Forem: Narayan Adhikary

Complete Guide to Setting Up a Mail Server with Postfix, Dovecot, and Roundcube

Narayan Adhikary — Mon, 21 Apr 2025 09:14:15 +0000

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🌐 Complete Guide to Setting Up a Mail Server with Postfix, Dovecot, and Roundcube

This guide walks you through the process of setting up a mail server using Postfix, Dovecot, and Roundcube. It also explains the role of each component in the mail system, how they interact, and how to set them up.

Installing Postfix (SMTP server).
Installing Dovecot (IMAP server).
Creating an email account.
Configuring Dovecot and Postfix.
Installing and configuring Roundcube.
Testing everything.

📨 Postfix: Mail Transfer Agent (MTA)

Postfix is a Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) that handles the sending and routing of emails. It is responsible for accepting incoming emails and forwarding outgoing emails. It works based on the SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), which is the standard protocol for sending emails across the internet.

How Postfix Works:

When a user sends an email, Postfix receives it and routes it to the appropriate destination mail server using DNS-based MX (Mail Exchange) records.
If the email is meant for a local user (on the same server), Postfix delivers it to the local mailbox for that user.
For outgoing emails, Postfix uses SMTP to send the email to the recipient's email server.

📨 Dovecot: Mail Delivery Agent (MDA) & IMAP/POP3 Server

Dovecot serves as both a Mail Delivery Agent (MDA) and an IMAP/POP3 server. It allows users to access their emails and interact with their mailbox. Dovecot manages the storage of emails on the server and enables email retrieval via IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) or POP3 (Post Office Protocol).

How Dovecot Works:

Mail Storage: Dovecot stores incoming emails in a Maildir or mbox format. It allows users to keep emails on the server and access them remotely.
IMAP: IMAP allows users to read and manage their emails while keeping them on the server. Changes to folders or messages (such as moving, deleting, or marking as read) are synchronized across all devices.
POP3: POP3 downloads emails to the local client and removes them from the server. It is less commonly used today because it doesn't synchronize changes across devices.

Dovecot also provides SSL/TLS encryption to secure the transmission of email data between the client and the server.

📧 Roundcube: Webmail Interface

Roundcube is a webmail client that provides users with a graphical interface for managing their emails through a web browser. Roundcube connects to Dovecot over IMAP to retrieve email messages and to Postfix to send outgoing mail via SMTP.

How Roundcube Works:

Web-based Access: Roundcube allows users to access their emails from any browser by connecting to the server using IMAP.
Sending Email: It sends email messages using SMTP via Postfix.
Email Management: Roundcube offers an easy-to-use interface for managing emails, organizing them into folders (Inbox, Sent, Drafts, Trash), and composing new messages.
Rich Features: Roundcube supports attachments, address books, and other features typically found in desktop email clients.

🔐 SSL/TLS Encryption: Secure Communication

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and TLS (Transport Layer Security) are protocols used to encrypt communication between the email server and email clients. This encryption ensures that your emails and login credentials are secure while being transmitted over the internet.

How SSL/TLS Works:

Dovecot and Postfix can be configured to use SSL/TLS to secure both incoming and outgoing email traffic.
- IMAP over SSL (IMAPS): Secures the connection for email retrieval.
- SMTP over SSL (SMTPS): Secures the connection for sending emails.
- HTTPS: Secures the web-based Roundcube interface.

SSL/TLS ensures that the email content remains confidential and protected from unauthorized access or interception during transmission.

🗂 Mail Storage Formats: Maildir vs. Mbox

Both Maildir and Mbox are mail storage formats used by Dovecot to store email messages on the server. They determine how emails are stored and accessed on the server.

Maildir:

Each email is stored as a separate file in a directory structure (typically /new, /cur, and /tmp).
It is more efficient and reliable, especially for larger mailboxes with many emails.
Preferred for most modern mail servers.

Mbox:

All emails are stored in a single file.
Easier to back up but can become inefficient when dealing with large mailboxes.
Less commonly used today.

Recommendation: Maildir is generally preferred because it provides better performance and is more scalable.

