Difference between mailx and sendmail?

Question

What is the difference between mailx and sendmail?

Which one is the most efficient(Performance standpoint) to send emails?

Lima

Answer 1

mailx is mail client. It can compose emails and deliver them to local mail transfer agent (sendmail, postfix, etc) which does actual sending to remote addresses. It can view and edit local user mailbox file.

sendmail is mail server. It does actual communication with remote mail servers for sending and receiving emails.

These two programs can't be compared from performance standpoint - they serve different purposes and perform different tasks.

Wacker

They can be compared for performance when sending an email, considering the use of sendmail removes one step. – Fuhrman