really simple mailing lists

a small, self-hosted mailing list system.

rsml is a mailing list manager system written in python built with minimalism in mind, it does not try to be a GNU Mailman competitor but rather a simpler alternative.

features

• toml-based configuration (rsml.toml) (rsml.config)
• RFC 4155 and mboxrd compliant .mbox file generator (rsml.mbox)
• mailing list posting via LMTP
• two-step subscription via /list/subscribe and /list/verify
• /list/archive endpoint for .mbox archive retrieval of the mailing list
• one-click unsubscribe with List-Unsubscribe and List-Unsubscribe-Post (RFC 8058)

quick start

rsml can be run directly with python or as a container using an OCI-compatible runtime.

1. create a configuration

cp rsml.toml.example rsml.toml # copy the example configuration
${EDITOR:-nano} rsml.toml # modify the configuration file

at minimum, configure the server secret. see rsml.toml.example for the available options.

2. run rsml

2.1 with python

pip install rsml # install rsml and dependencies

start the http server:

rsml http

in a separate process, start the lmtp server:

rsml lmtp

2.2 with a container

alternatively, rsml can be run from its OCI container image using podman, docker, or another OCI-compatible runtime.

example (with podman)

podman run --rm -it \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -v "$PWD/rsml.toml:/home/rsml/rsml.toml:ro" \
  ghcr.io/juanvel4000/rsml:latest \
  http

and for the lmtp server

podman run --rm -it \
  -p 8024:8024 \
  -v "$PWD/rsml.toml:/home/rsml/rsml.toml:ro" \
  ghcr.io/juanvel4000/rsml:latest \
  lmtp

3. configure your mta

rsml receives mailing-list messages through LMTP. configure your mta to deliver messages destined for the mailing list to the rsml lmtp server.

set relay_host and relay_port in rsml.toml to the hostname and port of the mta used by rsml for outgoing mail.

dependencies

rsml requires at least

• a python >=3.11-compatible interpreter

a complete deployement requires

• an mta capable of receiving mail and delivering messages to rsml over LMTP

runtime dependencies include

• aiosmtpd/aiosmtplib: for asynchronous SMTP/LMTP operations
• flask: for the http server
• email-validator: to validate email addresses

development-time dependencies include:

• pytest/pytest-asyncio: to execute the unit tests

usage

pip install -e . # install rsml and dependencies
cp rsml.toml.example rsml.toml # edit server_secret, etc.
rsml http # start the http server
rsml lmtp # start the lmtp server

running the test suite can be done with pytest

pip install -e ".[dev]" # install dev dependencies
pytest -vs . # run the unit tests

redis support for the rate limiter requires the redis optional dependency set to be installed

pip install -e ".[redis]"

spec

a document outlining the technical specifications of the project can be found in this repository as SPEC.md

project status

rsml is in active development. while functional, it is not yet production-ready for real-world usage.

• CHANGELOG.md -- release history
• CONTRIBUTING.md -- how to report bugs and send patches

license

BSD-3-Clause -- see LICENSE