Translating a platform becomes more important as the market shifts toward globalization and the internet became available even for poor countries. But as a developer it is a challenge to organize the translations in such a way that serves all parties involved in the process.
Let's begin with stories:
Note that <somepackage> is the name of a package/module/bundle and <language> is the language code.
Every approach seems to have some advantages and disadvantages, but choosing the proper approach has to be done very early in the project's lifetime and once chosen one stay stick with it in order to avoid frustrations. Which one do you prefer?
fish is a Unix shell with a focus on interactivity and usability. Fish is designed to give the user features by default, rather than by configuration.[4] Fish is considered an exotic shell since it does not rigorously adhere to POSIX shell standards, at the discretion of the maintainers. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_(Unix_shell)
Although being "an exotic shell" once installed you'd never want to remove it since it proves so useful in the daily tasks. However, one of the annoying side effects is that it is not easy to remove paths from the PATH variable, which is required when wanting to change the environment. Here is an example: changing from PHP74 to PHP72 on a MacOS, for both the CLI and FPM configurations.
> cat ~/fish_php74.sh
#!/usr/bin/env fish
#remove PHP72
for argv in /usr/local/opt/php@7.2/bin /usr/local/opt/php@7.2/sbin;
while contains $argv $fish_user_paths
set -l index (contains -i $argv $fish_user_paths)
set –erase –universal fish_user_paths[$index]
end
end
#add PHP74
for argv in /usr/local/opt/php@7.4/bin /usr/local/opt/php@7.4/sbin;
if contains $argv $fish_user_paths
echo "Path already contains $argv"
else
fish_add_path $argv
end
end
echo $fish_user_paths | tr " " "\n" | nl
brew services stop php@7.2
brew services start php@7.4
Run it:
> ~/fish_php74.sh
1 /usr/local/opt/php@7.4/sbin
2 /usr/local/opt/php@7.4/bin
Stopping `php@7.2`… (might take a while)
==> Successfully stopped `php@7.2` (label: homebrew.mxcl.php@7.2)
==> Successfully started `php@7.4` (label: homebrew.mxcl.php@7.4)
> cat ~/fish_php72.sh
#!/usr/bin/env fish
#remove PHP74
for argv in /usr/local/opt/php@7.4/bin /usr/local/opt/php@7.4/sbin;
while contains $argv $fish_user_paths
set -l index (contains -i $argv $fish_user_paths)
set –erase –universal fish_user_paths[$index]
end
end
#add PHP72
for argv in /usr/local/opt/php@7.2/bin /usr/local/opt/php@7.2/sbin;
if contains $argv $fish_user_paths
echo "Path already contains $argv"
else
fish_add_path $argv
end
end
echo $fish_user_paths | tr " " "\n" | nl
brew services stop php@7.4
brew services start php@7.2
Run it:
~/fish_php72.sh
1 /usr/local/opt/php@7.2/sbin
2 /usr/local/opt/php@7.2/bin
Stopping `php@7.4`… (might take a while)
==> Successfully stopped `php@7.4` (label: homebrew.mxcl.php@7.4)
==> Successfully started `php@7.2` (label: homebrew.mxcl.php@7.2)
PHP (Symfony) Profiling with XHProf and XHGui
#which pecl
#which pear
#port search –name –line –glob 'php*' |grep -i pear
php5-pear 20161027 php www Obsolete port, replaced by php55-pear
php53-pear 20161027 php www Optional port adds the PEAR repository to the include path for php53.
php54-pear 20161027 php www Optional port adds the PEAR repository to the include path for php54.
php55-pear 20161027 php www Optional port adds the PEAR repository to the include path for php55.
php56-pear 20161027 php www Optional port adds the PEAR repository to the include path for php56.
