==================== Installing IMP 4.1 ==================== :Last update: $Date: 2006/12/22 01:37:25 $ :Revision: $Revision: 1.57.6.14 $ :Contact: imp@lists.horde.org .. contents:: Contents .. section-numbering:: This document contains instructions for installing the IMP web-based mail client on your system. For information on the capabilities and features of IMP, see the file README_ in the top-level directory of the IMP distribution. Obtaining IMP ============= IMP can be obtained from the Horde website and FTP server, at http://www.horde.org/imp/ ftp://ftp.horde.org/pub/imp/ Or use the mirror closest to you: http://www.horde.org/mirrors.php Bleeding-edge development versions of IMP are available via CVS; see the file `horde/docs/HACKING`_ in the Horde distribution, or the website http://www.horde.org/source/, for information on accessing the Horde CVS repository. Prerequisites ============= To function properly, IMP **requires** the following: 1. A working Horde installation. IMP runs within the `Horde Application Framework`_, a set of common tools for Web applications written in PHP. You must install Horde before before installing IMP. .. Important:: IMP 4.0 requires version 3.0+ of the Horde Framework - earlier versions of Horde will **not** work. .. _`Horde Application Framework`: http://www.horde.org/horde/ The Horde Framework can be obtained from the Horde website and FTP server, at http://www.horde.org/horde/ ftp://ftp.horde.org/pub/horde/ Many of IMP's prerequisites are also Horde prerequisites. .. Important:: Be sure to have completed all of the steps in the `horde/docs/INSTALL`_ file for the Horde Framework before installing IMP. 2. The following PHP capabilities: a. IMAP and POP3 support ``--with-imap`` IMP **requires** the UW-IMAP c-client library to provide IMAP and/or POP3 support. The c-client library is available from ftp://ftp.cac.washington.edu/imap/ IMP **requires** IMAP and POP3 support in PHP, and can use IMAP-SSL and POP3-SSL if available (see the ``--with-imap-ssl`` configure option). If using either TLS or SSL to connect to the IMAP/POP server, OpenSSL support is **required** in PHP. See `OpenSSL Support`_ below. .. Tip:: If you notice strange behavior when running IMP (e.g. blank screens when accessing certain messages, blank message bodies) you should always try recompiling PHP with a different version of c-client. The different versions of the c-client library and PHP do not always work well together, and often all it takes is to recompile with a different c-client version and the problems will go away. .. Tip:: If running the webserver changerooted (i.e. the default setting on OpenBSD), you may need additional configuration on your system to ensure the c-client library works properly. See: `Configuring c-client for changerooted webservers`_ .. _`Configuring c-client for changerooted webservers`: http://lists.horde.org/archives/imp/Week-of-Mon-20050321/041502.html b. File Upload Support File upload support is **required** to allow attachments in mail composition and to allow various importing features to work (e.g. importing PGP or S/MIME keys, importing mbox files). To enable file upload support: 1. In your php.ini file, the following line **must** be present:: file_uploads = On 2. Your temporary upload directory **must** be writable to the user the web server is running as. If you leave the configuration option ``upload_tmp_dir`` blank in ``php.ini``, PHP will use the default directory compiled into it (normally ``/tmp`` on Unix-like systems). 3. Set the maximum size of the uploaded files via the ``upload_max_filesize`` configuration option in ``php.ini``. For example, to allow 5 MB attachments, place the following line in your ``php.ini`` file:: upload_max_filesize = 5M If either ``file_uploads`` is turned off, or your temporary upload directory is *not* writable by the server, all file upload functionality will be disabled by Horde/IMP and will not be available to the user. The following PHP options are **RECOMMENDED** to enable advanced features in IMP: .. _`OpenSSL Support`: a. OpenSSL support ``--with-openssl`` The OpenSSL module is used by IMP to provide S/MIME functionality. Without the module, S/MIME options will be disabled. Additionally, the OpenSSL module is REQUIRED if using either TLS or SSL to connect to the IMAP/POP server. See http://www.php.net/openssl for information on compiling OpenSSL into PHP. 3. The following PEAR modules: (See `horde/docs/INSTALL`_ for instructions on installing PEAR modules) a. HTTP_Request [OPTIONAL] HTTP_Request is required to use the HTML composition mode. b. Auth_SASL [OPTIONAL] Auth_SASL is required if your IMAP server uses CRAM-MD5 or DIGEST-MD5 authentication. 