I host several virtual domains. Each domain is represented by a single Unix user, and all mailboxes for that domain are owned by the virtual domain's user. Individual mail account names are stored in a userdb.

Previously, I used a set of .courier files in each virtual domain user's homedir to deliver mail. For instance, there was a .courier-tony file in the example.com user's home directory. The file contained the location of tony's maildir. Mail addressed to " <mailto:to...@example.com> to...@example.com" was thus dispatched by courier to tony's maildir.

I recently started using maildrop for spam filtering and message delivery. The critical piece of information I must provide to maildrop is the location of the maildir. Currently, I do this by passing it as a commandline parameter to maildrop. This means that each user's .courier file contains the maildrop commandline: | /usr/lib/courier/bin/maildrop .mailfilter /home/v/example_com/mbox/tony

The problem is, each user still requires a .courier file. Furthermore, in order to pass command line parameters to maildrop, I need to run maildrop in manual mode, manually specifying the .mailfilter file and including /etc/courier/maildroprc from inside the .mailfilter file. Clearly, this is not optimal.

If maildrop could obtain the envelope recipient of a mail ("to...@example.com <mailto:to...@example.com> "), then it could run userdb to obtain the user's maildir. This would allow a single .mailfilter file in the virtual domain's home directory to properly deliver mail to all of the domain's users. I would no longer need a per-user .courier file, and all of my mail administration would be greatly simplified.

Unfortunately, maildrop does not seem to be aware of this information. The $LOGNAME variable always contains the name of the virtual domain user ("example_com") and the Delivered-To header contains an intermediate mail address <mailto:exam...@mailserver.example.com> exam...@mailserver.example.com" ... Maildrop is not powerful enough to extract this intermediate address from the header and transform it into a valid RFC822 address for userdb lookup.

Does anyone have an idea how to supply the envelope recipient to maildrop?

Thanks in advance,

-Tony