Re: [Exim] Exim on debian

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Author: Marc MERLIN
Date:  
To: Andreas Metzler, exim-users, Paulo Henrique Baptista de Oliveira, Lawrence Walton, ph10, Miquel van Smoorenburg
Old-Topics: Re: [Exim] Exim at high loads
Subject: Re: [Exim] Exim on debian
[Bcc a few people from the other thread that spun off list]

On Tue, Oct 15, 2002 at 10:46:05AM +0200, Andreas Metzler wrote:
> > Hopefully the edges will be a bit rounder now :-)
> > But please, do help me make them even better.
> > Although I have very little time, I'd really like to get some exim4 package
> > in debian.
>
> Hello,
> Well, I tried to build them (4.10-6mm), there are still some of very
> sharp edges:


I appreciate you gave it a try.
I'll reply on list, but we should probably continue off list since this
is starting to be very debian specific.
Let's continue by just Emailing the people we had in the other subthread
on the package.

> * debian/rules build ; debian/rules clean ; debian/rules build fails:
> | patch -p1 < debian/exim4.gooderror.diff
> | patching file src/acl.c
> | Reversed (or previously applied) patch detected! Assume -R? [n]


Right, I compiles and builds fine, but I do it in a separate dir every
time. If you try to do it multiple times, it can't patch the file a
second time. I suppose the solution to this is to make an entire copy of
the source tree before you patch it and delete it on clean.
I haven't done that yet since it builds fine otherwise :-)

> * eximon4 does not Conflict with eximon


Good point, although I thought upgrading to exim4 would remove exim,
which would remove eximon, hence it wasn't really needed.

> * Lots and lots of lintian errors, some of the _grave_, e.g.
> file-in-etc-not-marked-as-conffile etc/cron.d/exim


I might have forgotten one, yes.

> * still uses suidregister in postinst - is this package based on
> the antique 3.22-2?


Yep. I've been maintaining exim myself for my own use for more than two
years based off Marc's original package.

> * breaks policy 10.5. "If a package wants to install a job that has to
> be executed via cron, it should place a file with the name of the
> package..." Your package is named exim4 not exim.
> etc.


Ok. That's why I said it probably wasn't debian worthy yet. Not very
surprising since I never had/took the time to read the entire policy. I
barely had the time to get the package where it's at (although it's a
lot less time to maintain now that it's there)

> While I value your work, especially the part with properly including
> spam-assassin, this package does not yet fulfills debian's standards.


I'm not surprised at all, that's why I was asking for help from someone
like you :-)

> Especially the fact that it does not properly use Debian's conffile
> management and therefore breaks switching between exim and exim4 would


That I'm not sure I understand, but we should take it offline.

> give it a release critical bug immediately and makes it unfit even for
> experimental. BTW imho it should use /etc/exim4/ instead of /etc/exim/


Actually, I picked /etc/exim on purpose, so that people were able to
reuse their existing config in /etc/exim. It opens /etc/exim/exim4.conf
on purpose so that you can have both configs in /etc/exim/.
If you have scripts and configs that depend on things being in /etc/exim
(like aliases, and IP lists or whatever), you won't have to change them.

> Don't use this package yet.


That, I can't agree with.
1) it works fine
2) it doesn't do stupid things to your system
3) it uninstalls cleanly
4) it comes with the most extensive configuration set I know
5) while it breaks a few debian standards, that's nothing that can't be
fixed, or that prevents it from working right now.

But yes, it's not fit for just uploading in unstable, I'm aware of that.

> Sorry if these words seem harsh, my command of the English language is
> not well enough for saying this more politely. Please correct me
> immediately if I accidentally tested an old outdated version - I used
> 4.10-6mm.


1) You did have the latest version I just released
2) I take criticism rather well, don't worry :-)

Thanks for your feedback.

Marc
--
"A mouse is a device used to point at the xterm you want to type in" - A.S.R.
Microsoft is to operating systems & security ....
                                      .... what McDonalds is to gourmet cooking
Home page: http://marc.merlins.org/   |   Finger marc_f@??? for PGP key