187 lines
9.3 KiB
Markdown
187 lines
9.3 KiB
Markdown
+++
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title = "Quick Start"
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weight = 0
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sort_by = "weight"
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template = "documentation.html"
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This quickstart guide will teach you how to run an in-memory instance of Aerogramme,
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because it is easier to run than a distributed real-world deployment. The goal here
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is that you get familiar with the software, you understand what it does and what it does not,
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so you can evaluate it. Once ready for a real deployment, you will find all the information you need in the cookbook.
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*Enjoy your reading!*
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## What is Aerogramme
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Aerogramme is a [Message Delivery Agent (MDA)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Message_delivery_agent) that speaks the [IMAP protocol](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Message_Access_Protocol).
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It makes sure that your mailbox, and thus your emails, are stored safely and stay in sync across all your devices.
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<!--It manages a bit more than just your emails, as contacts and calendars support is planned.-->
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Aerogramme is not (yet) a [Message Transfer Agent (MTA)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Message_transfer_agent) as it does not speak the [SMTP protocol](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Mail_Transfer_Protocol).
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It means you can't send email for example with Aerogramme alone, you need to plug it to a MTA, like [Postfix](https://www.postfix.org/) or [opensmtpd](https://www.opensmtpd.org/).
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The connection between Aerogramme and the MTA (Postix, opensmtpd, etc.) is done through a protocol named [LMTP](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Mail_Transfer_Protocol).
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## Get a binary
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Aerogramme is shipped as a static binary for Linux only on `amd64`, `aarch64` and `armv6` architectures.
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For convenience, a docker container is also published both on Docker Hub and on Deuxfleurs' registry.
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Also, Aerogramme is an open-source software released under the [EUPL licence](https://commission.europa.eu/content/european-union-public-licence_en), and you can compile it yourself from the source.
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To get the latest version of Aerogramme and the precise download information, both for binary and source releases, go to the dedicated download page:
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<a
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href="/download/"
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title="Aerogramme releases"
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class="group flex items-center justify-center space-x-1 font-semibold shadow hover:shadow hover:border-none border-none px-2 py-1.5 rounded text-white transition-all duration-500 bg-gradient-to-tl from-aerogramme-blue via-blue-500 to-blue-300 bg-size-200 bg-pos-0 hover:bg-pos-100">
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<svg class="w-6 h-6 animate-pulse text-white" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" viewBox="0 0 24 24" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><path stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" stroke-width="2" d="M7 16a4 4 0 01-.88-7.903A5 5 0 1115.9 6L16 6a5 5 0 011 9.9M9 19l3 3m0 0l3-3m-3 3V10"></path></svg>
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<span class="hidden md:inline text-white">Download</span>
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</a>
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To check if the binary you got is working, just launch it without any parameter, and an help message should be displayed like this one:
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```text
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aerogramme 0.2.0
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Alex Auvolat <alex@adnab.me>, Quentin Dufour <quentin@dufour.io>
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A robust email server
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USAGE:
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aerogramme [OPTIONS] <SUBCOMMAND>
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...
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```
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## Starting the daemon in development mode
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To start an in-memory daemon for evaluation purposes, you don't need any configuration file. Just run:
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```bash
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aerogramme --dev provider daemon
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```
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Now Aerogramme is listening for IMAP on `[::1]:1143` and for LMTP on port `[::1]:1025`. A test account has been created with username `alice` and password `hunter2`.
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<!--
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## Checking that the service is listening as intended
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*If you don't have socat installed on your computer or are not comfortable with interacting
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with low-level tools, you can simply skip this section.*
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You can try to connect on both ports with `socat` and see a welcome message from the server (CTRL + D to exit):
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```
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$ socat - tcp:localhost:1143,crlf
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* OK [CAPABILITY MOVE UIDPLUS LIST-STATUS ENABLE CONDSTORE LITERAL+ IDLE IMAP4REV1 UNSELECT] Aerogramme
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$ socat - tcp:localhost:1025,crlf
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220 example.tld Service ready
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```
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If you got these outputs, well done, your daemon is correctly started and is working!
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-->
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## Connecting Thunderbird
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Now that we have Aerogramme acting as a Mail Delivery Agent, we want to connect our devices to it.
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For this quick start guide, we will use Thunderbird on desktop. On the create account page,
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start filling the fields.
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**Your full name:** `Alice`
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**Email address:** `alice@example.tld`
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**Password:** `hunter2`
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Then click on **Configure Manually**. New fields will appear, fill them as follow.
