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Postfix keeps running even if one Postfix process dies Windows requires that someone restarts the service.

Wietse Venema

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Wietse Venema
Age: 73
Born: 1951
Born: January 1
Computer Scientist
Physicist
Holland
Wietse Zweitze Venema
Window
Dies
Process
Running
Someone
Windows
Even
Keeps
Requires
Service

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The challenge with Postfix, or with any piece of software, is to update software without introducing problems.
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As of today, the Postfix mail transport agent has almost 50,000 lines of code, comments not included.
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Writing software that's safe even in the presence of bugs makes the challenge even more interesting.
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Qmail out of the box works fine, so people will want to use it regardless of licensing restrictions, even when the software does not ship with their system software.
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I want to avoid locking people into solutions that work only with Postfix. People should have a choice in what software they want to use with Postfix, be it anti-virus or otherwise.
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For many people my software is something that you install and forget. I like to keep it that way.
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One bug in an SMTP server can open up the whole machine for intrusion.
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Like all software, Qmail can survive only when it keeps up with changing requirements.
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When I write software, I know that it will fail, either due to my own mistake, or due to some other cause.
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Most of the effort in the software business goes into the maintenance of code that already exists.
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The Postfix security model is based on keeping software simple and stupid.
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Sure, but competition is good for the user.
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However, writing software without defects is not sufficient. In my experience, it is at least as difficult to write software that is safe - that is, software that behaves reasonably under adverse conditions.
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In a previous life I wrote the software that controlled my physics experiments. That software had to deal with all kinds of possible failures in equipment. That is probably where I learned to rely on multiple safety nets inside and around my systems.
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