Twistround | POPREP Additional Information

Running Poprep using a Service Account:

By default poprep is running as Local System, but you can configure it to run using a service account either from the command line specifying a Username and Password together with the -install or -reinstall switches or using the MMC Services snapin.

If you configure it to run using a service account, you need to ensure it has got write access to all folders where it's configuration, logfiles and queues are stored. The preferred option is to make the service account a member of the PopRepAdmins group.

For more information about the PopRepAdmins group, see PopConf.

Running Poprep interactively:

PopRep is a service, but you can run it interactively from a command prompt. You would typically only do so if you are testing/troubleshoting a configuration and you quickly want to display additional information, for example what authentication protocols that are suported by a POP Server. For this you would use the -debug switch.

This is a list of all command line options supported:

-install </U:User </P:Pass>> to install the service
-reinstall </U:User </P:Pass>> to RE-install the service
-Uninstall | -remove to Uninstall the service
-start to start the service
-stop to stop the service
-auto to set Startup to Auto
-manual to set Startup to Manual
-disabled to set Startup to Disabled
-debug<:lvl> to run as a console app for debugging
-help to display the help screen

Example, running poprep from a command line with full debug output displayed to the console:

poprep.exe -debug:9

When executed from the command line, the DebugLevel will be set to a minimum of 3 independent of what debug level that has been set at the command line, or through the admin console.

Folders:

Binaries:
C:\Program Files\Twistround\Poprep
or
C:\Program Files\Twistround (x86)\Poprep

Data files (Windows 2000, XP, 2003):
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Twistround\Poprep

Data files (Windows Vista, 2008):
C:\ProgramData\Twistround\Poprep\Data

Sample Folder Hierarchy:

+---Data
    +---Config
    ¦       PopRep-Backup.xml
    ¦       Poprep.xml
    ¦
    +---Logs
    ¦       poprep-2007-06-01.log
    ¦
    +---Queues
        ¦
        +---Google
            ¦   MailFilter.vbs
            ¦   Mails.tbl
            ¦   59c046e7-f2fb-431e-abe4-340ad1dacf17.eml
            ¦
            +---BadMail
                    Bad-Mails-Log.tbl
                    270b788d-c3cb-4567-af9f-b502bad6a839.eml

Configuration File:

The connector properties is stored in an XML file called, Poprep.xml. This file is stored in the folder .\Data\Config. It is recomended that this file is not manually modified, any changes should be made using the Admin Console. The Admin Console creates a backup copy of the configuraiton file, if you change the password used for storing the connector passwords. The backup file is called PopRep-Backup.xml.

Log Files:

The POPREP Service may create a daily log file, any log file is stored in the folder .\Data\Logs.

Connector Folder:

Every connector has got it's own folder used for temporary storage at .\Data\Queues\<Connector Name>. This folder also contains a transaction file used by the service to ensure that a specific mail item is only read once, and to keep a history of when the mail was recieved so that the service can remove the mail from the source mailbox after it's been sent. This folder is also the default location for any connector event script.

It is possible to change the location of all of these folders through settings in the registry.

Transaction file format:

Mails.tbl, MailsLog.tbl, Bad-Mail-Log.tbl

TimeStamp  Source MailboxMessageID         Status  Local Unique Identifier [FileName.eml]
========= ========================= ===== ================================
1203851894 AGe8ktkAAXlwR8FSBgFWYhAJ5ww  1      a4f1e7e9-c868-4b2f-beb6-dbba1dec01a8
1203869288 AGa8ktkAAUJgR8GWBgunehwSJCw  1      adb043a9-a6af-496c-83af-a14ebcae317e
1203935619 ABG8ktkAAPjlR8KWTAE69GQ3mE8 0      bf630393-44ae-4eb3-a9e4-a455d4b7b3ff

If you need to move any mail from the BadMail folder back to the queue then stop the service, move the mails back to the connector folder, and append the contents of the Bad-Mail-Log.tbl file to the MailsLog.tbl file, or if the MailsLog.tbl doesn't exist copy Bad-Mail-Log.tbl to MailsLog.tbl. Obviously, the only reason mails would have been moved to the bad mail folder is if you have an event script containing rules to detect unwanted mails. So unless you change the even script prior to starting the service the mails will simply be moved back to the badMail fodler again.

Registry Values:

A number of optional settings can be stored in the registry, typically you would never have to change these directly, but they are documented here:

Key Name: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Twistround\PopRep

Value
Name:            DataFolder
Type:            REG_SZ
Data:
Description:     Overrides the default root folder for configuration,
                  log and connector files.

Value
Name:            QueueFolder
Type:            REG_SZ
Data:
Description:     Overrides the default root folder for connectors.

Value
Name:            LogFolder
Type:            REG_SZ
Data:
Description:     Overrides the default root folder for Log Files.

Value
Value
Name:            ConfigFolder
Type:            REG_SZ
Data:
Description:     AOverrides the default root folder for
                  configuration files.

Value
Name:            LogLevel
Type:            REG_DWORD
Data:            0x2
Description:     Allow you to configure how verbose you want the log
                  file to be. Default log level is 2, Set to 0 if you
                  want to disable logging.

Value
Name:            DebugLevel
Type:            REG_DWORD
Data:            0x0
Description:     Allow you to enable verbose debug information to be
                  sent to a user mode debugger.
                  Default is 0, Debug info Disabled.