1 public-inbox - an "archives first" approach to mailing lists
2 ------------------------------------------------------------
4 public-inbox implements the sharing of an email inbox via git to
5 complement or replace traditional mailing lists. Readers may
6 read via NNTP, IMAP, POP3, Atom feeds or HTML archives.
8 public-inbox spawned around three main ideas:
10 * Publicly accessible and archived communication is essential to
11 Free Software development.
13 * Contributing to Free Software projects should not require the
14 use of non-Free services or software.
16 * Graphical user interfaces should not be required for text-based
17 communication. Users may have broken graphics drivers, limited
18 eyesight, or be unable to afford modern hardware.
20 public-inbox aims to be easy to deploy and manage, encouraging projects
21 to run their own instances with minimal overhead.
26 public-inbox stores mail in git repositories as documented
27 in https://public-inbox.org/public-inbox-v2-format.txt and
28 https://public-inbox.org/public-inbox-v1-format.txt
30 By storing and (optionally) exposing an inbox via git, it is
31 fast and efficient to host and mirror public-inboxes.
33 Traditional mailing lists use the "push" model. For readers,
34 that requires commitment to subscribe and effort to unsubscribe.
35 New readers may also have difficulty following existing
36 discussions if archives do not expose Message-ID and References
37 headers. List server admins are also burdened with delivery
40 public-inbox uses the "pull" model. Casual readers may
41 follow the list via NNTP, IMAP, POP3, Atom feed or HTML archives.
43 If a reader loses interest, they simply stop following.
45 Since we use git, mirrors are easy to set up, and lists are
46 easy to relocate to different mail addresses without losing
47 or splitting archives.
49 _Anybody_ may also set up a delivery-only mailing list server to
50 replay a public-inbox git archive to subscribers via SMTP.
55 * anybody may participate via plain-text email
57 * stores email in git, readers may have a complete archive of the inbox
59 * Atom feed, IMAP, NNTP, POP3 allows casual readers to follow via local tools
61 * uses only well-documented and easy-to-implement data formats
63 Try it out now, see https://try.public-inbox.org/
65 Requirements for reading:
67 * any software capable of IMAP, NNTP, POP3 or following Atom feeds
69 Any basic web browser will do for the HTML archives.
70 We primarily develop on w3m to maximize accessibility.
72 Requirements (participant)
73 --------------------------
75 * any MUA which may send text-only emails ("git send-email" works!)
76 Users are strongly encouraged to use the "reply-all" feature of
77 their mailers to reduce the impact of a public-inbox as a
78 single point of failure.
80 * The HTTP web interface exposes mboxrd files, and NNTP clients often
81 feature reply-by-email functionality
83 * participants do not need to install public-inbox, only server admins
88 See https://public-inbox.org/INSTALL
93 AGPL source code is available via git:
95 git clone https://public-inbox.org/public-inbox.git
96 git clone https://repo.or.cz/public-inbox.git
97 torsocks git clone http://7fh6tueqddpjyxjmgtdiueylzoqt6pt7hec3pukyptlmohoowvhde4yd.onion/public-inbox.git
98 torsocks git clone http://4uok3hntl7oi7b4uf4rtfwefqeexfzil2w6kgk2jn5z2f764irre7byd.onion/public-inbox
100 See below for contact info.
105 We are happy to see feedback of all types via plain-text email.
106 public-inbox discussion is self-hosting on public-inbox.org
107 Please send comments, user/developer discussion, patches, bug reports,
108 and pull requests to our public-inbox address at:
110 meta@public-inbox.org
112 Please Cc: all recipients when replying as we do not require
113 subscription. This also makes it easier to rope in folks of
114 tangentially related projects we depend on (e.g., git developers
115 on git@vger.kernel.org).
117 The archives are readable via IMAP, NNTP or HTTP:
119 nntps://news.public-inbox.org/inbox.comp.mail.public-inbox.meta
120 imaps://;AUTH=ANONYMOUS@public-inbox.org/inbox.comp.mail.public-inbox.meta.0
121 https://public-inbox.org/meta/
123 AUTH=ANONYMOUS is recommended for IMAP, but any username + password works
125 And as Tor hidden services:
127 http://4uok3hntl7oi7b4uf4rtfwefqeexfzil2w6kgk2jn5z2f764irre7byd.onion/meta/
128 nntp://4uok3hntl7oi7b4uf4rtfwefqeexfzil2w6kgk2jn5z2f764irre7byd.onion/inbox.comp.mail.public-inbox.meta
129 imap://;AUTH=ANONYMOUS@4uok3hntl7oi7b4uf4rtfwefqeexfzil2w6kgk2jn5z2f764irre7byd.onion/inbox.comp.mail.public-inbox.meta.0
131 You may also clone all messages via git:
133 git clone --mirror https://public-inbox.org/meta/
134 torsocks git clone --mirror http://4uok3hntl7oi7b4uf4rtfwefqeexfzil2w6kgk2jn5z2f764irre7byd.onion/meta/
136 POP3 access instructions are at:
138 https://public-inbox.org/meta/_/text/help/#pop3
143 The maintainer of public-inbox has found SpamAssassin a good tool for
144 filtering his personal mail, and it will be the default spam filtering
145 tool in public-inbox.
147 See https://public-inbox.org/dc-dlvr-spam-flow.html for more info.
152 To discourage phishing, trackers, exploits and other nuisances,
153 only plain-text emails are allowed and HTML is rejected by default.
154 This improves accessibility, and saves bandwidth and storage
155 as mail is archived forever.
157 As of the 2010s, successful online social networks and forums are the
158 ones which heavily restrict users' formatting options; public-inbox
159 aims to preserve the focus on content, not presentation.
164 Copyright all contributors <meta@public-inbox.org>
165 License: AGPL-3.0+ <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.txt>
167 This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
168 it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by
169 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
170 (at your option) any later version.
172 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
173 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
174 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
175 GNU Affero General Public License for more details.
177 You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License
178 along with this program. If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
180 Additional permission under GNU GPL version 3 section 7:
182 If you modify this program, or any covered work, by linking or
183 combining it with the OpenSSL project's OpenSSL library (or a
184 modified version of that library), containing parts covered by the
185 terms of the OpenSSL or SSLeay licenses, the copyright holder(s)
186 grants you additional permission to convey the resulting work.
187 Corresponding Source for a non-source form of such a combination
188 shall include the source code for the parts of OpenSSL used as well
189 as that of the covered work.