Postfix 2.1 Released

MasTRE writes "After an extended period of polishing and testing, Postfix 2.1 is released. Some highlights: complete documentation rewrite (long overdue!), policy delegation to external code, real-time content filtering _before_ mail is accepted (a top 10 most requested feature in previous versions), major revision of the LDAP/MySQL/PGSQL code. Version 2.2 is in thw works, which promises even more features like client rate limiting and integration of the TLS and IPv6 patches into the official tree. There's never been a better time to migrate from Sendmail (just _had_ to get that in there ;)."

Comments

Postfix Heaven

[Chromodromic]

I just finished installing and configuring Postfix with TLS, Cyrus SASL, Maildir storage (which Postfix simply "does" by appending a "/" at the end of a mailbox path), and virtual users alongside Courier-IMAP, and, man, was it easy. I had the help of O'Reilly's Postfix: The Definitive Guide and between that, the provided documentation and the wealth of resources available on the Web, I was able to get everything up and running in record time.

I know this sounds like a commercial, but it's hard not to sound that way when everything just kind've worked the first time. I now have authenticated, encrypted SMTP and POP and my users are, literally, thanking me. My experience has been that using Postfix was an easy way for me to look good.

Here's a Postfix SASL HOWTO which came in handy, but there are a lot of resources on the Web, especially at the Postfix site.

Real-time filtering

[DustMagnet]

Cool, what's that about? I found this written by Wietse Venema the author/maintianer for postfix:

When used with a real-time SPAM filter, this approach allows Postfix to reject mail before the SMTP mail transfer completes, so that Postfix does not have to return rejected mail to the sender. Mail that is not accepted remains the responsibility of the client.

In all other respects this content filtering approach is inferior to the existing content filter (see FILTER_README) which processes mail AFTER it is queued.

The problem with real-time content filtering is that the remote SMTP client expects an SMTP reply within a deadline. As the system load increases, fewer and fewer CPU cycles remain available to answer within the deadline, and eventually you either have to stop accepting mail or you have to accept unfiltered mail.

Too bad it doesn't have a counter attack mode, yet.

Sendmail upgrade?

[Anonymous Coward]

There's never been a better time to migrate from Sendmail

It seems Exim 4 was released Feb 2002. It includes IPV6, TLS, and SMTPAUTH via PAM, LDAP, MYSQL, PostgreSQL and more.. There is also client rate limiting, and realtime spam/virus filtering no need to accept and bounce junk.
If you're using Postfix and have been waiting for any of these "new features", go ahead and try Exim.
Exim home page

SMTP time scanning, finally.

[stevenbdjr]

real-time content filtering _before_ mail is accepted

About time. I've been doing this with Exim and Exiscan for almost 2 years now. It's nice to see other MTA's begin to incorporate this functionality. Now, if everyone upgrades and takes advantage of this wonderful feature, maybe the number of false NDR's I receive due to forged senders will start to go down...

The Doc

[anarcat]

Yeah, that's good. I always had trouble finding my way into the postfix documentation, now it's a lot clearer. I especially like the listing of all main.cf settings (now if there would be a manpage for master.cf too...) and the bottleneck analysis tool.

I do miss however the "big pictures" yellow + blue graphs that seduced me into trying out postfix long time ago. Now we're stuck with pityful text-only rendering

Still great, after all those years, postfix is my MTA of choice: ease of use, power and security.

Re:Comparisons

[Ryquir]

Yeah your comparisons link is seriously outdated (cicra 2001) and only compares mta descriptions. It is neither indepth nor does it touch on the features that existed at the time. With statements like "Add to this sendmail's renowned inefficiency" or "Postfix is quite flexible in its configuration file, but not to the extent of Exim" this document can't be anything more then a abstract draft written up for basic filler in attempt to sell a book idea to publishers.

This wouldn't have been a good comparison at the time it was written let alone now. Next time try googling a little harder perhaps you would have found this link: http://www.geocities.com/mailsoftware42/ or heck google it for yourself here http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF -8&q=MTA+comparison&btnG=Google+Search

Re:Converting from sendmail?

[bearl]

In the source directory there's a text file named INSTALL that has detailed instructions for the three installation options, including "Replace sendmail altogether."

I won't quote them here in case some of the steps have changed, but it's a very nice step by step list of what to do, what to type, and when to type it.

Re:this SMTP server vs Qmail and Sendmail

[DavidTC]

qmail isn't free software because it's non-forkable.

You can freely redistribute the source and binaries compiled from clean source. And you can distribute patches to it.

However, the point is, the qmail maintainer is the only person who can release new versions of qmail. And hence it's not free software.

There are two very large dangers with qmail...that it will go off in a random direction no one agrees with, and you'll either have to follow along or go that way, and that the qmail maintainer will just stop releasing new versions. With free software, if enough people use it, they will simply make a fork...but they can't do that with qmail. Technically they could grab a random version and keep building patches off that, but that becomes unmaintainable real fast.

In other words, qmail is basically 'freeware', not 'free software', although it does come in source form, and you have been granted the ability to modify it and even share the modifications. But not the end result.

When next you announce..

[Anonymous Coward]

The latest version of an application... how about including a link to the release notes / changelog. No point in upgrading if you don't know the changes - RELEASE_NOTES

Re:this SMTP server vs Qmail and Sendmail

[kweber666]

There are two very large dangers with qmail...that it will go off in a random direction no one agrees with

There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

and that the qmail maintainer will just stop releasing new versions

To quote the qmail web site: The latest published qmail package is qmail-1.03.tar.gz, which was released in June 1998. So again, this may have happened already.