Many mail handling software products bundle multiple message delivery agents with the
message transfer agent component, providing for site customization of the specifics of mail delivery to a user.
Unix On
Unix-like systems,
procmail and
maildrop are the most popular MDAs. The
Local Mail Transfer Protocol (LMTP) is a protocol that is frequently implemented by network-aware MDAs.
Invocation The mail delivery agent is generally not started from the command line, but is usually invoked by mail delivery subsystems, such as a
mail transport agent, or a
mail retrieval agent.
Unix-like •
Cyrus IMAP - A mail server suite that includes a mail delivery agent •
dovecot - A mail server suite that includes a mail delivery agent •
fetchmail - Primarily a
Mail retrieval agent (MRA) •
getmail - simpler, more secure, modern
fetchmail alternative •
fdm — modern replacement for both
fetchmail and
procmail from the author of
tmux •
maildrop or courier-maildrop - traditional procmail replacement, part of
Courier Mail Server, but can also be used with other mail servers •
procmail - old, but still used • bin/mail, the MDA part of
Sendmail - Sendmail is one of the oldest email packages •
Sieve mail filtering language - a standardised mail filtering language; also, a modern replacement for procmail from the
GNU Mailutils package ==See also==