Advantage of LMTP

[Jiri Bourek]

On 2.8.2014 12:57, Jerry wrote:
> Sat, 2 Aug 2014 06:53:58 -0400
>
> Presently, I have: "virtual_transport = dovecot" in my Postfix main.cf file
> and
> dovecot   unix  -       n       n       -       -       pipe
>    flags=DRhu user=vmail:vmail argv=/usr/local/libexec/dovecot/dovecot-lda -f ${sender} -d ${recipient}
> in the master.cf file.
>
> Is there any advantage to using LMPT instead? All of my users are configured
> as virtual users. If I change it, do I have to eliminate the above from my
> master.cf file?
>

As far as I know, LMTP process in Dovecot is long-living one, so on busy 
server you can save quite a few CPU cycles that go into spawning 
dovecot-lda for each incoming message.

Also error handling could be (not sure) a bit better, with pipe service 
you only have dovecot-lda's return code indicating success/failure 
whereas LMTP can tell you what went wrong.

(Well, Postfix actually scans executed program's output for status codes 
but I don't think dovecot-lda emits that.)

You can keep your dovecot service in the configuration - it does no harm 
especially if it's not used. (OTOH there's no reason to keep it there if 
you switch to LMTP.)