On 25/03/18 14:48, Tom Browder wrote: > I’m in the process of setting up a new server and want postfix. > > My question is: should I install from source or use the debian packages? > > I have installed fro source before, but I would like to ease my > maintenance burden as much as I can, but without sacrificing security. > > Thanks. > > Best regards, > > -Tom > Hello Tom,
Unless you want to hack your system on a regular basis, play with the latest features of Postfix and can't wait to have them, stay with the packaged version. Hosting emails is already challenging enough, so I would not add the trouble of compiling package from source and introducing possible incompatibilities on your system with the packages already installed. Moreover, if it is a live server, you probably don't want to install the compiler toolchain and facilitate the life of someone who would have penetrated your system... The reasons above is why I have started to publish some scripts I had to build a mail server from scratch, but using only Debian packages. If you are interested, for documentation purposes or not, it's here: https://github.com/progmaticltd/homebox You will see that the Debian packaged version of postfix is reasonably up to date, and you can have a perfectly functional mail server without too much trouble. Kind regards, André