---
layout: page
title: Installing MTA
---

# Installing the MTA

<p class="lead">
  Alaveteli sends and receives email. You'll need to set up your Mail
  Transfer Agent (MTA) to handle this properly. We've got examples
  here for both postfix and exim4, two of the most popular MTAs.
</p>

Make sure you follow the correct instructions for the specific MTA you're using:

* [postfix](#example-setup-on-postfix)
* [exim4](#example-setup-on-exim4)

## Example setup on postfix

This section shows an example of how to set up your MTA if you're using
**postfix** (running on Ubuntu). See the example for
[exim4](#example-setup-on-exim4) if you're using that instead of postfix.

### Instructions

Install postfix.

    sudo apt-get install postfix

In the install options, select the default configuration `Internet Site` and set the hostname to your sitename.

Now configure Postfix. For example, if the Unix user that is going to
run your site is `www-data`, and the directory where Alaveteli is installed is
`/var/www/alaveteli`, add the following line to
`/etc/postfix/master.cf`:

    alaveteli unix  - n n - 50 pipe
      flags=R user=www-data argv=/var/www/alaveteli/script/mailin

The Unix user should have write permissions on the directory where Alaveteli is installed.

In `/etc/postfix/main.cf`, add the lines:

    transport_maps = regexp:/etc/postfix/transports
    local_recipient_maps = proxy:unix:passwd.byname regexp:/etc/postfix/recipients

And, assuming you set
[`INCOMING_EMAIL_PREFIX`]({{ site.baseurl }}docs/customising/config/#incoming_email_prefix)
in `config/general` to "foi+", create `/etc/postfix/transports` with the following
content:

    /^foi.*/                alaveteli

Create `/etc/postfix/recipients` with the following content:

    /^foi.*/                this-is-ignored
    /^postmaster@/          this-is-ignored
    /^user-support@/        this-is-ignored
    /^team@/                this-is-ignored

You should also configure postfix to discard any messages sent to the
[`BLACKHOLE_PREFIX`]({{ site.baseurl }}docs/customising/config/#blackhole_prefix)
address, whose default value is `do-not-reply-to-this-address`. For example, add the
following to `/etc/aliases`:

    # We use this for envelope from for some messages where
    # we don't care about delivery
    do-not-reply-to-this-address:        :blackhole:

To set up recipient groups for the `team@` and `user-support@` email addresses at your domain, add alias records for them in `/etc/aliases` too:

    team: user@example.com, otheruser@example.com
    user-support: team


If you want to make use of the automatic bounce-message handling, then set the
    [`TRACK_SENDER_EMAIL`]({{ site.baseurl }}docs/customising/config/#track_sender_email)
    address to be filtered through
    `script/handle-mail-replies`. Messages that are not bounces or
    out-of-office autoreplies will be forwarded to
    [`FORWARD_NONBOUNCE_RESPONSES_TO`]({{ site.baseurl }}docs/customising/config/#forward_nonbounce_responses_to). To do this, for a `general.yml` file that sets [`TRACK_SENDER_EMAIL`]({{ site.baseurl }}docs/customising/config/#track_sender_email) to team@[HOST] and [`FORWARD_NONBOUNCE_RESPONSES_TO`]({{ site.baseurl }}docs/customising/config/#forward_nonbounce_responses_to) to `real_team@[HOST]`,
add a new line to `/etc/postfix/master.cf`:

        alaveteli_replies unix  - n n - 50 pipe
          flags=R user=www-data argv=/var/www/alaveteli/script/handle-mail-replies

making sure to replace `/var/www/alaveteli` with the correct path to alaveteli if you're not running it from `/var/www/alaveteli`. Next, add a line to `/etc/postfix/transports`:

    /^team@*/                alaveteli_replies

Finally, edit `/etc/aliases` to replace `team` with `real_team`:

    real_team: user@example.com, otheruser@example.com
    user-support: team


### Logging

For the postfix logs to be successfully read by the script `load-mail-server-logs`, they need
to be log rotated with a date in the filename. Since that will create a lot of rotated log
files (one for each day), it's good to have them in their own directory. For example (on Ubuntu),
in `/etc/rsyslog.d/50-default.conf` set:

    mail.*                  -/var/log/mail/mail.log

And also edit `/etc/logrotate.d/rsyslog`:

    /var/log/mail/mail.log
    {
          rotate 30
          daily
          dateext
          missingok
          notifempty
          compress
          delaycompress
          sharedscripts
          postrotate
                  reload rsyslog >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
          endscript
    }

You'll also need to tell Alaveteli where the log files are stored and that they're in postfix
format. Update
[`MTA_LOG_PATH`]({{ site.baseurl }}docs/customising/config/#mta_log_path) and
[`MTA_LOG_TYPE`]({{ site.baseurl }}docs/customising/config/#mta_log_type) in `config/general.yml` with:

    MTA_LOG_PATH: '/var/log/mail/mail.log-*'
    MTA_LOG_TYPE: "postfix"

### Making the changes live

As the root user, make all these changes live with the following commands:

    /etc/init.d/rsyslog restart

    newaliases
    postmap /etc/postfix/transports
    postmap /etc/postfix/recipients
    postfix reload

### Troubleshooting (postfix)

To test mail delivery, run:

    $ /usr/sbin/sendmail -bv foi+request-1234@localhost

This tells you if sending the emails to `foi\+.*localhost` is working.
If it is, you should receive a delivery report email sent to `root`,
with text like "<foi+request-1234@localhost>: delivery via alaveteli:
delivers to command: /var/www/alaveteli/script/mailin".


