Darrin Chandler wrote:
> On Tue, May 23, 2006 at 01:31:45PM -0700, Eric Shubes wrote:
> 
>>I'm open to suggestions. Have any?
> 
> Well, that depends on your needs and what you're familiar with. The big
> names (sendmail, postfix, qmail) all work for any situation, can all be
> complex, and will be what you find the most info for configuring.

Exim has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years. It seems complex at
first but only if you've never waded through Sendmail configs ;)

>>What specifically should I be concerned about regarding djb licensing? 
>>My understanding is that djb software must be distributed in source 
>>form, which is kind of a PITA, but not all that bad. What else?
> 
> There are also restrictions about how changes are made. You can't fork
> djb code, for instance. 

Right, but you can patch to your hearts content. Qmail is
free-as-in-beer. It must be distributed in *unmodified* source form,
which hurts it with many distributions. Not to mention an unpatched
qmail install is horribly broken in todays environment- a lot of the
choices djb made in '99 aren't valid anymore.

Qmail does have a few design features that make it very attractive. For
one, the bits run as nonprivileged users. The parts that run as root
only do so long enough to grap the SMTP port or change permissions. Any
kind of program delivery is executed as the user being delivered to,
instead of root, which limits the vulnerability third party bits can add
to your server. It is also designed to never ever lose a message it has
accepted delivery for, short of misconfiguration or massive disk failure.

> Philosophical differences aside, the practical
> upshot is that djb code doesn't attract the same kind of community that
> truly free software does.

I have to call bullcrap on this. There are four major guides to setting
up qmail- lifewithqmail, vpopmail, qmailrocks, and qmailtoaster (which
IIRC is mostly vpopmail). Qmails ultra modular design makes it easy to
slice bits of it out and replace them, for example you can cut out the
smtpd and replace it, or the qmail-local bit. If you think there's no
qmail community, go look at the wealth of projects and bits on qmail.org.

> I think we have some qmail people on the list (wouldn't bet on qmail
> toaster people, though.) Maybe they'll chime in and help?!

I'm a qmail dude (did you guess already? :P), but I have zero experience
with toaster. I'd try the mailing lists. I've not seen such a 554 in my
installs (mostly lifewithqmail, vpopmail, and various bastardizations
between them). That said, a 554 is a 5xx error, meaning it is permanent
(a 4xx error will cause the sending server to attempt to redeliver
later), and it means "Transaction failed". Per the email RFCs, 554's
should only happen during the DATA portion of the SMTP conversation, so
you probably have a problem with the length of the message, the size of
an attachment, or something else in the body area...

Check out recordio and see if you can slide that in- it will help you
gain a better understanding of precisely what is happening when the
message bounces.

~Ben


-- 
---
"Confession only helps if you actually feel bad for your actions.
For you, it would just be a really long boast."
	-Tara
http://www.emptiedout.com
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