Press Release
April 21, 2004
"qmail": How To Say No to Monolithic MTAs
Sebastopol, CA--qmail has quietly become one of the most widely used
applications on the Internet today. It's powerful enough to handle mail
for systems with millions of users--like Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail--while
remaining compact and manageable enough for the smallest Unix- and
Linux-based PC systems. Its component design makes qmail easy to extend
and customize while keeping its key functions secure. No wonder adoption
of qmail continues at a rapid pace.
The downside? Apparently none. Except that qmail's unique design can be
disorienting to those familiar with other popular MTAs (Mail Transfer
Agents). Those coming from sendmail, for instance, might have trouble
recasting their problems and solutions in qmail terms. qmail (O'Reilly,
US $34.95), by John R. Levine, first helps readers establish a "qmail
frame of mind," then explores the installation, configuration,
administration, and extension of this powerful MTA. Whether they're
performing an installation from scratch or managing mailing lists with
thousands of users, qmail provides detailed information about how to
make qmail do precisely what is needed.
"People who are familiar with other mail transfer agents, notably
sendmail, rarely receive satisfactory results from qmail," notes Levine.
"qmail was designed and written in a very different way from most other
mail programs, so approaches used to solve problems with other programs
don't work with qmail and vice versa." Levine explains that earlier MTAs
were written as large, monolithic programs. sendmail, for example, is one
large, executable program that listens for incoming SMTP connections,
accepts local deliveries, interprets .forward files, retries mail for
which earlier delivery attempts failed, and performs approximately fifty
other functions. qmail, on the other hand, is made up of about ten small
programs working together. According to Levine, it's a design approach
that offers many advantages.
In qmail, Levine introduces the qmail essentials--how qmail works, where
to find it, and how to get it running--then concentrates on explaining
common tasks like moving a sendmail setup to qmail, or setting up a "POP
toaster," a system that provides mail service to a large number of users
on other computers sending and retrieving mail remotely. The book also
fills crucial gaps in existing documentation, detailing exactly what the
core qmail software does.
Topics covered include:
Installation and configuration, including patching qmail
Moving from sendmail to qmail
Handling locally and remotely originated messages
Managing virtual domains
Logging qmail activity
Tuning qmail performance
Running multiple copies of qmail on the same computer
Mailing list setup and management
Integrating the qmail MTA with POP and IMAP delivery
Filtering out spam and viruses
If you need to manage mailing lists, large volumes of mail, or simply find
sendmail and other MTAs too complicated, qmail may be exactly what's
called for. qmail provides the guidance qmail users need to build an
email infrastructure that performs well, makes sense, and is easy to maintain.
Additional Resources:
qmail
John R. Levine
ISBN 1-56592-528-5, 234 pages, $34.95 US, $50.95 CA
order@oreilly.com
1-800-998-9938; 1-707-827-7000
About O'Reilly
O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O'Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying "faint signals" from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.
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