The pmdf password utility is used to add and change password values that may be used for special authorization purposes, such as authentication by POP and IMAP clients.

Whether you need to use this utility will depend on your site's configuration, (and on what POP or IMAP client you use and what underlying commands it uses). If you access the native BSD message store from POP or IMAP clients, then you may need to. Otherwise (for instance, if you access the PMDF popstore from a POP client or the PMDF MessageStore from an IMAP or POP client) then you probably will not.

APOP passwords, used by some POP clients such as Eudora, and CRAM-MD5 passwords, used by some POP and IMAP clients, cannot be stored in the system password file. Therefore, in order to support use of the POP protocol's APOP command or AUTH command with CRAM-MD5, or the IMAP protocol's authenticate command with CRAM-MD5, you must have a password entry stored in another authentication source such as the PMDF password database.

When using the PMDF password database as the source of authentication information, note that it may contain several entries, one for each allowed service value. The sort of connection (for instance, whether POP or IMAP) will control which service entry is preferentially checked. Queries by the POP server will first check your POP service entry, but if such an entry does not exist will fall through to your DEFAULT service entry. Queries by the IMAP server will first check your IMAP service entry, but if such an entry does not exist will fall through to your DEFAULT service entry.

The use of service specific password database entries is not typical; typically, you would simply have one entry, your DEFAULT service entry, used whenever the PMDF password database is queried. But if you do want to use service specific password database entries, while the above description of service specific probes may sound complicated, the goal is simply to query the "natural" password entry for each case.

To set your password (for the DEFAULT service) in the PMDF password database, issue the command:

% pmdf password

You will then be prompted to enter your password. For further details, see the discussion of pmdf password in Chapter 6.