php70-pear 20161027 php www Optional port adds the PEAR repository to the include path for php70.#sudo port install php55-pear
No trace of PECL on the system yet so try another PEAR installation:
#sudo curl -o /usr/local/bin/pear http://pear.php.net/go-pear.phar
#sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/pear
#which pecl
It seems that PECL did not install with the methods above so take the third approach:
#sudo php /usr/lib/php/install-pear-nozlib.phar -d /usr/local/lib/php -b /usr/local/bin
#which pecl
/usr/local/bin/pecl
2. Install the modules for PHP starting with XHProf:
#php -v
PHP 5.5.38 (cli)
#port search –name –line –glob 'php*' |grep -i xh
php-xhprof 0.9.4 php devel A Hierarchical Profiler for PHP
php53-xhprof 0.9.4 php devel A Hierarchical Profiler for PHP
php54-xhprof 0.9.4 php devel A Hierarchical Profiler for PHP
php55-xhprof 0.9.4 php devel A Hierarchical Profiler for PHP
php56-xhprof 0.9.4 php devel A Hierarchical Profiler for PHP
#sudo port install php55-xhprof
3. Before installing the XHGui module for php, install its requirements: MongoDB and its PHP modules:
#port search –name –line –glob 'php*' |grep -i mongo
php-mongo 1.6.14 php databases devel Mongo Database Driver
php-mongodb 1.1.9 php databases devel MongoDB Database Driver
php53-mongo 1.6.14 php databases devel Mongo Database Driver
php53-mongodb 1.0.1 php databases devel MongoDB Database Driver
php54-mongo 1.6.14 php databases devel Mongo Database Driver
php54-mongodb 1.1.9 php databases devel MongoDB Database Driver
php55-mongo 1.6.14 php databases devel Mongo Database Driver
php55-mongodb 1.1.9 php databases devel MongoDB Database Driver
php56-mongo 1.6.14 php databases devel Mongo Database Driver
php56-mongodb 1.1.9 php databases devel MongoDB Database Driver
php70-mongodb 1.1.9 php databases devel MongoDB Database Driver#sudo port install php55-mongodb
#sudo port install php55-mongo
#ls /opt/local/lib/php55/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20121212/
mongo.so mongodb.soOn my system the modules were placed in another folder than the one where PHP is configured so a copy is needed:
#sudo cp /opt/local/lib/php55/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20121212/mongo* /usr/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20121212/
#sudo cp /opt/local/lib/php55/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20121212/xhprof.so /usr/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20121212/
Continue by enabling the extensions:
#sudo vi /etc/php.ini
extension=mongo.so
extension=mongodb.so
extension=xhprof.so
This command actually installs the MongoDB database. The ones above installed the php driver only :
#brew install mongodb
#sudo chgrp staff /usr/local/var/log/mongodb /usr/local/var/mongodb
#sudo chmod 0775 /usr/local/var/log/mongodb /usr/local/var/mongodb
Add this to /usr/local/etc/mongod.conf:
processManagement:
fork: true#mongod –config /usr/local/etc/mongod.conf
Optional, use a tool to install Pref into System Preferences in order to start mongodb
#cd <downloads>
#wget https://github.com/remysaissy/mongodb-macosx-prefspane/raw/master/download/MongoDB.prefPane.zip
#unzip MongoDB.prefPane.zip
double-click on MongoDB.prefPane to install it and launch it
4. Install XHGui and configure it as a Virtual Server:
#cd <some directory for xhgui>
#git clone https://github.com/perftools/xhgui.git
#cd xhgui/
#chmod 0777 cache/
#php install.php#sudo vi /etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin webmaster@dummy-host.example.com
DocumentRoot "/Sites/xhgui/webroot"
ServerName xhgui.lh
ServerAlias www.xhgui.lh
ErrorLog "/private/var/log/apache2/xhgui.lh-error_log"
CustomLog "/private/var/log/apache2/xhgui.lh-access_log" common
</VirtualHost>#sudo vi /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 xhgui.lh www.xhgui.lh#sudo apachectl restart
Optional, but recommended: Add indexes to MongoDB to improve performance. (https://github.com/perftools/xhgui)
# mongo
use xhprof
db.results.ensureIndex( { 'meta.SERVER.REQUEST_TIME' : -1 } )
db.results.ensureIndex( { 'profile.main().wt' : -1 } )
db.results.ensureIndex( { 'profile.main().mu' : -1 } )
db.results.ensureIndex( { 'profile.main().cpu' : -1 } )
db.results.ensureIndex( { 'meta.url' : 1 } )
exit
5. Add this to VirtualHost of the site needing profiling (/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf):
php_admin_value auto_prepend_file "/Sites/xhgui/external/header.php"
That's it. See it in browser:
http://www.xhgui.lh/
On linux machines (Mac too) the default installation of Apache+PHP is sometime not suitable for modern script due to at least two reasons:
While the first is obvious, the second one needs some explanations and the best way is by giving a real-world example. In the Symfony framework the content is prepared under a "cache" folder for achieving a very good speed in processing requests. The framework also uses some command prompt statements for achieving various tasks such as database structure update, warming up the cache, etc. As one knows, all requests processed by Apache runs by default under its user, be it "apache", "www" or "nobody". On the other hand the command line statements run under the current logged-in user, let's call it "myuser". Both actions above uses the same cache folder and here is where the conflict appears, since one cannot update the other's files. Hence the need to run the script under the same user, both withing the Apache and from the command prompt. Plus that is faster (developers would like this).