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**Protocol:** `IMAP`
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**Hostname:** `::1`
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**Port:** `1143`
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**Connection Security:** `None`
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**Authentication Method:** `Normal password`
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**Username:** `alice`
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*Aerogramme is not a SMTP server but Thunderbird will not let you configure an account without a SMTP server.
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You can lie to Thunderbird by putting any existing SMTP server (like `smtp.gmail.com`) and choose "No Authentication" for the Authentication method field.*
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A screenshot for reference:
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Clic "Done" (or "Re-test" then "Done) and your account should be configured:
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As you can see, Thunderbird detected multiple mailboxes but they are all empty.
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You can copy emails from your other mailbox to fill your Aerogramme one, test search, add/remove flags, and so on.
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Mail reception will be emulated in the following section.
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## Emulate the reception of an email
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Remember, Aerogramme is about managing your mailbox, not managing mail transfer.
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As this is an Aerogramme specific, the goal here is not to deploy Postfix, opensmtpd or any other MTA software.
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Instead we will emulate their action: forwarding the messages they received to Aerogramme through the LMTP protocol.
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Python natively supports the LMTP protocol, the following command this capability to deliver a fake email:
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```bash
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python - <<EOF
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from smtplib import LMTP
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with LMTP("::1", port=1025) as lmtp:
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lmtp.set_debuglevel(2)
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lmtp.sendmail(
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"bob@example.tld",
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"alice@example.tld",
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"From: bob@example.tld\r\nTo: alice@example.tld\r\nSubject: Hello\r\n\r\nWorld\r\n",
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)
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EOF
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```
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After running three times this script and clicking on 2 of these 3 emails on Thunderbird,
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your mailbox should look like that:
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## That's all folks!
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That's (already) the end of the quickstart section of Aerogramme.
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You have learnt:
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- What Aerogramme does
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- How to download Aerogramme
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- How to run Aerogramme
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- How to connect Thunderbird to Aerogramme
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- How MTA are transferring emails to Aerogramme
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If you are considering a real-world deployment now, you will
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have many topics to consider, like integration with existing MTA, integration with a service manager, TLS encryption,
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user management, auto-discovery, persistent storage, high-availability design, observability, backup, updates, etc.
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All these points will be covered in the [Cookbook](@/documentation/cookbook/_index.md), it should be your next stop!
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<!--
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## Aerogramme's little secret: per-user mailbox encryption
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Aerogramme can't store plaintext data, instead all users data must be encrypted with a per-user key on the storage target.
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Of course, cryptography is always a tradeoff with other properties (usability, compatibility, features, etc.),
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so the way the key is derived and where the encryption/decryption can take place can be configured.
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These different configurations are identified as flavors:
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**Transparent Flavor** - Users' data are decrypted in the server's RAM. The key is derived from the user's password upon IMAP login.
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It's completely transparent to end users. While an attacker having full access to the server can still compromise users' data, it reduces the attack surface.
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In term of security, it's similar to [TREES](https://0xacab.org/liberate/trees) (from [RiseUp](https://riseup.net)) or [scrambler](https://github.com/posteo/scrambler-plugin) (from [Posteo](https://posteo.de/)).
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**Hardened Flavor** - Users' data are decrypted on the user's device. The private key is only stored on the user's device.
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The server knows only users' public keys. When an email is received by the server, it is directly encrypted and stored by the server.
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The user must run Aerogramme locally as a proxy that will manipulate the encrypted blobs stored in the server
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and decrypt them locally, exposing an IMAP proxy interface. An attacker having full access to the server at a point in time
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will not be able to compromise your already received data (but can intercept new emails). It's similar to [Proton Mail Bridge](https://proton.me/fr/mail/bridge),
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but keep in mind that Aerogramme does not support (yet) end-to-end email encryption like Proton Mail or Tutanota, *so Aerogramme is less secure*.
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When run on server (both for the transparent and hardened flavor), Aerogramme must be started in the "provider mode", as in "email service provider".
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When run on the end-user device (only the hardened flavor require that), Aerogramme must be started in the "companion mode", as in "a companion process of your email client".
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These 2 words are materialized as 2 subcommands on the Aerogramme binary: `aerogramme provider` and `aerogramme companion`.
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*Earlier, we started Aerogramme in the provider mode with a test account configured with the transparent flavor.*
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-->
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