I have Sendmail installed for relaying web site emails to Google Apps and have been having random problems very often. If I wish to replace it with Postfix, how do I ensure that Sendmail stops permanently and doesn't initiate on reboot?
Hi @cloudnine
Good choice. Simply stop Sendmail and install Postfix, since it's a drop-in replacement.
sudo service sendmail stop
sudo apt-get install postfix
So unless you've made some special calls to sendmail commands, Postfix should take over everything what Sendmail does. You need to re-do the configuration in Postfix, since that is not converted.
Thanks. Postfix has worked flawlessly on a couple of other servers.
One thing, though. If I reboot the system, wouldn't Sendmail become active again? If yes, what should I change to prevent that from happening?
No, because Postfix replaces the configuration, so it should be a drop-in replacement. You shouldn't need to change anything, anywhere - but if you have special configuration or pipes, then you might need to modify something.
Otherwise, simply remove Sendmail before installing Postfix.
sudo service sendmail stop
sudo apt-get remove sendmail
sudo apt-get install postfix
Thank you for taking the time to respond with the commands. I couldn't uninstall Sendmail cleanly on another server, but I am not sure if I used apt-get remove.
There is no need to remove sendmail with dedicated command before installing postfix since postfix installation removes sendmail as part of installation process.