One recommended configuration for achieving the speed is to replace the standard mod_php with mod_fcgid, meaning that the process won't run anymore inside Apache but as an external process called by Apache when needed.
As for running the process as another user than Apache's, there is suexec which consists of a module running under apache and a binary executable acting as a wrapper.
The configuration presented here uses virtual hosts, a know feature of Apache letting one run multiple websites on the same computer, each with its own configuration, folder and user account. The process of configuring the server is split in two parts, first for configuring the mod_fcgid module then adding suexec mechanism.
The configuration starts by disabling the standard php module and installing the mod_fcgid module. The steps differs based on the linux distribution therefore the steps below will be given for Ubuntu and Mac so the reader will have to figure out how it works for other ditributions.
Ubuntu:
sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-fcgid php5 php5-cgi
Note that this article assume that apache is already installed. If php5 is also installed is even better, just be sure php5-cgi is also.
Mac
sudo port install php5 +fastcgi
sudo port install mod_fcgid
Then disable mod_php end enable mod_fcgid:
Ubuntu:
sudo a2dismod php5 sudo a2enmod fcgid
sudo vi /private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf
Comment this line: #LoadModule php5_module libexec/apache2/libphp5.so
Add/uncomment this line: LoadModule fcgid_module libexec/apache2/mod_fcgid.so
Add this line to your php.ini (Ubuntu: /etc/php5/cgi/php.ini, Mac: /etc/php.ini)
cgi.fix_pathinfo=1
Tip: the location of php.ini differs and not only that, there may be two different files, one for PHP as module and the other for PHP as CGI. Locate them in the system with:
locate php.ini
A better approach can be to use php itself to tell where is its ini file:
php -i |grep php.ini
Result:
Loaded Configuration File => /etc/php.ini
Additional useful information, in case one needs to know what PHP version runs from command line, especially where there are two PHP versions installed:
#which php
/usr/bin/php#php -v
PHP 5.4.24 (cli) (built: Jan 19 2014 21:32:15)
Now is the time to configure mod_fcgid and this is done in two places: one global place inside apache's own confguration files and the other in each site. The global configuration file looks like this:
Ubuntu (/etc/apache2/mods-enabled/fcgid.conf):
<IfModule mod_fcgid.c>
AddHandler fcgid-script .fcgi
FcgidConnectTimeout 20
FcgidFixPathinfo 1
FcgidMaxRequestLen 2097152
</IfModule>
Mac (/etc/apache2/other/fcgid.conf):
<IfModule mod_fcgid.c>
FcgidIPCDir /usr/lib/apache2/fcgid/sock
FcgidProcessTableFile /usr/lib/apache2/fcgid/fcgid_shm
FcgidConnectTimeout 20
FcgidFixPathinfo 1# fix for: mod_fcgid: read data timeout in 40 seconds
FcgidIdleTimeout 3000
FcgidMinProcessesPerClass 100
FcgidConnectTimeout 120
FcgidIOTimeout 400
FcgidMaxProcesses 150
FcgidBusyTimeout 600# to get around upload errors when uploading images increase the MaxRequestLen size to 15MB
FcgidMaxRequestLen 15728640FcgidProcessLifeTime 7200
</IfModule>
Although the Mac configuration seems more complex, it is only because more configuration directives have been used. Normally the two may look the same, except the paths of FcgidIPCDir and FcgidProcessTableFile
Tip: Be aware that the names of the directives were changed since mod_fcgid 2.3.2 (it is currently at version 2.3.9). The reason you're warned here is because many answers online uses PHP_Fix_Pathinfo_Enable instead of FcgidFixPathinfo. (all changes in the table here). The most important directives to use are: FcgidFixPathinfo, FcgidMaxRequestLen and FcgidBusyTimeout.
The site configuration file should include the followings somewhere inside <VirtualHost> tags:
Ubuntu (/etc/apache2/sites-available/yoursite.com.conf) & Mac (/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf):
<IfModule mod_fcgid.c>
#SuexecUserGroup myuser mygroup
<Directory /var/www/yoursite.com/ >
Options +ExecCGI
AllowOverride All
AddHandler fcgid-script .php
FcgidWrapper /var/www/php-fcgi-scripts/php-fcgi-starter .php
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
</IfModule>
Tip: Note that in the above configuration the line with SuexecUserGroup had been commented. This is to avoid seeing errors caused by Suexec while setting up fcgid. Later the line will be un-commented. Or, if you feel lucky, un-comment it now.
Once the above are set, restart apache:
Ubuntu: sudo service apache2 restart
Mac: sudo apachectl restart
Now is is time to talk about the log files because they tell valuable information about the problems which may occur.
