From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Oct 30 08:44:59 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A71D81065692 for ; Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:44:59 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from smithi@nimnet.asn.au) Received: from sola.nimnet.asn.au (paqi.nimnet.asn.au [115.70.110.159]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F25948FC14 for ; Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:44:58 +0000 (UTC) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by sola.nimnet.asn.au (8.14.2/8.14.2) with ESMTP id n9U8iboH093224; Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:44:37 +1100 (EST) (envelope-from smithi@nimnet.asn.au) Date: Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:44:36 +1100 (EST) From: Ian Smith To: Lars Eighner In-Reply-To: <20091029231539.D984C10656EC@hub.freebsd.org> Message-ID: <20091030183107.W34366@sola.nimnet.asn.au> References: <20091029231539.D984C10656EC@hub.freebsd.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Cc: Giorgos Keramidas , Ruben de Groot , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Why is sendmail is part of the system and not a package? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:44:59 -0000 In freebsd-questions Digest, Vol 282, Issue 14, Message 14 On Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:58:54 -0500 (CDT) Lars Eighner wrote: > On Thu, 29 Oct 2009, Ruben de Groot wrote: > > > sendmail is NOT a legacy application. It's actively being developed > > ON FreeBSD. Actually, the maintainer(s) are doing a great job > > Bullshit. :) IYNSHO. > Why does sendmail call up the internet during boot? If it needs to know who > it is, why can't it look in hosts? See the section: WHO AM I? in /usr/src/contrib/sendmail/cf/README (assuming you haven't deleted the documentation from your system) > Since it cannot be trusted to send mail, what does it need to know > from the internet? The first clause reflects an opinion you apparently formed many years ago from which you seem determined not to let any contrary indications dissuade you. I certainly trust sendmail to send mail - who to accept mail from is always the far greater issue - though after only 11+ years using FreeBSD, I clearly haven't your depth of experience. > It has been horribly broken for the 15 years or so that I have run FBSD, What was the last version of sendmail you actually used? Sure 8.8 was a bear to configure against spam back in '98; I almost succumbed to buying the book back then, but always found what I needed here, by searching or at sendmail.org. Since FreeBSD ~4.5 I've done just fine using 'make'. (cd /etc/mail; ee access; make maps) is my usual extent of maintenance. > and this m4 stuff is a pile of crap. Works here :) though I just let 'make' hide all of the gritty stuff. > There is no documentation whatsoever. Re-sup your sources? There's plenty here, and the abovementioned README contains just about everything I've ever needed to configure sendmail. Mail is never going to be any trivial one-conf-fits-all service and requires some study, with at least a slightly open attitude. > Unless you buy a book from O'Reilly and line the pockets of the > "maintainer(s)." Why can't it be a option to configure the system > without it? Not any money in that, is there? Maybe a systems programming background helped, but since ~'02 I've felt no further need to explore the intricacies of sendmail.cf tinkering. Others here affirm that you can indeed configure FreeBSD not to use sendmail, or any mailer, but I've never had a need so can't comment. There's an old folk song you may have come across that pretty well covers the best approach to fixing any such perceived brokenness: http://www.songsforteaching.com/folk/theresaholeinthebucket.htm cheers, Ian