# which smtp to install?

## b3ast13

Hey,

I'm building a Gentoo with totaly no X installed.

I added in make.conf:

        USE="-X -gnome -gtk -kde -qt"

Everything seems to work, until I want to install a crontab. Something goes wrong.

I have the choise to install one of these 3:

   - dcron

   - fcron

   - vcron

when I install one, it also installs net-mail/ssmtp as a dependency. This smtp sucks. It's always generating a dead.letter file. In that file it's always complaining about the fact it couldn't send any mail to root.

I don't want to install sendmail, because it's overhead. I only want to send mail to local users and not to outside users.

What's the best and light smtp solution?

Should I use qmail or postfix? Or are the better solutions?

Thnx,

Wouter

PS: Gentoo is the BEST distribution I have ever seen.

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## really

version of smtp??!

like smtp is a protocol, and you dont install a procotol, you install a program that uses that protocol.

simple mail transfer protocol....

i would go for qmail.

PS you dont need to kiss ass, we all know gentoo rules!

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## lx

ssmtp is the lightest solution I think, well you could also implement your own /usr/bin/sendmail using a simple batch scripts that writes the messages to log. I use postfix myself, but I use it to send mail directly to remote smtp servers and for distributing mail locally, never had a problem with it, but I never tried another,  :Wink:  .

Cya lX.

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## pjp

Moved from Installing Gentoo.

 *Forums front page wrote:*   

> Installing Gentoo
> 
> If you've finished the install guide, look somewhere else. But if you're still working your way through it, or just need some info before you start your install, this is the place.

 

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## kashani

My first thought was to merely configure ssmtp, but you need something to send mail off the system and handle local delivery too, right?

I'd recommend Postfix, just follow the instructions at

http://www.postfix.org/basic.html, but qmail certianly would work just as well.

kashani

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## lx

 *kashani wrote:*   

> My first thought was to merely configure ssmtp, but you need something to send mail off the system and handle local delivery too, right?

 

wrong,  :Wink: 

 *b3ast13 wrote:*   

> I don't want to install sendmail, because it's overhead. I only want to send mail to local users and not to outside users.

 

So you probably advice ssmtp,  :Wink: .

Cya lX.

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## vibidoo

could we create attachement with ssmtp and qmail ??

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## Messiah

Can you hear how an apple and a pear smells? So the answer is no, and as a matter of fact, I don't know what you are asking.

PS I do not try to be rude, but can you formulate your question a little bit better?

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## axxackall

 *vibidoo wrote:*   

> could we create attachement with ssmtp and qmail ??

 

We don't create an email attachment with MTA (ssmtp, qmail, postfix, sendmail and courier are all MTAs). We create an email attachment with email composing programs: Mozilla mail, Evolution, Balsa, Xemacs VM, Squirrel webmail etc. Once you compse email you can decide to attache the file to email. Once the file is attached and you are ready to send the message - you send it by passing to MTA (email composer will do it for you). For MTA there is no difference has the email message any attachement or not. 

Unless it process email with some filters, like procmail, which are sort of email clinets - they "re-compose" email messages. You may mean "can we automatically attache the file to email messages in a batch mode with MTA?" The answer is yes, but... again, you don't do it with MTA, some batch/script/filter will do it on your behalf.

As for original question, I would recommend sendmail, if you don't know any MTA at all. It's classic. With all its "overbloatness", its default configuration is the simplest thing to manage, especially with such good tools as webmin. There are lots of scripts to generate sendmail's configs. I'd use m4-based one from sendmail distro. Sendmail is the most documented MTA, that includes books, HOWTOs, FAQs etc. Some of them overbloated, some of the are as simple as sendmail's module for webmin.

But if you know MTA well (that means you know what you are doing), then you may choose (yourself, after comparing the feature sets) qmail (if you need extra performance), courier (if you need simplicity of all-in-one), or even postfix (don't know why would you need it  :Smile:  )

Besides MTA to send message, your local users may (or may not) need to read email. Some of MTA supports reading protocols, such as POP or IMAP.

...

On a final thought, why would you need smtp (network-based protocol for sending/relayin email messages)? You may need just file-based mail programs. For example maildirs. It will write your message right into destination mail folder, where maildir-compatible mail client will read it. You don't need SMTP for local mail messaging at all.

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## vibidoo

I am working on snort .

And I expected to send my day log file's to my computer from the Firewall box.

That's why I need a lightest smtp mail on the firewall box ( EPIA mainboard) .

I am really new on Linux and gentoo , but since one month I success to install a complete working machine as my old window machine .This forum is very helpfull for me . 

 :Razz: 

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## splooge

Guys:

smtp is the mail transfer protocol.

ssmtp is the default mailer that gets installed with Gentoo.

Personally I use postfix.  It's nice, small and easy to use and configure.  It's about as simple as an 'emerge postfix'

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## vibidoo

I tried to emerge sendmail and postfix 

and there are the same error 

```

!!! Error : the virtual/mta package conflicts with this package and both can't be installed on the same system together.

```

 :Crying or Very sad: 

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## vibidoo

ok I just 

emerge -C ssmtp 

emerge postfix

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