E-Mail¶

Sending E-Mail¶

Review Board requires access to an SMTP server in order to send e-mails. This should ideally be one that lives on the same network (though for performance reasons, not the same server). The SMTP server can be configured on the E-Mail Settings page.

It’s also very important that the server responds fast enough to requests to send e-mail. Any delays in server communication will directly affect the responsiveness of Review Board, particularly when publishing review requests or reviews.

Review Board cannot be configured to use a local Mail Transfer Agent like sendmail.

Sender Headers¶

Review Board can send e-mail on behalf of users. This may happen when creating a new review request or reviewing some code.

E-mails appear to be sent from the users, rather than from Review Board itself. It accomplishes this by putting the user’s name and e-mail address in the Sender field in the e-mail, and the configured sender e-mail address in the From field. That address can be customized in the E-Mail Settings.

By using these two fields instead of just faking the From address, we can avoid e-mails appearing to be spam or otherwise malicious. Many modern e-mail clients warn if the From address appears to be suspicious.

Sender Verification through DKIM¶

Using the From and Sender fields may not be enough. To properly configure Review Board to send e-mail, you may need a sufficient DKIM setup. DKIM allows the receiver to verify that the e-mail was actually sent from the server it appears to be sent from.

DKIM support may need to be configured on your mail server software. Configuring DKIM is beyond the scope of this documentation, as it may vary greatly between different servers.

Along with the mail server configuration, you will need to configure your DNS records.

There are many guides out there for DKIM. See the following: