Hello

I understand that the "mail" command in linux sends an email using the default send mail programme (I think that is called an MTA, but correct me if I'm wrong).

What I need is for my server to send emails (to clients, and myself) regarding system stats etc etc.

I don't need the server to accept emails, do spam filtering, have Horde installed or anything. ALL I need it to do is to send emails out the way.

I don't think I want to use Perl for this, because I need to use the PHP "mail" command (which I think works the same as the linux one in that it uses the default MTA to send emails).

So, I need some advice of the programmes which I need to install. If possible, I would like to use Exim because I've heard that it is easy to configure.

If I just installed an MTA, would that be enough to use the mail command?

Thank you so much, in adance
Hamish

Yes it is called an MTA and it is enough for you to send mails out

Real pleasure comes from taming the beast IMO - so I would stick with sendmail. Postfix is easy as well.

I've heard that sendmail has a really strange config file. Basically, will I just be changing the config file to tell it which smtp server to use?

the server won't be having terribly high loads.

thanks for quick reply
hamish

I recommend using Postfix. It is much easier to use than Sendmail and much more secure.

Sendmail is perfectly secure (well, nothing's ever perfectly secure, but you get the idea...) if you know how to set it up right. Realistically, all you need to do is make it listen on the loopback interface (so other machines can't even connect to it) and then bounce the mail through your isp's mail server (this is easy to set up -- I think it's the smart server directive in the mc config file). Postfix or Exim will work of course too.