Debian as a Mail Server?

carlosinfl · 03-03-2006, 12:32 PM

OK - My project is to get a up and functioning mail server on my Debian box. I know that "Sendmail" is a bit complex right now for me so was looking at either "Postfix" or "Qmail" but would like some suggestions 1st.

Thanks!

pljvaldez · 03-03-2006, 12:53 PM

If you want to try sendmail, here's a good tuturoial (acutally the whole site is good for learning how to setup your Debian box).

http://aboutdebian.com/internet.htm

carlosinfl · 03-03-2006, 01:12 PM

I don't want to use "Sendmail" - I was leaning more towards "Postfix" or "Qmail" unless someone can convince me why Sendmail is better. I just heard Sendmail is complicated and a bit more complex so don't want to get frustrated.

dracae · 03-03-2006, 01:12 PM

Debian defaults to Exim which I find much easier to manage than both postfix and sendmail.

pljvaldez · 03-03-2006, 01:23 PM

Here's a guide for postfix http://www.debianhelp.co.uk/postfix.htm

Here's one for exim w/ ClamAV & spamassassin http://koivi.com/exim4-config/

Here's one for qmail http://www.qmailrocks.org/install_db.htm

carlosinfl · 03-03-2006, 02:06 PM

Thanks all. I removed "Exim" as I heard that is bad news. I will review all the links!

farslayer · 03-03-2006, 02:46 PM

I rather like this one, and will be using it when I rebuild my current postfix mail server..

http://www.howtoforge.com/virtual_po..._quota_courier

mmhansen · 03-04-2006, 01:40 PM

If you are particularly concerned about security, Qmail is a good choice. Bernstein is not known for congeniality, but he takes security very seriously and his code is impressively solid.

johnMG · 03-04-2006, 02:03 PM

> Thanks all. I removed "Exim" as I heard that is bad news.

Huh? Where did you hear that? Exim *is* the Debian default you know

. It's got great docs. *And* it's GPL'd. Exim's a great choice.

carlosinfl · 03-04-2006, 05:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mmhansen

> If you are particularly concerned about security, Qmail is a good choice. Bernstein is not known for congeniality, but he takes security very seriously and his code is impressively solid.

Yes - it's just that Qmail is the only one that I can't just "APT-GET". I have to install from source or something like that and I have no idea where to begin. I am doing this on a test box before I hose my production server.

OmegaBlac · 03-04-2006, 10:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carlwill

Yes - it's just that Qmail is the only one that I can't just "APT-GET". I have to install from source or something like that and I have no idea where to begin. I am doing this on a test box before I hose my production server.

The qmail source is in the official repos under the src package name qmail-src. I am using aptitude to view the package's description so I'll post it here for you:

Quote:

Source only package for building qmail binary package
qmail is a secure Secure, reliable, efficient, simple mail transport system.

Dan Bernstein (qmail's author) only gives permission for qmail to be
distributed in source form, or binary for by approval. This package has been
put together to allow people to easily build a qmail binary package for
themselves, from source.

To build a binary deb package, first install the qmail-src package, then type
the command "build-qmail". If you try "apt-get source --build qmail-src" it
will most likely fail because the users do not exist. You MUST install the
qmail-src package first. Also be sure to build and install ucspi-tcp before
installing the binary qmail package. Install the ucspi-tcp-src package to get
ucspi-tcp.

This package builds a binary .deb that is FHS compliant and conforms to the
Debian standards guidelines. The resulting binary packages are not suitable
for re-distribution.

There are pre-compiled binary packages for qmail available, but they do not
conform to the Debian standards, and are not available in the official archive.

emphasis mines

So either follow the instructions from the description posted above or you can try to locate an unofficial repo that carries the qmail binary. Try www.apt-get.org if you have no qualms adding unofficial repos to your sources.list

carlosinfl · 03-05-2006, 09:58 AM

Thanks for that info. Can I APT-GET ucspi-tcp-src & qmail-src packages or must they be installed manually? I know that those are the 2 main files I need to download & install 1st but it never mentions if that can be found via APT-GET.

johnMG · 03-07-2006, 11:53 AM

Carlwill, note that, if you install qmail, you may (dunno) end up with the situation of having 2 email servers on your machine (since you likely already have exim installed). I've never installed qmail-src, so maybe that package deals with the situation for you.

Some folks manually install qmail from source in their own /usr/local or /opt. In those cases, they have to manually convince apt that they really don't need exim since they're using qmail. The equivs package can be used for this I believe.

All-in-all, for a Debian system, it may be messy to use qmail -- especially if you're new at this. qmail is known for top-notch security and stability, but exim's no slouch either. If you've already got exim installed (which should be the exim4 package plus exim4-base, exim4-config, and exim4-daemon-light), run

Code:

dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config

to configure it and you'll be good to go.

carlosinfl · 03-07-2006, 01:12 PM

I have 100% removed EXIM before I run the Qmail install.

dracae · 03-07-2006, 01:44 PM

If the source is available via apt, it should also include the debian script to build the debs. This will prevent any dependency problems.