On Wed, 2008-05-28 at 18:38 +0100, Phil (Medway Hosting) wrote:
> If you don't mind me asking, (and no I DON'T have Debian) - What exactly is
> the issue with Debian & Exim and why a separate list ? Because they have
> modded it so much to make it work on that OS ? Is it really all that
> different ? Just interested.
There are a few reasons, but the primary one is that yes, the Debian
package maintainers (hi Marc!) have created a distribution-specific
configuration system which splits the config file into a lot of separate
ones, and have provided a toll or tools with which to manage
commonly-utilised setups.
They also provide distribution-specific support. Most of the time (not a
scientific analysis, obviously) questions being asked here by new Debian
users are being asked because they haven't read the nice helpful README
file that comes with Exim on Debian, and points them to their own
mailing list which understands the system being used. Marc (Haber)
actually states on the main package page in the Debian wiki:
http://wiki.debian.org/PkgExim4
"There are lots of excellent documentation for exim. The first file to
read under debian is README.Debian (linked below) Then one ought to read
the specification file; /usr/share/doc/exim4-base/spec.txt
Please note that the debian configuration is different from the default
exim4 configuration found on other systems. This is why it is imperative
that one read the debian documentation when setting up exim."
That page links to the Debian ML page -
http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/pkg-exim4-users - and
states:
"Please note that you're going to be flamed to hell and back if you ask
questions that are clearly answered in the docs. This especially goes
for the information given in README.Debian as mentioned above."
and the ML page says:
"This public, unmoderated list is dedicated for User-level discussion
and support for the Debian exim 4 packages. You can ask questions about
both exim upstream and the Debian exim 4 packaging here.
Please do not ask Debian-related questions on the upstream Mailing list
exim-users.
Please check the README file, the Debian exim4 home page, the list
archives and the upstream wiki before posting questions. Please update
the wikis with useful and appropriate information.
The README file is on your system
in /usr/share/doc/exim4-base/README.Debian.gz. The README file is also
linked from the Debian exim4 home page "
I think it's made fairly clear in the Debian information that Debian
users should start with the Debian resources. The major issue at hand
here is that so many people just don't bother to read them, and turn up
here asking why 00manualroute_widget or something like that isn't
working for them.
Things are further complicated by the proliferation of Ubuntu, which
provides no specific support for its' own package and re-distributes the
Debian one. There have been several new Ubuntu users here asking for
support recently, when their questions revolve around the Debian
packaging and configuration system. The docs for which they haven't
read.
I think that sums it up :)
Graeme