Apache's log file to watch is named "error_log" and there you may find issues related to why the server does not start, when some SSL configuration is broken or when suexec has issues.
Suexec has its own log in the same folder as Apache's and there you will find issues related to user rights or problems when running the executable.
Each site is recommended to have its own access and error log files. There you will find errors related to the script or accessing the script, acting as a starting point in solving the issues. In case of errors related to suexec you will find here only some indications, while the details have to be found in the suexec file above
This executable binary usually comes with Apache but on a Mac installation this binary was missing. With or without it, sometimes is necessary to adjust its default settings, e.g. those it has been compiled with. Below all these situations will be covered so one can skip some steps if the default installation fits the needs.
Begin with checking the location end existence of suexec:
# which suexec
If the binary is not in the path you won't get any result. Try this:
# locate suexec
The output should be a path like /usr/lib/apache2/suexec on Ubuntu or /usr/bin/suexec on Mac, but the location may vary.
Once you located it, run it to see its current settings. Since it is supposed to be run by root only, you need to use "sudo":
Ubuntu:
# sudo /usr/lib/apache2/suexec -V
-D AP_DOC_ROOT="/var/www"
-D AP_GID_MIN=100
-D AP_HTTPD_USER="www-data"
-D AP_LOG_EXEC="/var/log/apache2/suexec.log"
-D AP_SAFE_PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin"
-D AP_UID_MIN=100
-D AP_USERDIR_SUFFIX="public_html"
Mac:
#sudo /usr/bin/suexec -V
Password:
-D AP_DOC_ROOT="/Users"
-D AP_GID_MIN=10
-D AP_HTTPD_USER="_www"
-D AP_LOG_EXEC="/var/log/apache2/suexec_log"
-D AP_SAFE_PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin"
-D AP_UID_MIN=500
-D AP_USERDIR_SUFFIX="Sites"
Pay attention to DOC_ROOT : it is the only path allowed to run executable (wrapper) from. The HTTPD_USER is useful in verifying that the wrapper is accessible by this user Finally, UID and GID are constraints for minimum user and group IDs, as they are defined in the /etc/passwd file.
The wrapper file is being launched by Apache for any request whose extension ends in PHP, as defined in the site's configuration file above and suexec must have the rights to access it. Also, the file must be inside DOC_ROOT. The file looks like this:
#!/bin/sh
PHPRC=/etc/php5/cgi/
export PHPRC
export PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS=5000
export PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN=8
exec /usr/lib/cgi-bin/php
Tip: PHPRC is the path up to php.ini. The executable on the last line must be the cgi version of php binary. Sometimes (on Mac) it is called "php-cgi" and is under /opt/local/bin/. Just check yours using "which" or "locate" and run it as "php-cgi -v" to verify that it is ok and has the expected version.
So, create the file under DOC_ROOT, let's say "/var/www/php-fcgi-scripts/php-fcgi-starter" with the above content and make it executable (chmod a+x /var/www/php-fcgi-scripts/php-fcgi-starter). Take care yourself of creating the folder php-fcgi-scripts and assigning it the proper user and group (myuser and mygroup).
Tip: an easy way to verify that a user can access that file is to add "-v" as parameter for php on the last line then call it with:
su myuser -c "/var/www/php-fcgi-scripts/php-fcgi-starter"
In other words: "run this command as user myuser" and it will display the PHP version. Remove the parameter afterward. Repeat: remove the parameter afterward (so it will run whatever PHP file will be send by Apache as parameter)
Back on track now, if everything goes well you should remove the comment to SuexecUserGroup and restart Apache. Prepare a simple PHP file in the site's root folder with the following content:
<?php phpinfo();
If everything was setup successfully then you'll get the nice long listing with PHP's current configuration. Among those lines you will find references to mod_fcgid and all other features configured.