4. At least one IMAP or POP3 server. While IMP is an application that is installed on a Web server and is run from a Web browser, it is only an IMAP and POP3 *client*, like Eudora or Outlook Express. You must have access to an IMAP or POP3 server (or multiple servers) on which your users' mail is stored in order to use IMP. IMAP is recommended over POP3 in order to let users maintain mail folders other than INBOX and is required to allow messages to be flagged. IMAP is also *much* faster than POP3 in displaying a mailbox of messages. In short, do not use POP3 unless IMAP is not available. Freely available IMAP servers (for \*nix systems) that have been verified to work with IMP include: - UW-IMAP (ftp://ftp.cac.washington.edu/imap/) - Courier-IMAP (http://www.inter7.com/courierimap.html) - Cyrus (http://asg.web.cmu.edu/cyrus/) - Dovecot (http://dovecot.procontrol.fi/) The following items are not required, but are strongly **RECOMMENDED**: 1. Sendmail or equivalent. While Horde can inject mail via either a local sendmail or a remote SMTP server, sendmail is recommended for use with IMP for improved performance and error handling/reporting, as well as a more accurate mail envelope. The mail transport settings are set in the Horde configuration, so further documentation can be found there. 2. Turba, the Horde contacts manager. Turba is the Horde contact management application, designed to be integrated with other Horde applications to provide a unified interface to contact management throughout the Horde suite. Turba is available from: http://www.horde.org/turba/ ftp://ftp.horde.org/pub/turba/ Turba provides a local address book and an LDAP directory search function to IMP. You must use the 2.x branch of Turba with IMP 4.x. 3. Ingo, the Horde mail filters manager. Ingo is the Horde mail filters management application, designed to be integrated with other Horde applications to provide a unified interface to filter management throughout the Horde suite. Ingo is available from: http://www.horde.org/ingo/ ftp://ftp.horde.org/pub/ingo/ Ingo provides the mail filtering interfaces to IMP - there is no built-in filtering in IMP. You must use the 1.x branch of Ingo with IMP 4.x. To use IMAP client-side filtering (i.e. the filtering provided by IMP 3.x), ingo should use the ``null`` driver and the ``imap`` script settings (set in ``ingo/config/backends.php``). 4. Nag, the Horde tasks manager. Nag is the Horde tasks management application, designed to be integrated with other Horde applications to provide a unified interface to task management throughout the Horde suite. Nag is available from: http://www.horde.org/nag/ ftp://ftp.horde.org/pub/nag/ If nag is available on your system, users can easily create new tasks from individual email messages. You must use the 2.x branch of Nag with IMP 4.x. 5. Gollem, the Horde file manager. Gollem is the Horde file management application, designed to be integrated with other Horde applications to provide a unified interface to access VFS filesystems throughout the Horde suite. Gollem is available from: http://www.horde.org/gollem/ ftp://ftp.horde.org/pub/gollem/ Gollem allows a user to attach files from various VFS filesystems to outgoing messages in IMP. You must use the 1.x branch of Gollem with IMP 4.x. 6. Ispell, or a drop-in replacement. Ispell, or its enhanced cousin aspell, is used as IMP's spell-checking engine. You must install one of these, or a similar program with an ispell-compatible interface, to use IMP's spell-check feature. The differences between ispell and aspell are subtle but important. The author of ispell writes: [Aspell's] primary advantage is that it is better at making suggestions when a word is seriously misspelled. For example, when given "trubble", ispell will suggest only "rubble", where aspell suggests "trouble" (as its first choice) as well as "dribble", "rubble", and a lot of other words. Its disadvantage is that the approximate-matching algorithm is specific to English. As IMP supports multiple languages, the languages required by your user base will probably provide an incentive to use one or the other. You can obtain International Ispell from: