Date: Tue, 30 Jul 2002 09:16:51 -0700 From: Glen Mehn <glen@burningman.com> To: freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: mail systems Message-ID: <3D46BBF3.8090804@burningman.com> References: <3D46048B.00000E.16579@kitchen> <20020729212619.1e857a29.cyschow@shaw.ca> <3D4652EC.1BEB3133@rebel.net.au>
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Samuel (et al): I'll try to not only throw in my opinion (I've managed sendmail, qmail, postfix, exim, CommuniGate Pro [non-free], but give a comparison, based on my experience: qmail: perfectly rfc-compliant, some think to a fault. Arguably/probably the fastest/most secure MTA on the net. Written to conform to the 'unix way'-- everything is a file, and there are more disparate pieces of qmail than you can shake a stick at. Very different to manage than most other MTAs: several control files, and no centralized aliases database. Can be configured as a 'somewhat' sendmail-compliant (drop-in replacement). Supports mbox, maildir. exim: (you didn't ask about this, but I'm throwing it in anyway): Very flexible, very easy to configure and manage. Fast, pretty secure, Very easy to work with via pipes, embedded perl, etc. Very easy to develop code around-- good api and programmatic interface. Has a filtering engine, full regexp builtin (you could probably rewrite spamassasin, for instance, within exim, if you want). One setuid binary, one control file, one aliases db (but you can configure more than one of each for specialized purposes). Perfectly sendmail-compatible (drop-in replacement for sendmail, will act like sendmail if you call it as sendmail c.f. with a symlink) supports mh, mbox, maildir. One of my 2 personal favorites. postfix: Very much like exim: extensible, easy to install, configure. supports mh, mbox, maildir. Fast. Secure. Full regexp support, strong api for development around. Perfectly compatible as a drop-in replacement for sendmail. Centralized configuration. Supports mbox/maildir (mh? not 100% sure). Has just about everything exim has to offer, but is not one setuid binary, but several. Probably slightly more secure. My other personal favorite. sendmail: not so easy (but not so hard) to configure. Supports a lot of things that newer mailers don't. The original standard-- if you know this, you'll be OK anywhere. IMO crufty, somewhat bug-ridden. Medium speed, but fairly fast (on modern systems, i/o is going to be your major restriction anyway). a very wide range of applications to support it, which make it extensible. Hope this helps. glen To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message
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