# Email gateway

The Odoo mail gateway allows you to inject directly all the received emails in Odoo.

Its principle is straightforward: your SMTP server executes the "mailgate" script for every new
incoming email.

The script takes care of connecting to your Odoo database through XML-RPC, and send the emails via
the `MailThread.message_process()` feature.

## Prerequisites

- Administrator access to the Odoo database.
- Your own mail server such as Postfix or Exim.
- Technical knowledge on how to configure an email server.

## For Postfix

In you alias config ({file}`/etc/aliases`):

```text
email@address: "|/odoo-directory/addons/mail/static/scripts/odoo-mailgate.py -d <database-name> -u <userid> -p <password>"
```

:::{note}
Resources

- [Postfix](http://www.postfix.org/documentation.html)
- [Postfix aliases](http://www.postfix.org/aliases.5.html)
- [Postfix virtual](http://www.postfix.org/virtual.8.html)
:::

## For Exim

```text
*: |/odoo-directory/addons/mail/static/scripts/odoo-mailgate.py -d <database-name> -u <userid> -p <password>
```

:::{note}
Resources

- [Exim](https://www.exim.org/docs.html)
:::

:::{tip}
If you do not have access/manage your email server, use {ref}`incoming mail servers
<email-inbound-custom-domain-incoming-server>`.
:::