Postfix vs Sendmail – Differences Between Postfix and Sendmail

email-serverpostfixsendmail

I have Postfix setup on my server so that I can send outgoing mail using the command-line:

mail -s "Subject" address@example.com

Is this using Sendmail or Postfix ?
Is "Sendmail" just a software category or a distinct program ?
If something is "Sendmail-ready" does that mean it will work with Postfix ?

Everything I've read online seems to use these two terms interchangeably.

Best Answer

Sendmail is a different (and much older) program from Postfix. However for every mail server to succeed in the Unix environment, a sendmail binary (with some of the expected command line options) must be provided.

EDIT: See for example the manual page for the sendmail program provided by Postfix

Related Solutions

Centos – Disable local delivery in Sendmail

What I did to disable local delivery. I'll be using the example.com domain.

Requirements:

example.com A entry pointing to IP address assigned to one of the eth interfaces.
/etc/hosts defining example.com assigned to the very same IP address as above
example.com MX records pointing to Google servers (ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM, etc)
default sendmail installation (mine was on Ubuntu)

Steps:

vim /etc/mail/sendmail.mc

at the end:

define(`MAIL_HUB', `example.com.')dnl
define(`LOCAL_RELAY', `example.com.')dnl

and then:

sendmailconfig (or /etc/mail/make depending on your distro)
service sendmail restart

testing:

echo -e "To: user@example.com\nSubject: Test\nTest\n" | sendmail -bm -t -v
echo -e "To: user\nSubject: Test\nTest\n" | sendmail -bm -t -v

You should see it connecting to the google server and then you should see your mail being delivered to your Google inbox.

Minimal setup for sendmail to send outgoing email only

Check that your server is open to the world in port 25 ( outgoing only). And the dns is configured correctly. You are not suppose to do anything to sendmail for sending outgoing mails.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Centos – Disable local delivery in Sendmail

Minimal setup for sendmail to send outgoing email only

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