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The Exim SMTP Mail Server
A bit of history, first. Exim is currently in its fourth version, and is developed by Philip Hazel at the University of Cambridge Computing Service. The third release was accompanied by an O'Reilly book, also written by Philip, but there were enough fundamental differences that this release warranted its own volume. And what a book: more than 600 pages straight from the horse's mouth (as it were); you can't go wrong.
The structure is flat, being twenty-two chapters and two appendices long, but I'd say there were three main acts if you take it cover to cover. Philip begins with five chapters that introduce the reader to Internet mail, Exim, and some rudimentary runtime configurations. There's nothing to fear here, as the text is beautifully self-contained, covering topics from the DNS to routing lookups. As Exim's runtime configuration is both flexible and easy to read, the quite technical examples given early on can be understood without flicking to and from other chapters in the book.
The next four chapters cover in a rather succinct manner the parts of Exim that route and transport your messages. By this point you should have a grasp of the philosophy and design of Exim, which allows Philip just to give you the details. This section does feel most like a reference manual but I'm not sure there's another way he could present the information without confusing the reader. The remainder of the book covers each of the Big Features of Exim, one per chapter. I'm guessing that Philip just kept on writing until he ran out of features, rather than time or space! These chapters feel far more like the heart of the book, and the author treads a fine line between thorough process description and distracting technicalities. The two appendices cover regular expression syntax and special variables (both being available to Exim's configuration).
The book would be ideal if, for example, you manage a mail system on your own and don't have a great deal more admin experience close at hand. Its great strength is the vast number of scenarios that Philip has thought up; it seems that if you can think of something that you want the application to do, it'll be in there somewhere. At my site however we do have a good number of people who are familiar with Exim, so armed with a copy of the (equally well written) reference manual we can usually get along just fine.
Those expecting the chatty, irreverent style of an O'Reilly text may be in for a disappointment. Philip writes in a clear, precise manner, and obviously knows the subject matter (literally) inside-out; but there's no messing around and you have to be committed to learning about the subject in question. Having said that, I don't want these last two paragraphs to put you off. If there's even a whiff of a chance of you having to come into contact with Exim or its runtime configuration, then I can do nothing else but strongly recommend this book. The detail's there in spades, it reads very well, and is a fine complement to the reference manual.
For more information, see also the Exim home page, as well as this book's website. You can't yet purchase the book from American retailers, though if you're in a hurry, bn.com stocks the previous version. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Yeah. That would be because sendmail is about twice as baroque and twice as complicated as Exim (or PostFix, or Qmail, or just about any other smtp server software). ;)
My journal has hot
I understand windows, I like windows, and windows works. Forgive me if I don't feel the need to use some random unproven OS.
Security is the answer my friend.
At my organization we use it to relay around half a million messages per day
Yo Ralsky ! Loong time no see buddy !
All jokes aside, half a million messages/day isn't really that much. Does anyone know which software the spammers use ?
When will I end this grieving ? When will my future begin ?
Would you say then that sendmail is baroque beyond repair?
> Re:Why would I want to use exim?
Answer: you probably wouldn't. But for someone who wants to write config files that are easy to understand, exim is a good alternative. Sure, sendmail is great, and if you are familiar with it, good for you. But exim is also a good, solid alternative. Especially for someone who hasn't wasted (*ahem*) time learning sendmail.
...I think I'll just wait for the movie.
...
I work at an organization with over 34,000 employees. We tried Linux/Sendmail, it was too complicated and the admin GUI sucked. We switched to Exchange, but the box had pointy edges and was hurty.
Realizing that it was all very complex, we emailed all our employees their final message. It was a link to the SMTP RFC and a short list of instructions on how to use Telnet. Then we shut down the mail server and ate lunch.
Management reported an immediate profit increase projection for that month. While I'm sure this was due to productivity improvements facilitated by my fine IT department, some skeptical colleagues of mine think it was the mass exodus of employee resignations that took place around the time the new "mail system" went into place. I'm sure it was due to the rat problem in the cafeteria but nobody will listen to me.
# Erik
Exim does not want to be extended, it wants to assimilate everything, making the result too big to be understandable by anyone
.haeger
So, it looks like we'll have our MS-Exchange replacement afterall?
You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. -- Harlan Ellison
geek-- to you!
four-oh-four
As every spammer knows, the more you send out, the more $$$s you make!
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
If it's baroque, postfix it ....
Infuriate left and right
The sooner you're exposed for what you are, and thrown off the Internet permanently, the better.
:)
You misspelled "have the contents of an entire clip of AK-47 ammunition emptied into you at point blank range."
HTH, HAND.
"No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert