
Ask HN: What are your/the best setups for running your own mail server? - TheCustardKing
What are the best setups for running your own mail server?<p>Which software? Postfix, Dovecot, Exim4
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ckastner
Exim4 as an MTA, and Dovecot as an IMAP Server.

I particularly like Exim4's configuration on Debian. It provides IMHO very
reasonable defaults, but allows overriding of most of these defaults using a
mechanism similar to hooks. In that sense, the configuration is more like a
framework.

This allows me to easily add my own configuration, while also not touching the
default configuration as shipped by the Maintainer (and thereby avoiding
nagging about a changed conffile [1]).

If using the split config format (ie, /etc/exim4/conf.d), it's not that
complicated figuring out how to to a particular thing.

For example, [2] is the folder that contains Exim's ACL configuration. [3] is
the file pertaining to SMTP's RCPT TO command. The individual features, and
how to enable/disable/modify them, are well documented and the steps are
usually trivial.

I don't use it anymore, but I remember that in order to set up a mail system
with purely virtual users backed by a PostgresSQL database, I only needed to
add a half-dozen or so of files, each containing small configuration snippets.

(Exim configuration is still complicated of course, to say the least. Debian
just makes it a lot simpler.)

[1] [https://raphaelhertzog.com/2010/09/21/debian-conffile-
config...](https://raphaelhertzog.com/2010/09/21/debian-conffile-
configuration-file-managed-by-dpkg/)

[2]
[https://sources.debian.net/src/exim4/4.87-3/debian/debconf/c...](https://sources.debian.net/src/exim4/4.87-3/debian/debconf/conf.d/acl/)

[3]
[https://sources.debian.net/src/exim4/4.87-3/debian/debconf/c...](https://sources.debian.net/src/exim4/4.87-3/debian/debconf/conf.d/acl/30_exim4-config_check_rcpt/)

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amingilani
If you're looking to quickly get up and running, there's pawnmail.com lets you
host your emails for free and the guy who runs the server promises not to read
your email ;)

I actually run gilani.me through ZohoMail's free options, I dropped pawnmail
because it didn't offer DKIM, and mail-tester.com was giving my outbound
emails a score of 2, which means it was very surprising that they ever got
delivered, at all!

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ramtatatam
Postfix and Dovecot work well together (and that's my setup). Though it
requires quite a reading to get Postfix configured in such a way that your
server will stand attacks from the internet.

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hiteshaasnani
Good share! Thanks

