RE: [exim] Postfix vs Exim

Top Page
Delete this message
Reply to this message
Author: Exim User's Mailing List
Date:  
To: Dickenson, Steven
CC: Exim User's Mailing List
Subject: RE: [exim] Postfix vs Exim
[ On Monday, January 10, 2005 at 21:25:21 (-0500), Dickenson, Steven wrote: ]
> Subject: RE: [exim] Postfix vs Exim
>
> Personally, Sendmail style
> configurations give me a headache, and Postfix is a little too much like
> Sendmail for my tastes.


Have you even looked at a running postfix configuration?

Sendmail uses a state machine plus a whole lot of very cryptic
configuration variables. Yes the m4 front-end files that are almost
universally used these days make it a little easier to understand but
it's still quite a monster behind the scenes.

Postfix uses very simple and well documented, consistently defined,
tables along with quite meaningful configuration variables and it has no
rewriting state engine like sendmail does, not even behind the scenes.
Postfix does not use any complex expression syntax either -- the
configuration variables are at most lists of items and the config file
syntax is down-right simplistic to the extreme. (though if anything
goes wonky then wrapping one's head around the multi-process
architecture and it's many inter-process communications channels and
protocol can get a bit head-spinning, but that's like any other big
software system, including sendmail and exim)

I would have to say the more recent versions of exim have a _MUCH_ more
complex and "tricky" configuration scheme than Postfix does, especially
if one heads down the road of defining ACLs and any other non-default
mechanisms. I've seen lots of Exim complex configuration expressions
posted here that would make any Sendmail hacker smile knowingly. ;-)

-- 
                        Greg A. Woods


H:+1 416 218-0098  W:+1 416 489-5852 x122  VE3TCP  RoboHack <woods@???>
Planix, Inc. <woods@???>          Secrets of the Weird <woods@???>