🔄 Mail Flow Process

The interaction between Postfix, Dovecot, and Roundcube forms a complete email system. Here’s the typical flow of an email:

Postfix (SMTP):
- A user sends an email from their email client (Roundcube, Outlook, etc.).
- Postfix receives the email and routes it to the correct destination mail server using the recipient’s MX records.
Dovecot (IMAP/POP3):
- The recipient’s email server stores the incoming email in the mailbox.
- The recipient logs in via IMAP to retrieve their messages, or POP3 to download emails to their client.
Roundcube (Webmail Client):
- Roundcube provides a web-based interface for users to check their email. It connects to the Dovecot IMAP server to retrieve emails and uses SMTP to send outgoing emails via Postfix.

🧑‍💻 Summary of Key Components and Roles

Component	Role
Postfix	SMTP Server — Responsible for sending and receiving emails.
Dovecot	IMAP/POP3 Server — Stores emails and allows retrieval via IMAP/POP3.
Roundcube	Webmail Client — Provides a user-friendly interface for accessing and managing email.
Maildir	Mail Storage Format — Stores emails in individual files, organized in directories.
SSL/TLS	Encryption — Secures email communication between the server and client.

🚀 Step-by-Step Mail Server Setup

Now, let’s break down the process of setting up a mail server with Postfix, Dovecot, and Roundcube:

Step 1: Install Postfix

sudo apt update
sudo apt install postfix

Step 2: Install Dovecot

sudo apt install dovecot-core dovecot-imapd

Step 3: Install Roundcube

sudo apt install roundcube

Step 4: Configure Postfix

Set up Postfix for sending emails and routing them to the correct destination mail server.

Step 5: Configure Dovecot

Set up Dovecot to handle the retrieval and storage of emails using either IMAP or POP3.
Choose between Maildir or mbox for email storage.

Step 6: Configure SSL/TLS Encryption

Enable SSL/TLS in both Postfix and Dovecot to secure email communication.
Install SSL certificates and configure Postfix/Dovecot to use them.

Step 7: Set Up Roundcube

Configure Roundcube to connect to Dovecot over IMAP and use Postfix for SMTP.
Set up user authentication, folders, and the web interface.

🛡️ Security Considerations

SSL/TLS Encryption: Encrypt both incoming and outgoing email traffic.
Authentication: Ensure that only authorized users can send and receive emails.
Spam Protection: Configure Postfix with anti-spam measures like SpamAssassin or Postgrey.

🧑‍💻 Conclusion

You now have a basic understanding of the components involved in setting up a mail server with Postfix, Dovecot, and Roundcube. Here’s a summary of what each component does:

Postfix handles the sending of emails using SMTP.
Dovecot stores and retrieves emails using IMAP/POP3.
Roundcube provides a user-friendly, web-based interface for managing emails.

This setup will allow you to send and receive emails, securely manage your mailboxes, and access your emails from any device using a browser or email client.

Laravel Dev Environment in Linux

Narayan Adhikary — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 17:09:01 +0000

This article guides you through installing and configuring Nginx for local development on Linux. It covers installing Nginx, PostgreSQL, PHP, and Laravel's required extensions. Additionally, it explains configuring Nginx for multiple domains and subdomains using virtual hosts.

Install nginx

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nginx

Verify Nginx installation:

Open your browser and navigate to http://localhost. You should see the Nginx welcome page. But if your distro comes with apache2 pre-installed you should see the welcome page of apache2. No, worries we will fix that later.

Install Postgresql

See details here

# Create the file repository configuration:
sudo sh -c 'echo "deb https://apt.postgresql.org/pub/repos/apt $(lsb_release -cs)-pgdg main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pgdg.list'

# Import the repository signing key:
wget --quiet -O - https://www.postgresql.org/media/keys/ACCC4CF8.asc | sudo apt-key add -

# Update the package lists:
sudo apt-get update

# Install the latest version of PostgreSQL.
# If you want a specific version, use 'postgresql-12' or similar instead of 'postgresql':
sudo apt-get -y install postgresql

After successful Installation, open terminal and do the following:

Switch to postgresql console. It will ask for sudo (super user password)

sudo -u postgres psql

Change password and remember it carefully. This password is not the password of your system user, rather it is your postgres admin password.

\password

Install `php`

Add repository

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
sudo apt update

Now, run the following command to install latest php,

apt install php -y

Verify PHP version

php -v

If it shows the php version, then it is installed successfully.

