fmsgd

Implementation of fmsg host written in Go! Uses local filesystem and PostgreSQL database to store messages.

Building from source

Tested with Go 1.25 on Linux and Windows, AMD64 and ARM

1. Clone this repository
2. Navigate to src/
3. Run go build .

Environment

FMSG_DATA_DIR, FMSG_DOMAIN, FMSG_ID_URL, FMSG_TLS_CERT and FMSG_TLS_KEY are required to be set and valid; otherwise fmsgd will abort on startup. In addition to these FMSG_ varibles, PG variables need to be set for the PostgreSQL database to use, refer to: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/libpq-envars.html

Variable	Default	Description
FMSG_DATA_DIR		Path where messages will be stored. e.g. /opt/fmsg/data
FMSG_DOMAIN		Domain name this host is located. e.g. example.com
FMSG_ID_URL		Base HTTP URL for fmsg Id API, e.g. http://localhost:5000
FMSG_TLS_CERT		Path to TLS certificate file (PEM). Certificate must match fmsg.<FMSG_DOMAIN>.
FMSG_TLS_KEY		Path to TLS private key file (PEM).
FMSG_TLS_INSECURE_SKIP_VERIFY	false	Set to "true" to skip TLS certificate verification on outgoing connections. For development/testing only.
FMSG_MAX_MSG_SIZE	10240	Bytes. Maximum size above which to reject messages greater than before downloading them.
FMSG_PORT	4930	TCP port to listen on
FMSG_MAX_PAST_TIME_DELTA	604800	Seconds. Duration since message timestamp to reject if greater than. Note sending host could have been holding messages waiting for us to be reachable.
FMSG_MAX_FUTURE_TIME_DELTA	300	Seconds. Duration from message timestamp to reject if greater than.
FMSG_MIN_DOWNLOAD_RATE	5000	Bytes per second. Used in setting download deadlines while downloading a message.
FMSG_MIN_UPLOAD_RATE	5000	Bytes per second. Used in setting upload deadlines while sending a message.
FMSG_READ_BUFFER_SIZE	1600	Bytes. Internal read buffer size per incoming connection
FMSG_RETRY_INTERVAL	20	Seconds. Minimum time before retrying delivery to a recipient that previously failed.
FMSG_RETRY_MAX_AGE	86400	Seconds. Maximum age of a message since creation before giving up on delivery retries (default 1 day).
FMSG_POLL_INTERVAL	10	Seconds. How often the sender polls the database for pending messages.
FMSG_MAX_CONCURRENT_SEND	1024	Maximum number of concurrent outbound message deliveries.
FMSG_SKIP_DOMAIN_IP_CHECK	false	Set to "true" to skip verifying this host's external IP is in the fmsg DNS authorised IP set on startup.
FMSG_SKIP_AUTHORISED_IPS	false	Set to "true" to skip verifying remote hosts IP is in the fmsg DNS authorised IP set during message exchange. WARNING setting this true effectively disables sender verification.

Running

An up and running fmsg Id API needs to be reachable by fmsgd to know users and their quotas for this fmsgd service. See also fmsg-docker - a docker compose stack for a fmsg host including fmsgid, fmsg-webpi and fmsgd.

IP address to bind to and listen on is the only argument, 127.0.0.1 is used if argument not supplied. e.g. on Linux:

./fmsgd "0.0.0.0"

on Windows:

fmsgd.exe "0.0.0.0"

systemd

An example systemd service to run fmsgd as a service on startup

ASSUMES:

• Directory /opt/fmsgd has been created and contains built executable: fmsgd
• Text file /opt/fmsgd/env exists containing environment variables (example below)
• User fmsg has been created and has
  • read and execute permissions to /opt/fmsgd/, e.g. with chown -R fmsg:fmsg /opt/fmsgd after mkdir /opt/fmsgd
  • write permissions to FMSG_DATA_DIR
  • read permissions to /var/lib/fmsgd/tls
• Directory /var/lib/fmsgd has been created and owned by fmsg
• Valid TLS certs (see: FMSG-001 TCP+TLS Transport and Binding Standard) at paths /var/lib/fmsgd/tls/fullchain.pem and /var/lib/fmsgd/tls/privkey.pem

/etc/systemd/system/fmsgd.service

[Unit]
Description=fmsg Host
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=simple

User=fmsg
Group=fmsg

EnvironmentFile=/opt/fmsgd/env

ExecStart=/opt/fmsgd/fmsgd 0.0.0.0
WorkingDirectory=/opt/fmsgd

Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=3

# --- Filesystem access NOTE location of certs /var/lib/fmsgd/tls---
ReadOnlyPaths=/var/lib/fmsgd/tls
ReadWritePaths=/opt/fmsgd
ReadWritePaths=/var/lib/fmsgd
PrivateTmp=true

# --- Hardening ---
NoNewPrivileges=true
PrivateTmp=true
ProtectSystem=strict
ProtectHome=true

# --- Logging ---
StandardOutput=journal
StandardError=journal

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

FMSG_DATA_DIR=/var/lib/fmsgd/
FMSG_DOMAIN=example.com
FMSG_ID_URL=http://127.0.0.1:8080

FMSG_TLS_CERT=/var/lib/fmsgd/tls/fullchain.pem
FMSG_TLS_KEY=/var/lib/fmsgd/tls/privkey.pem

FMSG_MAX_MSG_SIZE=10240
FMSG_MAX_PAST_TIME_DELTA=604800
FMSG_MAX_FUTURE_TIME_DELTA=300
FMSG_MIN_DOWNLOAD_RATE=5000
FMSG_MIN_UPLOAD_RATE=5000
FMSG_READ_BUFFER_SIZE=1600

PGHOST=127.0.0.1
PGPORT=5432
PGUSER=
PGPASSWORD=
PGDATABASE=fmsgd

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable fmsgd
sudo systemctl start fmsgd