Hep, a multiprotocol message server.

Installation

1. Install Python, version 2.3 or higher (http://www.python.org/)
2. Install Twisted, version 1.3 (http://www.twistedmatrix.com/)
3. Install Yarn, version 0.2 (http://www.fettig.net/projects/yarn)
4. Install Hep.  You may install Hep from source by running the command
   'python setup.py install' in the base folder of the Hep package; or
   you may use a binary installer for your platform.

5. Create a Hep server .tap file, using the Twisted 'mktap' utility.
   In a terminal window, run the following command:

      mktap hep -d [data folder] -p [password]

   ...where [data folder] is an existing directory where you would like
   Hep to store its messages and configuration data, and [password] is
   the administrator password for your server.

   For details on other setup options, run "mktap hep --help".

   Hep defaults to using the following ports:

   Web:    5080
   POP3:   110
   IMAP:   143
   SMTP:   25

   Ports 110, 143, and 25 are the standard ports for these protocols.
   In order to use them for Hep, you must not already be running servers
   on these ports, and you must have administrator/root permissions on
   your computer.  (You must also be logged in as administrator/root when
   you run mktap; Hep will try to run as the user who created the hep.tap
   file).

   If you'd like to run a service under a different port, you can use
   the --pop3-port, --imap-port, --smtp-port, or --http-port options.

6. Start Hep by launching the hep.tap file you just created:

   twistd -f hep.tap

   You will need to have administrator permissions if you're using the
   standard ports.

Running Hep

You can get started with Hep by adding sites through the web interface.  Your
hep server should be available at this address:

    http://localhost:5080/

Log in as 'admin', with the password you specified when you created the hep.tap
file. 

Hep supports the following protocol schemes for sites:

http://www.site.com/rss.xml (XML, Atom, or OPML file)
metaweblog:http://www.mysite.com/rpc-script.cgi

In the web interface, you can just type the base URL of a website, and Hep
will try to auto-detect relevant URLs.

Once you've added your weblog (using a metaweblog: URL), you can set your
weblog as the default reply-to address for incoming messages, using the
'Special Folders' section.  Now, when you download your messages through
POP3 or IMAP, Hep will set the Reply-To header to post to your weblog
(via Hep's SMTP server).

Once you've added a few sites, you can connect to Hep with your email client,
using either POP or IMAP (I recommend POP for reading messages, as IMAP 
support is still somewhat exprimental).  IMAP supports reading and writing, so
you can post new messages to writable folders (such as weblogs using the 
Metaweblog API).

To use Hep's SMTP support, first turn on support for SMTP authentication in
your mail client (if you don't authenticate, Hep will allow you to send
messages to other users of your server, but not to your sites).  Try
replying to a message you downloaded via POP3 - if everything is working
correctly, your message should pass through Hep and be posted to your weblog!

Creating Users

If you want to open up your Hep server to users other than admin, you can
create new accounts by editing the [hepdir]/passwd file.  For each user,
add a line to this file in the format 'username:password'.