http://fmg-www.cs.ucla.edu/fmg-members/geoff/ispell.html and aspell from: http://aspell.sourceforge.net/ aspell version 0.50, or higher, is recommended. Installing IMP ============== IMP is written in PHP, and must be installed in a web-accessible directory. The precise location of this directory will differ from system to system. Conventionally, IMP is installed directly underneath Horde in the web server's document tree. Since IMP is written in PHP, there is no compilation necessary; simply expand the distribution where you want it to reside and rename the root directory of the distribution to whatever you wish to appear in the URL. For example, with the Apache web server's default document root of ``/usr/local/apache/htdocs``, you would type:: cd /usr/local/apache/htdocs/horde tar zxvf /path/to/imp-x.y.z.tar.gz mv imp-x.y.z imp and would then find IMP at the URL:: http://your-server/horde/imp/ Configuring IMP =============== 1. Configuring Horde for IMP a. Register the application In ``horde/config/registry.php``, find the ``applications['imp']`` stanza. The default settings here should be okay, but you can change them if desired. If you have changed the location of IMP relative to Horde, either in the URL, in the filesystem or both, you must update the ``fileroot`` and ``webroot`` settings to their correct values. b. Enable IMP authentication [OPTIONAL] If you would prefer that your users authenticate directly with IMP, without having to authenticate through Horde first, load the ``Administration/Configuration/Authentication`` page and from the ``What backend should we use for authenticating users to Horde`` pulldown menu select ``Let a Horde application handle authentication``. (Please see the second note below.) Select ``imp`` from the ``The application which is providing authentication`` pulldown menu. .. Note:: **You will have to log in twice if you don't do this** -- Once to Horde and a second time to IMP. .. Note:: If this is a new install, you will not be able to configure IMP using the Horde Administration/Configuration page if you first enabled IMP authentication for Horde. You must set Horde to use another authentication method (refer to the `horde/docs/INSTALL`_ file), configure IMP, then reset Horde to use IMP authentication. One way to reset Horde in order to reach the Administration page is to replace the Horde configuration file ``conf.php`` with the original in ``horde/config/conf.php.dist``. You should of course back up your current settings since they will otherwise be permanently lost. 2. Configuring IMP To configure IMP, change to the ``imp/config/`` directory of the installed distribution, and make copies of all of the configuration ``dist`` files without the ``dist`` suffix:: cd config/ for foo in *.dist; do cp $foo `basename $foo .dist`; done Or on Windows:: copy *.dist *. Documentation on the format and purpose of those files can be found in each file. You may edit these files if you wish to customize IMP's appearance and behavior. With the following exceptions, the defaults will be correct for most sites. a. servers.php You must be sure to list your IMAP/POP3 server names and configuration information in ``servers.php`` (unless you allow users to choose any server). b. motd.php You should either provide your own message-of-the-day type information, or remove motd.php. You must login to Horde as a Horde Administrator to finish the configuration of IMP. Use the Horde ``Administration`` menu item to get to the administration page, and then click on the ``Configuration`` icon to get the configuration page. Select ``Mail`` from the selection list of applications. Fill in or change any configuration values as needed. When done click on ``Generate Mail Configuration`` to generate the ``conf.php`` file. If your web server doesn't have write permissions to the IMP configuration directory or file, it will not be able to write the file. In this case, go back to ``Configuration`` and choose one of the other methods to create the configuration file ``imp/config/conf.php``. Note for international users: IMP uses GNU gettext to provide local translations of text displayed by applications; the translations are found in the ``po/`` directory. If a translation is not yet available for your locale (and you wish to create one), see the ``horde/po/README`` file, or if you're having trouble using a provided translation, please see the `horde/docs/TRANSLATIONS`_ file for instructions. IMP