All user files are stored off the workarea. The CGI creates a directory for each user, depending on which 'hash_method' the user is using.

For most systems the simple approach of using directories in the form:

workarea/u_fr/fred@domain.name

is best. This provides a spread of user directories and an easy way to find the user.dat for any given user. On some very large Unix systems the directory lookups can be slow if there are more than about 800 entries in a directory. For these systems, a second more complex hashing method is provided. It is set by putting the following setting in your ini file:

hash_method 2

This new method allows any characters in usernames and uses a two level directory structure

eg. workarea/n_a9/b4/encoded_user@domain.name

rather than just workarea/u_xx/user@domain_name. This provides a very flat distribution and will produce less than 800 directories per directory even on systems with many millions of user accounts.

To quickly locate a user directory you can run one of WebMail command line parameters to locate the full directory.

eg. ./webmail.cgi -show_path lynden@netwinsite.com

Note 1: Most large systems, even on Unix, do not see a problem with the existing hash method which is more transparent.
Note 2: You will need to use the managers page to change between the different hashing methods on an existing system.

Whenever a new user is detected, the CGI will attempt to create a set of default user values. The CGI will pick up the 'default.dat' file from your WebMail template directory and use these variables for the default values. In this default.dat file, only one variable is allowed to have '||user||' as part of the value, which will be replaced by the user's name. This variable is called 'dflt_reply'.

ie.         dflt_reply ||user||@your.domain.name

If this file or this setting is not inside the default.dat file, the CGI will default to:

             ||user||@domain

There are two other methods for setting up the default reply address for new users. The different methods are explained below.

1. You can setup WebMail to use the host which the user is connecting to, instead of the domain setting:
   To enable this to work you need to add the following setting to the ini file  :
           stated_host true
   (This means that users will have different reply addresses for different pophosts without having to make the change themselves)

2. The last method uses a host file, which is called 'dftreply.dat' which will need to be created in the templates directory. The layout of this file is similar to that of the NT host file, matching the mail host to the default domain reply to be used.
   
   ie        If the 'dftreply.dat' file is:
                       1.2.3.4 netwinsite.com
                       mail.netwinsite.com netwinsite.com
   
   So if the mail host is 1.2.3.4 or mail.netwinsite.com, the default reply address will be:
   
              ||user||@netwinsite.com
   
   If a host is being used which does not match one in the host file, it will default back to method 1, 2 or 3 depending on the ini settings ('stated_host' and 'domain') and the default.dat file.
   
   NOTE: The last method is only available in version 2.0e or higher.

You can place any value you wish in the default.dat file including your own defined values (ie _xxx). Below is an example of a default.dat file.

dflt_reply ||user||@1.2.3.4
from admin@1.2.3.4
v_raw off
v_headers off
v_font off
v_inline on
autoadd on
disk_quota 1000000
_user_setting_variable welcome to Web Based Email

Version 2.0d and higher allow administrators to let users setup user profiles. There was an update in the profiling in version 2.0e that allowed extra functionality. The following is based on the presumption that you are using version 2.0e or higher.

The user profile allows the user to have different values for some variables depending on which profile they are using.

ie. multiple signatures, reply-to, and real name.

By changing the config.tpl (and/or configf.tpl) the administrator can set up any user variable to be changeable by selecting a different profile. The default template set should have at least the signature setup for multi-profile. The template code for this is:

<textarea name="pro_sig" rows=4 cols=50 wrap="physical">||pro_sig||</textarea>

All user profile variables start with 'pro_'. This is removed before the user.dat file is updated with the user profile. If you decide to add the user's real name, for which the variable is normally called '_real_name', the profile variable that you use should be 'pro__real_name'. Note that there are three underscores, not two. This means that the line to add to the template file will be:

<input type=text size=30 maxlength=256 name="pro__real_name" value="||html_text||pro__real_name||">

You can also setup any other variable names of your choosing.

Some user variables cannot be setup as a user profile. These are:

pro_host
pro_folder
pro_from
pro_rule
pro_tcode
pro_disk_quota
pro__default_profile

The settings for each user are stored in user.dat files, one for each user. Each user has a directory which is a subdirectory of the template or work directory. See User Directories for directory layout.

This user.dat is a text file which can be edited by the system administrator. The default settings come either from global ini file settings or from the default user.dat file which is called default.dat. See Default User Settings for more details about the default.dat file.

You can also create batch scripts, or programs to modify the contents of the user.dat files, to do things like updating user's disk quotas or changing their "Real name" based on the contents of some central user database. Most changes to user.dat files should be done via the Managers Page.