On Mon, 26 Sep 2005 17:50:55 -0700, Steve Lamb <grey@???> wrote:
>Adam Funk wrote:
>> On Saturday 24 September 2005 21:45, Steve Lamb wrote:
>>> Quite frankly desktop machines shouldn't have SMTP servers on
>>>them at all.
>
>> That depends on your definition of desktop.
>
> I'd be interested in any definition of a desktop where an SMTP server
>would be a requirement and not a "nice thing to have" in lieu of some
>alternative for bad behaving utilities that can't manage the failure of the
>SMTP server be it local or remote.
UNIX philosophy is "one job, one tool". Most utilities that can send
mail for one-or-the-other reason depend on some
/usr/(lib|sbin)/sendmail where they can dump their messages to,
relying on it to actually deliver them. I'd call that an MTA.
>> Cron and at require a working MTA on the local machine (I think
>> nullmailer is probably sufficient).
>
> Never understood why that is the case. What do they do when the local MTA
>is unavailable?
That way, probably messages get lost.
> Be that as it may how Debian works it:
>
>Package: cron
>Depends: libc6 (>= 2.3.2.ds1-4), libpam0g (>= 0.76), debianutils (>= 1.7), adduser
>Recommends: exim4 | postfix | mail-transport-agent
Looks like the cron maintainer finally gave in. I don't particularly
like that idea since it _WILL_ result in mail being lost, but probably
the advantage of having the possibility to install an MTAless system
is bigger than that.
>Package: at
>Depends: libc6 (>= 2.2.4-4), mail-transport-agent
Feel free to bug the at maintainer to lower the requirement.
>Package: nullmailer
>Replaces: mail-transport-agent
>Provides: mail-transport-agent
>
> cron doesn't require mail-transport-agent but does recommend it. At
>requires it. nullmailer fulfills that role.
It doesn't fully since it does not offer rewriting capabilities which
a lot of end-user installations need, and its command line interface
isn't LSB compliant.
>So in theory Debian could move
>away from Exim to nullmailer as a default install if the theory is that the
>default install is "smart-host for a desktop" and anything more complex would
>be specificly installed by the admin building the box.
Unfortunately, smart-host for a desktop needs rewriting capabilities.
> Hoestly, and speaking as a Debian user who welcomed the change to Exim as
>the default mailer, that is a change I could live with and I think Debian
>should seriously consider. Looking at popularity contest stats...
>
>705 exim4-base 2615 2430 81 104 0 (Exim4
>Maintainers)
>714 postfix 2600 2462 89 48 1 (Lamont Jones)
>
> There's a whole 9 places difference between Exim4 installs, which is by
>default, and people who rip Exim4 out in favor of Postfix.
popcon isn't part of the default install, so one misses the majority
of installations.
> If moving to
>nullmailer means it keeps the low-end functionality intact
it doesn't. nullmailer is appropriate for systems where end system and
smarthost are under the same control so that the smarthost can be
configured to cater for nullmailers inadequacies. However, on a ISP
smarthost setup, a fully featured MTA is needed on the end system.
> and makes it easier
>for those who choose Exim on Debian to interact with the larger Exim community
>at the nominal expense of having to do a quick [apt-get|aptitude] install
>exim4-daemon[-light|-heavy] I'd say it's worth consideration. :)
I do not understand that last sentence.
Greetings
Marc
--
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