Re: Usermin install on OSX

[Jamie C. <jca...@we...>]

Terry Allen wrote:
> 
> >Terry Allen wrote:
> >>
> >> Hi again,
> >>         I'm just getting into webmin again after a break & am looking to
> >> install Webmin on OSX, which I'm pretty sure won't be too much of a problem.
> >>         However, when I downloaded Usermin, went to instal it, it wouldn't
> >> install because it needed Authen::PAM, which I downloaded, followed the
> >> module instructions & tried installing that too. Can anyone help out with
> >> installing Usermin on OSX or perhaps help me so I can make Sendmail & a POP
> >> server do autoreplies please if Usermin won't work under OSX? Maybe this is
> >> something I can configure with Webmin?
> >
> >I don't think usermin is ever going to work on MacOS X, as I'm pretty sure
> >that it doesn't use PAM. Has anyone else on the list had any luck with this?
> >
> > - Jamie
> >
> Hi again,
>         Thanks Jamie, I have found references that something like OpenPAM
> runs on OSX, but I can't seem to find any reference to it. Certainly OSX
> doesn't have PAM installed as standard, but as it's BSD based, it should
> surely be able to be installed.
>         Maybe I'm on the wrong track with what I think Usermin does - I
> need something that will allow me to set up mail forwarding for individual
> accounts & autoreplies for those accounts also. Maybe someone could let me
> know what Usermin actually does in plain English.

Basically, it allows users on your system to do things like read email,
setup mail forwarding, and manipulate files. Basically all the same things
that could be done at the command line, but with a friendlier interface.
In many ways, it is similar to webmin but designed for use by users rather
than administrators.

Because users login to usermin with their unix passwords, it needs some way
to authenticate that works with all the different password file formats out
there. PAM is the best solution for this, but unfortunately it isn't used
by all operating systems ..

>         I have installed Webmin, which went fine & after editing a few odd
> paths such as to named etc... it's running fine. Jamie - just for your own
> reference, I'm running OSX 10.1.3 & the path to named.conf on this system
> is /etc/named/named.conf, which made the webmin monitor 'see' bind
> correctly. I had something the same under Yellow Dog Linux with Webmin not
> seeing Bind correctly.
>         Please bear with me - I have most other things under control here,
> except mail is totally confusing me - I have only ever run Mac OS solutions
> for mail & I want to be able to run this server with OSX, but I'm having a
> hard time comprehending it all - could someone please read the following
> analogy & see if I have mail down in my head correctly.
> 
> - say I have 3 boxes. In the middle box is Sendmail - it's a sort of
> 'conduit' to other mail services, accepting mail where it's allowed &
> funnelling mail into the box on the right, which holds all the user
> accounts or sending it on to another machine if it's allowed to relay.
>         In the left hand box is the POP server, which a mail client such as
> Eudora, accesses & it then pulls the mail out of the right hand users
> account holding box & passes it to the mail client software.
>         If any autoreplies or forwarding are set for the user accounts,
> they would be a file attached to the user accounts in that right hand box
> 
>         Is that pretty much how mail works or am I totally screwed up.
> Thanks for any help.

Are you sharing home directories between all 3 machines via NFS, and storing
mail in user's home directories? If so, that seems like a reasonable system,
and users can setup .forward files to forward mail if they want.

 - Jamie