How to tell what mail system your running on Linux!

yanghwanim · 05-28-2009, 05:32 PM

Hi,

I am trying to figure out if I am running Qmail, exim, postfix, etc. Or basically what mail system my Linux box is running. Anyone now how I would figure this out? I am running a CentOS 5 box.

Thanks in advance!!!

anomie · 05-28-2009, 05:45 PM

I don't know of a way to reliably determine which MTA (among the variety you mentioned) is active, but you can look for clues by checking: installed packages, config files, executing processes, etc.

In the case of CentOS 5, by default it is sendmail.

yanghwanim · 05-28-2009, 05:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by anomie

I don't know of a way to reliably determine which MTA (among the variety you mentioned) is active, but you can look for clues by checking: installed packages, config files, executing processes, etc.

In the case of CentOS 5, by default it is sendmail.

I see that sendmail is installed, however I also see Qmail running, and is located @ /var/qmail, very complicated, but fun.

chrism01 · 05-28-2009, 07:11 PM

As root at cli:

alternatives --display mta

alternatives --config mta

yanghwanim · 06-01-2009, 01:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrism01

As root at cli:

alternatives --display mta

alternatives --config mta

Dang Chris!! That worked like a charm! I bow down to you Jedi-Masta! Thanks again!

farslayer · 06-01-2009, 02:08 PM

Just in case the alternatives command doesn't work for you (doesn't work on my system for instance) you can use netstat

Code:

it-lenny:~# netstat -alnp | grep :25
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:25      0.0.0.0:*    LISTEN    3654/exim4

chrism01 · 06-01-2009, 06:21 PM

Yeah, that's specific to RH based systems I believe, but the config option makes it easy to switch between mtas to see which one you prefer.