Author: 韓家標 Bill Hacker Date: To: exim users Subject: Re: [exim] toaster?
A Guy wrote: > On Fri, Mar 7, 2008 at 10:39 PM, ?$B4Z2HI8?(B Bill Hacker <askbill@???>
> wrote:
>>
>> That you specifically seek a sort of shrink-wrapped or 'turnkey' package
>> indicates that taking on that learning-curve and responsibility might be
>> lower on your list of favorite pastimes / available time than is
>> generally the case here.
>>
>>
>> Bill
>
>
>
> Ah, my english is not good enough, so please be patient with me :) I am not
> lazy nor i would prefer anything over security.
Nothing wrong with *that* English..
;-)
> Nor i did a qmail
> commercial.
In a Zombot-dominated smtp world, I'm not sure that is even possible any
longer...
;-)
> Quite the oposite, i am currently looking for good mail server
> in order to switch from qmail. Not that qmail is not ok, i am just tired of
> recompiling it every time.
Understood. We ran Qmail for around 6 years - but were actively trialing
other options for at least the last four!
Exim basically 'won our hearts and minds' over several others after
extensive tests because we couldn't find *any task* smtp-ish it could
not do both easily and well.
You don't have to break into a closed-binary box - the controls are all
in your hand, in very, very human-readable syntax, and thoroughly
documented.
While there is much to learn, it doesn't all have to be done at once, as
there are plenty of good examples, and the bad, marginal, or 'speacila
case' examples are pretty well analyzed, tested, and discussed as such.
> Also, i am using centos and i like the
> possibilities rpm offers, esepcialy when it comes to updating the system and
> packages.
The comparable 'pkg_add' in the *BSD world is much the same thing, and
has been very bullet-proof with Exim for several years now.
Even back when we had to build from the generic (and developed-on-Linux)
tarballs to stay current, it was dirt-simple to edit the local
configuration file and 'make install'.
> I am having lot of virtual domains based on qmail, and my users
> can see everything i let them see through web interface. Postmaster of given
> domain can open new email accounts, delete accounts etc.
ACK. Probably with the same PHP-based toolset we used before we knew any
better. We've also used user-management interfaces in perl and python.
Exim doesn't mind.
> I know that exim has lot of options built in, i know the difference between
> MTA and POP3 server etc.
> Bottom line:
> Since i never worked with exim it scares me that i will make my server
> spammer friendly or less secure.
As said - it takes attention to detail - but once 'in place' there is
not a lot of maintenance. A good configure file can run unchanged for
*years*.
When you need help, there is nowhere that you will get better-quality
help faster, nor find archived examples and analysis of nearly
everything that can be done - good and bad.
But DO use a test setup *first* and learn to use Exim's enhanced logging
and built-in debug toolset.
Those are pure gold.
> Lot of those packages i mentioned have rpms
> available. So far, only one thing is missing: good web interface that i can
> give to my users so that they can work with their email accounts without
> calling me.
That's not 'missing'. It isn't usually built-in to any MTA, actually.
You *can* for example have Exim take over an existing Qmail Maildir
structure, MySQL DB, and existing POP/IMAP, get its user settings from
the same place the others did, and have the same web interface to manage
it all.
It isn't even a lot of extra work as far as Exim is concerned.
You can clean it up later - still w/o the users being troubled.
> Because everything about exim is new to me i was asking maybe a
> too general question.
Ah, well.. it is pretty hard to *ask* a question 'too general' of Exim,
even "how high is 'UP'".
The walls are movable, and the only 'roof' is your own imagination and
skill....
