I would like my MacOS "server" (basic mac mini with OS12.1 installed) to be able to send emails using my current (paid) email provider.

Some theory first.

• I am aware about this fine article (http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20081217161612647)

• What puzzles me is how on earth will "fresh out of box" mac be able to send even ONE email without being (mail-server) configured first. In other words to what email server will it send my email?

• Discovered the very useful command mailq that will show the current status of all current emails being processed.

• I understood that the command mail will send an email:

  echo "this is the body" | mail -s "this is the subject" "myself@myserver.lu"

• I understand, mail is using postfix in the background.

• This will show the version of postfix (mine is mail_version = 3.2.2)

  postconf mail_version

• Is it possible to update postfix on macos?

• Did anyone managed to enable the log on mail_version 3.2.2? I get this warning:

  postconf: warning: /etc/postfix/main.cf: unused parameter: maillog_file=/var/log/postfix.log

without the log it is a bit difficult to see what went wrong during email send...

thanks in advance for some MAC related input.