How'd you recommend I intermix Linux with TCP/IP Concepts while learning?

[oslon]

I prefer red hat distros like centos or RL. (centos is EOL and it's sad).
Say i want to learn about mail servers (to send mails). i.e smtp. Now, I need to know about sendmail, postfix etc.
I want to understand all the TCP IP configuration for SMTP using sendmail, postfix etc. I want to send emails at the command line and trace the packets.
My goal is not to use postfix but configure all the things required in TCP IP protocol suite from scratch. But I'm not friendly with software development/network programming.
I'm wondering if you've any suggestions for me?

 

[f33dm3bits]

Are you asking how to write your own mta?

 

[oslon]

How to configure maybe, I don't know programming only scripting(basic level, nothing to be proud of). I don't want to install and use it. I want to understand the internals.

 

[f33dm3bits]

The only thing you need to know about tcp/ip is how to configure your server with an ip configuration and how to open ports in your firewall. Just use Postfix, it's the most used and best documented.

Postfix Documentation

 

[oslon]

That way I won't learn about MTAs and how they work in detail is my assumption.

 

[f33dm3bits]

Yes you will, if your goal is to learn how to setup a mailserver. Figuring out how to setup one and configure one will teach you all you need to know. That's the way I learned it as well.

 

[osprey]

That way I won't learn about MTAs and how they work in detail is my assumption.

The two MTAs that predominated in the linux universe were sendmail and postfix. The "bibles" for them in my neck of the woods were published by O'Reilly and were these monumental tomes:

"Sendmail", by Bryan Costales, Claus Assmann, George Jansen, Gregory Neil Shapiro. 2007. (4th edition)

A pdf version is here:

https://theswissbay.ch/pdf/Gentoomen%20Library/Operating%20Systems/Linux/Mail%20Servers/OReilly%20sendmail%204th%20Edition.pdf

and

"Postfix: The definitive Guide", by Kyle D Dent. 2003.

They are both quite old now, and I've moved on from my time with them, but they will doubtless still contain fundamentals that are still relevant.

A colleague mentioned this book:
"The Book Of Postfix Paperback", by Patrick Hidebrandt, Ralf Koetter. 2017.

It's more modern but I can't vouch for it.

 

[oslon]

The two MTAs that predominated in the linux universe were sendmail and postfix. The "bibles" for them in my neck of the woods were published by O'Reilly and were these monumental tomes:

"Sendmail", by Bryan Costales, Claus Assmann, George Jansen, Gregory Neil Shapiro. 2007. (4th edition)

A pdf version is here:

https://theswissbay.ch/pdf/Gentoomen%20Library/Operating%20Systems/Linux/Mail%20Servers/OReilly%20sendmail%204th%20Edition.pdf

and

"Postfix: The definitive Guide", by Kyle D Dent. 2003.

They are both quite old now, and I've moved on from my time with them, but they will doubtless still contain fundamentals that are still relevant.

A colleague mentioned this book:
"The Book Of Postfix Paperback", by Patrick Hidebrandt, Ralf Koetter. 2017.

It's more modern but I can't vouch for it.

Thank you.

 

[f33dm3bits]

The two MTAs that predominated in the linux universe were sendmail and postfix. The "bibles" for them in my neck of the woods were published by O'Reilly and were these monumental tomes:

"Sendmail", by Bryan Costales, Claus Assmann, George Jansen, Gregory Neil Shapiro. 2007. (4th edition)

A pdf version is here:

https://theswissbay.ch/pdf/Gentoomen%20Library/Operating%20Systems/Linux/Mail%20Servers/OReilly%20sendmail%204th%20Edition.pdf

The Postfix documentation is more than enough now days to learn about mailservers, that's how I learned and setup my own mailserver.

 

[oslon]

If I write an application that sends mail, I just need smtp server right?