dma

From ArchWiki

dma (Dragonfly Mail Agent) is a tiny Mail Transport Agent (MTA). It is able to accept mails and deliver it to local or remote destinations; however, if you want to send and receive mails with your domain name, then you will need a full-featured mail server.

Installation

Install the dmaAUR package.

Configuration

dma has two main configuration files: /etc/dma/dma.conf contains main setup directives and /etc/dma/auth.conf is necessary for authentication on SMTP servers. dma provides sane defaults so you may be able to use it without special configuration for local mail delivery.

SMTP transport

If you want to route mail through external SMTP server you must set SMARTHOST address (also known as relay host) in /etc/dma/dma.conf:

/etc/dma/dma.conf
SMARTHOST smtp-host

Also do not forget to set authentication credentials in /etc/dma/auth.conf in the following format:

/etc/dma/auth.conf
user|smarthost.example.com:password

To have dma actually use the credentials file, set AUTHPATH:

/etc/dma/dma.conf
AUTHPATH /etc/dma/auth.conf

To change default port set PORT directive (25 is default):

/etc/dma/dma.conf
# accept mail from external MTAs (STARTTLS is also an option)
PORT 25

# accept mail from MUAs with TLS
PORT 465

# accept mail from MUAs (STARTTLS is also an option)
PORT 587

Encryption

SECURETRANSFER directive enables encryption during mail transfers. Depending on your needs uncomment STARTTLS to enable STARTTLS support and activate OPPORTUNISTIC_TLS to permit unencrypted fallback in case of error.

For whatever reason you may want to perform plain text SMTP authentication. In such case uncomment SECURE directive and change it to INSECURE explicitly.

Masquerading

If you want to substitute original From: field in envelope you can use MASQUERADE feature:

/etc/dma/dma.conf
# send mails as user foo (hostname will be derived with gethostbyname() or set to MAILNAME directive)
MASQUERADE foo@

# send mails from host bar (username will be substituted)
MASQUERADE bar

# send mail as user foo from host bar
MASQUERADE foo@bar

Testing

To send test mail execute the following from command line:

$ mail -s "Just a dma test" [email protected]
This is just a small test message
<Ctrl+D>

Run journalctl -r as root to see if all went good. Also you can check dma queue with:

$ dma -bp

/var/spool/dma directory also holds undelivered/unprocessed mails.

Examples

Send mails through Google's SMTP servers

Prerequisites

If you use 2-Step Verification (also known as two-factor authentication) procedure then you should create so-called App Password.

To do that login into your Google Account, choose Security entry on the left panel and click on App Passwords in Signing in to Google panel. If you do not see this item please consult corresponding thread on Google.

Click on Select app and choose desired application (usual called as Mail). Then click on Select device and choose the device, but it is better to add custom device and call it appropriately for easy future management. Then click on Generate and write down your App Password (16-character code in the yellow bar).

Warning: It is not possible to review or change app password later so use it immediately.

Configuration

/etc/dma/dma.conf
SMARTHOST smtp.gmail.com
PORT 587
AUTHPATH /etc/dma/auth.conf
SECURETRANSFER
STARTTLS
MASQUERADE [email protected]
/etc/dma/auth.conf
user|smtp.gmail.com:password
Note: Do not forget to specify your Google account login and password (or App Password instead, see #Prerequisites).