CentOS

Currently supported versions of CentOS include Cyrus IMAP packages in the repositories configured on a stock system:

  • Cyrus IMAP 2.3.7 for CentOS 5

  • Cyrus IMAP 2.3.16 for CentOS 6

  • Cyrus IMAP 2.4.17 for CentOS 7

Note

The Cyrus project does not support running any versions of the Cyrus IMAP software older than the version of the software shipped with the operating system itself.

To install the version of Cyrus IMAP that comes with the operating system, issue the following command:

# yum install cyrus-imapd cyrus-sasl cyrus-sasl-plain

Next, set a password for the default administrative user cyrus:

# passwd cyrus
Changing password for user cyrus.
New password:
Retype new password:
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.

Start and configure to start when the system boots, the saslauthd(8) service:

# service saslauthd start
Starting saslauthd:                                        [  OK  ]
# chkconfig saslauthd on

You should at this moment be able to authenticate against saslauthd(8):

# testsaslauthd -u cyrus -p YOUR-PASSWORD

You should get an 0: OK "Success." message.

Start the service, and ensure the service starts up when the system boots:

# service cyrus-imapd start
# chkconfig cyrus-imapd on

You should now be able to login as the cyrus user, which is configured by default as an administrator for Cyrus IMAP:

# imtest -t "" -u cyrus -a cyrus localhost
S: * OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4 IMAP4rev1 LITERAL+ ID STARTTLS LOGINDISABLED COMPRESS=DEFLATE] d5ec35c1414a Cyrus IMAP v2.3.16-Fedora-RPM-2.3.16-13.el6_6 server ready
C: S01 STARTTLS
S: S01 OK Begin TLS negotiation now
verify error:num=18:self signed certificate
TLS connection established: TLSv1.2 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)
C: C01 CAPABILITY
S: * CAPABILITY IMAP4 IMAP4rev1 LITERAL+ ID AUTH=PLAIN SASL-IR COMPRESS=DEFLATE ACL RIGHTS=kxte QUOTA MAILBOX-REFERRALS NAMESPACE UIDPLUS NO_ATOMIC_RENAME UNSELECT CHILDREN MULTIAPPEND BINARY SORT SORT=MODSEQ THREAD=ORDEREDSUBJECT THREAD=REFERENCES ANNOTATEMORE CATENATE CONDSTORE SCAN IDLE LISTEXT LIST-SUBSCRIBED X-NETSCAPE URLAUTH
S: C01 OK Completed
Please enter your password:
C: A01 AUTHENTICATE PLAIN ************
S: A01 OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4 IMAP4rev1 LITERAL+ ID LOGINDISABLED COMPRESS=DEFLATE ACL RIGHTS=kxte QUOTA MAILBOX-REFERRALS NAMESPACE UIDPLUS NO_ATOMIC_RENAME UNSELECT CHILDREN MULTIAPPEND BINARY SORT SORT=MODSEQ THREAD=ORDEREDSUBJECT THREAD=REFERENCES ANNOTATEMORE CATENATE CONDSTORE SCAN IDLE LISTEXT LIST-SUBSCRIBED X-NETSCAPE URLAUTH] Success (tls protection)
Authenticated.
Security strength factor: 256
. LIST "" "*"
. OK Completed (0.000 secs 1 calls)
C: Q01 LOGOUT
* BYE LOGOUT received
Q01 OK Completed
Connection closed.

Next, continue with Configuring the MTA.

Other Versions of Cyrus IMAP

The following guides walk you through providing you with a version of the Cyrus IMAP software that is no longer mainstream, and as such the level of technical detail is advanced.