DBmail is the name of a group of programs that enable the possiblilty of storing and retrieving mail messages from a database. Currently MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQLite can be used as database backends.
DBMail is made up of several components. A normal MTA (Postfix, Sendmail, qmail, Exim) is used for accepting messages. The MTA hands the messages over to dbmail-smtp, using a pipe interface, or dbmail-lmtpd, using LMTP (Local Mail Transport Protocol). These programs take care of delivering the message into the database. Messages can be retreived from the database using dbmail-pop3d, using the POP3 protocol, and dbmail-imapd, using the IMAP4Rev1 protocol.
The whole email is stored in the database. That includes attachments. The DBMail programs do not have to touch the filesystem to retreive or insert emails. User information is also stored in the database, so users do not need an account on the machines DBMail is running on.
Key Features
- Enables you to create mailboxes without the need of system users.
- Mail is more efficiently stored and therefore it can be inserted and retrieved much faster than any regular system (DBMail is currently able to retrieve approximately 250 mail messages per second).
- Expandable. A database is much easier to access than a flat file or a Maildir.
- Scalable. You can run the dbmail programs on different servers talking to the same database (cluster).
- Using an event-driven multi-threaded architecture and database connection pooling supporting many connected clients simultaneously is no longer an issue.
- More secure. There’s no need to maintain system users or write to the filesystem. All this is done through the database.
- IPv6 support.
- Native SSL/TLS support.
- PostgreSQL 9 support.
Website: github.com/dbmail/dbmail
Support:
Developer: NFG
License: GNU General Public License v2.0
DBmail is written in C. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Email Servers | |
|---|---|
| Exim | Highly configurable mail transfer agent |
| OpenSMTPD | Implementation of the server-side SMTP protocol with additional extensions |
| mox | Modern, secure, all-in-one email server |
| DBMail | Enables storing and retrieving mail messages from a database |
| WildDuck | Opinionated email server |
| Stalwart | All-in-one mail and collaboration server |
| Mailu | Self-hosted mail server stack |
| Mail-in-a-Box | Self-hosted email server solution |
| Postfix | Popular mail transfer agent |
| Maddy | Composable all-in-one mail server |
| Haraka | Modern SMTP server |
| Dovecot | Secure POP3 server that supports mbox and maildir mailboxes |
| Courier | Integrated mail/groupware server |
| Cyrus IMAP | Email, contacts and calendar server |
| Zimbra | Zimbra Collaboration Suite |
| Modoboa | Mail hosting and management platform |
| Citadel | Exchange-killer groupware server |
| chasquid | SMTP server with a focus on simplicity, security, and ease of operation |
| Sendmail | Mail transfer agent for sophisticated mail configurations |
| qmail | Written as a more secure replacement for the Sendmail program |
| dma | DragonFly Mail Agent |
| DavMail | POP/IMAP/SMTP/Caldav/Carddav/LDAP exchange gateway |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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