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qconfirm

qconfirm - Frequently asked questions


How do I tell qconfirm to accept mail from a specific mail address
How do I tell qconfirm to accept mail from a whole domain
How do I tell qconfirm to accept mail from all subdomains of a domain
How do I tell qconfirm to accept mail from an ezmlm mailing list
How do I tell qconfirm to bounce mail from selected mail addresses
How do I list pending ids
How do I manually release a pending id
How do I manually bounce a pending id
How do I manually drop a pending id
How do I configure qconfirm with virtualdomains
How do I configure qconfirm for ezmlm
How do I configure qconfirm for ezmlm with subscribers allowed to post by default
How can I reduce the amount of doublebounces caused by qconfirm
I want to use my own text for the confirmation request message
I want to use my own text for the acknowledgement message
How do I change the personal name in the From header field

How do I tell qconfirm to accept mail from a specific mail address?

I want qconfirm to permanently accept mails from pink@smarden.org without asking for delivery confirmation. How can I tell qconfirm?

Answer: Use the qconfirm program:

  $ qconfirm accept 'pink@smarden.org'

How do I tell qconfirm to accept mail from a whole domain?

I want qconfirm to permanently accept all mails from all users at smarden.org without asking for delivery confirmation. How can I tell qconfirm?

Answer: Use the qconfirm program:

  $ qconfirm accept 'default@smarden.org'

How do I tell qconfirm to accept mail from all subdomains of a domain?

I want qconfirm to permanently accept all mails from all users at all subdomains of .smarden.org (e.g.: list.smarden.org and sub.list.smarden.org) without asking for delivery confirmation. How can I tell qconfirm?

Answer: Add the -d option to qconfirm-check in your dot-qmail file to use extended domain matching and use the qconfirm program:

  $ qconfirm accept '.smarden.org'

How do I tell qconfirm to accept mail from an ezmlm mailing list I am subscribed to?

I want qconfirm to permanently accept mails from the qmail@list.cr.yp.to mailing list, because I am subscribed to this list. How can I tell qconfirm?

Answer: Use the qconfirm program:

  $ qconfirm accept 'qmail-return-default@list.cr.yp.to'

How do I tell qconfirm to bounce mail from selected mail addresses

I want qconfirm to immediately bounce a message from an envelope sender address, say floyd@smarden.org, if it isn't pending or ok. How can I tell qconfirm?

Answer: Create the directory ~/.qconfirm/bad and add the -b option to qconfirm-check in your dot-qmail file. Then add the corresponding id to the ~/.qconfirm/bad/ directory:

  $ mkdir ~/.qconfirm/bad
  $ touch ~/.qconfirm/bad/smarden:org=-floyd
You can use wildcard extension and optionally extended domain matching in the ~/.qconfirm/bad/ directory.

How do I list pending ids?


Answer no 1: Use the qconfirm program:
  $ qconfirm list pending

Answer no 2: Use

  $ ls -ltr ~/.qconfirm/pending/
to list all pending ids. The timestamps indicate when the last confirmation request message was sent. In message based mode, the ids correspond to the messages' inodes in the qmail queue. In sender based mode you might want to see the envelope sender addresses instead of the ids. Use something like
  $ ls -1tr ~/.qconfirm/pending/ |perl -p -e's/^([^=]+)=-(.*)/$2\@$1/g;s/:/./g'

How do I manually release a pending id

I know that there are one or more messages from pink@smarden.org pending, because the id ~/.qconfirm/pending/smarden:org-pape exists. How do I manually confirm delivery of messages corresponding to this id and tell qconfirm to accept all pending mails and all future mails from pink@smarden.org?

Answer no 1: Use the qconfirm program:

  $ qconfirm accept 'pink@smarden.org'

Answer no 2: If qconfirm-check sees the owner's r, w and x bits set on an id file in ~/.qconfirm/pending/, it treats the next message that corresponds to this id as manually confirmed, adds the id to ~/.qconfirm/ok/, removes the id from ~/.qconfirm/pending/, and removes the corresponding confirmation request reply handler. E.g. for sender based mode: If you want to manually confirm pending messages from pink@smarden.org, do

  $ chmod 0700 ~/.qconfirm/pending/smarden.org=-pink

How do I manually bounce a pending message?

