Committer email configuration

An email address at apache.org is associated with every committer account. Occasional official Apache emails will be directed to this account. It is very important that you check mail sent to your apache.org email address regularly for announcements. You are also free to use this address for other ASF work related to projects you work on.

Note that the infrastructure group provides an email address for you; however they do not typically provide a mailbox - you must normally setup forwarding for this address to be able to read your mails. Instructions on how to setup a .forward file are available. Advanced users may alternately setup a .qmail or .emailaddr file containing an email address. Be sure to keep your forwarding address up to date in the future as well.

Reading email from your apache.org address

When your committer account is first created by Infrastructure, a .forward file is created for you at the top-level of your home directory. You must ensure that a .forward file exists and contains your correct and updated forwarding email address. You can view and change this file by logging in via ssh to people.apache.org and looking at the file. You can use the following command to display the file:

cat .forward

The file should contain one line with your forwarding email address. If the .forward file is missing or the address is incorrect, you can create or update it using the command:

echo your_correct_forwarding_email > .forward

Now test out forwarding by logging out and sending email to your apache.org address from your normal email client. Ensure that you receive the email at your_correct_forwarding_email address.

If you still have troubles then try doing 'ssh people.apache.org; touch ~/.qmail-owner'

Sending email from your apache.org address

It is not a requirement that you use this email address to send email to your project mailing lists. Use whatever email address that you like. Typically, you should use the same email address to subscribe to various project lists that you send email from. There are certain other mailing lists that are only available to committers, but still you don't need to use your apache address - the moderators will know who you are. There are more helpful tips about becoming a new committer.

One method which can be used to send mail from your apache.org account is to fake the sender (by posting though a standard account with the from address set to your-username@apache.org) rather than logging on to your Apache user then trying to post. How to fake the sender depends on the email client used. This works in most situations.

Advanced users may use port forwarding to occasionally send email from their apache.org address. This is not typically recommended, but is possible. Brief instructions on Windows for using PuTTY and Thunderbird are included below. Reminder: this is not supported, so please make sure you know what you are doing first.

  • Ensure your SSH login to people.apache.org works first
  • In PuTTY, select settings Category: Connection, SSH, Tunnels
  • Under Add new forwarded port:, enter:
  • Source port: 1028 (or any other port above 1024)
  • Destination: localhost:25
  • Ensure the "Local" radiobutton is selected
  • Press the Add button
  • Login and leave the session running: this forwards the local port 1028 from your machine to the local port 25 for SMTP on people.apache.org
  • In Thunderbird, select Tools, Account Settings, Outgoing Server (SMTP)
  • Press Add...
  • Description: Tunnel thru ASF (or whatever you like)
  • Server Name: localhost
  • Port: 1028 (or whatever Source port: you set above)
  • Press OK to save this SMTP server setting
  • Be sure to use an Identity that uses this SMTP server setting, not your normal one