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https://github.com/ruffrey/hk


https://github.com/ruffrey/hk

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README 

          
Haraka - a Node.js Mail Server

------------------------------



Haraka is an SMTP server which uses a plugin architecture to implement most

of its functionality. It uses a highly scalable event model to be able to

cope with thousands of concurrent connections. Plugins are written in

Javascript using [Node.js][1], and as such perform extremely quickly. The

core Haraka framework is capable of processing thousands of messages per

second on the right hardware.



Haraka can be used either as an inbound SMTP server, and is designed with

good anti-spam protections in mind (see the `plugins` directory), or it can

be used as an outbound mail server - the most common way of doing this is by

running it on port 587 with an "auth" plugin to authenticate your users.



A full mail system for end users is vastly complicated, and so Haraka makes

no attempt to be an IMAP server, figure out where mails should be delivered,

or implement any of the functionality of a mail store. As such it is common

to have a backend mail server which Haraka delivers to for that sort of

functionality - Exchange, Postfix, Dovecot or Courier would be examples of

such systems.



Haraka does have a scalable outbound mail delivery engine built in. Any mail

marked as `relaying` (such as via an `auth` plugin) will automatically be

queued for outbound delivery.



### Join the Mailing List



To get started with Haraka and ask questions about it, please join the

mailing list: mailto:haraka-sub@harakamail.com - the mailing list is

implemented as a Haraka plugin.



### Screencast



[Getting started with Haraka][2]



### Why Use Haraka?



Haraka's primary purpose is to provide you with a much easier to extend

mail server than most available SMTP servers out there such as Postfix,

Exim or Microsoft Exchange, yet while still running those systems for their

excellent ability to deliver mail to users.



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

might be to provide qmail-like extended addresses to an Exchange system,

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

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

code in Haraka, or maybe someone has already written this plugin.



Plugins are already provided for running mail through SpamAssassin, checking

for known bad HELO patterns, checking DNS Blocklists, and watching for

violators of the SMTP protocol via the "early_talker" plugin.



Furthermore Haraka comes with a simple plugin called "graph" which shows you

real-time charts of which plugins rejected the most mail, allowing you to

easily fine-tune your list of plugins to more effectively stop spam.



### Installing Haraka



Haraka is written in Javascript and requires [node.js][1] to run.



Installation is very simple via [npm][2]:



    $ npm install -g Haraka



That will provide you with a `haraka` binary which allows you to setup the

service.



### Running Haraka



Setting up Haraka is simple. Firstly we need to create the service:



    $ haraka -i /path/to/haraka_test



That creates the directory `haraka_test` and creates `config` and `plugin`

directories in there, and automatically sets the host name used by Haraka

to the output of the `hostname` command.



This assumes that `hostname` gives you the correct host you want to receive

mail for. If not, edit the `config/host_list` file. For example if you want

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

`config/host_list` file.



Finally just start Haraka:



    $ haraka -c /path/to/haraka_test



And it will run.



However the big thing you want to do next is to edit the `config/plugins`

file. This determines what plugins run in Haraka, and controls the overall

behaviour of the server. By default the server is setup to receive mails for

domains in `host_list` and deliver them via `qmail-queue`. Queueing to

qmail is likely not what you need unless you have qmail installed, so this is

likely the first thing you want to change.



Each plugin has documentation available via `haraka -h plugins/`.

Look there for information about how each plugin is configured, edit your

`config/plugins` file, restart Haraka and enjoy!



Feel free to write to the mailing list with any questions. Or use github

"Issues".



### 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/baudehlo/Haraka.git

    $ cd Haraka



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

config you want.



Finally run Haraka:



    $ node haraka.js



### Performance



Haraka is fast, due to the nature of using the v8 Javascript engine, and

it is scalable due to using async I/O everywhere. On my local system I have

managed to scale it up to 5000 emails per second (with minimal plugins).



I welcome other performance evaluations.



### License and Author



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



Haraka is a project started by Matt Sergeant, 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, a perl based mail server which is 

quite similar to Haraka (but not as fast due to perl being slower than

Javascript).



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

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