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101 lines
6.7 KiB
Markdown
101 lines
6.7 KiB
Markdown
Mail-in-a-Box
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=============
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By [@JoshData](https://github.com/JoshData) and [contributors](https://github.com/mail-in-a-box/mailinabox/graphs/contributors).
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Mail-in-a-Box helps individuals take back control of their email by defining a one-click, easy-to-deploy SMTP+everything else server: a mail server in a box.
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**Please see [https://mailinabox.email](https://mailinabox.email) for the project's website and setup guide!**
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* * *
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Our goals are to:
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* Make deploying a good mail server easy.
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* Promote [decentralization](http://redecentralize.org/), innovation, and privacy on the web.
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* Have automated, auditable, and [idempotent](https://web.archive.org/web/20190518072631/https://sharknet.us/2014/02/01/automated-configuration-management-challenges-with-idempotency/) configuration.
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* **Not** make a totally unhackable, NSA-proof server.
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* **Not** make something customizable by power users.
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Additionally, this project has a [Code of Conduct](CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md), which supersedes the goals above. Please review it when joining our community.
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In The Box
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----------
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Mail-in-a-Box turns a fresh Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 64-bit machine into a working mail server by installing and configuring various components.
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It is a one-click email appliance. There are no user-configurable setup options. It "just works."
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The components installed are:
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* SMTP ([postfix](http://www.postfix.org/)), IMAP ([Dovecot](http://dovecot.org/)), CardDAV/CalDAV ([Nextcloud](https://nextcloud.com/)), and Exchange ActiveSync ([z-push](http://z-push.org/)) servers
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* Webmail ([Roundcube](http://roundcube.net/)), mail filter rules (thanks to Roundcube and Dovecot), and email client autoconfig settings (served by [nginx](http://nginx.org/))
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* Spam filtering ([spamassassin](https://spamassassin.apache.org/)) and greylisting ([postgrey](http://postgrey.schweikert.ch/))
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* DNS ([nsd4](https://www.nlnetlabs.nl/projects/nsd/)) with [SPF](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sender_Policy_Framework), DKIM ([OpenDKIM](http://www.opendkim.org/)), [DMARC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMARC), [DNSSEC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNSSEC), [DANE TLSA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNS-based_Authentication_of_Named_Entities), [MTA-STS](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc8461), and [SSHFP](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4255) policy records automatically set
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* TLS certificates are automatically provisioned using [Let's Encrypt](https://letsencrypt.org/) for protecting https and all of the other services on the box
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* Backups ([duplicity](http://duplicity.nongnu.org/)), firewall ([ufw](https://launchpad.net/ufw)), intrusion protection ([fail2ban](http://www.fail2ban.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page)), and basic system monitoring ([munin](http://munin-monitoring.org/))
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It also includes system management tools:
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* Comprehensive health monitoring that checks each day that services are running, ports are open, TLS certificates are valid, and DNS records are correct
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* A control panel for adding/removing mail users, aliases, custom DNS records, configuring backups, etc.
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* An API for all of the actions on the control panel
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Internationalized domain names are supported and configured easily (but SMTPUTF8 is not supported, unfortunately).
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It also supports static website hosting since the box is serving HTTPS anyway. (To serve a website for your domains elsewhere, just add a custom DNS "A" record in you Mail-in-a-Box's control panel to point domains to another server.)
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For more information on how Mail-in-a-Box handles your privacy, see the [security details page](security.md).
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Installation
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------------
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See the [setup guide](https://mailinabox.email/guide.html) for detailed, user-friendly instructions.
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For experts, start with a completely fresh (really, I mean it) Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 64-bit machine. On the machine...
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Clone this repository and checkout the tag corresponding to the most recent release:
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$ git clone https://github.com/mail-in-a-box/mailinabox
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$ cd mailinabox
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$ git checkout v55
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Begin the installation.
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$ sudo setup/start.sh
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The installation will install, uninstall, and configure packages to turn the machine into a working, good mail server.
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For help, DO NOT contact Josh directly --- I don't do tech support by email or tweet (no exceptions).
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Post your question on the [discussion forum](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/) instead, where maintainers and Mail-in-a-Box users may be able to help you.
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Note that while we want everything to "just work," we can't control the rest of the Internet. Other mail services might block or spam-filter email sent from your Mail-in-a-Box.
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This is a challenge faced by everyone who runs their own mail server, with or without Mail-in-a-Box. See our discussion forum for tips about that.
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Contributing and Development
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----------------------------
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Mail-in-a-Box is an open source project. Your contributions and pull requests are welcome. See [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md) to get started.
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The Acknowledgements
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--------------------
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This project was inspired in part by the ["NSA-proof your email in 2 hours"](http://sealedabstract.com/code/nsa-proof-your-e-mail-in-2-hours/) blog post by Drew Crawford, [Sovereign](https://github.com/sovereign/sovereign) by Alex Payne, and conversations with <a href="https://twitter.com/shevski" target="_blank">@shevski</a>, <a href="https://github.com/konklone" target="_blank">@konklone</a>, and <a href="https://github.com/gregelin" target="_blank">@GregElin</a>.
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Mail-in-a-Box is similar to [iRedMail](http://www.iredmail.org/) and [Modoboa](https://github.com/tonioo/modoboa).
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The History
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-----------
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* In 2007 I wrote a relatively popular Mozilla Thunderbird extension that added client-side SPF and DKIM checks to mail to warn users about possible phishing: [add-on page](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/thunderbird/addon/sender-verification-anti-phish/), [source](https://github.com/JoshData/thunderbird-spf).
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* In August 2013 I began Mail-in-a-Box by combining my own mail server configuration with the setup in ["NSA-proof your email in 2 hours"](http://sealedabstract.com/code/nsa-proof-your-e-mail-in-2-hours/) and making the setup steps reproducible with bash scripts.
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* Mail-in-a-Box was a semifinalist in the 2014 [Knight News Challenge](https://www.newschallenge.org/challenge/2014/submissions/mail-in-a-box), but it was not selected as a winner.
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* Mail-in-a-Box hit the front page of Hacker News in [April](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7634514) 2014, [September](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8276171) 2014, [May](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9624267) 2015, and [November](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13050500) 2016.
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* FastCompany mentioned Mail-in-a-Box a [roundup of privacy projects](http://www.fastcompany.com/3047645/your-own-private-cloud) on June 26, 2015.
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