Score:1

OpenBSD 7.2: Mailbox file in users' home directory - use Postfix or stick to default sendmail?

lb flag
AAA

I need to setup a mail server with a bit unusual requirements:

  1. OpenBSD is a must. Probably latest version, 7.2.
  2. All mails have to be stored in aa Mailbox file located in user's home directory.

Well, it does not look difficult, as I did it before using other systems. But I used Postfix for this task, as I'm quite familiar with it and I just like Postfix.

Taking OpenBSD's top security into account, I started to consider using default MTA (sendmail) instead of Postfix (and this is an opportunity to get familiar with OpenBSD too, as I have no previous experiences with it), but I didn't found a simple solution. I know I can setup mail.local to put mails into Mailbox files, but in /var/mail/user. I did not find any option to store mails in users' home directories.

Could you please tell me, do I miss something obvious? Assuming I do, is it reasonable to configure default MTA for this task, or using Postfix is acceptable/recommended? Or maybe any other MTA is generally better for such purposes and this particular operating system?

Thank you in advance!

Paul avatar
cn flag
The default MTA in OpenBSD is OpenSMTPD. It is configured in [`smtpd.conf`](https://man.openbsd.org/smtpd.conf).
Score:2
fi flag

Sendmail - mailbox location

Sendmail does not deliver email to local mailboxes itself. Sendmail uses "local mailer" program/mailer. It is typically procmail program on Linux (or sensible-mda which means procmail when procmail is installed).

To check "local mailer" used by sendmail look for line starting with Mlocal in /etc/mail/sendmail.cf

You can configure default mailbox location used by procmail in ~/.procmailrc (or /etc/procmailrc).


Anyway: My current recommendation for sendmail use is "KEEP" - do not switch to sendmail if you do not have (a lot of) sendmail experience.

Paul avatar
cn flag
Anyone interested in how OpenBSD uses `sendmail` I would encourage to read the [man page](https://man.openbsd.org/sendmail), which along with [`smtpd`](https://man.openbsd.org/smtpd) and [`smtpd.conf`](https://man.openbsd.org/smtpd.conf), demonstrates the above answer is not applicable to OpenBSD.
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