1.5 KiB
template: post title: Maddy: the five-minute mail server author: flewkey timestamp: 1641781240
I am waiting at the airport this evening, cursing the weather for delaying my flight for so long. I’ve already bumped my packages, so I might as well gush about some software that I adore.
A few months ago, cricket published a blog post outlining how she configured her mail server on OpenBSD. Reading this post made me consider self-hosting my email as well, since Yandex is a pain in the neck to deal with. However, configuring a mail server seemed annoying as well, so I put it off.
A few weeks later, I learned about the Maddy Mail Server, a moment which forever changed my life. The server is a single daemon with a sane default configuration, requiring no significant dependencies by default. It is so simple and foolproof that even I could set it up. After packaging it for Debian, guided by the installation instructions, it was smooth sailing.
Installing maddy
- Install package
- Make certbot keys readable for maddy
- Set the domain name in the config
- Start the daemon
- Add the DNS records
- Make an account
- Connect an email client
Conclusion
Setting up maddy is as easy as configuring NGINX. It only took me five minutes to get up and running. There are no more excuses: self-hosting email is easy now. If you are interested, please give it a go.