Hello,
Geraint Edwards schrieb:
> I don't think you understand what PH is saying - though you are both
> saying the same thing - in a different way.
>
> I think you are both saying that
> exim *needs* dbm to be pre-installed (or installed separately),
> and - in the future -
> exim *will need* pcre to be pre-installed (or installed separately).
>
> So the precedent for exim relying on an external lib already exists.
I don't seem to understand anything today - time for lunch! ;)
My point was: until now there is no separately-to-install
prerequisite for "core" exim (besides the compiler maybe) so far. In
other words: all that is required is provided by the core OS -
including dbm libs. I now double-checked this on a variety of OSs
and see to my surprise that on [Free,Open]BSD, only dbm headers are
present and libraries are required to be installed separately.
Debian, HP-UX, Novell(SuSE) and Solaris have them included.
Nevertheless, having pcre omitted from the exim distribution would
result in:
- adding (not always a first) external prerequisite to exim
- change the way BSD packages have to be built
- would not help regarding the numerous other software that uses
pcre (see Nigel's post)
Therefore, this appears to be a more pcre than exim related problem.
As long as a substantiable number of OSs doesn't come with pcre
included, I'd vote for exim bringing it's own version along with it.
Probably it would in addition be a wise idea to pick up Nigel's
point, having pcre always installed "system-wide". But that's
somewhat off-topic here.
Kind regards,
vt
