Re: [exim] Is Exim easier to customize than Postfix?

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Author: Viktor Dukhovni
Date:  
To: exim-users
Subject: Re: [exim] Is Exim easier to customize than Postfix?
On Tue, Aug 11, 2015 at 01:37:28PM +0100, Klaus Ethgen wrote:

> P.S. What I really dislike with Postfix, but this is my own personal
>     view, is stuff in master.cf that makes it complicate to simplify the
>     config and the fact that queue IDs are not unique.


Yes, Postfix does not offer built-in programmability (extensions
are via policy services, SMTP proxy filters, milters and post-queue
content filters), however unique queue ids have been avaibale for
the past 3.5 years:

    http://www.postfix.org/postconf.5.html#enable_long_queue_ids


It is true that service-instance-specific settings are specified
via master.cf, but the way to keep that under control is to use
indirection along the lines of:

    master.cf
    mysmtp unix ... smtp
      -o smtp_generic_maps=$mysmtp_generic_maps


    main.cf:
    mysmtp_generic_maps = <whatever>


which avoids having to set the actual custom settings in master.cf,
only the reference to the override setting goes in master.cf.

And the most recent versions of Postfix can display and update
these overrides via the postconf command.

Yes, it would be simpler to have service-instance "namespaces" in
main.cf, so that even the indirection "-o" settings might be made
unnecessary, but I don't think lack of these is a compelling reason
to choose one MTA over another.

Exim has built-in customization, Postfix has a built-in queue-manager
and typically better throughput and lower latency under load.
Choose whichever works best for you, ideally based on substantive
differences.

-- 
    Viktor.