Install Laravel required php extensions

sudo apt install php-ctype php-curl php-xml php-fileinfo php-mbstring php-pdo php-tokenizer php-session php-hash php-dom php-filter php-pgsql

Now, as you have nginx installed, you might not need apache. So, it can be removed from your system by following the
below method:

sudo service apache2 stop
sudo apt-get purge apache2 apache2-utils apache2.2-bin apache2-common
sudo apt-get autoremove

Our required components are installed. Now, its time for configuration.

In https://laravel.com/docs/10.x/deployment#nginx Laravel provided a basic nginx configuration to run laravel projects. But for most of the cases its perfectly fine.

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    server_name example.com;
    root /srv/example.com/public;

    add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";
    add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff";

    index index.php;

    charset utf-8;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location = /favicon.ico { access_log off; log_not_found off; }
    location = /robots.txt  { access_log off; log_not_found off; }

    error_page 404 /index.php;

    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $realpath_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }

    location ~ /\.(?!well-known).* {
        deny all;
    }
}

You can make this configuration file for each sites, or this can be
like https://serverfault.com/questions/623327/configuring-multiple-domain-in-nginx-in-one-file.
Anyway, I am not going for that, you can try it if you like.

Domain and Subdomains for Local Development

Before further discussion, lets know about the mechanism. First, when you visit a website by using a domain, the OS
looks up for the IP in DNS cache, then it visits the website by IP after resolving it.

To, access websites hosted locally by local domains or subdomains, we need to tell the OS how to handle it. This is done
by vhosts. The configuration for vhosts is at `/etc/hosts. If you see the contents you will find something like this:

127.0.0.1   localhost
127.0.0.1   local1.test
127.0.0.1   local2.test
127.0.0.1   subdomain.local2.test
127.0.1.1   wovosoft

See the top-most loop back ip 127.0.0.1 and 127.0.1.1. Each line is paired with IP and domain name. The lines instructs the OS to forward all the requests for local1.test, local2.test and localhost to the same IP address 127.0.0.1 on port 80. Now the question is how, the server will know, for which domain which application should handle the request? Well, this is determined by server applications like apache or nginx. Here we will go for nginx.

Now, reconsider the above nginx configuration provided by laravel. We, can use that sample to instruct nginx how to
handle the request for different domains or sub-domains.

Configuration for local1.test

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    server_name local1.test;
    root /home/your_username/sites/local1/public;
 
    add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";
    add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff";
 
    index index.php;
 
    charset utf-8;
 
    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }
 
    location = /favicon.ico { access_log off; log_not_found off; }
    location = /robots.txt  { access_log off; log_not_found off; }
 
    error_page 404 /index.php;
 
    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $realpath_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }
 
    location ~ /\.(?!well-known).* {
        deny all;
    }
}

Configuration for local2.test

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    server_name local2.test;
    root /home/your_username/sites/local2/public;
 
    add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";
    add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff";
 
    index index.php;
 
    charset utf-8;
 
    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }
 
    location = /favicon.ico { access_log off; log_not_found off; }
    location = /robots.txt  { access_log off; log_not_found off; }
 
    error_page 404 /index.php;
 
    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $realpath_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }
 
    location ~ /\.(?!well-known).* {
        deny all;
    }
}

So, if you look carefully, you will understand that for local domains, all requests are forwarded to 127.0.0.1 at port
80 by using /etc/hosts configuration file. You need to append a line for each local websites in that file. After that you need to make the configuration files.

Storing and instructing nginx to use configuration files

By default, nginx stores configuration files in /etc/nginx/sites-available and /etc/nginx/sites-enabled. And enables the sites by creating a symlink in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled to the configuration file in /etc/nginx/sites-available.

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/your_config_file.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled

But managing this procedure every time in local development is a bit of hassle. So, we will use a different approach.
We, will create folder outside the hidden area. For example /home/your_username/nginx/domains
or /home/your_username/nginx/sites-enabled anything else that is easily accessible by you.

