11.2. Email Program Classifications

A Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) transfers email messages between hosts using SMTP. A message may involve several MTAs as it moves to its intended destination.

While the delivery of messages between machines may seem rather straightforward, the entire process of deciding if a particular MTA can or should accept a message for delivery is quite complicated. In addition, due to problems from spam, use of a particular MTA is usually restricted by the MTA's configuration or the access configuration for the network on which the MTA resides.

Many modern email client programs can act as an MTA when sending email. However, this action should not be confused with the role of a true MTA. The sole reason email client programs are capable of sending email like an MTA is because the host running the application does not have its own MTA. This is particularly true for email client programs on non-UNIX-based operating systems. However, these client programs only send outbound messages to an MTA they are authorized to use and do not directly deliver the message to the intended recipient's email server.

Since Red Hat Enterprise Linux installs two MTAs, Sendmail and Postfix, email client programs are often not required to act as an MTA. Red Hat Enterprise Linux also includes a special purpose MTA called Fetchmail.

For more information on Sendmail, Postfix, and Fetchmail, refer to Section 11.3, “Mail Transport Agents”.