The first version of the notqmail project was recently presented, in which framework began as the development of a fork of the qmail mail server. Qmail was created by Daniel J. Bernstein in 1995 to provide a faster and more secure replacement for sendmail.
The latest version of qmail 1.03 was released in 1998 and since then the official delivery has not been updated, but the server is still an example of high-quality and safe software, therefore it continues to be used until now and has grown with numerous patches and add-ons.
At one time, based on qmail 1.03 and accumulated patches, the netqmail distribution was formed, but now it is in an abandoned form and has not been updated since 2007.
Amitai schleier, a NetBSD contributor and Author of various qmail patches and configurations, together with interested enthusiasts, founded the notqmail project, which aims to continue developing qmail as a complete product, rather than as a set of patches.
Notqmail also continues to adhere to the general principles of qmail: architectural simplicity, stability and minimal errors.
Notqmail developers are very careful to include changes and add only the functionality necessary in modern realities, while maintaining basic qmail compatibility and they offer versions that can be used to replace existing qmail installations.
To maintain the proper level of stability and security, plans to release releases very often and include only a small number of changes in each, allowing users to verify proposed changes with their own hands.
To simplify the transition to new versions, it is planned to prepare a mechanism for the reliable, simple and regular installation of updates.
About the new version of qmail
The original qmail architecture and basic components will be preserveds will remain unchanged, which to some extent will maintain compatibility with plugins and patches previously released for qmail 1.03.
Additional features planned in the form of extensions, adding the necessary program interfaces to the qmail core if necessary.
Between new features planned to be included, tools to verify SMTP recipient are mentioned, authentication and encryption modes (AUTH and TLS), support for SPF, SRS, DKIM, DMARC, EAI and SNI.
The first version of the project (1.07) resolved compatibility issues with current versions of FreeBSD and macOS, added the ability to use utmpx instead of utmp, resolved compatibility issues with BIND 9-based solvers.
Installation in arbitrary directories was simplified and it was possible to install without root login and added the ability to build without the need to create a separate qmail user (can run as an arbitrary user without privileges).
Added UID / GID verification at runtime.
In version 1.08, it is planned to prepare packages for Debian (deb) and RHEL (rpm), as well as performing a refactoring to replace outdated C builds with variants that meet the C standard.
In version 1.9, it is planned to add new programming interfaces for extensions. In version 2.0, it is expected to change the mail queue system configuration, add a utility to restore queues, and give the API the ability to connect extensions for LDAP integration.
Like qmail, the new project is distributed as a public domain (full copyright disclaimer with the ability to distribute and use the product by everyone and without limitation).
How to install notqmail on Linux?
For those who are interested in being able to install notqmail They can do it by following the instructions we share below.
For those who are Ubuntu 19.04 users, they should open a terminal and run the following command:
sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/notqmail/xUbuntu_19.04/ /' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/home:notqmail.list" wget -nv https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:notqmail/xUbuntu_19.04/Release.key -O Release.key sudo apt-key add - < Release.key sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install notqmail
While for those using 18.04:
sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/notqmail/xUbuntu_18.04/ /' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/home:notqmail.list" wget -nv https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:notqmail/xUbuntu_18.04/Release.key -O Release.key sudo apt-key add - < Release.key sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install notqmail
Now for who are Fedora users:
sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:notqmail/Fedora_30/home:notqmail.repo sudo dnf install notqmail
Those who are openSUSE users:
sudo zypper addrepo https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:notqmail/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/home:notqmail.repo sudo zypper refresh sudo zypper install notqmail