Sometime installing on MacOS using brew or port is not enough due to missing packages. In this case compiling from sources is a good alternative and it is not that difficult. Here is a sample of configuring PHP but also making use of "port" for installing supporting libraries
Download PHP from sources first then run this from the folder where the files were unpacked:
$ sudo port install libpng freetype mcrypt
$ sudo './configure' '–prefix=/opt/local' '–mandir=/opt/local/share/man' '–infodir=/opt/local/share/info' '–program-suffix=55' '–includedir=/opt/local/include/php55' '–libdir=/opt/local/lib/php55' '–with-config-file-path=/opt/local/etc/php55' '–with-config-file-scan-dir=/opt/local/var/db/php55' '–disable-all' '–enable-bcmath' '–enable-ctype' '–enable-dom' '–enable-filter' '–enable-hash' '–enable-json' '–enable-libxml' '–enable-pdo' '–enable-session' '–enable-simplexml' '–enable-tokenizer' '–enable-xml' '–enable-xmlreader' '–enable-xmlwriter' '–with-bz2=/opt/local' '–with-mhash=/opt/local' '–with-pcre-regex=/opt/local' '–with-libxml-dir=/opt/local' '–with-zlib=/opt/local' '–without-pear' '–enable-fileinfo' '–enable-phar' '–disable-fpm' '–enable-cgi' –with-freetype-dir –enable-mbstring –with-curl –with-mcrypt=/opt/local –with-zlib –with-gd –with-pdo-mysql –with-mysqli –with-openssl –with-gettext=/opt/local –with-xmlrpc –with-xsl –with-png-dir=/opt/local –with-jpeg-dir=/opt/local –with-freetype-dir=/opt/local
Downloading Apache from sources requires this configuration:
./configure –with-layout=Darwin –enable-suexec –with-suexec-caller=_www –with-suexec-uidmin=500 –with-suexec-gidmin=10 –with-suexec-docroot=/Users/ –with-suexec-userdir=Sites \
–prefix=/usr/local/apache2 –enable-so \
–enable-rewrite –enable-ssl –enable-mods-shared='rewrite ssl'
Mercurial is a cross-platform, distributed revision control tool for software developers. In this article will be presented a handy way to install and configure Mercurial on a server with cPanel . All operations presented will only need a standard FTP/SSH access to a user account, except the initial installation of the Mercurial RPM which needs root rights. This installation procedure is very suitable for those creating websites and wanting a quick solution to track the changes in their source code using a repository stored right next to the website.
The information below were compiled from several sources with some modifications to suit the above needs. The aim is to use only cPanel and SSH with user rights (e.g. no root required !) and have a repository ready in 5 minutes. The repository will then be accessed securely as hg.yoursite.com
Intial preparation: install the Mercurial package as root http://mercurial.selenic.com/wiki/HgWebDirStepByStep
Here is a sample installation from a RPM on an OpenSuse linux:
wget http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/devel:/tools:/scm/openSUSE_10.2/x86_64/mercurial-1.0-1.2.x86_64.rpm
$ sudo rpm -ihv mercurial-1.0-1.2.x86_64.rpm
Step 1. Create subdomain
Login in cPanel and create hg.yourdomain.com. Do not create the directory under /public_html so the repository won't mix with the files of the website
Step 2. Create the configuration file of the repository
Use a FTP client and navigate into the directory of the subdomain. Create a folder for your repo, i.e. projectrepo . Use some name other than the one you want to access the repo with because later there will be some URL rewiting rules added into a .htaccess file which won't work otherwise. In this example the repo url will be made as hg.yourdomain.com/project
Continue navigating into cgi-bin where two files has to be be uploaded: hgweb.config containing the repository configuration and hgwebdir.cgi containing the code needed to run the repository. Create the two files on your computer and upload them into /cgi-bin:
/cgi-bin/hgweb.config
[paths]
#VIRTUAL_PATH = /REAL/PATH
project = ~/hg/projectrepo/cgi-bin/hgwebdir.cgi
#!/usr/bin/env python
from mercurial import demandimport; demandimport.enable()import cgitb
cgitb.enable()
import os
os.environ["HGENCODING"] = "UTF-8"
from mercurial.hgweb.hgwebdir_mod import hgwebdir
import mercurial.hgweb.wsgicgi as wsgicgi
application = hgwebdir('hgweb.config')
wsgicgi.launch(application)
Change the attributes of hgwebdir.cgi to be executable (0755). This can be made within the FTP client (at least TotalCommander implements it and probably many other such applications have that option. It is under Files->Change attributes).
Step 3. Initialize repository
Using a SSH console go into the ~/hg folder and run these commands:
hg init
find . -type f -exec chmod 0666 "{}" \;
find . -type d -exec chmod 0777 "{}" \;
The last two commands are needed when the web server (Apache) runs the scripts under a different user than the owner of the account. In order to create files and folder full write rights are needed for user apache or nobody.
A configuration file will have to be created and uploaded into the new repository. For this , create a file named hgrc with the following content:
~/hg/project/.hg/hgrc
[web]
description = My repository
push_ssl = false
allow_push = john# enable snapshot downloads
allow_archive = gz zip bz2
baseurl = /
In this configuration the ssl is disabled which may be a security problem. If your host allows https connections then you may set this to true later. However, the repository is protected through HTTP Basic authentication – see below.
