version: v0.0.7 date: 2023-09-24

Update instructions:

Due to a bug with "expunging" (deleting) messages that were junk-filter-trained, messages that were removed from disk could be resurrected, causing errors when mox would later try to open such messages again. Before upgrading, you should first check and resolve this problem:

• Find missing files by running: mox-v0.0.6 fixmsgsize
• Create empty replacements for the missing files (use "touch data/accounts/...").
• Update the message metadata in the database for the newly created files: mox-v0.0.6 fixmsgsize (this will fix the previously missing files, but should no longer find new missing files)
• Fix per-mailbox message/unread counts for each affected account, run: mox-v0.0.6 recalculatemailboxcounts ("account" is the name as it appears in the data/accounts/ directory, not necessarily an email address)
• The affected accounts will see the recreated empty messages, which can be deleted.

Now with the storage consistency resolved, you can start with the upgrade. Mox v0.0.7 adds message threading, and all messages will be read and assigned a message thread. This is done in the background, in two steps, and may take a while. The first step adds Message-ID and a "thread base subject" to each message in the database. The second step reads through all messages and uses their References/In-Reply-To/Subject message headers to match threads. In testing, upgrading took approximately 1 minute per 100k messages, but it will depend on the hardware. Accounts are available for reading and delivery during the upgrade, but the webmail may tell you that threading is not yet available.

You should do a dry-run of the upgrade first:

• Make a temporary backup with the old mox version: mox-v0.0.6 backup data/tmp/testupgrade
• Verify that all is well with the old version: mox-v0.0.6 verifydata data/tmp/testupgrade NOTE: If you still get an error about a message with the wrong size, see https://github.com/mjl-/mox/issues/71 for a fix.
• Trigger the threading upgrade using the new version: mox-v0.0.7 openaccounts data/tmp/testupgrade (it prints nothing until done; the live upgrade prints progress)
• Verify the new state: mox-v0.0.7 verifydata data/tmp/testupgrade

With a successful dry-run, the upgrade should go smoothly. Make a new backup with mox-v0.0.6 backup data/tmp/backup (the previous backup used for the dry-run has been modified, so couldn't be used to restore!), replace the binary and restart.

After the upgrade, any accounts affected by the "missing file" problem should get their "uid validity" increased, so IMAP clients will resynchronize. Run "mox-v0.0.7 bumpuidvalidity " for each affected account. The change is made directly in the database file, so no IMAP/webmail sessions should be active for the account. If any sessions are active, the database file is locked and "bumpuidvalidity" will print a timeout error. Briefly shutting down mox is an option, the bumpuidvalidity command operates quickly.

Apologies for the inconvenience, mox aims to make administrating a mail server easier than this.

If you run into any problems, please create an issue.

New features:

• Keep track of message threading, and add a threaded view to the webmail. Newly delivered messages are matched against threads, as are imported messages. The message threading is currently only exposed through the webmail client, not yet through IMAP. The webmail has new keyboard shortcuts to navigate between threads, collapse/expand them (with state remembered), or mute them (so new deliveries to the thread are marked as read).
• Add option to accept DMARC and TLS reports for other domains. You would add the other domain in mox, and specify an alternative domain (of your regular dmarc/tls reporting address) for the recipient of the reports. The webadmin DNS-check page will show the required DNS records for delegated reporting. Incoming reports will be delivered to the configured reporting address, and processed by mox.
• Easier account setup on Apple devices without device management profiles (.mobileconfig files). Download a profile from the account web interface, at an email address. Or open the QR-code to easily get the profile on a mobile device. For issue #65 by x8x.
• Transparent gzip compression when webserving files for selected content-types that are likely compressible. Both for static files (with a cache of compressed files, max 512MB stored in $datadir/tmp/httpstaticcompresscache), and for forwarded requests (gzip level "fast"). Compression can be enabled per handler.

Improvements:

• In SMTP server, for submission (with authenticated clients), don't fail on a bad domain/IP address in the EHLO command. With submission the domain/IP is irrelevant, and clients often fill in something that isn't strictly correct. No need to prevent those users from submitting email (except in pedantic mode). For issue #55 reported by gimpf.
• At top of config files, mention the config file format, and hints to prevent likely mistakes (given how sconf is different from what admins may be used to), including a pointer to the sconf documentation page. For issue #56 reported by kikoreis.
• Recognize when quickstart is probably run behind a NAT, possibly a container, and set the "NATIPs" field of the "public" listener in mox.conf accordingly. This triggers when you set up mox for a public domain, but only have private/loopback IPs on the machine. For issue #59 reported by pmarini.
• When moving a message out of Rejects mailbox, mark it as unread. For issue #63 by x8x.
• The "mox setaccountpassword" subcommand now takes an account name as parameter instead of an email address. The email address could be confusing in the face of wildcard addresses and a typo/non-explicitly-created address: The account holding the wildcard address would get a new password. For issue #68 by x8x.
• Make Mac OS X Mail use the special-use mailbox attributes so it finds the correct "Sent" and "Trash" mailboxes (instead of creating its own "Sent Messages" and "Deleted Messages" mailboxes). The IMAP server now unconditionally sends the special-use flags, even if the mail client doesn't request it. For issue #66 by x8x.

Bug fixes:

• Fix expunging of messages marked junk/nonjunk. The messages would be marked as expunged, then the junkfilter would retrain and clear the expunged field again. This would cause the message to be resurrected while the on-disk message file was already removed. Trying to read such messages would fail. The update instructions should help fix the problem.
• Fix "mox sendmail" when submitting over a TLS connection by setting the remote host name to verify the certificate of. Due to a logic bug the name wasn't set and the connection would fail due to the missing setting.
• Don't generate duplicate suggested SPF record if hostname is equal to domain name, e.g. postmaster@mail.domain.example. Fixes issue #46 reported by x8x.
• Fix showing attachments of type text/plain in webmail, they weren't shown at all because they were skipped when parsing the message during webmail message processing.
• Fix parsing the List-Post header in messages, for use in webmail when replying to a mailing list message.
• When moving a message to the mailbox that has the special-use "junk" flag, mark the message as junk and retrain. This should have already worked just like the "AutomaticJunkFlags" config option, and the default account config already handles marking messages as junk based on that option, but the special-use flag should be recognized independently and now also takes precedence.
• Set the correct special-use mailbox flag "\Drafts" instead of "\Draft" on the draft mailbox. Mail clients may have not found the correct drafts mailbox before. For issue #66 by x8x.
• Fix "mox bumpuidvalidity" to not create a (mostly harmless) uidvalidity inconsistency that "mox verifydata" will warn about. For issue #61 by x8x.
• And quite a few smaller tweaks/improvements/fixes.

Special thanks for contributions and/or feedback from: x8x, gimpf, kikoreis, pmarini, fairking, gedw99, hmfaysal (and those I missed).

Feedback, requests, bug reports, contributions (start small!) are all welcome.

Good news: Mox is now being funded for a year of continued development through the NGI0 Entrust Fund, a fund established by NLnet with financial support from the European Commission's Next Generation Internet programme, https://nlnet.nl/project/Mox/!