Haraka

A fast, highly extensible, and event driven SMTP server

haraka/Haraka haraka.github.io Haraka

README

Haraka - a Node.js Mail Server

[![Coverage Status][cov-img]][cov-url]

Haraka is a highly scalable [node.js][1] email server with a modular

plugin architecture. Haraka can serve thousands of concurrent connections

and deliver thousands of messages per second. Haraka and plugins are written

in asynchronous JS and are very fast.

Haraka has very good spam protection (see [plugins][4]) and works

well as a filtering [MTA][3]. It also works well as a [MSA][5] running on

port 587 with auth and [dkim_sign][6] plugins enabled.

Haraka makes no attempt to be a mail store (like Exchange or Postfix/Exim/Qmail),

a [LDA][7], nor an IMAP server (like Dovecot or Courier). Haraka is

typically used with such systems.

Haraka has a scalable outbound mail delivery engine built in. Mail

marked as relaying (such as via an auth plugin) is automatically

queued for outbound delivery.

Getting Help

[Join the mailing list][8] (implemented as a Haraka plugin)

[GitHub Issues][15]

Screencast

[Getting started with Haraka][2]

Why Use Haraka?

Haraka's plugin architecture provides an easily extensible MTA that

complements traditional MTAs that excel at managing mail stores but do

not have sufficient filtering.

The plugin system makes it easy to code new features. A typical example

is providing qmail-like extended addresses to an Exchange system,

whereby you could receive mail as user-anyword@domain.com, and yet

still have it correctly routed to user@domain.com. This is a few lines of

code in Haraka.

Plugins are provided for running mail through [SpamAssassin][9], validating

[HELO][10] names, checking [DNS Blocklists][11], and [many others][12].

Installing Haraka

Haraka requires [node.js][1] to run. Install Haraka with [npm][2]:

```sh
# If the second command gives "nobody" errors, uncomment & run the next command
# npm -g config set user root
npm install -g Haraka
```

After installation, use the haraka binary to set up the service.

Running Haraka

First, create the service:

```sh
haraka -i /path/to/haraka_test
```

That creates the directory haraka_test with config and plugin

directories within. It also sets the host name used by Haraka

to the output of hostname.

If hostname is not correct, edit config/host_list. For example,

to receive mail addressed to user@domain.com, add domain.com to the

config/host_list file.

Finally, start Haraka using root permissions:

```sh
haraka -c /path/to/haraka_test
```

And it will run.

Configure Haraka

To choose which plugins run, edit config/plugins. Plugins control the

overall behaviour of Haraka. By default, only messages to domains listed

in config/host_list will be accepted and then delivered via the

smtp-forward plugin. Configure the destination in config/smtp_forward.ini.

Read the Fine Manual

```sh
haraka -h plugins/$name
```

The docs detail how each plugin is configured. After editing

config/plugins, restart Haraka and enjoy!

Running from git

If you are unable to use npm to install Haraka, you can run from git by

following these steps:

First clone the repository:

$ git clone https://github.com/haraka/Haraka.git

$ cd Haraka

Install Haraka's node.js dependencies locally:

$ npm install

Edit config/plugins and config/smtp.ini to specify the plugins and

config you want.

Finally run Haraka:

$ node haraka.js

License and Author

Haraka is MIT licensed - see the [LICENSE][16] file for details.

Haraka is a project started by [Matt Sergeant][17], a 10 year veteran of the email and anti-spam world. Previous projects have been the project leader for

SpamAssassin and a hacker on [Qpsmtpd][13].

[1]: http://nodejs.org/

[2]: http://youtu.be/6twKXMAsPsw

[3]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Message_transfer_agent

[4]: https://github.com/haraka/Haraka/blob/master/Plugins.md

[5]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_submission_agent

[6]: https://github.com/haraka/Haraka/blob/master/docs/plugins/dkim_sign.md

[7]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_delivery_agent

[8]: mailto:haraka-sub@harakamail.com

[9]: https://haraka.github.io/manual/plugins/spamassassin.html

[10]: https://haraka.github.io/manual/plugins/helo.checks.html

[11]: https://haraka.github.io/manual/plugins/dnsbl.html

[12]: https://github.com/haraka/Haraka/tree/master/plugins

[13]: https://github.com/smtpd/qpsmtpd/

[15]: https://github.com/haraka/Haraka/issues

[16]: https://github.com/haraka/Haraka/blob/master/LICENSE

[17]: https://github.com/baudehlo

[cov-img]: https://codecov.io/github/haraka/Haraka/coverage.svg

[cov-url]: https://codecov.io/github/haraka/Haraka?branch=master