feat(mtail): validate programs during deploy

Compile /etc/mtail before activate() restarts the service, to catch errors
early.

.github/workflows/ci-no-dns.yaml

@@ -20,8 +20,6 @@ concurrency:
 jobs:
   no-dns:
     name: LXC deploy and test
-    permissions:
-      contents: read
     uses: chatmail/cmlxc/.github/workflows/lxc-test.yml@main
     with:
       cmlxc_version: main

.github/workflows/ci.yaml

@@ -57,8 +57,6 @@ jobs:
 
   lxc-test:
     name: LXC deploy and test
-    permissions:
-      contents: read
     uses: chatmail/cmlxc/.github/workflows/lxc-test.yml@main
     with:
       cmlxc_version: main

.github/workflows/docs.yaml

@@ -47,5 +47,5 @@ jobs:
           mkdir -p "$HOME/.ssh"
           echo "${{ secrets.CHATMAIL_STAGING_SSHKEY }}" > "$HOME/.ssh/key"
           chmod 600 "$HOME/.ssh/key"
-          rsync -rILvh -e "ssh -i $HOME/.ssh/key -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no" $GITHUB_WORKSPACE/doc/build/ "${{ secrets.USERNAME }}@chatmail.at:/var/www/html/chatmail.at/doc/relay/"
+          rsync -rILvh -e "ssh -i $HOME/.ssh/key -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no" $GITHUB_WORKSPACE/doc/build/ "${{ secrets.USERNAME }}@chatmail.at:"
 

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -1,5 +1,60 @@
 # Changelog for chatmail deployment
 
+## [1.12.0] - 2026-07-31
+
+### Breaking Changes
+
+- [**breaking**] Introduce configurable system limits to reject new address creation and limit imap/smtp connections.
+  Dovecot default connection limit lowered from 50k to 10k,
+  Postfix default connection limit lowered from 5k to 1k,
+  larger relays need to adjust their settings.
+
+### Features
+
+- Reduce maximal_queue_lifetime from 5d to 2d
+- Disable negative cache in unbound (#992)
+- *(mtail)* Add incoming_mailer_daemon_mail_count
+- *(postfix)* Disable processing of MIME headers
+- *(dovecot)* Advertise privacy_mail as admin contact, drop server comment
+
+### Bug Fixes
+
+- Set relay restrictions per smtpd service with default reject
+- Reduce maxproc for filtermail-transport LMTP client to 500
+- Core 2.50.0 does not have delete_server_after config anymore.
+- Check if all required ports are available for filtermail (#983)
+- Always deploy unbound.conf.d/chatmail.conf (#993)
+- Expire empty directories (#994)
+- Crypt-r dependency was declared for wrong Python version
+- Always overwrite /etc/resolv.conf, even if it is a symbolic link
+- Pass kwargs to files.put()
+- List Iroh proxy endpoints used by 0.35 and 1.0, drop stale /relay/probe from earlier versions
+- Fix port discovery when ss -tulpn shows dovecot before stats
+
+### Documentation
+
+- Add scripts/initenv.sh to upgrade instructions
+- Update overview diagrams (#995)
+- *(overview)* Remove mermaid styles from 'Accepting and delivering mail' (#1009)
+- *(README.md)* Clarify security enforcement (#1011)
+
+### Miscellaneous Tasks
+
+- *(ci)* Auto-trigger docker build on release tag push
+- *(acmetool)* Update let's encrypt ToS link to 1.8
+- *(ci)* Update doc staging upload path
+- *(ci)* Fix docs upload path
+
+### Refactor
+
+- *(postfix)* Remove unused "filter" lmtp service
+- Install dns-root-data instead of using unbound-anchor
+- *(deps)* Remove domain-validator dependency
+
+### Testing
+
+- Set socket security for IMAP and SMTP to "TLS" in "dclogin"
+
 ## [1.11.0] - 2026-05-15
 
 ### Breaking Changes

RELEASE.md

@@ -1,15 +1,13 @@
 # Releasing a new version of chatmail relay
 
-For example, to release version 1.9.0 of chatmail relay, do the following steps.
+For example, to release version 1.13.0 of chatmail relay, do the following steps.
 
-1. Update the changelog: `git cliff --unreleased --tag 1.9.0 --prepend CHANGELOG.md` or `git cliff -u -t 1.9.0 -p CHANGELOG.md`.
+1. Update the changelog: `git cliff --unreleased --tag 1.13.0 --prepend CHANGELOG.md` or `git cliff -u -t 1.13.0 -p CHANGELOG.md`.
 
 2. Open the changelog in the editor, edit it if required.
 
 3. Commit the changes to the changelog with a commit message `chore(release): prepare for 1.9.0`.
 
-3. Tag the release: `git tag --annotate 1.9.0`.
+4. Open a PR with the new commit, merge it to main after review.
 
