[TriLUG] sendmail vs. postfix - was Re: stupid sendmail question?

Jon Carnes jonc at nc.rr.com
Wed Jun 16 16:25:31 EDT 2004


On Wed, 2004-06-16 at 16:01, Jeremy Portzer wrote:
> On Wed, 2004-06-16 at 15:46, Jon Carnes wrote:
> > On Wed, 2004-06-16 at 13:54, Jeremy Portzer wrote:
> > 
> > > I haven't met a single person who has tried Postfix and not liked it
> > > over Sendmail.
> > 
> > Hi Jeremy, I would like to introduce myself to you...
> 
> Bah!  You sure know how to ruin someone's day!  :-)
> 
> But seriously -- what specifically do you prefer in sendmail compared to
> postfix?
> 
> --Jeremy

On high-end servers (the ones' I get roped into setting up), Sendmail
does a much better/faster job at handling concurrent processes. So on a
high-end server the mail flows much faster - especially when linked with
other auxiliary services such as Spam filtering and Virus scanning.

It would be almost impossible for Postfix to catch up with Sendmail in
this regard unless it were to ignore certain basic rules laid down by
its creator. Postfix's modular/secure approach to handling and moving
mail make it take an excessive number of processing steps (at least when
compared to Sendmail).

The difference can be quite dramatic on a server that is under a heavy
load.

Another Sendmail plus is that almost all mail processing add-ons are
written for use with Sendmail ("it's sendmail compliant!"); so they work
with Sendmail directly out of the box. Less tweaking, faster
implementations.

Plus Sendmail gets a bad rap. If your DNS is setup properly then
Sendmail (in the default config) will work for 95% of all applications.

Jon






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