Re: mail server from source saga continues....

[Aly Dharshi <aly dharshi uleth ca>]

Greetings Brian,

	I hope that you are well.

> Sendmail has NOTHING to do with mbx, maildirs or whatever you want to use.
> Sendmail is an MTA. That's a Mail Transfer Agent. All it does is get mail
> from server to server. If it has happened to arrive at the right one, then
> it passes it off to an MDA. The default MDA in RH is procmail.

	You are correct it doesn't, I always treat procmail and say maildrop as part of 
that software. I always forget they are seperate. But in the case of Maildirs I 
think that the MTA also does the work of the MDA.

> Also, mbx is a simple text file. Corrupting it is only likely if you suffer
> a power outage. If you are suffering power outages on servers then they are
> either not critical servers or you are not planning properly. Fixing it can
> be done in your favorite text editor. (Note, there are other ways to corrupt
> it, but they are very unlikely and would also apply to maildirs.)

	No I think that such a file is corruptable much more easily than a directory 
containing many files, hence mbx is not suitable over NFS. Maybe a server crash 
could leave an mbx file inconsistant. Maildirs are harder to corrupt I would think.

> If you want to use maildir with UW-IMAP, then read their page on how to do
> it. You will simply need to recompile and then change your procmail rules to
> deliver to maildirs.

	UW-Imap is bulky and slow, Courier Imap is fast and efficient, I have worked with 
both when I could patch the UW-Imap system to do Maildir, this was a nasty piece 
of work. Courier is a Maildir Imap server only and is indeed as mentioned quite 
fast. Its the Imap server of choice nowadays or is getting popular.


> How do you define better? Less features? Less developers? No corporate
> sponsorship? Less common? Come on, this is just like the Emacs vs. Vi thing,
> aren't we passed that point?

	Sendmail has been hard to configure, Exim is easier to configure and work with 
right out of the box, so for example the cs department on campus runs sendmail, 
if they put Exim it would work with the same commandline switches and with 
adding your domain and mailhost to a configure file you are up and running.

	I am guess that its a matter of preference, Debian ships Exim by default. Its got 
a script to get Exim up and running quickly. RH ships Postfix as well, Sendmail 
is packaged because its the first mail server around I thinks.   I could be very 
very wrong.

> I have nothing against any of your alternate suggestions (well, that's not
> completely true, I dislike Qmail for DJB and his licensing but not for the
> product), but they are not "superior". They may fit someone's needs better,
> but there is not necessarily something to gain (well, except for a product
> that suits your needs :).

	I dislike Qmail as I could never get it to run for some odd reason, I found that 
there were too many files to work with, Exim was easy to configure and compile 
finally was sendmail compatible. Its fast and works for me and hence I recommend 
it to Daniel to make his life easier. Each to their own preference. But watch 
out Sendmail here comes Exim :) :) :) :)


> Best advice is do a lot of reading.

	No doubt. Lots of research.

	Cheers,

	Aly.

--
Aly Dharshi
aly dharshi uleth ca
System Administrator ORS Servers

	"A good speech is like a good dress
	that's short enough to be interesting
	and long enough to cover the subject"