Re: MTA for Perl

I have never looked at MTA's before

If you're being asked or you are presently required to look at outbound email delivery I suggest you do a deep delve. Since ~1998 when I first became attached to email delivery, things have changed so much that to send an email, you need to be an expert, or have an expert on staff.

Does the MTA only deal with outgoing mail or will it manage incoming mail as well?

A Mail Transport Agent (MTA) performs outbound email responsibilities only. It transports an email from one system to another (it does deal with incoming mail, only enough to re-transport it... this would be classified as a "relay"); enough said.

A Mail Delivery Agent (MDA) is responsible for figuring out how to deliver a message to a recipient. Many MTAs include the separate capabilities of MDAs.

Go with Postfix. I can say this from email delivery experience, and as an expert on work with the Raspberry Pi.

Comment on Re: MTA for Perl

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^2: MTA for Perl by Bod (Parson) on Mar 19, 2024 at 10:43 UTC
If you're being asked or you are presently required to look at outbound email delivery I suggest you do a deep delve. Since ~1998 when I first became attached to email delivery, things have changed so much that to send an email, you need to be an expert, or have an expert on staff. Oh no...I am not getting in evolved in serious mail delivery. This is just for notification emails, mostly being sent to me. I know enough about email to know that ensuring consistent delivery and reputation can be a full-time job. That's why I use Brevo for all our outgoing emails. Mostly I pass email to them through their API but I do use their SMTP server as well and the deliverability is much better than I could achieve trying to manage everything. This is a "fun project" as much about learning as the final result. I know my knowledge of email is very limited and this is an opportunity to change that 🙂 A Mail Transport Agent (MTA) performs outbound email responsibilities only...A Mail Delivery Agent (MDA) is responsible for figuring out how to deliver a message to a recipient Thanks - that's very helpful 👍 So, if I wanted to handle incoming mail with a number of IMAP mailboxes on a Raspberry Pi/Linux box, what would I need to use for that? I have no plans to do this right now but knowing will be very useful in my quest to develop a better understanding of email infrastructure and best practice.	[reply]

Replies are listed 'Best First'.

Re^2: MTA for Perl
by Bod (Parson) on Mar 19, 2024 at 10:43 UTC

If you're being asked or you are presently required to look at outbound email delivery I suggest you do a deep delve. Since ~1998 when I first became attached to email delivery, things have changed so much that to send an email, you need to be an expert, or have an expert on staff.

Oh no...I am not getting in evolved in serious mail delivery. This is just for notification emails, mostly being sent to me.

I know enough about email to know that ensuring consistent delivery and reputation can be a full-time job. That's why I use Brevo for all our outgoing emails. Mostly I pass email to them through their API but I do use their SMTP server as well and the deliverability is much better than I could achieve trying to manage everything.

This is a "fun project" as much about learning as the final result. I know my knowledge of email is very limited and this is an opportunity to change that 🙂

A Mail Transport Agent (MTA) performs outbound email responsibilities only...A Mail Delivery Agent (MDA) is responsible for figuring out how to deliver a message to a recipient

Thanks - that's very helpful 👍

So, if I wanted to handle incoming mail with a number of IMAP mailboxes on a Raspberry Pi/Linux box, what would I need to use for that? I have no plans to do this right now but knowing will be very useful in my quest to develop a better understanding of email infrastructure and best practice.

[reply]