On 2014-01-08, Kim Christensen <k...@technopragmatics.org> wrote: > On Wed, Jan 08, 2014 at 02:23:31PM +0100, Richard Z wrote: >> On Mon, Jan 06, 2014 at 04:48:18PM +0000, Grant Edwards wrote: >> > On 2014-01-04, Ulrich Lauther <ulrich.laut...@t-online.de> wrote: >> > Do you need/want outbound messages to be queued if they can't be sent >> > immediately? If yes, then you need a "real" MTA like postfix. >> >> not really. msmtp and esmtp have queueing. >> >> > Do all outbound messages get sent to a single relay host for routing? >> > If no, then you need a "real" MTA. >> >> more precisely if you need direct delivery as opposed to using one or >> several smarthosts. >> >> On the other hand, each of bultin mutt, mstmp and esmtp provide support for >> several smarthosts much easier than real MTAs. > > Actually, for sake of argument, both msmtp and esmtp qualifies as MTA
I'd have to disagree. In my opinion, an MTA needs to support both server and client sides of SMTP. Wikipedia agrees: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Message_transfer_agent Within Internet message handling services (MHS), a message transfer agent or mail transfer agent (MTA) or mail relay is software that transfers electronic mail messages from one computer. An MTA implements both the client (sending) and server (receiving) portions of the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. > However they could probably be labeled as relay(-only) MTAs, 1) I think you'd have to add "send-only" and "non-queueing" qualifiers if you want to avoid charges of false advertising when selling [em]smtp and the like as MTAs. ;) 2) IIRC, esmtp isn't relay-only (even though that's the phrase used on the esmtp web page). It handles local delivery via an MDA as well (msmtp doesn't). > compared to postfix, sendmail, EXIM, qmail and the like. > > Noones arguing against using [me]smtp as the "real MTA" in this > scenario :-) I think msmtp is great, and I've been using it for years. But it implements such a small subset of what an MTA traditionally does that calling it a "real" MTA is a bit much. -- Grant Edwards grant.b.edwards Yow! I wonder if I should at put myself in ESCROW!! gmail.com
