Handbook WG - Mail WIP

[carlavilla]

Summary

• Include dma info
• Upgrade sendmail info
• Show how to change dma to use another MTA
• Show how to change sendmail to use another MTA
• Remove Dialup info
• Remove fetchmail info
• Reorg the sections of the chapter

Rendered: https://people.freebsd.org/~carlavilla/handbook-wg/mail.html

[bapt]

documentation/content/en/books/handbook/mail/_index.adoc

7

type s/mut/mutt/
s/user agentds/mail user agents/

415

no hoststat, no purgestat

[jrm]

documentation/content/en/books/handbook/mail/_index.adoc

66–67

Tweak wording.

80

This is nit-picky, but sort the MUAs by name.

87–88

Tweak wording.

88

Tweak wording.

98–100

In the sentence above, we say email, but here we call it mail. Do we want to be consistent?

104

• You already introduced the acronym DMA, so no need to repeat it.
• Saying "superior versions" sounds strange (to me).

105

105–107

This is my attempt to make these points more concise.

112–116

Try to be more concise.

118–144

Tweak wording.

148–174

175–201

Tweak wording.

324

Tweak wording.

333

Tweak wording.

413–414

s/can can/can/

746–747

Tweak wording.

747

762

I think getmail is a better option for most people, so I added it.

[carlavilla]

Fix comments

[dbaio]

Hi.

I couldn't review Advanced Topics, will do it in another batch on another day.
Thanks, Sergio, for your work.

documentation/content/en/books/handbook/mail/_index.adoc

7

What about adding postfix here as well?

105

We could use the project definition here:

dma is a small Mail Transport Agent (MTA), designed for home and office use. It accepts mails from locally installed Mail User Agents (MUA) and delivers the mails either locally or to a remote destination. Remote delivery includes several features like TLS/SSL support and SMTP authentication.

dma is not intended as a replacement for real, big MTAs like sendmail(8) or postfix(1). Consequently, dma does not listen on port 25 for incoming connections.

115

What about more details about the type of configuration/authentication?

Using DMA to Route Outgoing Mail through Gmail (STARTTLS:SMTP example)
Using DMA to Route Outgoing Mail through Fastmail (SSL/TLS example)

Because we can change this between the providers.

148

What about more details about the type of configuration/authentication?

Using DMA to Route Outgoing Mail through Gmail (STARTTLS:SMTP example)
Using DMA to Route Outgoing Mail through Fastmail (SSL/TLS example)

Because we can change this between the providers.

176–200

There are two examples already (SSL/TLS port 465 - Fastmail and
STARTTLS:SMTP port 587 - Gmail), we can just say to pick one example and change the host and user/password accordingly with your custom provider.

416–418

This is not entirely right.
When installing dma from ports, the path is different, but we need to tell users to check if they have a recent version of FreeBSD installed, which includes dma in the base system; otherwise, install it from ports.

And we can use the' pkg info -D dma|postfix|etc` messages; they already have many info; In fact, we can say that in any doubt, always check the current port pkg-message with it for updated instructions.

[dbaio:~]$ sudo jexec j13
root@j13:/ # pkg info -D dma
dma-0.13.20220128_1,1:
On install:
Please note that dma is now also available in FreeBSD's base, currently under
/usr/libexec/dma, and with config files in /etc/mail/dma.

These may not track the same version of dma.  Users are encouraged to check
releases notes to see which best suits their needs.

===

To enable dma please edit /etc/mail/mailer.conf to replace all lines
referring to another MTA with the following:

sendmail	/usr/local/libexec/dma
send-mail	/usr/local/libexec/dma
mailq		/usr/local/libexec/dma

If you do not need sendmail anymore, please add in your rc.conf:

sendmail_enable="NONE"

or, for more granular control:

sendmail_enable="NO"
sendmail_submit_enable="NO"
sendmail_outbound_enable="NO"
sendmail_msp_queue_enable="NO"

if you want anything in your queue to be flushed at on boot or before
shutdown, add the following to rc.conf as well:

dma_flushq_enable="YES"

A crontab configuration to flush every 30 minutes was added to
/usr/local/etc/cron.d/dma.

