Colophon
"The animal on the cover of Managing IMAP is a bushbuck (Tragelaphus scriptus), also known as a guib. Bushbucks are the smallest of the African spiral horned antelopes, weighing between 50 and 180 pounds and measuring about 3 feet at the shoulder. Males have straight horns, which are usually 13 to 22 inches long. Bushbucks vary in colour from reddish brown to almost black with white spots or stripes. The most brightly striped groups are the Senegal bushbuck and the Cameroon bushbuck, which have white vertical and horizontal stripes. Because of their vibrant markings, bushbucks are also called "harnessed antelopes".
Bushbucks live in the forests and brush of sub-Saharan Africa, usually
near a plentiful source of water. Excellent swimmers, they have also
populated islands, such as those in Lake Victoria. Bushbucks are
solitary animals but are not territorial, so their ranges may overlap peacefully.
They are elusive and shy; however, they often inhabit outskirts of towns
and have been known to leap over 6 foot fences. Bushbucks will eat
leaves, buds, shoots, fruits, herbs, and grasses. Their calls are
similar to the barks of a baboon or to a series of grunts. "
Review by Richard Ibbotson
