MadGoat MX

[Mark Iline]

We've been using this product for >10 years now to handle smtp mail and serve mailing lists. Initially the freeware version, but latterly the commercial version.

Visiting http://www.madgoat.com/ doesn't inspire confidence - "Former home of MadGoat Software", etc.

Has MadGoat Software gone away ?

If so, it seems that sooner or later we'll need to replace MX.

I've seen PMDF recommended in several places - including as an alternative for HP TCPIP Services' IMAP server.

Any views on PMDF as an MX replacement ?

One concern I have is that the PMDF information on the web all seem a bit dated. eg case studies pre-2000, referring to Windows NT, etc. Is this a product near the end of its life ?

[Steven Schweda]

> Has MadGoat Software gone away ?

As a going concern, I believe so. Their
products have tended to live on, however.

> [...] the PMDF information on the web all
> seem a bit dated. [...] Is this a product
> near the end of its life ?

I doubt it.

http://www.process.com/tcpip/pmdf.html
http://www.process.com/techsupport/pmdf.html

(Your "on the web" seems to be more limited
than mine.)

[Mark Iline]

> As a going concern, I believe so. Their
products have tended to live on, however.

We certainly haven't had to touch MX 5.3 in ages. It's just that if something *did* go wrong, we'd be a bit stuck.

> http://www.process.com/tcpip/pmdf.html
> http://www.process.com/techsupport/pmdf.html

> (Your "on the web" seems to be more limited
than mine.)

I guess so. There are certainly more reassuring references in there. Windows 2003 amd RHEL are nice to see.

It was the case studies at http://www.process.com/tcpip/pmdfcase.html that mostly seemed a bit 'last decade'.

Thanks.

[Verne Britton]

I have no experience with MX, but have been a happy user of PMDF since 1988 :-)

Great commerical product, love it !!

FYI, Process Software (they sell Multinet and TCPware as well as PMDF) now have a hobbyist license (free; annual renewal ... parallels the OpenVMS Hobbyist program) for PMDF.

Verne

[Hunter Goatley · Accepted solution]

As Steven said, PMDF is still being supported and developed by Process Software. It is, IMO, the only real alternative to MX, feature-wise, and includes tons of features that MX never had.

FWIW, I did most of the development on MX from '92 to '96 or so, and I've been using PMDF since we took it over in 2001. For VMS Mail users, the PMDF MAIL agent alone is reason enough to use PMDF....

As for MadGoat Software, Matt did shut it down a few months ago.

Hunter

[Mark Iline]

Thanks for the replies. Especially good to hear from the Goathunter.

We've used both the freeware and subsequent commercial versions of MX since the mid 90s, and always been impressed.

I'm now feeling comfortable with PMDF as a replacement should we need to move from MX.

One thing that Hunter might be well placed to comment on. We use MX's MLF (list server) quite heavilly (for automatically generated lists of students, etc). Does PMDF have an equivalent ?

[Hoff]

> One thing that Hunter might be well placed to comment on. We use MX's MLF (list server) quite heavilly (for automatically generated lists of students, etc). Does PMDF have an equivalent ?

I do not know the answer as associated with PMDF. Majordomo is a common choice, and there have been OpenVMS ports around. (It's written in Perl, and perl is available for OpenVMS)

Among other discussions:

http://www.greatcircle.com/majordomo/

As for MX, you might want to ask Matt if he wants to license or sub-license or to open-source the software you are using.

I'd not spend a whole lot here on up-rating the existing gear until and unless needed, and as there are various other solutions available for OpenVMS and for various other platforms that can serve as well as these products.

[Hunter Goatley]

Thanks.

PMDF has MAILSERV, which provides mailing list capabilities (and a lot more). You can read about it in the PMDF System Manager's Guide:

http://www.process.com/tcpip/PMDF63-2docs/documentation/html/sysman/book_6a.html#chapter_maillists

If modifying your existing list-creation procedures is daunting, you can also choose to continue using MX for the MLF capability and PMDF for everything else. You'd just need a couple of rewrite rules in PMDF and MX to pass messages back and forth.

Hunter

[Hunter Goatley]

Matt Madison has released MX V6.0 as Open Source software. You can download it for now from:

http://www.madgoat.com/

Hunter

[Hunter Goatley]

The MX V6.0 sources can also be found in my freeware archive now.

ftp://ftp.process.com/vms-freeware/fileserv/mx060_src.zip
http://vms.process.com/ftp/vms-freeware/fileserv/mx060_src.zip

ftp://ftp.tmk.com/vms-freeware/fileserv/mx060_src.zip
http://www.tmk.com/ftp/vms-freeware/fileserv/mx060_src.zip

Hunter

[Mark Iline]

> The MX V6.0 sources can also be found in my freeware archive now.

Great, thanks.

It's good to have options if we start to experience problems. PMDF looks nice if we need to migrate to other platforms, or need to move beyodn MX.

[Robert Gezelter]

Hunter,

Thank you very much for persuing this question, it is appreciated.

- Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com

[Robert Gezelter]

Hunter,

Since you seem to be in touch with Matt, perhaps he would consider submitting MX 6.0 for the next Freeware CDROM?

This would make the bits more widely archived.

- Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com

[Jerry Alan Braga]

how do you build the mx 6 kit

[Hunter Goatley]

To build the MX kit, you have to have the BLISS and C compilers installed, along with MMK.

However, I have created an MX V6.0 installation kit, which you can download here:


ftp://ftp.process.com/vms-freeware/fileserv/mx060.zip
http://vms.process.com/ftp/vms-freeware/fileserv/mx060.zip

ftp://ftp.tmk.com/vms-freeware/fileserv/mx060.zip
http://www.tmk.com/ftp/vms-freeware/fileserv/mx060.zip

These are normal VMSINSTAL savesets that you can install.

Hunter

[Heuser-Hofmann]

MX V6.0 puts one strange line into the header:

Here is an example:
=========================================
Received: from purin.rz.uni-konstanz.de (192.168.1.4) by
dg3.chemie.uni-konstanz.de
(
)
with ESMTP for ;
Tue, 12 Feb 2008 12:45:12 +0100

It would be nice to get rid of this line (the version information appeared here in former mx versions.

Eberhard

[Hunter Goatley]

Yes, I discovered that yesterday and have contacted Matt. I'll post here as soon as the corrected version is available.

Thanks.

Hunter

[Hunter Goatley]

OK, new MX V6.0 kits (both install kits and source) are available at the links above. These correct the missing MX ident string in the banner and in the Received: headers.

Hunter

[David Cathey]

I plan to continue to use MX. One, it's been a good product. Two, now that the source has been releases, this insures that at least someone can continue to support it - or you can do self-support.

Don't give up on MX. I have little doubt it will continue to be around for a while. It's just too good to not be.

[Jon Pinkley]

These were the modules that changed if anyone is interested:

Directory [.COMMON]

AGENT.B32;2 132/144 12-FEB-2008 04:28:21.44
AGENT.R32;2 8/16 12-FEB-2008 04:26:48.38
MX_SHR.IA64_OPT;2 6/16 12-FEB-2008 04:29:23.28

Total of 3 files, 146/176 blocks.

Directory [.SMTP]

DNSMTP_SERVER.B32;2 81/96 12-FEB-2008 04:30:35.88
SMTP_SERVER.B32;2 317/320 12-FEB-2008 04:31:21.40

Total of 2 files, 398/416 blocks.

Grand total of 2 directories, 5 files, 544/592 blocks.