1 - Introduction

Welcome to Mailismus!

This is the user documentation, so go to the home page for a higher-level overview of what it is and what it does.
Mailismus is a mailserver, but more specifically it is an MTA (a store-and-forward message switch), and only an MTA. It is not an MTA combined with an MS (eg. Sendmail, Postfix, Exchange), which can both relay emails and host their destination mailboxes.


1.1 - Intended Audience

You should have a good understanding of the principles of email and DNS, and the role of the mail server.

You should have a basic knowledge of how to administer the underlying OS platform (be it Windows or Unix) and how to install software on it.

No programming knowledge is required.


1.2 - Mailismus Components

The following names will come up in this guide:

Mailismus is a Java application, and can therefore run on any platform for which a JVM (Java Virtual Machine) exists, which means virtually all platforms.
However, it is packaged in native installers for Windows and many flavours of Unix, and integrated with their native mechanisms for running background servers (Services on Windows, and /etc/init.d scripts on Unix).


1.3 - How To Use This Guide

If you have just downloaded Mailismus, start with the Installation section (§2), and follow the instructions there for your platform.

Once you have worked through the installation procedure and the various configuration checks it describes to get a basic Mailismus up and running, Windows users should then proceed to §5, to complete the picture of how to start and stop Mailismus.

Next, you should go through the main reference chapter, §4.
You can skim the NAF Guide (section §3), but you should rarely have to delve into NAF configuration, whereas section §4 it is the basis for all Mailismus capabilities.

The remaining chapters tie together the reference sections to provide a functional summary of selected topics.

Although Mailismus offers a plethora of configuration options, the initial config files that ship with the installer are designed to enable Mailismus to successfully start up with basic send/receive functionality, with minimal config changes (in fact in most cases, with no config changes).

In the event of any problems, Chapter §6 (Logging) should be your first port of call, and it will in turn refer you on to the appropriate areas.