emailrelay/doc/windows.md

E-MailRelay Windows

Setup program

To install E-MailRelay on Windows run emailrelay-setup.exe.

The installation GUI will take you through the installation options and then install the run-time files from the payload directory into your chosen locations and also create a startup batch file (emailrelay-start.bat).

If you plan to install into Program Files and ProgramData, or if you want to run E-MailRelay as a Windows service then you will need to allow the installation program to run as Administrator.

You can also run the main E-MailRelay program emailrelay.exe directly without going through the installation process but you will need to refer to the documentation to set the appropriate configuration options.

Running the program

After a successful installation you should see E-MailRelay listed in the Windows Start Menu and/or as an entry in the Windows Services tool.

The Start Menu item will run the startup batch file emailrelay-start.bat which contains all the necessary configuration options, and once the E-MailRelay server is running you should see an icon appear in the Windows system notification area under the Show hidden icons button.

Or if E-MailRelay runs as a service you should see an entry in the Windows Services tool with a status of Running. Check the E-MailRelay log file to see what it is doing.

Configuration

E-MailRelay is configured with options like --verbose or --spool-dir in the emailrelay-startup.bat batch file.

Note that emailrelay-start.bat lives under ProgramData, and although this might be a hidden directory you can still navigate there by right-clicking on the E-MailRelay link under Program Files and selecting Open file location.

You can edit the batch file using Notepad: right-click on the E-MailRelay link or on the emailrelay-start.bat file, then show more options and edit.

Alternatively, use the emailrelay-gui program to make the changes.

All configuration options are documented in the E-MailRelay reference document.

Account user-ids and passwords can be configured by editing the E-MailRelay secrets file. Check the --client-auth or --server-auth options in the startup batch file to find out where this is.

Manual installation

The manual installation process for when you cannot run the setup program can be as simple as this:

• Create a new program directory c:\Program Files\E-MailRelay.
• Create a new spool directory c:\Program Files\E-MailRelay\spool.
• Copy the EXE files from programs in the zip file into c:\Program Files\E-MailRelay.
• Create a new text file, eg. c:\Program Files\E-MailRelay\auth.txt, to contain account details.
• Add account details to auth.txt with a line like client plain myaccount mypassword.
• Right-drag emailrelay.exe onto the desktop to create a shortcut for the server.
• Add configuration options to the server shortcut properties in the target box.

The configuration options should normally include:

• --log
• --verbose
• --log-file=@app\log-%d.txt
• --spool-dir=@app\spool
• --client-auth=@app\auth.txt
• --client-tls
• --forward-to=smtp.example.com:25
• --forward-on-disconnect
• --poll=60

Copy the shortcut to Start Menu and Startup folders as necessary.

Running as a service

E-MailRelay can be set up as a Windows service so that it starts up automatically at boot-time. This can be enabled on the Server startup page in the installation program or later using the emailrelay-gui configuration program.

Alternatively, to set up the service manually you must first have a one-line batch file called emailrelay-start.bat that contains all the configuration options for running the E-MailRelay server, and you must have a simple service-wrapper configuration file called emailrelay-service.cfg that points to it, and this must be in the same directory as the service wrapper executable (emailrelay-service.exe).

The startup batch file should contain a single line, something like this:

    start "emailrelay" "C:\Program Files\E-MailRelay\emailrelay.exe" --forward-to smtp.example.com:25 ...

There is no need to use --no-daemon and --hidden; these are added automatically.

The contents of the service-wrapper configuration file can be a single line that points to the directory containing the startup batch file, like this:

    dir-config="C:\ProgramData\E-MailRelay"

Then just run emailrelay-service --install from an Administrator command prompt to install the service.

Every time the service starts it reads the service-wrapper configuration file and the startup batch file in order to run the E-MailRelay program.

If you need to run multiple E-MailRelay services then put a unique service name and display name on the emailrelay-service --install <name> <display-name> command-line. The service name you give is used to derive the name of the <name>-start.bat batch file that contains the E-MailRelay server's configuration options, so you will need to create that first.

Uninstall

To uninstall:

• Stop the program and/or the service.
• Uninstall the service, if installed (emailrelay-service --remove).
• Delete the files from the E-MailRelay program files folder (eg. C:\Program Files\E-MailRelay).
• Delete the files from the E-MailRelay program data folder (eg. C:\ProgramData\E-MailRelay).
• Delete any desktop shortcuts (eg. %USERPROFILE%\Desktop\E-MailRelay.lnk).
• Delete any start menu shortcuts (eg. %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\E-MailRelay.lnk).
• Delete any auto-start shortcuts (eg. %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\E-MailRelay.lnk).
• Clean up the registry under HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\Application\emailrelay.

Diagnostics

E-MailRelay logging is sent to the Windows Event Log and/or written to a log file, and individual failed mail messages will have the failure reason recorded inside the .bad envelope file.

The Windows Event Log can be accessed by running eventvwr.exe or searching for Event Viewer; from there look under Windows Logs and Application.

You can increase the verbosity of the logging by adding the --verbose option to the E-MailRelay options, typically by editing the emailrelay-start.bat batch script in C:\ProgramData\E-MailRelay.

Testing with telnet

The telnet program can be used for testing an E-MailRelay server.

To install the program search for Windows Features and enable the "Telnet client" checkbox.

Then run telnet from a command prompt, using localhost and the E-MailRelay port number as command-line parameters:

    telnet localhost 25

This should show a greeting from the E-MailRelay server and then you can start typing SMTP commands like EHLO, MAIL FROM:<..>, RCPT TO:<...> and DATA. Refer to RFC-821 Appendix F for some examples.

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Copyright (C) 2001-2023 Graeme Walker