IlohaMail and WASD PHP

These are some guidelines for installing and configuring IlohaMail for PHP under WASD.

http://ilohamail.org/

It is not a definitive document.  It is basically just a description of how I managed to get IlohaMail running.  There are undoubtably alternative, probably better approaches.  These guidelines were developed using IlohaMail very much out-of-the-box, with a disk-based back-end.  MySQL has not be experimented with at all.

This software configuration information is provided under the terms of the GNU General Public Licence as published by the Free Software Foundation; version 2 of the License, or any later version.

16 January 2005

Disclaimer

I am not an administrator or even user of IlohaMail.  I undertook this exercise to demonstrate how it might be supported under WASD PHP.  There is no point in querying me personally on IlohaMail setup, quirks, changes, etc.  If there is something incorrect within these guidelines or information by which they could be improved then by all means advise me.  Likewise if it's suspected WASD or WASD PHP is misbehaving itself or requires refinement.

mark.daniel@wasd.vsm.com.au

Session File Access Conflict

PHP-based webmail applications that use HTML frames are prone to conflicts of access to it's on-disk session files.  This is well known and documented issue with CSWS PHP 1.2 (PHP 4.3.2) that takes two forms.  File-access conflict, where one frame reports the session file locked by another process.  This can be circumvented using the  DECC$FILE_SHARING  feature logical name.  When this is enabled a second issue immediately has the potential to cause problems.  It would appear as if the session file is emptied by one process (frame) while attempting to be read by another (frame).  This results in an error message and/or ACCVIO.  Obviously this is a major issue.  Anyone has a fix for these behaviours?

Ilohamail occasionally seems to be affected by this issue.

Requirements

These guidelines were developed in the following environment.  Other combinations may work, or may not.

Installation

Restore the archive to disk.
$ set process /parse=extended
$ set default ODS5_DISK:[000000]
$ vmstar -xf
dev:[dir]IlohaMail-0^.8^.14-rc2^.tar
This creates a directory
ODS5_DISK:[IlohaMail-0^.8^.14-rc2]

File-System

A concealed device logical name must be defined.  To make this permanent it needs to placed in a system or Web-related startup procedure.  Note that it specifies a subdirectory of the main version-specific directory.
$ define /system /executive /translation=concealed -
         ilohamail
ODS5_DISK:[IlohaMail-0^.8^.14-rc2.IlohaMail.]
This directory structure must be made accessable to the default WASD server and scripting accounts.
 
$ sechan == "$ht_exe:sechan"
$ sechan /asif=runtime
ODS5_DISK:[000000]IlohaMail-0^.8^.14-rc2.dir
$ sechan /asif=runtime ODS5_DISK:[IlohaMail-0^.8^.14-rc2...]*.*
$ sechan
/asif=scratch ODS5_DISK:[IlohaMail-0^.8^.14-rc2.ilohamail.data...]*.dir
$ set file /version=1
ODS5_DISK:[IlohaMail-0^.8^.14-rc2.ilohamail.data...]*.dir
If a different account is used to execute IlohaMail similar considerations will need to be made.

PHP Configuration

IlohaMail requires some tailored initialization parameters.
$ copy ht_root:[src.php]php.ini hastymail:[000000]phpwasd.ini
$ edit
hastymail:[000000]phpwasd.ini
Modify or add the following parameters:
include_path = ".:.."
extension = php_pcre.exe
allow_call_time_pass_reference = on
Check IlohaMail "PHP Configuration" document for other recommended settings.

WASD Scripting Wrapper

An IlohaMail-specific wrapper procedure  ILOHAMAIL.COM  can be placed in  HT_ROOT:[CGI-BIN]
$! ILOHAMAIL.COM
$ set noon
$ define decc$argv_parse_style enable
$ define
decc$efs_case_preserve enable
$ define decc$efs_charset enable
$ define decc$efs_case_special enable
$ define
decc$enable_getenv_cache enable
$ define decc$posix_seek_stream_file enable
$ define decc$file_sharing enable
$ define
phpwasd$ini ilohamail:[000000]phpwasd.ini
$ mcr cgi_exe:phpwasd.exe

WASD Mapping Rules

WASD mapping rules then make the application accessable.
 
# HTTPD$MAP
exec /ilohamail/**.php (@cgi-bin:[000000]ilohamail.com)/ilohamail/*.php
\
     ods=5 script=syntax=unix script=query=relaxed map=once
pass /ilohamail/* /ilohamail/*
dir=noaccess
IlohaMail documentation sometimes mentions the URL alias of  /webmail/.  To access IlohaMail using this just provide the required rules in place of, or addition to, any existing rule set.
exec /webmail/**.php (@cgi-bin:[000000]ilohamail.com)/ilohamail/*.php \
    
ods=5 script=syntax=unix script=query=relaxed map=once
pass /webmail/* /ilohamail/* dir=noaccess
If you wish to be able to browse the source using the Web server you can also add a rule something like
pass /_ilohamail/* /ODS5_DISK/IlohaMail-0^.8^.14-rc2/*
but be aware that this should be temporary or restricted by authorization or some other mechanism as user data is by default stored within this tree.
Load these new rules into the server:
$ HTTPD /DO=MAP

IlohaMail Configuration

There are a number options available in the "IlohaMail Configuration" document provided with the kit.

Of particular interest when providing a mail service would be a permanent and scalable back-end.  This stores user options and other state information.  The options are a flat file-system or MySQL database.

By default the file-system is used, and this is located in the  [.IlohaMail.data] subdirectory.  It is the directories in this area that are made writable to the scripting account using the commands
$ sechan /asif=scratch [.data...]*.dir
$ set file /version=1 [.data...]*.dir
If these data areas are relocated to somewhere independent of the IlohaMail version and kit similar file-system access would need to be established.

Application Access

Using the above mapping rules the basic method for accessing the application is
http://the.host.name/ilohamail/

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