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Internet Exchange Frequently Asked Questions

Internet Exchange Messaging Server
Local Mail Delivery Agent FAQ

Overview
The Local Mail Delivery Agent is the Internet Exchange Message Store module responsible for pulling incoming messages from the Shared Message Queue and delivering them to the Message Store repository.  When a message is available for local mail delivery, it retrieves the recipient name from the message envelope provided by the Shared Message Queue.  This recipient name is verified against the user's Message Store database.  Every local recipient has to be defined in the user's database before a message can be delivered.

The Local Mail Delivery Agent performs several operations when delivering a message.  First, it writes the message file to a temporary buffer and parses the contents.  Parsed envelope information and body information are saved in the internal data structure used by message store databases.  Second, it reads the mailbox database of the user for the mailbox status.  The mailbox status includes the next unique identifier to be assisgned to the message when it is saved in the message store databases.  Third, it gets the system time and uses it as the local time delivery of the message.  This is saved in the msssage status database.  Fourth, the envelope and body data structures are saved in the message envelope and message body databases respectively.  Lastly, the actual message file is saved in the user mailbox.   The default user mailbox is the INBOX.

The Local Mail Delivery Agent may consult the MailSort Engine module before delivering the local message.  The MailSort Engine provides a way to customize the delivery of messages instead of using the default mailbox.  A user may create several mailboxes in his/her home directory or he/she maybe a member of a shared folder.   In this case, the Local Mail Delivery Agent will be dependent on the MailSort Engine module in what to do and where to deliver the local message.

Using the MailSort Engine module, the Local Mail Delivery Agent can customize the delivery of local messages.  The MailSort Engine module supports the following functions:

  • Copy a message to different folder - copies a message destined for the user's INBOX to the user's other mailbox.

  • Move a message to different folder - delivers the message to a different user's mailbox without delivering the message to the user's INBOX.

  • Reject a message - denies unwanted messages.

  • Forward a message to different recipient - forwards the message to a specified recipient.

  • Send vacation replies - sends vacation replies to a message's sender whenever the user is unavailable.

Additional Local Mail Delivery Agent and Related Documents
The following represent additional sources of information on the Internet Exchange Messaging Server Local Mail Delivery Agent: