On Mon, Aug 14, 2000 at 09:32:25AM +1000, Tony Nugent wrote:
>
> But do you *really* need sendmail running? You only need a mail
> daemon listening on port 25 if you are a mail server accepting email
> from elsewhere (usually via MX records in the DNS).
>
excellent question!! and one that i've been wondering about.
somewhere (and i don't remember where unfortunately), i thought
i read (or, perhaps, mis-read) something that gave me the impression
that the system needs sendmail to send error messages/syslog-style
reports/etc to users on the local machine. so, with that (mis)impression
in mind, i've always allowed sendmail to run.
so, for a workstation (my home machine, and my desktop at work) i have
sendmail in use. i would be more than happy to simply not start it
at boot time as a daemon (but have the binary available on the system
to use in scripts, etc). i read all my mail via a shell login to my
isp's account (using telnet), or via pop3. would it be okay, on the
abovementioned machines, to shut off sendmail as a daemon?
we also have a server at work that i set up, that is a webserver, samba
server, and database machine (will also be running a kannel server in
the near future). that will be needing to send mail (from cgi-type
scripts) as well. but, there will be no need to receive mail from
the internet on it as well. again, i would prefer to shut off daemon
use of sendmail, but have the binary available as a command line tool
to send mail.
i'd also appreciate a brief summary of *exactly* what sendmail does?
where does it fit into the process of sending and receiving email?
also, are there any simpler to use/configure/manage MTA's out there
that could be a suitable replacement?
thanks much!!
--e--