Next, open the nginx configuration file at /etc/nginx/nginx.conf and add the following line in the http block.

include /home/your_username/nginx/domains/*;

If you want to use /home/your_username/nginx/sites-enabled then add the following line in the http block.

http {
    include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
    default_type application/octet-stream;

    sendfile on;
    tcp_nopush on;
    tcp_nodelay on;
    keepalive_timeout 65;
    types_hash_max_size 2048;
    # server_tokens off;

    gzip on;
    gzip_disable "msie6";
    gzip_comp_level 5;
    gzip_min_length 256;
    gzip_proxied any;
    gzip_vary on;

    gzip_types
    application/atom+xml
    application/javascript
    application/json
    application/rss+xml
    application/vnd.ms-fontobject
    application/x-font-ttf
    application/x-web-app-manifest+json
    application/xhtml+xml
    application/xml
    font/opentype
    image/svg+xml
    image/x-icon
    text/css
    text/plain
    text/x-component;

    include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
    include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;

    #PUT IT HERE
    include /home/your_username/nginx/sites-enabled/*;
}

And if you want the configuration files to have .conf extension, then add the following line in the http block.
Actually, this is a good practice, and it can give you some idea about the file type.

include /home/your_username/nginx/domains/*.conf;

Now, do the same for /etc/hosts file. Add the following line at the bottom of the file.

#include "/home/your_username/hosts/custom.conf"

This custom.conf file is easily editable and accessible. So, you can add or remove domains or subdomains easily.

Notable points

After applying all previous configurations, sometimes you may get errors about laravel.log file cannot be opened in append mode, or bootstrap/cache is not accessible. This happens because of current users or www-data users permission access. To fix this follow the next steps:

Never set a directory to 777. you should change directory ownership. so set your current user that you are logged in with as owner and the webserver user (www-data, apache, ...) as the group. You can try this:

sudo chown -R $USER:www-data storage
sudo chown -R $USER:www-data bootstrap/cache

then to set directory permission try this:

chmod -R 775 storage
chmod -R 775 bootstrap/cache

See more about this configuration at:https://stackoverflow.com/a/45673457

** Happy Coding **

Vue event modifiers

Narayan Adhikary — Fri, 18 Mar 2022 09:35:07 +0000

Imagine you want to implement events something like:

<Modal @ok.prevent="doNothing">
Modal Code
</Modal>

That is when ok button of the modal is clicked, you want to prevent the event. In that case the prevent modifier can be implemented by code given below:

okButtonClickedMethod(e) {
   //First emit the ok event, then check if it is prevented or not
    emit('ok', e);
     //then hides modal
     if (e.defaultPrevented) {
          //emitted event is prevented now
     }
}

**** Happy Coding ***

wovoui's main url updated

Narayan Adhikary — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 19:06:43 +0000

We are updating the main documentation url of wovoui to https://wovoui.wovosoft.com

It's now hosted in Vercel and Built with vuepress2.

wovoui-icons: Bootstrap 5 icons in Vue 3

Narayan Adhikary — Sun, 23 Jan 2022 21:08:47 +0000

Bootstrap Icons

wovoui-icons are imported
from Bootstrap 5 icons. There are almost 1522 icons.
And in the future, if Bootstrap provides some more icons, those will be available too as soon as possible.

wovoui-icons are wrapped in a separate package so that it's dependency can
be optional.

Getting Started

Of-course You can use the icons using the provided methods of Bootstrap 5. For example,

<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap-icons@1.7.2/font/bootstrap-icons.css">

@import url("https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap-icons@1.7.2/font/bootstrap-icons.css");

import "bootstrap-icons"

Installation

Using NPM

npm install @wovosoft/wovoui-icons

Using yarn

yarn add @wovosoft/wovoui-icons

How to Use


<template>
    <Activity :size="5"/>
    <Alarm :size="5"/>
</template>
<script>
import {Activity, Alarm} from "@wovosoft/wovoui-icons";

export default {
    components: {Activity, Alarm}
}
</script>

Vue Localization Package

Narayan Adhikary — Fri, 18 Dec 2020 16:10:18 +0000

Earlier I was using my self developed localization package to translate my Vue Applications. From last couple of days I am using https://kazupon.github.io/vue-i18n/ . This package is just awesome. Now I don't need to maintain my own repository, no need to push and pull new updates. That is really a great package for localization. If You are a newbie or professional in Vue Ecosystem, try this package, You will be amazed.

Some features:

String Localization
Number Localization
DateTime Localization
HMR support during development.
Can be easily integrated with popular Nuxtjs.
Translations can be lazy loaded. So, you can integrate server side conditions.
Custom Directive Localization
URL localization
Can be used with transitions
Supports formatting translation out-of-the-box. Just like sprintf in php and printf in C.
Component Based Localization.
Official supports for Nuxtjs, Vue CLI, webpack, ESLint , Jetbrains Intellij platform (Webstorm, Phpstorm etc) ,

Bootstrap Vue Font-Awesome Icon Picker

Narayan Adhikary — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 17:12:13 +0000

Bootstrap Vue Font-Awesome Icon Picker

This is a simple vuejs plugin for picking font-awesome 5 Icons.
It Supports Font Awesome 5 Icons.

