On Wed, Jun 27, 2001 at 08:48:19AM -0700, Duane Powers wrote: > security conscious > virtual email accounts, likely using LDAP > spam control > ease of configuration > > I"m kinda leaning toward postfix, but that's just because I like the > cover of the book I saw at borders yesterday <g>
postfix is very good at all four of your criteria. it's also very easy to migrate to postfix from sendmail - it's designed to be mostly backwards compatible - e.g. you can use the same aliases, transports, virtuser etc files. the formats of those files are either the same, or backwards compatible - e.g. postfix's virtual table allows multiple addresses on the RHS of the table so you can have a message delivered to two or more mailboxes. with sendmail if you wanted to do that, you had to create an alias with two or more addresses and then make the virtuser table entry point to the alias. a useful feature of postfix while you're converting a system from sendmail is the "softbounce = yes" feature. that causes all mail that would bounce to just be rejected with a "4xx try again later" code. the following advice applies if you're running a mail server for dozens or more people. if it's just a home mail server handling your own personal mail you may prefer to do it the quick and dirty way and risk bouncing a few messages... whatever MTA you go to, the best thing to do is research and experiment first. get another box (an old pentium or 486 will do), install your new MTA on it and get a feel for how it works. then trash it and install sendmail on the same box and configure it in a similar manner to your main server. test that it works. then convert it to your new MTA and test that it works. if all goes well, you'll have had a successful conversion as practice. now write out a TODO list of each step you have to do in the conversion. e.g. - install postfix - shutdown postfix so that it's not accepting mail while i'm configuring it - configure /etc/postfix/main.cf - [ list of specific features you need enabled/disabled ] - softbounce = yes - copy /etc/mail/aliases to /etc/aliases. run newaliases - copy /etc/mail/transport to /etc/postfix/transport. edit if required. run postmap transport - copy /etc/mail/virtuser to /etc/postfix/virtual. edit as required. run postmap virtual ...etc. if you plan out exactly what you are going to do then there is very little chance of anything going wrong. finally, begin the migration of your real mail server. tick off each step as you do it. take it slow, and don't panic. the slow methodical approach is the best way here. monitor the log files when you're done, and shutdown the MTA (e.g. run /etc/init.d/postfix stop) at the first sign of trouble so that you can investigate and fix it quickly. craig -- craig sanders <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Fabricati Diem, PVNC. -- motto of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch