Re: OpenSMTPd - is it time to move?

On Tue, 15 Feb 2022, Frank Leonhardt wrote:

> I wouldn't suggest moving sendmail from base, but I've noticed OpenSMTPd is 
> gaining popularity.
>
> I've invested 35 years in learning how to make sendmail work, so I can cope 
> with it's convoluted configuration; although every time I need to make a 
> change I still get twitchy. I've tried Exim and Postfix at times, but always 
> returned to the devil I knew best.
>
> What are people's real world experiences with OpenSMTPd for a low volume MTA? 
> It's not like we need UUCP or Mail-11 interoperability any more.
>
> Thanks, Frank.
>
All good comments. It is really personal choice. I think if bind can be in 
/usr/local why not sendmail. There is not really a working MTA until you 
configure it.

I've used sendmail, exim/dovecot, and postfix/cyrus. We use the later in a 
small production environment (about 100k emails/day) and that has worked 
well for us. It (postfix) is hard to get a handle on as is sendmail for 
different reasons. For a while the sendmail folks put all their efforts in 
sendmail.com and did little or nothing with the open source version.

For someone just starting my 2 cents would be, not sendmail. Configuring it 
is a unique experience. Postfix has 100s, if not 1000s, of options. Points 
in its favor: good, documentation, stellar mailling list [how often do guys 
like me get advice from the author :) ]

If you come from sendmail as did, exim is very different in terms of mail 
queue management and reporting. I used it because I could not figure out 
how get sendmail to relay for a windows application with some strange 
configuration limitations.

I also had never heard of OpenSMTPd. If I were starting from scratch I 
think that would be my first stop. Otherwise SMTP is fairly complex, better 
the devil you know IMO.

Doug