playground:email_with_9front []

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====== Receiving and sending emails with 9front ======

In this tutorial we're going to show how to configure on 9front IMAP
and SMTP access for your SDF mailbox.

Note that for using SMTP on SDF you have to be a META, VHOST, VPM or
DIALUP member.

In the course of this article we will use some uppercase variables
you've got to replace appropriately for your use case:

	SDF_USER	- username to login to the SDF shell
	SDF_PASSWORD	- password to login to the SDF shell, it will be used for IMAP auth as well
	SMTP_SECRET	- you may need to set this one up, it will be used for SMTP auth

===== 1. Receiving =====
 

==== 1.1 Add your password to factotum(4) ====


In order to access your mailbox, we store the credentials in factotum
adding the appopriate key:

	% echo 'key proto=pass server=mx.sdf.org service=imap user=SDF_USER !password=SDF_PASSWORD' \
		 > /mnt/factotum/ctl

==== 1.2 upasfs(4) ====


''upas/fs'' is used to access the remote mailbox and mounting it locally
as a filesystem.  If you're not running upas yet, you can launch it
with:

	% upas/fs -f '/imaps/mx.sdf.org/SDF_USER'
	
You'll find the mailbox mounted under /mail/fs/mbox (default mailbox).

=== 1.2.1 Non-default mailbox ===


If you're already using ''upasfs(4)'', the command in the previous section
will most probably fail as you already have another mailbox named ''mbox''.
Of course you can have many different mailboxes, to create a separate
one for SDF:

	% echo open /imaps/mx.sdf.org/SDF_USER sdf > /mail/fs/ctl

In this scenario the SDF mailbox will be mounted under ''/mail/fs/sdf''

See ''upasfs(4)'' for more details.

For the rest of this article we're assuming that the mailbox is
mounted as the default one, and the programs we're going to use make
the same assumption, however such programs accept a flag or an
additional parameter to specify a different mailbox.  Please consult
the appropriate manual pages for more details.

=== 1.2.2 IMAP server certificate. ===


The very first time you try to access mx.sdf.org with upas you'll get
an error:

	upas/fs: opening /imaps/mx.sdf.org/SDF_USER: mx.sdf.org/imaps:cert for mx.sdf.org not recognized: sha256=j1iBZLD5iPEcGYJopv9oMBHjZcZAzTsfAzj7bIXA2T4

That's because the X.509 certificate is unknown to your system; to
make it trusted for the mailer just add it to the file ''mail'' inside
''/sys/lib/tls'' (most probably such file doesn't exist yet).

	% echo 'x509 sha256=j1iBZLD5iPEcGYJopv9oMBHjZcZAzTsfAzj7bIXA2T4' >> /sys/lib/tls/mail

=== 1.2.3 Namespaces considerations ===

If you're running ''upasfs(4)'' inside a rio's window you'll quickly find
out that a fresh new window won't inherith the previously opened mbox.
That's because it was mounted in a different process group and its
namespace is not fully shared with every other process.

To do that, you may want run ''upas/fs'' before starting
''rio(1)'', so every window created will have ''/mail/fs'' populated.

Another way to share the mail box is launching ''upas/fs'' with the ''-s'' flag:

	% upas/fs -s -f '/imaps/mx.sdf.org/SDF_USER'

From ''upasfs(4)''

	-s		causes fs to put itself in /srv with a name of
			the form /srv/upasfs.user.

That allows you to mount back your mailbox in a separate process group running:

	% mount /srv/upasfs.$user /mail/fs

==== 1.3 Read emails ====

The mbox is exposed as a filesystem where each email is presented as a
directory, e.g.:

	% lc /mail/fs/mbox/92	
	bcc		disposition	from		messageid	rawunix		subject
	body		ffrom		header		mimeheader	references	to
	cc		fileid		info		raw		replyto		type
	date		filename	inreplyto	rawbody		sender		unixdate
	digest		flags		lines		rawheader	size		unixheader

Every file in such directories contains the relative data about the email.
This is a great API, because it makes very easy to write your own mail
client.
We could also read the email directly from the shell with something
like:

	% for (i in from subject body) echo $i: `{cat /mail/fs/mbox/92/$i}

But that isn't really that great, is it?

=== 1.3.1 nedmail(1) ===


	% mail

when ''mail(1)'' is used in this way it is just a frontend to ''nedmail(1)''.

//TODO: expand.//

=== 1.3.2 faces(1) ===

With ''faces(1)'' we could monitor a mailbox for incoming mails.

	% faces -i

{{:playground:faces.jpg?400|faces(1)}}

It uses the ''plumber(4)'' to receive "notifications" from new emails from
''upasfs(4)'' and, right-clicking on a message, it plumbs the message so it
can be displayed by another program.

