svlug_postfix_on_redhat

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Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2001 02:08:35 -0800 (PST)
From: Wayne Earl <wayne@qconcepts.net>
To: svlug@svlug.org
Subject: [svlug] Postfix for the Red Hat impaired

Constantly lamenting that by using Red Hat (no distro wars, please) I'm
stuck with sendmail, I set out to get rid of this security
nightmare. 

First, I went to qmail. qmail, bluntly stated, sucks (and this comes from
a djb admirer, license be damned ;-) ). Next, I went to exim, with mixed
results. The rpm is rolled straight from the Debian release (read: no, it
didn't work). Compiling from source was a pain, as exim uses a
non-standard Makefile setup that I couldn't get working right on my
machine. What a pain.

Just to humor myself, I trolled around Red Hat's website, and actually
came across Postfix installation instructions. These live at: 

http://www.redhat.com/support/docs/howto/RH-postfix-HOWTO/book1.html

And thus I exclaimed, "Ahah!" (Well, I said something else, but this is a
"family" mailing list....)

And now postfix is installed, freeing me from the hell that is
sendmail. Interestingly enough, I had to remove not only the sendmail rpm,
but also the fetchmail rpm for it to work. Once both are removed, I
installed the postfix rpm, which can be found at:
 
http://www.pobox.com/~sjmudd/postfix/RPMS

Reinstalled the fetchmail rpm, tweaked the postfix configs according to
Red Hat's HOWTO, and it worked.

Note that for some unknown reason, if you don't remove the fetchmail rpm
before installing postfix, fetchmail no longer works. Re-installing it
following the postfix install automagically gets it working again. I have
to figure this one out at a later date.

Rejoice, my Linux brothers and sisters! Cast off your sendmail chains,
join us and share the software (You'll be freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...).

Muhaha.

===

Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2001 02:27:58 -0800 (PST)
From: Wayne Earl <wayne@qconcepts.net>
To: svlug@svlug.org
Subject: [svlug] Addendum to Postfix Migration message

An additional bit of (potentially useless) information: If you use
procmail on a Red Hat system, you must have a .forward file (this was
previously unnecessary using sendmail). The following works for me:

mail -F "|/usr/bin/procmail"

===

To: svlug@svlug.org
Subject: Re: [svlug] Addendum to Postfix Migration message
From: Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com>

begin  Wayne Earl quotation:

> An additional bit of (potentially useless) information: If you use
> procmail on a Red Hat system, you must have a .forward file (this was
> previously unnecessary using sendmail). The following works for me:
> 
> mail -F "|/usr/bin/procmail"

That's necessary unless and until you configure Postfix to use procmail
as its MDA (Mail Delivery Agent), as was formerly the case with your
sendmail configuration.

I think you'll be happy with Postfix.

You were speaking of qmail:  I've amended http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/faq/#djb 
somewhat, including a listing of some open-source alternatives to all of
Bernstein's packages.  (I list Postfix as the obvious alternative to qmail.)

(And there were two letters in this week's Linux Weekly News that
touched on BIND alternatives including djbdns.  One was mine.)

===

To: Wayne Earl <wayne@qconcepts.net>
Subject: Re: [svlug] Addendum to Postfix Migration message 
Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2001 09:40:41 -0800
From: J C Lawrence <claw@kanga.nu>

On Fri, 23 Feb 2001 02:27:58 -0800 (PST) 
Wayne Earl <wayne@qconcepts.net> wrote:

> An additional bit of (potentially useless) information: If you use
> procmail on a Red Hat system, you must have a .forward file (this
> was previously unnecessary using sendmail). The following works
> for me:

> mail -F "|/usr/bin/procmail"

Not necessary.  I just use procmail as my LDA with the following in
postfixs main.cf:

  mailbox_command = /usr/bin/procmail

No more .forwards.

===

Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2001 14:49:01 -0800 (PST)
From: Rafael <raffi@linwin.com>
To: Wayne Earl <wayne@qconcepts.net>
Subject: Re: [svlug] Postfix for the Red Hat impaired

On Fri, 23 Feb 2001, Wayne Earl wrote:

> Constantly lamenting that by using Red Hat (no distro wars, please) I'm
> stuck with sendmail, I set out to get rid of this security
> nightmare. 
> 
> First, I went to qmail. qmail, bluntly stated, sucks (and this comes from
> a djb admirer, license be damned ;-) ). Next, I went to exim, with mixed
> results. The rpm is rolled straight from the Debian release (read: no, it
> didn't work). Compiling from source was a pain, as exim uses a
> non-standard Makefile setup that I couldn't get working right on my
> machine. What a pain.

I have never had problems with Exim on RH Linux or Solaris. Compiles
cleanly right after you edit EDITME and Makefile files and put them in the
right place.

Hey, I got a windows guy administering it and he likes it.  He's a bit
stiff with vi but improving steadily.

Exim's test mode is superb so go for it and dump Sendmail and it's stupid
config file.

> 
> Just to humor myself, I trolled around Red Hat's website, and actually
> came across Postfix installation instructions. These live at: 
> 
> http://www.redhat.com/support/docs/howto/RH-postfix-HOWTO/book1.html
> 
> And thus I exclaimed, "Ahah!" (Well, I said something else, but this is a
> "family" mailing list....)
> 
> And now postfix is installed, freeing me from the hell that is
> sendmail. Interestingly enough, I had to remove not only the sendmail rpm,
> but also the fetchmail rpm for it to work. Once both are removed, I
> installed the postfix rpm, which can be found at:
>  
> http://www.pobox.com/~sjmudd/postfix/RPMS
> 
> Reinstalled the fetchmail rpm, tweaked the postfix configs according to
> Red Hat's HOWTO, and it worked.
> 
> Note that for some unknown reason, if you don't remove the fetchmail rpm
> before installing postfix, fetchmail no longer works. Re-installing it
> following the postfix install automagically gets it working again. I have
> to figure this one out at a later date.
> 
> Rejoice, my Linux brothers and sisters! Cast off your sendmail chains,
> join us and share the software (You'll be freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...).

Done that years ago. Now if only there was no need to receive email from
lame windoze uzerz...

===

Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2001 17:13:59 -0800
From: Alex Feinberg <alex@strlen.net>
To: Wayne Earl <wayne@qconcepts.net>
Cc: svlug@svlug.org
Subject: Re: [svlug] Addendum to Postfix Migration message

On Fri, Feb 23, 2001 at 02:27:58AM -0800, Wayne Earl wrote:
> An additional bit of (potentially useless) information: If you use
> procmail on a Red Hat system, you must have a .forward file (this was
> previously unnecessary using sendmail). The following works for me:
> 
> mail -F "|/usr/bin/procmail"

No, actually you don't. Just edit your postfix main.cf file -- grep it for
procmail, it will give you the option you can use to enable procmail in the
configuration file without having to use a clunk .forward. Postfix, in my
opinion is grrr-eat. My favorite feature, is the easily readble
configuration files. Of course security, small size, efficient speed are
handy as well.

===


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