Script to configure client mail settings
So I thought I would post this before I grow too old and forget about it. I have been working on a command line based configuration script for Mail.app, it does some fancy things like create Mail bundles and Package installers for deployment,it still has a couple of bugs so use it wisely. I haven't had time after MacWorld to work on it too much so if you have any bug reports, feel free to post them here as well as code additions. I would like to add some ssl certificate import support.
It's big, it's long, its BASH – enjoy and dont judge me too harshly as I know it needs some work.
Grab the script here.
by 
Hey look at that I made it the front page!
I thought I would take a few lunch minutes and elaborate on what the script
actually does on the back end.
The core of the script is XML injection it does this through the “defaults”
command in a very raw fashion,for those of you wondering why I didn’t
use PlistBuddy ,well basically there was no real need as the keys I am
injecting where not incredibly nested and also I find the “raw” xml easier to
read then syntax of PlistBuddy when working with complex arrays. The
script can add an account to a pre-existing preference file or it can
generate a fresh new copy with that account addition for a user who’s
never opened Mail.app . As I generate new preferences there is some
XML in there that may look a little long winded and you might wonder if it is
safe to hard code that much information into a default preference. Well
basically I took a preference from 10.4.7 and made in the basis for the
“fresh” preference ,Mail.app typically generates this preference on first run
(which can be seen by running a ktrace on Mail.app during this period.) as
there is no real “default” preference to copy from I choose one that had
defaults that suite most workstations(the default preference is normally the
same for all workstations ),I also had one person ask if there would be a
problem with generating this in 10.4.7 and reading it in say 10.4.9’s version
of Mail.app,well the answer is no, mainly because Mail.app has to read
previous updates preferences as there are many many scenarios where
the users home folder and the os would be out of sync version wise such
as a migration using the Migration Assistant.
My original scenario for deployment was Network Home
Directories,basically you can point it as the parent folder such as /Users/
or /Volumes/data/Users and it will recursively go through and “inject” either
additive (checking first to see if the config is not already there.) or a
“fresh” config with the account added. It uses the users home directory
name as the username for the mail server as you hopefully have your mail
server tied into the same User Account Directory as your Home
Directories server and Workstations.As you may have users in Open
Directory or Active Directory the script has the ability to read in the list of
folders in say /Users/* and check them against a directory server in your
search path configured in Directory Access.app (man DirectoryService)
this also helps with skipped directories such as “Shared” or “Deleted
Users” It also allows you perform the same functionality on Address
Book.app for its ldap servers.
If you don’t use Network Home Directories or you use Portable (Mobile)
Homes then the script can generate a standalone package installer for
your as long as you have the developer tools installed. Basically it will
copy it self in as a postflight script and read from a config file it generates
during the creation process.You can then post this on your web server
and allow people to download an installer that sets up Mail.app and
Address Book.app for all users and in addition will create a Mail Account
Bundle what I like to call templates and install it in /Library/Mail/
AccountTypes/ , these are the templates used during new account
creation that supply default config information for the account ,you have
probably seen the default one for .Mac listed in the pop up menu of
Mail.app add account window, the script will generate a package installer
for these so that even after you install any subsequently created users will
only have to use the template for intial config. The script actually can
generate these with out making a package installer as well if you would
rather deploy them in your restore image or as a Network Mount in /
Network/Library/Mail/Account Types/. run the scripts with no arguments
and it will show you the available options and arguments and an example
syntax section at the bottom that will cover some of the scenarios I have
mentioned here.I will continue to update it as its a pet project that grew out
out of production script that I wrote for my company.
Is this script still available? It appears that the link times out…