=== 1.3.3 acmemail(1) ===

Mail allows you to manage your mailbox directly inside ''acme(1)''

All you have to do is launch acme:

	% acme

And then run ''Mail''.
By default it will open a new window ''/mail/fs/mbox'' where you can edit
and read your mailbox.

Right-clicking on a message id will open the message in a new window.

''Put'' in the mailbox context is used to save any changes to ''upasfs(4)'',
for instance the read status of a message.

{{:playground:acme_eread.jpg?800|Managing mailbox using acme(1)}}

See ''acme(1)'' if you're not familiar with it and ''acmemail(1)'' for more
details.

===== 2. Sending =====

As mentioned in the intro, you need a META, VHOST, VPM or
DIALUP membership to send emails through SDF.

See https://sdf.org/?faq%3FEMAIL%3F08 for the official details.

==== 2.1 SDF SMTP configuration from 9front ====

To setup the SDF SMTP from 9front you can use ''vt(1)'' and ''ssh(1)'':

	% vt
	% ssh SDF_USER@tty.sdf.org

Then on the SDF shell:
	
	sdf$ setdialup
	SETDIALUP Version 3
	
	 [p]  Set your DIALUP and SMTP Auth password
	 [m]  Toggle SDF_USER@tenex.org email address
	 [n]  Set your connection type to NETWORK PPP (default)
	 [s]  Set your connection type to SHELL
	 [t]  Set your connection to TIP
	 [r]  REMOVE your DIALUP Membership
	 [q]  QUIT
	
	Choice? 

At this prompt you should choose ''[p]'' to set your SMTP secret and then
''[m]'' to enable the email address.

==== 2.2 rewrite(6) ====

''/mail/lib/rewrite'' is used in order to convert a given email
destination to a command to properly send the email.

By default rewrite doesn't contain any rules, for our purpose we could
just use the template provided by ''rewrite.gateway''

	% cat /mail/lib/rewrite.gateway > /mail/lib/rewrite

See ''rewrite(6)'' for more details.

==== 2.3 /mail/lib/remotemail ====

This script is used by ''/mail/lib/qmail'' to dispose of a remote message.

We can edit it in order to hardcode ''smtp(8)'' so use SDF SMTP server:

	#!/bin/rc
	shift
	sender=SDF_USER@sdf.org
	shift
	addr=tcp!mx.sdf.org!25
	shift
	fd=`{/bin/upas/aliasmail -f $sender}
	switch($fd){
	case *.*
		;
	case *
		fd=sdf.org
	}
	exec /bin/upas/smtp -d -u SDF_USER.tenex.org@sdf.org -a -h $fd $addr $sender $*

make sure to have a newline at the end of this file, or your emails will not send.

=== 2.3.1 Avoid to overwrite defaults ===

In a shared system changing ''/mail/lib/*'' files may not be ideal, an
alternative way to do that is creating a ''$home/lib/mail'' directory and
make there the changes we described, finally use ''bind(1)'' to replace
the global one just inside our namespace:

	% bind -b $user/lib/main /mail/lib

See ''bind(1)'' for more info.
	
==== 2.4 Add your SMTP secret to factotum ====

Similarly at what we did in 1.1 for IMAP, we're adding our credentials
in factotum to access SDF SMTP server.

	% echo 'key proto=cram server=mx.sdf.org user=SDF_USER.tenex.org@sdf.org !password=SMTP_SECRET' \
		> /mnt/factotum/ctl

Note that the proto in this case is ''cram'' and the username, as
mentionened in the SDF FAQ, is sligthly different than usual.

==== 2.5 SMTP server certificate. ====

As the SMTP server is mx.sdf.org, we can just copy the cert we
used for IMAP (see 1.2.2):

	% cp /sys/lib/tls/mail /sys/lib/tls/smtp

==== 2.6 Post email ====


Now we're almost ready to send emails from 9front using SDF!

=== 2.6.1 Correct From field ===


With the setup described in this article you're going to send emails
with ''From'' set to $user@sdf.org.  Unless you're really glenda@sdf.org
(oh, hi!) or in general $user doesn't match SDF_USER, please be sure
to have the upasname env variable set to SDF_USER:

	% upasname=SDF_USER

You may want to set this inside ''$home/lib/profile'' to prevent any
error.

=== 2.6.1 mail(1) ===


The simplest way to send an email is:

	% echo 'this is a test' | mail -s test gurdulu@sdf.org

when ''mail(1)'' is used in this way it is just a frontend to ''marshal(1)''.

=== 2.6.2 acmemail(1) ===

''Mail'', already introduced in 1.3.3.  could also be used to compose and
send emails directly from ''acme(1)''

You can start composing a new email middle-clicking ''Mail'' in the mailbox
window: a new window will be opened, fill the email in and finally middle-click Post to send it.

{{:playground:acme_esend.jpg?800|Composing an email using acme(1)}}

==== 2.7 Troubleshooting ====

	% tail -f /sys/log/smtp

	% tail -f /sys/log/smtp.fail