Installation

yarn add bootstrap-vue-font-awesome-picker  
or  
npm install bootstrap-vue-font-awesome-picker

Project setup

yarn install

Compiles and hot-reloads for development

yarn serve

Compiles and minifies for production

yarn build

Lints and fixes files

yarn lint

Quick start

Several quick start options are available:

Download the latest release.
Clone the repo: git clone https://github.com/wovosoft/bootstrap-vue-font-awesome-picker.git
Install with npm: npm install bootstrap-vue-font-awesome-picker
Install with yarn: yarn add bootstrap-vue-font-awesome-picker

Status

What's included

Within the download you'll find the following directories and files, logically grouping common assets and providing both compiled and minified variations. You'll see something like this:

bootstrap-vue-font-awesome-picker
└── dist/
    ├── css/
    │   ├── app.css
    └── js/
        ├── app.js
        ├── app.map
        ├── chunk-vendors.js
        ├── chunk-vendors.js.map

Documentation

You Can Use the Plugin as a compnent directly to your vuejs application as the example written below.

No need to import additional CSS, the plugin will load the required CSS styles automatically.


<template>
    <div>
        <font-awesome-picker v-model="icon"></font-awesome-picker>
    </div>
</template>

<script>
    import FontAwesomePicker from "bootstrap-vue-font-awesome-picker";

    export default {
        name: "MyComponent",
        components: {
            FontAwesomePicker
        },

        data() {
            return {
                icon: "fas fa-user-cog"
            };
        }
    }
</script>

If you want to use it as a global plugin, then in your app.js use it as written below.

import Vue from "vue";
import FontAwesomePicker from "bootstrap-vue-font-awesome-picker";
Vue.use(FontAwesomePicker);
new Vue({
    el: '#main',
    router,
    store,
    template: '<Main/>',
    components: {
        Main
    },
}

Another Method is,

import Vue from "vue";
import FontAwesomePicker from "bootstrap-vue-font-awesome-picker";

new Vue({
    el: '#main',
    router,
    store,
    template: '<Main/>',
    components: {
        Main,
        FontAwesomePicker
    },
}

Creators

Narayan Adhikary

Forem: Narayan Adhikary

Complete Guide to Setting Up a Mail Server with Postfix, Dovecot, and Roundcube

🌐 Complete Guide to Setting Up a Mail Server with Postfix, Dovecot, and Roundcube

📨 Postfix: Mail Transfer Agent (MTA)

How Postfix Works:

📨 Dovecot: Mail Delivery Agent (MDA) & IMAP/POP3 Server

How Dovecot Works:

📧 Roundcube: Webmail Interface

How Roundcube Works:

🔐 SSL/TLS Encryption: Secure Communication

How SSL/TLS Works:

🗂 Mail Storage Formats: Maildir vs. Mbox

Maildir:

Mbox:

🔄 Mail Flow Process

🧑‍💻 Summary of Key Components and Roles

🚀 Step-by-Step Mail Server Setup

Step 1: Install Postfix

Step 2: Install Dovecot

Step 3: Install Roundcube

Step 4: Configure Postfix

Step 5: Configure Dovecot

Step 6: Configure SSL/TLS Encryption

Step 7: Set Up Roundcube

🛡️ Security Considerations

🧑‍💻 Conclusion

Laravel Dev Environment in Linux

Install nginx

Verify Nginx installation:

Install Postgresql

Install php

Verify PHP version

Install Laravel required php extensions

Domain and Subdomains for Local Development

Storing and instructing nginx to use configuration files

Notable points

Vue event modifiers

wovoui's main url updated

wovoui-icons: Bootstrap 5 icons in Vue 3

Bootstrap Icons

Getting Started

Installation

Using NPM

Using yarn

How to Use

Vue Localization Package

Some features:

Bootstrap Vue Font-Awesome Icon Picker

Bootstrap Vue Font-Awesome Icon Picker

Installation

Project setup

Compiles and hot-reloads for development

Compiles and minifies for production

Lints and fixes files

Quick start

Status

What's included

Documentation

Creators

Copyright and license

Install `php`