And you can disable some sendmail specific daily maintenance routines in your
/etc/periodic.conf file:

daily_clean_hoststat_enable="NO"
daily_status_mail_rejects_enable="NO"
daily_status_include_submit_mailq="NO"
daily_submit_queuerun="NO"

758–760

pkg info -D postfix brings helpful information; we can use the same and tell users always to see those messages as well.

root@j13:/ # pkg info -D postfix
postfix-3.8.2,1:
On install:
To use postfix instead of sendmail:
  - clear sendmail queue and stop the sendmail daemons

Run the following commands to enable postfix during startup:
  - sysrc postfix_enable="YES"
  - sysrc sendmail_enable="NONE"

If postfix is *not* already activated in /usr/local/etc/mail/mailer.conf
  - mv /usr/local/etc/mail/mailer.conf /usr/local/etc/mail/mailer.conf.old
  - install -d /usr/local/etc/mail
  - install -m 0644 /usr/local/share/postfix/mailer.conf.postfix /usr/local/etc/mail/mailer.conf

Disable sendmail(8) specific tasks,
add the following lines to /etc/periodic.conf(.local):
  daily_clean_hoststat_enable="NO"
  daily_status_mail_rejects_enable="NO"
  daily_status_include_submit_mailq="NO"
  daily_submit_queuerun="NO"

If you are using SASL, you need to make sure that postfix has access to read
the sasldb file.  This is accomplished by adding postfix to group mail and
making the /usr/local/etc/sasldb* file(s) readable by group mail (this should
be the default for new installs).

On remove:
If you remove postfix permanent, adjust / remove the the following file:
  - /usr/local/etc/mail/mailer.conf

808–809

Mutt

811–812

Mutt

817

As we are here improving this chapter, what about adding a note about NeoMutt here? See the following:

A Mutt fork called NeoMutt is worth mentioning, which brings added features. See more on the Mutt website

If NeoMutt was chosen, replace the following command examples from mutt to neomutt.

817–818

Mutt may be ...
we can change all references to Mutt.

[bcr]

Just adding a suggestion, the rest of the text looks fine to me.
Thanks for doing the work!

documentation/content/en/books/handbook/mail/_index.adoc

922

Maybe mention here that MX stands for Mail Exchange?

[carlavilla]

documentation/content/en/books/handbook/mail/_index.adoc

105

I like this idea.

176–200

Well, for clarity I prefer to keep a third example with a "custom" host.

922

good idea :)

[carlavilla]

Fix comments :)

[dbaio]

Hi Sergio.

My review of the Advanced Topics section.

documentation/content/en/books/handbook/mail/_index.adoc

324

typo: is the default MTA

743–745

This sentence is not right.

My suggestion is:

... assuming a full-featured MTA is running correctly on `example.FreeBSD.org`.

Note that man:dma[8] does not listen on port 25 for incoming connections and cannot be used in this scenario.

768

hub --> nevdull

FYI, hub was an ancient hostname in the cluster.

801–804

I would add this tip:

TIP:

In addition to adding local users to the host, there are alternative methods known as virtual users. Programs like Cyrus and Dovecot can be integrated into MTAs to handle users, mail storage, and also provide access via POP3 and IMAP.

https://www.cyrusimap.org/
https://www.dovecot.org/

851

Let's promote our new man:dma[8], first.

The easiest way to fulfill those needs is to use the man:dma[8] MTA included in the base system. For systems up to 13.2, need to install it from ports.

More details in the previous section #configuring-dragonFly-mail-agent.

In addition to man:dma[8], third-party software can be used to achieve the same, like package:mail/ssmtp[].

See how to install and configure package:mail/smtp[] for sending emails through a relay:

[carlavilla]

documentation/content/en/books/handbook/mail/_index.adoc

324

Nice catch

[carlavilla]

Fix dbaio's last comments :)