Upload the file above under ~/hg/project/.hg/
Step 4. Secure the repository
Create a .htaccess file with the following content for uploading in the root of your subdomain:
~/hg/.htaccess
# Taken from http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/CleanUrls#samedir
# Used at http://ggap.sf.net/hg/
Options +ExecCGI
RewriteEngine On
#write base depending on where the base url lives
RewriteBase /cgi-bin
RewriteRule ^$ hgwebdir.cgi [L]
# Send requests for files that exist to those files.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
# Send requests for directories that exist to those directories.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
# Send requests to hgwebdir.cgi, appending the rest of url.
RewriteRule (.*) /cgi-bin/hgwebdir.cgi/$1 [QSA,L]
The rules above allows accessing the repository with an url like hg.yourdomain.com/project instead of hg.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/hgwebdir.cgi/project and is a replacement for the original procedure described in the Mercurial documentation where one has to modify httpd.conf, as root.
Finally, password protect the repository within cpanel. The operations below will update .htaccess, adding the necessary lines for basic authentication:
Finish
Access your repository within a browser with an URL like:
http://john:sompassword123@hg.yourdomain.com/hg/project
Use the URL above in your Mercurial client too.
Referrences
The authentication methods are a great tool for fighting against spammers and every server admin should have it implemented on their systems. But since it is not that simple to configure them, they often prove to be a headache with not enough documentation available. I had to pay myself the tribute (in hours spent) for making the system work in the configuration I wanted and for the others having the same problems here is my story.My configuration is : CentOS 5, Postfix 2.3.3
The server is running some websites and I wanted to be capable of sending signed emails within PHP and also using some email client through SMTP. Since there are more than one website I wanted also a simple way to add/modify domains in the filters' configuration.
Whenever I write "domain.tld" you should use your own domain name (mysite.com, wikitiki.org, etc)
The tools I installed are listed here under the Authentication section. They are:
Installing dkim. For this follow one of these links:
How to Setup DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) with Postfix and Ubuntu Server
Setting up DKIM, SPF, Domainkeys DNS, Regular DNS on CentOS 5.3
I won't go through the installation steps you can read about in tutorials as above. Instead I will focus on what should be checked, customized, verified so that will help in custom installations or troubleshooting.
So, for the installation I will focus on:
| subject | value | description |
|---|---|---|
| username/usergroup | domainkeys.domainkeys | This is the owner of the signer/verifier processes. Doesn't matter the names but once created will be used for all filters |
| folders for configuration | /etc/mail/dkim/ /etc/mail/domainkeys/ |
These must be owned by the user above. When adding new domains I have to modify some files here |
| initialization scripts | /etc/init.d/dkim /etc/init.d/domainkeys /etc/init.d/sender-id |
Essentially is the same start-up script configured for each filter. Good to know where they are when testing the configuration |
| folders for private keys | /var/db/domainkeys/domain.tld/ | These must be owned by the user above. Here I'll place the private keys |
| folders & files for processes' PIDs | /var/run/dkim-milter/pid /var/run/dk-milter/pid /var/run/dk-milter/pid |
These also have to be owned by the user above. The filters will create/remove the "pid" files as they need |
OK, so here there are some background information. DKIM and Domainkeys uses two DNS records and a private key to sign the emails. The DNS records are
_domainkey.domain.tld IN TXT "t=y;o=~"
o=~ means that some emails will be signed. "o=-" means that all domains are signed
default._domainkey.domain.tld IN TXT "g=*; k=rsa; p=MIGfMA0...ABC"
"_domainkey" is a keyword preceding the domain name
"k=" key type. Optional. Default is rsa
"p=" public key data.
"g=" granularity of the key. Optional, default is "*"
"v=DKIM1" version. It is recommended but I got some errors when I tried to use the same record for Domainkeys because it is defined for DKIM only so I did not use it. Here is the yahoo tool I tested with
Note: in the two dns records above I used "domain.tld" only because my external nameserver service required it in its web interface. If you own the namesever you will probably not use it as will be appended automatically by named/bind
Important : the server may sign ALL emails with its own domain name or may sign it with other domains but in this case all other domains must have the two DNS records maintained. I went for the first option.
there are three ways to generate them:
openssl genrsa -out private.key 1024 openssl rsa -in private.key -out public.key -pubout -outform PEM
dkim-genkey -r -d domain.tld
The result will always be two files, one private key to copy into /var/db/domainkeys/domain.tld/default and one to use it in the DNS record as value for "p=" parameter. Pay attention that I used "default" as filename for the private key in order to use that file for a selector named "default" and defined as such in the DNS record. It is possible to have different selectors which would handle different emails or domains and so I can have:
/var/db/domainkeys/domain.tld/m1.pem – this is created for the selectod m1 and I added an extension just to remember it is a private key file. the extension, if exists, must be "pem" or "private".
