> > Well, i don't like webinterfaces which write in files on the disc, they
> > might break due to bad locking etc.
>
> That's why you write into a database and create file from there.
which comes with an additional delay, a cron job etc.
that's why i'm using a ldap database ;)
> > But due to the licencing issues of qmail, i'm thinking about moving to
> > courier, exim or postfix. courier has some very neat features, but the
> > ldap support isn't as complete yet, i think.
A few people have been mailing me about these licence issues i care for:
as i understand there are two major points:
- you must not distribute a modified qmail source (but you may distribute a
patch, so people can modify their source themselves)
- you must not distribute binaries which don't reproduce the exact same
directory structure and binaries you would get by compiling the
unmodified source
This means you:
- cannot develop qmail extensions (such as qmail-ldap) in CVS or other
public shared source repositorys (you can do a lokal cvs.)
- have top publish all your changes in patch-"form" only
This leads to:
- much slower delvopment (and thus more bugs, as changes are more
difficult to track)
- more difficult installation (you might want to apply serveral
patches, which will overlap and collide...)
- no automatic upgrade through your distribution ( i LOVE apt-get )
None of these drawbacks apply to real Open-Source Projects like courier,
exim, postfix.
> courier isn't ready for production systems, exim is an inscure bloated beast
> and none of the three has an ldap support comparable to qmail-ldap.
What about postfix? Postfix is said to be very good, too.
I had a look at courier, and it HAS lots of interesting features and
things like the authdaemon which i consider good concepts.
LDAP support is not as complete as qmail-ldap-control, but there are few
things lacking in comparision to qmail-ldap.
Currently lacking is support for locking accounts and for clustering
(but i don't need clustering with <1k users...)
but the filters look very promising (i love the idea to reject mails,
instead of dropping or bouncing them at a later stage), the courier-mlm
is very ezmlm-like, you can even continue using .qmail files...
Lot's of us are using courier-imap and courier-pop, and my experience
with these parts of the courier-mta suite are very good.
Why do you consider courier not ready for production systems?
Exim has two vulnerabilities listed on securitfocus, one back from
1997... so i don't see what's so insecure about exim; the other is only
applicable if a certain option is turned on. if you search for qmail,
you'll at least find a DOS to qmail 1.03 (if you didn't set ulimit...)
I've been using qmail for serveral years now, and qmail-ldap for at
least half a year. but i'm annoyed by seeing bugs (i consider lacking
features i'd like to have as wishlist-bugs, too; but in qmail-ldap i
encountered real bugs with TSL etc.) and no shared development behind
it. That's why i'm looking into replacing qmail.
Greetings,
Erich
