SquirrelMail is a free and open-source webmail application that provides users with a web-based email client interface for managing their emails. In this tutorial, we will be installing SquirrelMail on Debian Latest.
SquirrelMail requires a web server to function. In this guide, we will be using Apache2. To install Apache2 on Debian Latest, run the following command:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install apache2 -y
After the installation is complete, enable the Apache2 service to start automatically upon system boot, by running the following command:
sudo systemctl enable apache2
Start the Apache2 service by running the following command:
sudo systemctl start apache2
SquirrelMail is a PHP-based application. Therefore, we need to install PHP on the server to provide support for executing PHP scripts. To install the latest version of PHP along with necessary modules on Debian Latest, run the following command:
sudo apt-get install php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql php-curl php-gd php-intl php-pear php-imagick php-imap php-pspell php-recode php-tidy php-xmlrpc -y
After the installation is complete, restart the Apache2 service to apply the changes, by running the following command:
sudo systemctl restart apache2
We can download the latest version of SquirrelMail by visiting the official website at https://squirrelmail.org/downloads/. Alternatively, you can run the following command to download SquirrelMail directly from the command line:
cd /tmp && wget https://squirrelmail.org/download.php
Extract the downloaded files by running the following command:
tar xvf download.php
Create a directory that will host the SquirrelMail files by running the following command:
sudo mkdir /var/www/html/squirrelmail
Move the extracted files to the newly created directory by running the following command:
sudo mv squirrelmail-*/* /var/www/html/squirrelmail/
We need to set the correct permissions for the directory to allow Apache2 to access it, by running the following command:
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/squirrelmail/
SquirrelMail uses a configuration file named "config.php" that is located in the "config" directory of the SquirrelMail installation directory. Copy the default configuration file to make changes by running the following command:
cd /var/www/html/squirrelmail/config/
sudo cp config_default.php config.php
sudo chown www-data:www-data config.php
Edit the configuration files and set the parameters to match your setup, by running the following command:
sudo nano config.php
Some of the important configuration parameters that you should review and modify accordingly include:
Save and close the file after making changes.
You can now access the SquirrelMail interface by visiting the following URL in your preferred web browser:
http://YOUR-SERVER-IP-ADDRESS/squirrelmail/src/login.php
Replace "YOUR-SERVER-IP-ADDRESS" with your server's IP address.
You should now be able to log in with your email credentials and start using SquirrelMail.
We have successfully installed SquirrelMail on Debian Latest, configured it and accessed the interface. You can now start using it to manage your emails from a web-based interface.
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