[CentOS] Advise on RPM vs. Compiling source

Thu Dec 7 03:18:44 UTC 2006
Feizhou <feizhou at graffiti.net>

Jun Salen wrote:
> Hi, 
> 
> Need some advice on installing postfix in CentOS4.
> Which is better, installing by yum or rpm -i or by
> compiling from source code? What are the advantages
> and/or disadvantages of each. Thanks.
> 

You can compile from source if the RHEL4 postfix package does not suit 
your needs (source compiles of latest postfix offers more featues for 
example or get you mysql database support).

Other than that I do not see any other advantage. Disadvantages to 
either method...none besides the rpm not offering the other features 
available. postfix has not had a security problem since one issue in 
version 1.x which is perhaps not too surprising given that Wietse is 
also the author of tcp_wrappers so you do not need to keep track of 
security holes unlike sendmail.