Postfix

Rating:
Summary: Not Recommened; Too broad and general
Review: Kind of regret getting this book.

I was hoping to see more of Postfix then described in this book. Like for example what's "empty_address_recipient" do and what parameter can it take and so on. Or how to work content_filter with other filter scripts so I can implement any spam and virus filter and so on. It doesnt even talk about it!

The book only gave an introductory broadview, but that's about it. It's probably ok if that's all you need.

Rating:
Summary: A logical layout of the subject with advanced topics
Review: Part I is a quick introduction to the basics of email and postfix. This part can probably be skipped by many intermediate to advanced readers interested in Postfix. But nonetheless, provides a good introduction to those without a comprehensive understanding of email protocols and the basics of postfix.

Part II of the book covers Postfix in detail and is well layed out in a logical manner. Starting with the configuration of the 'master' process, Blum then progressively explains the configuration of the Postfix system and its various features. Part II ends with more practical example configurations, administration and troubleshooting tips and a Sendmail to Postfix migration chapter. Part II alone, would be a good book to have.

Part III covers advanced topics such as using MySQL or OpenLDAP maps and ends with a short chapter on performance tuning. The chapters in this part are brief and would not constitute the definitive source for advanced features of Postfix. However, they serve as a quick-n-dirty guide useful enough to help you get started with advanced features of Postfix.

Overall, a good book to have if you've always wanted a handy resource for Postfix without having to read the online documentation or search through the list archives. The book is also up-to-date, covering the first so-called "stable" release (20010228).

Rating:
Summary: This is a great book
Review: Richard Blum writes great books, open source email security and another book I forget, something about network traffic analysis. this is a great book for those sendmail folks fedup with config files :)

Feel free to contact me anytime about my other comments I have or info about Postfix itself. I'm a self made user and run my own anti-spam server using postfix/amavis/razor and spam assassin.

[e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: Padded, imprecise, superficial
Review: The books is definitely padded; all these Unix books seem start off with a hundred pages about the most mundane admin tasks that every admin knows how to do ANYWAY -- "Postfix" is no exception in that regard.

I took some time to check the pages between the padding, and found several errors, omissions or imprecise statements about how Postfix works.

All in all the book is quite superficial when it comes to how to actually USE the stuff described -- examples are missing like:

"If I get spammed like this, what can I do to prevent this?"

This somewhat limits the use of the book, since you have to find out that stuff yourself, by trial and error.

It's hard to say if the book is targeted at an admin (then he/she should know SMTP and DNS -- and be annoyed by the padding) or a newbie (thenhe/she gets some info, but might end up with a system that's uglier than it needs to be).

Rating:
Summary: Padded, imprecise, superficial
Review: The books is definitely padded; all these Unix books seem start off with a hundred pages about the most mundane admin tasks that every admin knows how to do ANYWAY -- "Postfix" is no exception in that regard.

I took some time to check the pages between the padding, and found several errors, omissions or imprecise statements about how Postfix works.

All in all the book is quite superficial when it comes to how to actually USE the stuff described -- examples are missing like:

"If I get spammed like this, what can I do to prevent this?"

This somewhat limits the use of the book, since you have to find out that stuff yourself, by trial and error.

It's hard to say if the book is targeted at an admin (then he/she should know SMTP and DNS -- and be annoyed by the padding) or a newbie (thenhe/she gets some info, but might end up with a system that's uglier than it needs to be).

Rating:
Summary: Funny but a Little empty
Review: There was some great info in this book and it was well written. The problem is it's skimpy when it comes to the dirty work. They really leave alot of the real tough stuff up to the reader to figure out, and thats when most readers need a book!
Well since there are not that many choices out there this book is not that bad but hopefully some day there will be a better one.

Rating:
Summary: Not for real mail admins
Review: This book is too basic. It's real audience is people with little or no previous experience with mail servers.

I have long experience with Postfix and expected two things from this book:

a) Show me a holistic vision of Postfix to better understand how it works. Postfix docs are to terse and hard to integrate and interpretate. For example, while there is only one (main.cf) configuration file (with no subsections), there is no single doc that show all posible parameters and theirs meanings. Instead, each Postfix's component have their own documentation with their own parameter set explained. Postfix need very badly a table showing which parameters goes with which component, and this book doesn't provide one (and I expected one). The Postfix organization and operation is VERY logic after the fact, but it will be a lot easier if someone show you (and save you from making the same mistakes).

b) Explain how to do some real world tasks (for example, how to place differents recipient restrictions for inbound mail and for outbound mail).

This book adds nothing to Postfix's own docs; it's only a gentle introduction to the subject.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but way too basic
Review: This book serves as a good, yet very basic, introduction to both email and it's protocols, as well as the postfix MTA. I can wholehartedly recommend this book to anyone charged with the task of configuring their very first UNIX mail server, though I suspect the average reader will find the book limiting as his skill level grows.

To it's defence I must say that the ground it does cover it covers well, but far too little time is actually spent examining the challenging issues like tuning the mail system, and taking advantage of the advanced capabilities it has to offer. I also find it offers a very limited view of how to design a mail system for scalability etc.

The reason I'm giving this only two stars is that all the information available in the book is available either online or with the package, and if the reader is to install and administrate a UNIX MTA then he should surely be capable of extracting this information from the documentation. This results in the book being of limited actual use to the reader.

I'm hoping a possible second edition will spend less time on explaining the basics of how email work and more time providing the reader with actual advice and guidance where such would be needed rather than simply rehashing the answers provided by the documentation.

To sum it up: While the product is very good, this book is not.