/var/db/domainkeys/otherdomain.tld/default – this one will serve emails for another domain with another selector named "default"
The init script will start|stop the filter and there is where I put the command to do that. It may have two forms, either with the configuration given as parameters to the executable app or with it uses a single parameter which points to a configuration file containing all settings. I used the 2nd option:
COMMAND="dkim-filter -x /etc/dkim.conf"
KeyList /etc/mail/dkim/keylist
MTA MSA
Selector default
UserID domainkeys:domainkeys
Socket inet:8891@localhostDon't forget that the port numbers will be used in your /etc/postfix/main.cf file:
smtpd_milters = inet:localhost:9967,inet:localhost:8891,inet:localhost:8892
non_smtpd_milters = inet:localhost:9967,inet:localhost:8891,inet:localhost:8892
milter_protocol = 2
{!{code}!}czozMDpcIm1pbHRlcl9kZWZhdWx0X2FjdGlvbiA9IGFjY2VwdFwiO3tbJiomXX0={!{/code}!}the keylist file contains the relation between the sender-pattern, the signing domain and the path to the private key. I use this keylist file in order to manage easier the domains on my webhost server. For a singe domain one would only use the dkim's configuration file. My keylist file's location is defined in the configuration :
KeyList /etc/mail/dkim/keylist
And contains :
*:domain.tld:/var/db/domainkeys/domain.tld/default
The selector used in the signature will be the filename portion of keypath. If the file referenced by keypath cannot be opened, the filter will try again by appending ".pem" and then ".private" before giving up. (man dkim-filter.conf)
postsuper -d ALL
mail myaccount@yahoo.com
telnet localhost 25 EHLO domain.tld MAIL FROM: root@domain.tld RCPT TO: myaccount@yahoo.com data bla bla . quit
php -r "mail('myaccount@yahoo.com','test mail','bla bla','From: root@domain.tld');"A note here: At a certain point my mail sent from PHP was not signed with Domainkeys, only with DKIM. After several tests I found that the $headers in my php script were using Windows separator for new like (\r\n) instead of Linux (\n). I never thought it matters in headers !
tail -f /var/log/maillog
As above, start with the download & installation from the given links from sourceforge or with the ones below:
Quick And Easy Setup For DomainKeys Using Ubuntu, Postfix And Dkim-Filter
man dk-filter – DomainKeys filter for sendmail online version of the man page for dk-filter
The DNS records follows the same rules as the DKIM above. In fact both DKIM and Domainkeys will use the same DNS records
The dk-filter does not support all parameters supported by DKIM and especially the one which would allow me to put all configuration in one file therefore the command from this initialization script has all parameters in one line:
COMMAND="dk-filter -u $USER -p inet:$PORT@localhost -l -P $PIDFILE -d $DOMAIN -S $SELECTOR -c simple -k -s $KEYFILE -i $IFILE -m $SUBMISSION_DAEMON -D"
Parameters:
The content of the keylist (differs from DKIM's !):
*@domain.tld:/var/db/domainkeys/domain.tld/default
192.168.1.0/24127.0.0.1
This is another small difference than the DKIM's keylist file content. It looks like this (/etc/mail/domainkeys/keylist) :
*@domain.tld:/var/db/domainkeys/domain.tld/default
At some moment I got in maillog : "can't read SMFIC_EOH reply packet header: Success" which was solved after setting the SUBMISSION_DAEMON above as MSA (instead of smtp as I saw somewhere)
Playing with milter_protocol=4 in /etc/postfix/main.cf I got "can't read SMFIC_DATA reply packet header: Success" which was because I've given a value which was not supported. Also milter_protocol=6 thrown error so I let it set on : milter_protocol = 2
postconf -d
postconf -n
/usr/sbin/sendmail -t -f root@domain.tld myaccount@yahoo.com From: root@domain.tld Subject: test it bla bla .
ps aux |grep dk
This would be the 3rd filter installed and is aimed for hotmail accounts. There is a confusion between Sender-ID and SPF because they both use the same DNS registration record but the implementation of the Sender-ID protocol is similar with DKIM above. Read more about SPF vs Sender ID
Note that in order to sign the emails correctly one would only need the SPF record – see next section. At least this should work for 80% of the emails sent to hotmail/MSN according to the link above.
