MailScanner vs. Amavisd

[Muenz, Michael]

> > Since you seem to be one of the biggest users oif both systems, any
> > chance you could provide a side by side comparison chart of the features
> > of both systems?

Here's a short comparison from the amavis list:

<quote>
Mailscanner does not support daemonized virus scanners, however, while
amavisd-new does.  This is apparently a conscious decision on the part of
Mailscanner's author, who does not believe that daemonized virus scanners
are more efficient than command-line scanners in this context.  Instead,
Mailscanner tries to optimize the use of command-line scanners by scanning
mail in "batches", rather than one at a time.  The author's explanation can
be found in the FAQ at
http://www.sng.ecs.soton.ac.uk/mailscanner/faq.shtml#22

I've read posts in this and other forums that suggest that Mailscanner may
not behave well with Postfix, though I can't recall the specifics of those
claims.  I do know that Mark Martinec has been extremely diligent about
ensuring that amavisd-new remains RFC-compliant, and that it behaves
properly with many MTAs.  Mailscanner's author is a Sendmail user, while
amavisd-new's author is a Postfix user, which may suggest where their
respective strengths lie.  That said, I'm a Sendmail user, and I've had no
problems with amavisd-new, which is probably why I'm still here :)
</quote>

<quote2>
Mailscanner interfaces with postfix by grabbing files directly out of
the postfix queue structure.  The postfix author states this is unsafe
and may result in random loss of mail (truncated messages)
with no warning and no indication in any log of a problem.  There have
in fact been a few reports on the postfix-users list of this
happening.
The Mailscanner author insists his method is safe, as do many users of
mailscanner+postfix (I'm not one of them). Apparently Mailscanner *is*
safe when used with Sendmail or Exim.

I would not imagine anyone knows what is safe with postfix better than
the author of postfix.
</quote2>

I can't confirm that all is true. And I've never seen any
problems with MS and Postfix.

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