Re: a couple of postfix questions
On Tue, Dec 07, 2004 at 03:57:30PM -0500, Stephen Gran wrote:
> I think that I would like to migrate to all exim4 and postfix (I would
> basically like to dump the sendmail and qmail systems).
good choices.
> The things that are vitally important are the ability to reject at smtp
> time for invalid localparts and for viruses - I believe that postfix (at
> least in recent versions) can do this, but I am just not sure. I do not
postfix can. in fact, it does it by default.
you can also configure it with a relay_recipient map to reject at stmp level
for unknown users in relay domain as well as local domains (by listing all the
valid users in the relay_recipient map)....particularly useful for backup MX
machines and gateway boxes that forward to an internal/firewalled mail server.
> I guess what I am asking for is people's experiences migrating existing
> (especially sendmail) systems to postfix, and how easy it is to tie other
> things into it, especially at smtp time. We're talking about migrating
migrating from sendmail to postfix is easy. in fact, migrating between
sendmail, postfix, exim, smail and most other MTAs except qmail is fairly
straight-forward - as long as you plan out what you're going to do in advance
and follow the plan, you're unlikely to run into any problems. they're all
similar enough that you can even re-use some of the map files, although some
require minor transformations. e.g. sendmail and postfix virtual user tables
are almost identical, except that postfix's virtual table allows multiple
recipients on the RHS.
migrating to/from qmail is always a PITA. aside from being ancient (and thus
not keeping up with current mail practices, especially spammers and viruses),
the main problem with qmail is that it is a dead-end trap. it makes no
attempt at backwards/forwards- compatibility with other MTAs, so any migration
basically involves re-doing everything from scratch. you won't be able to
re-use map files (like /etc/aliases) or make the fairly trivial transformations
to convert them, e.g., a sendmail mailertable to a postfix transport table.
> Thanks for any pointers to docs, experiences, or anything else. Martin
> and Craig - I know you two in particular are both big advocates of
> postfix, so I guess I am partly addressing this to you two, although
> feel no obligation to give free tech support :)
well, if you've read the archives, you've already seen my reasons for preferring
postfix, so i won't repeat them here.
craig
--
craig sanders <cas@taz.net.au> (part time cyborg)
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