[Dovecot] LDA vs. LMTP

Martin Burgraf martin.bg at web.de
Fri Jul 26 18:45:23 EEST 2013


Hi there,

I'm using Dovecot together with Postfix; as I understand it, there are two ways to transfer the mail from Postfix to Dovecot.
1.) by using LDA with mailbox_command = /usr/libexec/dovecot/dovecot-lda -f "$SENDER" -a "$RECIPIENT"
2.) by using LMTP with mailbox_transport = lmtp:unix:private/dovecot-lmtp

(currently using number 1)
I'm interessted in the differences and the advantages/disadvantages of each of those solutions.

According to http://wiki2.dovecot.org/LDA the recommended way is to use LMTP, since it's supposed to have a better performance.
On the other hand, http://wiki2.dovecot.org/LMTP says, that LMTP is a backgound process, while LDA is only called when needed. I've also read, that LDA only uses the users privileges, which both means, that LDA should be better.
I've also noticed, that LMTP adds an additional Recieved:-Header to the mail.
Are there any other differences?

Thank you
M.


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