Configuration Pointers * If you would like IMP to scan all text messages for UUencoded data, you must make this change in ``imp/config/mime_drivers.php``:: $mime_drivers['imp']['plain']['uuencode'] = true; Note that this is a performance hit since *every* text body must be scanned in its entriety to look for uuencoded data. Therefore, this feature is disabled by default. * By default, IMP is configured to NOT display text/html message parts inline. This is done for various security reasons. If you would like to see text/html parts inline, you must make this change in ``imp/config/mime_drivers.php``:: $mime_drivers['imp']['html']['inline'] = true; 3. Securing IMP Before you can secure IMP, you need a secure Horde installation. Please read the file in `horde/docs/SECURITY`_ for Horde security information before proceeding. There are two channels by which, unless steps are taken to avoid it, IMP encourages users to pass their IMAP and POP3 passwords around the Internet unencrypted. The first channel is between their browser and the Web server. We strongly recommend using an SSL-capable Web server to give users the option of encrypting communications between their browser and the Web server on which IMP is running; some sites may wish to disable non-SSL access entirely. The second channel is between the Web server and their IMAP or POP3 server. The simplest way to avoid this is to have the mail server running on the same system as the Web server, and configuring IMP to connect to the IMAP or POP3 server on ``localhost`` instead of on the Internet hostname. In cases where that is not possible, we recommend using IMAP-SSL or POP3-SSL to ensure that users' passwords remain safe after they have entrusted them to IMP. Other security steps you can take to increase security include: * Use session cookies instead or URL based sessions. * Set your php ``session.entropy_length`` to a larger value (e.g. 16) and ``session.entropy_file`` to a random source (e.g. ``/dev/urandom``) * Enable and use the php mycrypt extension. * If your database, mail server, and web server are on the same host machine, then: * use unix socket database access and disable tcp database access. * use ``localhost`` for all TCP/IP connections to avoid the network. * use the command-line sendmail for sending mail if possible. 4. Testing IMP Once you have configured IMP, bring up the included test page in your Web browser to ensure that all necessary prerequisites have been met. See the `horde/docs/INSTALL`_ document for further details on Horde test scripts. If you installed IMP as described above, the URL to the test page would be:: http://your-server/horde/imp/test.php The test script will also allow you to test your connection to the mail server and provide some auto-detected configuration parameters that can then be inserted into the server configuration located in ``imp/config/servers.php``. Next, use IMP to login to a known working IMAP or POP3 server. Test at least the following: - Sending mail (via the ``Compose`` item in the menu bar). - Setting preferences (check to see if they survive after logging out and back in, if you are using an SQL or LDAP preferences system). - Reading mail. - Deleting mail. - Flagging mail (if using IMAP). - Changing folders (if using IMAP). 5. Tuning IMP (Performance) See `horde/docs/PERFORMANCE`_. Obtaining Support ================= If you encounter problems with IMP, help is available! The Horde Frequently Asked Questions List (FAQ), available on the Web at http://www.horde.org/faq/ The Horde Project runs a number of mailing lists, for individual applications and for issues relating to the project as a whole. Information, archives, and subscription information can be found at http://www.horde.org/mail/ Lastly, Horde developers, contributors and users also make occasional appearances on IRC, on the channel #horde on the Freenode Network (irc.freenode.net). Please keep in mind that IMP is free software written by volunteers. For information on reasonable support expectations, please read http://www.horde.org/support.php Thanks for using IMP! The IMP team .. _README: ?f=README.html .. _`horde/docs/HACKING`: ../../horde/docs/?f=HACKING.html .. _`horde/docs/INSTALL`: ../../horde/docs/?f=INSTALL.html .. _`horde/docs/PERFORMANCE`: ../../horde/docs/?f=PERFORMANCE.html .. _`horde/docs/SECURITY`: ../../horde/docs/?f=SECURITY.html .. _`horde/docs/TRANSLATIONS`: ../../horde/docs/?f=TRANSLATIONS.html