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Date:      Mon, 20 Dec 2004 18:41:51 +0200
From:      Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr>
To:        cpghost@cordula.ws
Cc:        freebsd-chat <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: migrating from thunderbird to mutt?
Message-ID:  <20041220164151.GA847@orion.daedalusnetworks.priv>
In-Reply-To: <20041220162538.GA1206@bsdbox.farid-hajji.net>
References:  <41C4FA1C.4090006@nbritton.org> <41C62755.2030705@mukappabeta.de> <20041220142110.GA845@bsdbox.farid-hajji.net> <41C6EC86.5050203@mukappabeta.de> <20041220162538.GA1206@bsdbox.farid-hajji.net>

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% Moved from freebsd-questions to freebsd-chat,
% since this is not really a question.

On 2004-12-20 17:25, cpghost@cordula.ws wrote:
>On Mon, Dec 20, 2004 at 04:15:18PM +0100, Matthias Buelow wrote:
>>cpghost@cordula.ws wrote:
>>> esmtp will contact the appropriate SMTP server on your behalf and
>>> will use the correct credentials to connect (if required).
>>
>> What happens if sending fails (for whatever temporary reason)?  Will
>> esmtp queue the mail, like a real MTA would?  The issue is problematic
>> with all those "minimalistic" pseudo-MTAs because mutt thinks it's
>> delivering to a real sendmail, and hence doesn't handle failure
>> gracefully (at least not afair).  Mozilla otoh, initiating the smtp
>> connection by itself, will let you retry, or save it to a Drafts folder.
>>  With mutt, your mail is probably gone.
>
> Indeed. That's really a problem. I wished mutt would include libESMTP
> as a compile/configure option, and thus queue unsent mails in a dedicated
> mailbox. I don't think that it would be very difficult to merge libESMTP
> into mutt anyway. It's a mystery why it didn't happen yet :)

Err, I may sound a bit silly now, but why would people use a "limited
sort of MTA", which may lose their messages instead of setting up a real
MTA and use its queueing, forwarding and delivery features?

I've heard of two major replies to a question like this:

  1. It's difficult to install an MTA.
  2. It's difficult to set up an MTA.

The first point is moot, given the fact that FreeBSD comes with an MTA
preinstalled.  The second may be valid for Sendmail, but I've seen so
many knowledgeable people answer questions about Sendmail here and at
comp.mail.sendmail that this shouldn't be true either.

Even if someone hates the guts of Sendmail, there is always Postfix,
whose minimal configuration can be just a 2-line file:

	% cat /etc/postfix/main.cf
	myhostname = bee
	mydomain = serverhive.com

So, why do people fear real MTAs so much and try to do their work with
"light, fast, broken, almost-there MTAs"?

- Giorgos



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