Linux without MTA?

[BearZDefect]

I tried to remove postfix from a Debian 4.0 server using apt-get and in the process it wanted to install Exim. I did not proceed.

No mail server is desired on this machine. Can I remove postfix and leave it at that?

Nothing against postfix or exim, just don't need them in this situation and at the moment they seem to be a liability.

I know there are distros without MTA but this is an existing machine in service where reinstallation is not an option.

Thanks!

 

[brianl703]

You can remove the MTA. As an alternative, you can disable it's startup script in /etc/rc.d/rc2.d by deleting it. That prevents it from starting. You may also need to do this in rc3.d and rc5.d depending on what runlevel the box runs at.

 

[uc50ic4more]

I'll bet there's a metapackage in there somewhere that wants or needs a MTA. Did you start with a minimal install and build from there? Or did you install a "server" or "LAMP" install which may be using some metapackages? On a lark, have you tried using aptitude instead of apt-get? It's along shot, but perhaps aptitude will auto-suggest a solution.

I'll also bet that whatever element of the system has decided that there'd best be a MTA is doing so so you can get local mail regarding security stuff like unauthorized su or sudo attempts.

brianl703 is right on the money, though. Just stop it from starting.

 

[BearZDefect]

Thanks to you both.

Stopping it, and preventing it from starting on boot were the first steps, already done. I guess trying to be more drastic won't work here.

I realize that some services use email to send notices, but in this case nobody who cares is getting them, so the event log(s) are the only place to look.

Is an MTA needed just to deliver 'email' to local shell users on the machine itself?

Email in itself is so insecure that using it to send security notices outside the machine itself is rather loose, IMO. If someone has compromised the machine I'm guessing they can easily compromise email too. But all this is not my expertise.

 

[uc50ic4more]

Originally Posted By: BearZDefect
Is an MTA needed just to deliver 'email' to local shell users on the machine itself?


That's my impression. "email", though, may also include error messages and other alerts.

I don't know about Etch (4.0), but exim4 is included in the "base" system in Lenny and Squeeze. Installing a minimal system will not install a MTA at all, so it must be viable somehow, in some way to run without one; I just have a sneaking suspicion that most server-oriented packages will require a MTA as a dependency.