I know that there is a message from pink@smarden.org pending. How do I cause this message to bounce?

Answer no 1: Use the qconfirm program:

  $ qconfirm bounce 'pink@smarden.org'

Answer no 2: If qconfirm-check sees the owner's w bit only set on an id file in ~/.qconfirm/pending/, it bounces the next message that corresponds to this id, removes the id from ~/.qconfirm/pending/, and removes the corresponding confirmation request reply handler. E.g. for sender based mode: If you want to bounce a pending message from pink@smarden.org, do

  $ chmod 0200 ~/.qconfirm/pending/smarden.org=-pink

How do I manually drop a pending message?

I know that there is a message from pink@smarden.org pending. How do I cause this message to be silently dropped?

Answer no 1: Use the qconfirm program:

  $ qconfirm drop 'pink@smarden.org'

Answer no 2: If qconfirm-check sees neither the owner's r, w or x bit set on an id file in ~/.qconfirm/pending/, it drops the next message that corresponds to this id without sending a bounce, removes the id from ~/.qconfirm/pending/, and removes the corresponding confirmation request reply handler. E.g. for sender based mode: If you want to silently drop a pending message from pink@smarden.org, do

  $ chmod 0000 ~/.qconfirm/pending/smarden.org=-pink

How do I configure qconfirm with virtualdomains?


The email address I want to run qconfirm for is controlled by the qmail control file virtualdomains. How can I make qconfirm work with this address?

Answer: You need to set the QCONFIRM_PREPEND environment variable according to the prepend part of the virtualdomains entry. Don't forget to add a dash at the end. E.g.: If your mail address is pink@smarden.org, and this address is controlled by the user virtual through this virtualdomains entry:

  smarden.org:virtual-smarden
setup qconfirm for the user virtual and do
  $ echo 'virtual-smarden-' >~virtual/.qconfirm/conf/QCONFIRM_PREPEND

How do I configure qconfirm for ezmlm?

I have an ezmlm mailing list list-test@list.smarden.org controlled by the user list. The mailing list directory is ~list/list-test. How to I configure qconfirm for this mailing list?

Answer: First create a qconfirm directory for the list:

  $ qconfirm-conf ~/list-test/qconfirm
Add this line to the top of the .qmail file that handles mail to the mailing list (~/.qmail-test), all in one line:
  |envdir list-test/qconfirm/conf qconfirm-check -mn
Now each single message to the mailing list must pass through a delivery confirmation process. Of course you also can use qconfirm-check in sender mode.

How do I configure qconfirm for ezmlm with subscribers allowed to post by default?


Answer: Setup qconfirm for the mailing list as described above, and change the line at the top of the .qmail file that handles mail to the mailing list to use ezmlm-issubn to check if the envelope sender address is subscribed. all in one line:
  |envdir list-test/qconfirm/conf qconfirm-check -mn ezmlm-issubn ~/list-test
You need ezmlm-idx for this.

How can I reduce the amount of doublebounces caused by qconfirm

All delivery confirmation requests sent by
qconfirm-check that cannot be delivered to the envelope sender end up as doublebounces in the postmaster's mailbox. How can I reduce the amount of doublebounces?

Answer: You can configure qconfirm to automatically process bounces from confirmation request messages, see Handling bounce messages on how to do so.


I want to use my own text for the confirmation request message, how can I do that?


Answer: Edit ~/.qconfirm/msg/request. The header of the message must not contain a From header, must contain a Return-Path header, and should contain a Subject header.
  $ vi ~/.qconfirm/msg/request

I want to use my own text for the acknowledgement message, how can I do that?


Answer: Edit ~/.qconfirm/msg/acknowledge. The header of the message must not contain a From header, must contain a Return-Path header, and should contain a Subject header.
  $ vi ~/.qconfirm/msg/acknowledge

How do I change the personal name in the From header field?

I do not want to have my confirmation request messages to come from "qconfirm". How can I change it to "My mail-handling program"?

Answer: Do

  $ echo 'My mail-handling program' >~/.qconfirm/conf/QCONFIRM_MAILNAME

Gerrit Pape <pape@smarden.org>
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