Mail Setup

Grouprise supports the email protocol for different purposes:

  • send notifications to users, which are subscribed to groups or communication threads

  • receive incoming mails directed at a group or responding to a communication thread (similar to a mailinglist)

Mail notifications are enabled by default. Processing of incoming emails needs to be configured (see below).

Mail notifications

Outgoing email submission is configured in the email_submission configuration section.

The From address of outgoing mail is configurable:

Processing incoming emails

Incoming emails can be configured in different ways (or disabled).

See grouprise options for the specific settings mentioned below.

Disable reception of emails

Mail reception is disabled by default. It can be enabled by setting mailinglist_enabled to true. In this case, all outgoing mails use default_distinct_from_email as their From address. Users need to use the web-interface of grouprise for communication afterwards.

LMTP

The preferred setup for mail delivery to grouprise is based on LMTP. A minimal LMTP server is part of grouprise. The server can be enabled by installing the deb package grouprise-lmtpd package or by executing grouprisectl run_lmtpd.

All incoming mails are instantly handed over to grouprise.

The upstream mailserver (e.g. postfix) needs to be configured for delivering all mails for this mail domain to the LMTP server of grouprise.

Scripted processing

Most mail servers offer a „dotforward“-style interface for delivering an incoming email via an executable. Grouprise provides such an executable as grouprisectl import_mail_message.

This delivery method can be used in two ways:

  • A) domain-global forwarding: Configure | grouprisectl import_mail_message as the mail delivery mechanism for all addresses of the mail domain.

  • B) single inbox forwarding: Redirect all incoming mails for the domain into a single mailbox (see collector_mailbox_address). Configure | grouprisectl import_mail_message as mail forwarding for this single mailbox.

Please note two disadvantages of the scripted processing in comparison to the LMTP service (above):

  • The upstream mailserver cannot verify, whether a destination mail address is valid or not. Thus, it is forced to accept all incoming mail messages for this domain during the SMTP session. In case of a rejection by grouprise, this will cause subsequent backscatter (delivery failure emails). Early rejection during the initial SMTP session would be preferable (see LMTP above).

  • Forwarding all mails to a single mailbox (collector_mailbox_address) breaks the proper handling of CC and BCC addressing.