Date: Thu, 15 Aug 2002 21:56:07 +0100 From: Matthew Seaman <m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk> To: Marius Kirschner <marius@agoron.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Mailman [was: RE: list manager] Message-ID: <20020815205607.GA11469@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophi> In-Reply-To: <006701c24495$41aeb620$5ae9b5ce@quasi1> References: <20020815173406.GC49268@soupnazi.org> <006701c24495$41aeb620$5ae9b5ce@quasi1>
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On Thu, Aug 15, 2002 at 03:51:06PM -0400, Marius Kirschner wrote:
> Thanks to all who replied and recommended Mailman, it does look like
> great product. Now, is it okay to install from the ports or better to
> do it manually?
The answer to that is always going to be "install from ports". After
all, installing from ports does everything you would do for a manual
install, and then some. The extra stuff you get by using ports is
this:
i) Automation: all of the chore of finding the source code,
downloading it, verifying the checksum, unpacking, patching,
configuring, compiling and installing can be reduced to a two
word command: make install
ii) Packaging: the ports system keeps track of exactly what files
get installed, the checksums of those files and where they are
in the file system. This makes it a breeze to diagnose
problems when someone or something manages to munge a crucial
file. It also makes it feasible to delete the whole lot ---
something that is hard to get right if you have to do it
manually.
iii) Patching: you can exploit the knowlege and experience of
hundreds of taleneted programmers who put a lot of time and
effort into smoothing over the inevitable rough edges and
niggles in even the best software package. They also fix
things that aren't really bugs --- just not the BSD way: such
things as making sure all files are installed under the
specified prefix and not spread all over the filesystem.
iv) Dependency management: very many software packages rely on the
presence of certain other files or programs on the system in
order to function correctly. The ports system keeps track of
all this dependency information and will automatically install
whatever is required to make your package work.
v) Security: Remember the incident a few weeks ago when the
openssh source code was replaced with a trojaned version on the
main download sites --- http://www.openssh.org/txt/trojan.adv ?
If you had happened to build openssh from ports during the
timeframe of the incident, you would have been clearly warned
that the md5 checksum on the source code you downloaded was not
what was expected. Because the ports system maintains it's
database of checksums separately from any of the source code
it's almost impossible to trick the ports into building
something unexpected.
vi) Maintenance: the ports system is continually updated to reflect
the latest developments of thousands of software projects.
With the help of a couple of software packages (easily
installed from ports, of course) you can easily update your
system to reflect those new developments and easily update your
installed ports to the latest versions.
Persuaded?
Cheers,
Matthew
--
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 26 The Paddocks
Savill Way
Tel: +44 1628 476614 Marlow
Fax: +44 0870 0522645 Bucks., SL7 1TH UK
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