Summary
Mail delivery is arguably one of the most
important functions of the Internet today. Linux provides a plethora of options
in mail servers, including the old standard, sendmail, and newer upstart
servers like Exim and Postfix. No matter what SMTP server you choose to use,
you can configure it to handle various common functions, including accepting
mail addressed to it and relaying mail to other systems. You must attend to
many details, such as the range of hosts for which a server will relay mail and
any anti-spam configuration you may want to implement. After an SMTP server
receives mail, it often relies upon another utility, Procmail, to further
process the mail. Procmail may perform spam checks, run programs in response to
mail that meets certain criteria, forward or copy mail to others, and so on. Both
the system administrator and individual users may configure Procmail, so it's
an extremely flexible tool.