n.b. : this is a request for a discussion as opposed to "fix me".
Also I am fully prepared for acid like shame for even asking.
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Dear postfix users :
About a week ago or so I was asked if it were possible to setup a
very small mail server for a very few users. With total abject niave
enthusiasm I said "sure, how hard can that be?" I thought that one may
use postfix and dovecot together to produce a very nice little mail MTA
along with a POP3 or similar service. Even better, there are only four
users. Yep. Four. No more. This means a pure whitelist where ALL OTHER
addresses can be safely rejected and no mail will be allowed from any
outside domains. Sounds like a perfect little world where those four
users can email each other and nothing else. Maybe send email out to
the world but never ever receive anything other than from themselves.
Lovely.
So I then decided that I would build postfix from source and that
was fairly easy. Everything goes into /usr/local and nothing in the OS
gets touched. Great. Then I went looking for a simple easy to follow
configuration guide that would allow for these four users to exist and
for a totally draconian security approach of "accept mail from nowhere".
Do you think I can figure that one out ? No way. What I do find is
vast amounts of info about how to put in ClamAV and SSL bits and auth
bits and endless web pages that point to apt-get and RHEL yum this that
and the other thing. [1] What I am seeing is that no one seeems to just
get the sources and "do it". Perhaps my entire understanding and
philosophy around open source is terribly flawed?
These are my questions then :
1) is it "bad thinking" to approach an open source software project
such as postfix and think one MAY simply get the sources and
build it with out-of-the-box functionality assured ?
2) is it "bad thinking" to even try to create a mail server, even a
very very small one, from sources ?
3) lastly, has the open source world moved whole hog into a method
where one relies entirely on large corporate funded distros for
everything AND any other approach is a dogma violation to be met
with confusion, blockade and obfuscation?
Please forgive my leading questions and tone. I welcome any and all
comments.
Dennis Clarke
dcla...@blastwave.org
[1] typical stuff I see for documentation or "guides" :
http://rimuhosting.com/support/settingupemail.jsp?mta=postfix
excellent docs that *assume* you have other software packages in
place already with no guide on how to get/build/implement them :
http://www.postfix.org/SASL_README.html
See the sentence in section "Using Cyrus SASL version 1.5.x" :
This library is being deprecated and applications should
transition to using the SASLv2 library (source: Project
Cyrus: Downloads). source --> dead link to no where
That dead link is not isolated. One only need try to get Berkeley
DB and head into the world of register/login/provide a contract
and who knows what else to Oracle to dl simple sources to open
source software.
ps: I come from a deep dark cave where UNIX lives and users are granted
no more access than they deserve. Perhaps it is time to leave the
cave and just eat the prepared bioengineered chemical laced packages
that someone else gives me. Be happy. And shut up.
