PostFix versus Sendmail in Linux

9:34 AM
PostFix versus Sendmail
If you're new to PostFix but experienced with Sendmail, you probably want to know what's different between the two MTAs. One of the major differences is how each is configured straight out of the box on a stock system. If you telnet into SMTP on each MTA, you'll see this for Sendmail 8.12.10:

# telnet localhost 25
   Trying 127.0.0.1...
   Connected to localhost (127.0.0.1).
   Escape character is '^]'.
   220 es.playground.crudnet.org ESMTP Sendmail
   8.12.10/8.12.10; Thu, 30
   Oct 2003 22:42:38 -0500
   ehlo t.net
   250-playground.mydomain.com Hello localhost [127.0.0.1],
   pleased to meet you
   250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
   250-PIPEI INING
   250-8BITMIME
   250-SIZE
   250-DSN
   250-ETRN
   250-AUTH GSSAPI DIGEST-MD5 CRAM-MD5 LOGIN PLAIN
   250-DELIVERBY
   250 HELP
The output for PostFix 2.0.11 is a bit different.
# telnet localhost 25
   Trying 127.0.0.1...
   Connected to localhost (127.0.0.1).
   Escape character is '^]'.
   220 es.playground.crudnet.org ESMTP Postfix
   ehlo t.net
   250-es.playground.crudnet.org
   250-PIPELINING
   250-SIZE 10240000
   250-VRFY
   250-ETRN
   250-XVERP
   250 8BITMIME


As you can see, SMTP-Auth is not configured by default under PostFix. It can be turned on easily in the /etc/postfix/master.cf file, however. Neither Sendmail nor PostFix binds to anything other than localhost, by default, for incoming SMTP.

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