Re: [exim] Debian as a 'Special Case' for Exim

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Author: Tony Finch
Date:  
To: Marc Sherman
CC: exim-users, Marc Haber
Subject: Re: [exim] Debian as a 'Special Case' for Exim
On Thu, 17 Feb 2005, Marc Sherman wrote:
>
> Well, you broke users' expectations of compatibility with upstream. There's a
> lot of value in keeping packages as close to upstream as policy allows.


The main problem I have with supporting Debian users on this list is that
they aren't talking about their Exim configuration, they're talking about
how they drove Debconf to generate it. I don't understand the way Debian's
Exim configurator works, so I can't help them. I don't think this is
really the appropriate place for these users to come for support, but as I
understand it Debian doesn't have a support forum for them either.

Marc Sherman's suggestion of providing an unadorned Exim configuration
package would be greatly preferable, not just for us but for competent
users too. My friend Ian Jackson recently tried installing Debian's exim4
on his computer at work and rapidly replaced it with Smail because he
didn't want to battle with the configuration system. Debian's exim4 uses
*39* files (!), Debian's Smail uses 6, and a normal Exim installation
would have 2 or 3 (the non-split configuration file being one of Exim's
early improvements over Smail).

Tony.
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