I named the init script "/etc/init.d/sender-id" and the command used to start the filter is:
COMMAND="sid-filter -u $USER -t -p inet:$PORT@localhost -l -P $PIDFILE -d $DOMAIN -D -h"
The parameters means:
The SPF authentication is used by google and is quite simple requiring no software installation on the server. In order to generate a SPF record for your domain you will probably have to go to the most-used tool :
Setup wizard to create SPF records for your domain
The record it will create should be placed as a TXT record at your domain and looks like this:
v=spf1 a a:external.domain.tld ~all
Where:
Definition: Mechanisms can be used to describe the set of hosts which are designated outbound mailers for the domain.
Observation: the SPF standard specify that there should be used the new DNS registration record type SPF instead of TXT but because of compatibility with the current DNS implementations it is recommended to put both TXT and SPF records with the same content.
Here are some of the tools and commands I used to verify that the record is in place and the configurations above are working:
dig domain.tld TXT
;; ANSWER SECTION: domain.tld. 300 IN TXT "v=spf1 a a:external.domain.tld ~all"
Thank you for using the verifier,cd /etc/init.d/; chkconfig --add sender-id
I invite any reader to help improving this newbie-guide based on their experience and knowledge. There is plenty room for suggestions and additions to this article but this is an area where with all documentation available it seems that it is not enough or not covers all configuration or problems which may occur when setting up such a system. I spent myself several (many) good hours reading and learning, trying and failing or succeeding and finally writing this article hoping that will help others to save some of their time and neurons while trying to follow the latest recommendation of the war against spammers.
Although not required, a donation is always welcome end encouraging 😉
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DKIM configuration file /etc/dkim.conf
DKIM startup script /etc/init.d/dkim
Domainkeys startup script /etc/init.d/domainkeys
Sender-id startup script /etc/init.d/sender-id
How to Setup DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) with Postfix and Ubuntu Server
http://www.unibia.com/unibianet/systems-networking/how-setup-domainkeys-identified-mail-dkim-postfix-and-ubuntu-server
Setting up DKIM, SPF, Domainkeys DNS, Regular DNS on CentOS 5.3 at Pacificrack.com
http://palma-seo.com/setting-dkim-spf-domainkeys-dns-bind
Set Up DKIM On Postfix With dkim-milter (CentOS 5.2)
http://www.howtoforge.com/set-up-dkim-on-postfix-with-dkim-milter-centos-5.2
DomainKey Implementor's Tools and Library for email servers & clients
http://domainkeys.sourceforge.net/
Set Up DKIM For Multiple Domains On Postfix With dkim-milter 2.8.x (CentOS 5.3)
http://www.howtoforge.com/set-up-dkim-for-multiple-domains-on-postfix-with-dkim-milter-2.8.x-centos-5.3
Setting Up SPF, SenderId, Domain Keys, and DKIM
Domain Key / DKIM Key Generation Wizard
http://www.socketlabs.com/services/dkwiz
Domainkeys and DKIM with Postfix – Gentoo Linux wiki
http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Domainkeys_and_DKIM_with_Postfix
Postfix Add-on Software
http://www.postfix.org/addon.html
DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) Signatures – RFC
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4871.txt
Postfix / DKIM
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Postfix/DKIM
How To Implement SPF In Postfix
http://www.howtoforge.com/postfix_spf
Email authentication guide made by BITS
http://www.bits.org/downloads/Publications%20Page/BITSSenderAuthenticationDeploymentFINALJun09.pdf
Return Path’s Best Practice Guide
http://www.returnpath.net/downloads/resources/Email%20Authentication%20v080107.pdf
Last update: May 5th, 2010
Split email formats in pieces through preg_match:
$str=' (|(([^a-zA-Z0-9_\-.]|)(.*?)(|[^a-zA-Z0-9_\-.]+?)([a-zA-Z0-9_\-.]+?)(|[^a-zA-Z0-9_\-.]+?)))(|[^a-zA-Z0-9_\-.])([a-zA-Z0-9_\-.]+?)(|[^a-zA-Z0-9_\-.])@(.+?)\.([^>]+)';
PHP code:
<pre lang="php">
<?php
function is_email($email) {
$x = '\d\w!\#\$%&\'*+\-/=?\^_`{|}~'; //just for clarity
return count($email = explode('@', $email, 3)) == 2 &&
strlen($email[0]) < 65 && strlen($email[1]) < 256 &&
preg_match("#^[$x]+(\.?([$x]+\.)*[$x]+)?$#", $email[0]) &&
preg_match('#^(([a-z0-9]+-*)?[a-z0-9]+\.)+[a-z]{2,6}.?$#', $email[1]);
}
?>
</pre>
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