Today in #FreeSoftwareAdvent, today it's OpenSMTPD¹.
In the past I've tried to set up Sendmail, Postfix, Exim, and qmail at various junctures, but found them all unwieldy in their configuration syntax. Macros and compiling them, or digging through dozens of config files for relevant settings. Lots of "here are thousands of settings, but don't change them unless you really know what you're doing." It drove me a bit crazy.
Then OpenBSD folks created OpenSMTPD.
The configuration syntax was sensible and simple. It didn't try to do everything, just adequate SMTP serving with some privsep. It was easy to point it at certificates that acme-client(1) obtains for me via httpd(8) interactions scheduled in cron(8), all within the base system.
It's the MTA with OpenBSD's fingerprints of simplicity & security all over it.
⸻
¹ https://opensmtpd.org/
Tim Chase
npub1fh…z2t42
2025-12-13 15:47:57 UTC
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2025-12-13 15:47:57 UTCEvent JSON
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"content": "Today in #FreeSoftwareAdvent, today it's OpenSMTPD¹.\n\nIn the past I've tried to set up Sendmail, Postfix, Exim, and qmail at various junctures, but found them all unwieldy in their configuration syntax. Macros and compiling them, or digging through dozens of config files for relevant settings. Lots of \"here are thousands of settings, but don't change them unless you really know what you're doing.\" It drove me a bit crazy.\n\nThen OpenBSD folks created OpenSMTPD.\n\nThe configuration syntax was sensible and simple. It didn't try to do everything, just adequate SMTP serving with some privsep. It was easy to point it at certificates that acme-client(1) obtains for me via httpd(8) interactions scheduled in cron(8), all within the base system.\n\nIt's the MTA with OpenBSD's fingerprints of simplicity \u0026 security all over it.\n\n⸻\n¹ https://opensmtpd.org/",
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