Postfix is a popular open-source mail transfer agent (MTA) that can be easily installed on most Linux distributions, including Elementary OS. In this tutorial, we will walk you through the steps to install Postfix from the official website on Elementary OS.
Before beginning the installation, you need to ensure that you have the following prerequisites:
The first step in installing Postfix is to ensure that your system is up-to-date. Open a terminal window and enter the following command:
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
This command will update the package lists and install any available updates.
Next, we need to install some dependencies required for Postfix to function properly:
sudo apt-get install -y postfix mailutils libsasl2-2 ca-certificates libsasl2-modules
After installing the required dependencies, download the latest version of Postfix from the official website:
wget http://cdn.postfix.johnriley.me/mirrors/postfix-release/official/postfix-3.5.11.tar.gz
Next, extract the downloaded package using the following command:
tar -xf postfix-3.5.11.tar.gz
Enter the extracted directory:
cd postfix-3.5.11/
Configure Postfix using the following command:
sudo make makefiles CCARGS="-DDEF_CONFIG_DIR=\\\"/etc/postfix\\\" -DDEF_COMMAND_DIR=\\\"/usr/sbin\\\" -DDEF_DAEMON_DIR=\\\"/usr/libexec/postfix\\\" -DDEF_MAILQ_PATH=\\\"/usr/bin/mailq\\\" -DDEF_DATA_DIR=\\\"/var/lib/postfix\\\" -DDEF_MAIL_OWNER=\\\"postfix\\\" -DDEF_MYDEST=\\\"localhost, localhost.localdomain\\\" -DDEF_MAILBOX_TRANSPORT=\\\"virtual\\\" -DDEF_RELAY_TRANSPORT=\\\"smtp\\\" -DDEF_INET_PROTOCOLS=\\\"all\\\" -DDEF_MYNETWORKS_STYLE=\\\"subnet\\\" -DDEF_IN_FLOW_DELAY=5 -DDEF_SMTPD_CLIENT_PORT=\\\"smtp\\\" -DDEF_SMTP_STREAM_TIMEOUT=600" AUXLIBS="-lssl -lcrypto"
Now, run the following command to start the installation process:
sudo make
sudo make install
After installing Postfix, we need to configure it to send and receive emails. To do this, we need to edit the main configuration file, /etc/postfix/main.cf.
Open the file using your preferred text editor:
sudo nano /etc/postfix/main.cf
Add the following lines at the end of the configuration file:
myhostname = yourdomain.com
mydestination = $myhostname, localhost.$mydomain, localhost
mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8 [::ffff:127.0.0.0]/104 [::1]/128
Replace "yourdomain.com" with your actual domain name or IP address.
After editing the main configuration file, we need to restart Postfix to apply the changes:
sudo service postfix restart
In this tutorial, we showed you how to install Postfix on Elementary OS using the official website. After installing Postfix, be sure to configure it to work as necessary for your specific use case.
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