-4. Push the release tag: `git push origin 1.9.0`.
-
-5. Create a GitHub release: `gh release create 1.9.0`.
+5. In the web interface, create a GitHub release, tell it to create a new tag.

cmdeploy/src/cmdeploy/deployers.py

@@ -520,10 +520,10 @@ def deploy_chatmail(config_path: Path, disable_mail: bool, website_only: bool) -
             ("nginx", 443),
             (["master", "smtpd"], 465),
             (["master", "smtpd"], 587),
-            (["imap-login", "dovecot"], 993),
+            (["dovecot", "imap-login"], 993),
             ("iroh-relay", 3340),
             ("mtail", 3903),
-            ("stats", 3904),
+            (["dovecot", "stats"], 3904),
             ("nginx", 8443),
             (["master", "smtpd"], config.postfix_reinject_port),
             (["master", "smtpd"], config.postfix_reinject_port_incoming),

cmdeploy/src/cmdeploy/mtail/deployer.py

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 from pyinfra import facts, host
-from pyinfra.operations import apt
+from pyinfra.operations import apt, server
 
 from cmdeploy.basedeploy import Deployer
 
@@ -37,7 +37,20 @@ class MtailDeployer(Deployer):
             address=self.mtail_address or "127.0.0.1",
             port=3903,
         )
-        self.put_file("mtail/delivered_mail.mtail", "/etc/mtail/delivered_mail.mtail")
+        if self.mtail_address:
+            self.put_file("mtail/delivered_mail.mtail", "/etc/mtail/delivered_mail.mtail")
+            self.put_file("mtail/filtermail.mtail", "/etc/mtail/filtermail.mtail")
+            if self.need_restart:
+                # Check if all installed mtail rules compile or fail early
+                # --one_shot to exit, --port 0 to not clash with running mtail.
+                server.shell(
+                    name="Validate mtail programs",
+                    commands=[
+                        "timeout 30 /usr/local/bin/mtail --compile_only --one_shot"
+                        " --progs /etc/mtail --logs /dev/null"
+                        " --address 127.0.0.1 --port 0"
+                    ],
+                )
 
     def activate(self):
         active = bool(self.mtail_address)

cmdeploy/src/cmdeploy/mtail/filtermail.mtail

@@ -0,0 +1,101 @@
+# filtermail.mtail: filtermail process event counters
+
+#
+# Counters
+#
+
+# Connection errors in the transport path
+# Error::Io / Error::ConnectionFailed / Error::Tls: the reason string filtermail strips
+counter filtermail_transport_error_total by reason
+
+# Unexpected transport errors: DNS failure, HTTP error, config error.
+counter filtermail_transport_unexpected_total
+
+# Silent drops: inbound
+# "unencrypted" overlaps with rejected_unencrypted_mail_count in delivered_mail.mtail.
+counter filtermail_inbound_drop_total by reason
+
+# Silent drops: outbound
+# "unencrypted" overlaps with rejected_unencrypted_mail_count in delivered_mail.mtail;
+# "sender_disabled" and "all_recipients_disabled" are new.
+counter filtermail_outbound_drop_total by reason
+
+# Reinject failures
+counter filtermail_reinject_error_total by direction
+
+# SMTP-level connection errors (client dropped mid-session)
+counter filtermail_smtp_error_total by reason
+
+#
+# filtermail::transport
+#
+
+/filtermail\[\d+\]: \[WARN\s+filtermail::transport::worker\] Connection error relaying to mail server \S+: / {
+    /timed out/ {
+        filtermail_transport_error_total["connection_timeout"]++
+    } otherwise {
+    /Failed to connect to any of the following addresses/ {
+        filtermail_transport_error_total["connection_refused"]++
+    } otherwise {
+    /Connection refused/ {
+        filtermail_transport_error_total["connection_refused"]++
+    } otherwise {
+    /invalid certificate/ {
+        filtermail_transport_error_total["tls_cert_not_verified"]++
+    } otherwise {
+    /peer sent fatal alert|handshake/ {
+        filtermail_transport_error_total["tls_handshake"]++
+    } otherwise {
+    /close_notify|connection closed/ {
+        filtermail_transport_error_total["lost_connection"]++
+    } otherwise {
+        filtermail_transport_error_total["other"]++
+    }}}}}}}
+
+/filtermail\[\d+\]: \[WARN\s+filtermail::transport::worker\] Unexpected error while delivering/ {
+    filtermail_transport_unexpected_total++
+}
+
+#
+# filtermail::smtp_server
+#
+
+/filtermail(?:-incoming)?\[\d+\]: \[WARN\s+filtermail::smtp_server\] Unexpected EoF while receiving DATA/ {
+    filtermail_smtp_error_total["unexpected_eof"]++
+}
+
+/filtermail(?:-incoming)?\[\d+\]: \[WARN\s+filtermail::smtp_server\] Malformed DATA line without CRLF/ {
+    filtermail_smtp_error_total["malformed_data_line"]++
+}
+
+#
+# filtermail::outbound
+#
+
+/filtermail\[\d+\]: \[WARN\s+filtermail::outbound\] Rejected unencrypted mail/ {
+    filtermail_outbound_drop_total["unencrypted"]++
+}
+
+/filtermail\[\d+\]: \[WARN\s+filtermail::outbound\] Dropping mail; Sender .* is disabled/ {
+    filtermail_outbound_drop_total["sender_disabled"]++
+}
+
+/filtermail\[\d+\]: \[WARN\s+filtermail::outbound\] Dropping mail; All recipients disabled/ {
+    filtermail_outbound_drop_total["all_recipients_disabled"]++
+}
+
+/filtermail\[\d+\]: \[WARN\s+filtermail::outbound\] Failed to re.inject mail/ {
+    filtermail_reinject_error_total["outbound"]++
+}
+
+#
+# filtermail::inbound
+#
+
+/filtermail(?:-incoming)?\[\d+\]: \[WARN\s+filtermail::inbound\] Rejected unencrypted mail/ {
+    filtermail_inbound_drop_total["unencrypted"]++
+}
+
+/filtermail(?:-incoming)?\[\d+\]: \[WARN\s+filtermail::inbound\] Failed to re.inject mail/ {
+    filtermail_reinject_error_total["inbound"]++
+}