From owner-freebsd-questions Thu Aug 15 14: 4:33 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.FreeBSD.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A206237B400 for ; Thu, 15 Aug 2002 14:04:29 -0700 (PDT) Received: from smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk [81.2.69.218]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6E89143E6A for ; Thu, 15 Aug 2002 14:04:27 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: from happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk ([IPv6:::1]) by smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (8.12.5/8.12.5) with ESMTP id g7FKuCYk011753; Thu, 15 Aug 2002 21:56:12 +0100 (BST) (envelope-from matthew@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: (from matthew@localhost) by happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk (8.12.5/8.12.5/Submit) id g7FKu7wF011752; Thu, 15 Aug 2002 21:56:07 +0100 (BST) Date: Thu, 15 Aug 2002 21:56:07 +0100 From: Matthew Seaman To: Marius Kirschner Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Mailman [was: RE: list manager] Message-ID: <20020815205607.GA11469@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophi> References: <20020815173406.GC49268@soupnazi.org> <006701c24495$41aeb620$5ae9b5ce@quasi1> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <006701c24495$41aeb620$5ae9b5ce@quasi1> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.1i Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG 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 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message