Re: [cobalt-users] sendmail vs procmail

["Nico Meijer" <cobalt-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Joann,

> Can someone elaborate on the differences between procmail and sendmail?
> I've got a pretty good understanding of sendmail but procmail I'm not
> sure about. Do they work in tandem?

"Elaborate" is not the word I'm using for this post. ;-)

<short, short version>
Sendmail is the process that listens on this well known TCP/IP port 25 for
incoming messages to a) send thru to some other machine b) deliver to a
local user.

In case of b) sendmail hands over the process of delivering mail to the
local user to procmail.
</short, short version>

Of course, sendmail does much more, like actually *send* mail (get it? ;->)
as in outgoing mail, but you'd better read for yourself on
http://www.sendmail.org.

More or less technically speaking, sendmail is an MTA: Mail Transfer Agent.
It transfers mail mostly over TCP/IP these days, but other options are
available. The are of course other MTA's, like qmail, exim and postfix, but
sendmail is the most widely used (and therefore exploited) MTA in the world,
AFAIK.

Have a good one,

Nico