## Example setup on exim4

This section shows an example of how to set up your MTA if you're using
**exim4** (running on Ubuntu). See the example for
[postfix](#example-setup-on-postfix) if you're using that instead of exim4.


### Instructions

We suggest you add the following to your exim configuration.

In `/etc/exim4/conf.d/main/04_alaveteli_options`, set:

    ALAVETELI_HOME=/path/to/alaveteli/software
    ALAVETELI_USER=www-data
    log_file_path=/var/log/exim4/exim-%slog-%D
    MAIN_LOG_SELECTOR==+all -retry_defer
    extract_addresses_remove_arguments=false

The user ALAVETELI_USER should have write permissions on ALAVETELI_HOME.

The name and location of the log files created by Exim must match what the
`load-mail-server-logs` script expects, which is why you must provide the
`log_file_path` setting.

The `check-recent-requests-sent` scripts expects the logs to contain the
`from=<...>` envelope information, so we make the logs more verbose with
`log_selector`. The ALAVETELI_USER may need to also need to be added to the
`trusted_users` list in your Exim config in order to set the return path on
outgoing mail, depending on your setup.

In `/etc/exim4/conf.d/router/04_alaveteli`:

    alaveteli_request:
       debug_print = "R: alaveteli for $local_part@$domain"
       driver = redirect
       data = ${lookup{$local_part}wildlsearch{ALAVETELI_HOME/config/aliases}}
       pipe_transport = alaveteli_mailin_transport

In `/etc/exim4/conf.d/transport/04_alaveteli`:

    alaveteli_mailin_transport:
       driver = pipe
       command = $address_pipe ${lc:$local_part}
       current_directory = ALAVETELI_HOME
       home_directory = ALAVETELI_HOME
       user = ALAVETELI_USER
       group = ALAVETELI_USER

And, assuming you set
[`INCOMING_EMAIL_PREFIX`]({{ site.baseurl }}docs/customising/config/#incoming_email_prefix)
in your config at `config/general.yml` to "foi+", create `config/aliases` with the following
content:

    ^foi\\+.*: |/path/to/alaveteli/software/script/mailin

You should also configure exim to discard any messages sent to the
[`BLACKHOLE_PREFIX`]({{ site.baseurl }}docs/customising/config/#blackhole_prefix)
address, whose default value is
`do-not-reply-to-this-address`. For example, add the following to
`config/aliases`:

    # We use this for envelope from for some messages where we don't care about delivery
    do-not-reply-to-this-address:        :blackhole:

If you want to make use of the automatic bounce-message handling, then set the
[`TRACK_SENDER_EMAIL`]({{ site.baseurl }}docs/customising/config/#track_sender_email)
address to be filtered through
`script/handle-mail-replies`. Messages that are not bounces or
out-of-office autoreplies will be forwarded to
[`FORWARD_NONBOUNCE_RESPONSES_TO`]({{ site.baseurl }}docs/customising/config/#forward_nonbounce_responses_to).
For example, in WhatDoTheyKnow the
configuration looks like this:

    raw_team: [a list of people on the team]
    team:     |/path/to/alaveteli/software/script/handle-mail-replies

with `FORWARD_NONBOUNCE_RESPONSES_TO`: 'raw_team@whatdotheyknow.com'`

Finally, make sure you have `dc_use_split_config='true'` in
`/etc/exim4/update-exim4.conf.conf`, and execute the command
`update-exim4.conf`.

Note that if the file `/etc/exim4/exim4.conf` exists then `update-exim4.conf`
will silently do nothing. Some distributions include this file. If
yours does, you will need to rename it before running `update-exim4.conf`.

(You may also want to set `dc_eximconfig_configtype='internet'`,
`dc_local_interfaces='0.0.0.0 ; ::1'`, and
`dc_other_hostnames='<your-host-name>'`).

### Troubleshooting (exim)

To test mail delivery, run:

    exim -bt foi+request-1234@localhost

This should tell you which routers are being processed.  You should
see something like:

    $ exim -bt foi+request-1234@localhost
    R: alaveteli pipe for snafflerequest-234@localhost
    snafflerequest-234@localhost -> |/home/alaveteli/alaveteli/script/mailin
    transport = alaveteli_mailin_transport

This tells you that the routing part (making emails to
`foi\+.*@localhost` be forwarded to Alaveteli's `mailin` script) is
working.

There is a great
[Exim Cheatsheet](http://bradthemad.org/tech/notes/exim_cheatsheet.php)
online that you may find useful.