Running own mail server

[Res]

Hi Kurt,

On Fri, 3 Nov 2006, Kurt Wall wrote:

> 1. Postfix is easier to configure than Sendmail. Sendmail's m4 files
>   are easier than hacking sendmail.cf, but Postfix's config files
>   are even easier.

Only true for those that might not take the time to understand it, just 
like anything else, sendmail has far more options so therefor must be far more 
complex to understand.

> 2. Postfix is more modular than Sendmail, making it easier to write

Sendmail does anything you want, you just need to know the option, 
and for add ons, thats what milters are for.


> 3. Postfix is much faster than Sendmail and the same hardware. This is
>   load, has CPU to spare.

Hang on... I've seen this argument before and thats not entirely true, 
however, _by default_ yes its true, because sendmail does not have a 
dedicated queue manager so each message sticks to one process per msg, 
and worse its default is one outbound process for all, I have argued with 
Claus over this before but he wont budge on making the "speedy"
way (fork all process option)  "on" by default so "out of the box" ill 
grant you this one

However my sendmail list servers (running ecartis) do lists with almost 
2000 users typically all delivered in well under a minute which as I've seen
on postfix boxes is no faster, in fact I'd bet on sendmail to finish 
delivering before postfix 8/10 times (cant always judge because of slow 
remote sites like hotmail, sometimes they compelte the smtp session faster 
than you can blink, other times it can take minutes to complete.

The memory issue is not an issue, it was years ago because of the reason 
above and host cacheing.

> 4. Postfix seems more secure than Sendmail. That is, Postfix has a better
>   security record than Sendmail. Of course Postfix hasn't
> been around aslong as Sendmail and thus might not have had enough time to accumulate
>   the list of exploits that have hit Sendmail over the years. Perhaps in
>   15 more years Postfix will catch up to Sendmail in this regard,

Possibly, it's just like anything else, when there is more of it out 
there, the higher the risk of exploitation, and since sendmail is very 
powerfull (and dangerous if wrongfully configured) there is even a 
slightly higher than normal risk of exploitation

I've run sendmail, postfix and qmail, sendmail wins out, except for when 
it comes to large virtual domain hosting servers (1K+ domains), nothing, 
as much as I detest qmail and djb (and the fact you need to spend 2 days 
patching it cause djb coudltn be stuffed modernising it) comes close to 
beating it in direct hand with vpopmail, but for all private, lists, 
dedicated and corporate and of course end user smtp weve stuck to 
sendmail as we know it well.

I have been asked to try exim as its also supposed to be OK as well, maybe 
one day :)


-- 
Cheers
Res

"Just a world that we all must share, it's not enough just to stand and
stare, is it only a dream that there'll be no more turning away" - Floyd