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NAME

smtpd - Tcl SMTP server implementation

Table Of Contents

SYNOPSIS

package require Tcl 8.5 9
package require smtpd ?1.6?

::smtpd::start ?myaddr? ?port?
::smtpd::stop
::smptd::configure ?option value? ?option value ...?
::smtpd::cget ?option?

DESCRIPTION

The smtpd package provides a simple Tcl-only server library for the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol as described in RFC 821 (http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc821.txt) and RFC 2821 (http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt). By default the server will bind to the default network address and the standard SMTP port (25).

This package was designed to permit testing of Mail User Agent code from a developers workstation. It does not attempt to deliver mail to your mailbox. Instead users of this package are expected to write a procedure that will be called when mail arrives. Once this procedure returns, the server has nothing further to do with the mail.

SECURITY

On Unix platforms binding to the SMTP port requires root privileges. I would not recommend running any script-based server as root unless there is some method for dropping root privileges immediately after the socket is bound. Under Windows platforms, it is not necessary to have root or administrator privileges to bind low numbered sockets. However, security on these platforms is weak anyway.

In short, this code should probably not be used as a permanently running Mail Transfer Agent on an Internet connected server, even though we are careful not to evaluate remote user input. There are many other well tested and security audited programs that can be used as mail servers for internet connected hosts.

TLS Security Considerations

This package uses the TLS package to handle the security for https urls and other socket connections.

Policy decisions like the set of protocols to support and what ciphers to use are not the responsibility of TLS, nor of this package itself however. Such decisions are the responsibility of whichever application is using the package, and are likely influenced by the set of servers the application will talk to as well.

For example, in light of the recent POODLE attack discovered by Google many servers will disable support for the SSLv3 protocol. To handle this change the applications using TLS must be patched, and not this package, nor TLS itself. Such a patch may be as simple as generally activating tls1 support, as shown in the example below.

package require tls
tls::init -tls1 1 ;# forcibly activate support for the TLS1 protocol

... your own application code ...

COMMANDS

CALLBACKS

VARIABLES

AUTHOR

Written by Pat Thoyts mailto:[email protected].

LICENSE

This software is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the file "license.terms" for more details.

Bugs, Ideas, Feedback

This document, and the package it describes, will undoubtedly contain bugs and other problems. Please report such in the category smtpd of the Tcllib Trackers. Please also report any ideas for enhancements you may have for either package and/or documentation.

When proposing code changes, please provide unified diffs, i.e the output of diff -u.

Note further that attachments are strongly preferred over inlined patches. Attachments can be made by going to the Edit form of the ticket immediately after its creation, and then using the left-most button in the secondary navigation bar.

KEYWORDS

rfc 2821, rfc 821, services, smtp, smtpd, socket, vwait

CATEGORY

Networking

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © Pat Thoyts