[gentoo-dev] RFC: Change mail-mta/msmtp to be the default in virtual/mta instead of mail-mta/ssmtp ?

[gentoo-dev] RFC: Change mail-mta/msmtp to be the default in virtual/mta instead of mail-mta/ssmtp ?

[Samuli Suominen]

ssmtp has been quiet project for quite a while, where as msmtp is 
maintained one.

sure, ssmtp might be just mature, but msmtp is equally small and has 
more features.

any thoughts?

- Samuli

Re: [gentoo-dev] RFC: Change mail-mta/msmtp to be the default in virtual/mta instead of mail-mta/ssmtp ?

[Robin H. Johnson]

On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 10:07:48PM +0200, Samuli Suominen wrote:
> ssmtp has been quiet project for quite a while, where as msmtp is 
> maintained one.
> 
> sure, ssmtp might be just mature, but msmtp is equally small and has 
> more features.
> 
> any thoughts?
+1 to getting rid of ssmtp. But I'm not sure that msmtp is the best
replacement.

One of the greatest things that bugs me about ssmtp is that if the
mailserver is not available, it hangs for a while, and then it loses the
email. 

Where I need a simple mail relay, I've gone with nullmailer instead,
because it supports the features, and it explicitly has a lightweight
daemon mode that queues mail to send.

-- 
Robin Hugh Johnson
Gentoo Linux: Developer, Trustee & Infrastructure Lead
E-Mail     : robbat2@gentoo.org
GnuPG FP   : 11ACBA4F 4778E3F6 E4EDF38E B27B944E 34884E85

Re: [gentoo-dev] RFC: Change mail-mta/msmtp to be the default in virtual/mta instead of mail-mta/ssmtp ?

[Eray Aslan]

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On 2012-03-12 10:20 PM, Robin H. Johnson wrote:
> One of the greatest things that bugs me about ssmtp is that if the
> mailserver is not available, it hangs for a while, and then it loses the
> email. 

To be fair, a queue-less design does keep it simple.

> Where I need a simple mail relay, I've gone with nullmailer instead,
> because it supports the features, and it explicitly has a lightweight
> daemon mode that queues mail to send.

msmtp: TLS/SSL and AUTH support.  Config can be easier.  No queue.
nullmailer:  AUTH support.  No TLS/SSL.  Easy to configure and use.  Has
a queue.

I like nullmailer better but usually go with msmtp.  TLS/SSL is usually
mandatory for login when emails go to some central mail hub and not
directly to MX hosts - which is pretty much guaranteed nowadays.  I am
not sure if we should install a TLS-less mailer by default.

Some documantation would be nice in either case.

-- 
Eray Aslan <eras@gentoo.org>


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Re: [gentoo-dev] RFC: Change mail-mta/msmtp to be the default in virtual/mta instead of mail-mta/ssmtp ?

[Christian Birchinger]

On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 08:20:08PM +0000, Robin H. Johnson wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 10:07:48PM +0200, Samuli Suominen wrote:
> > ssmtp has been quiet project for quite a while, where as msmtp is 
> > maintained one.
> > 
> > sure, ssmtp might be just mature, but msmtp is equally small and has 
> > more features.
> > 
> > any thoughts?
> +1 to getting rid of ssmtp. But I'm not sure that msmtp is the best
> replacement.
> 
> One of the greatest things that bugs me about ssmtp is that if the
> mailserver is not available, it hangs for a while, and then it loses the
> email. 
> 
> Where I need a simple mail relay, I've gone with nullmailer instead,
> because it supports the features, and it explicitly has a lightweight
> daemon mode that queues mail to send.

At isolated places where i don't integrate my host into an existing mail
setup, i use esmtp because it allows me to do local delivery of system
mails (cron or similar jobs) by using a very simple setup:

~ $ cat /etc/esmtprc 
mda="/usr/bin/procmail -d %T"

That's about the only config i need for this. Ok, it's not perfect
because it requires procmail (no setup task required though) and cannot
write the files directly.

I think as an initial setup, something that just does local delivery
for system mails out of the box is better than something that doesn't
work unless you start configuring smart relay hosts etc. You can still
do this if you integrate yourself into an existing mail setup.

Christian