Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Wed, 05 Apr 2017 16:13:09 -0700
From:      "Chris H" <bsd-lists@bsdforge.com>
To:        <freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: Sendmail conf files
Message-ID:  <0ce8655a2bcddc3b5b0e226fa90fd1f8@ultimatedns.net>
In-Reply-To: <bc93b4e267644d6e83cd6ffb76c185fa@SERVER.ad.usd-group.com>
References:  <481fef207e2e457cb4f8a689d0ce4373@SERVER.ad.usd-group.com> <20170403235624.GA94548@FreeBSD.org>, <bc93b4e267644d6e83cd6ffb76c185fa@SERVER.ad.usd-group.com>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Tue, 4 Apr 2017 08:14:18 +0000 Matt Churchyard via freebsd-hackers
<freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org> wrote

> ----- Matt Churchyard's Original Message -----
> > Hello,
> > 
> > Not sure if this is the right list for this..
> > 
> > For me the most awkward part of updating a system using freebsd-update is
> > when it comes to merging files. The most common files that pop up seem to
be
> > /etc/mail/sendmail.cf & /etc/mail/submit.cf, because these are included in
> > the base distribution and almost certainly change if you actually use
> > Sendmail. 
>
> >   Simply don't use the same names.... in /etc/make.conf:
> 
> > SENDMAIL_MC = /etc/mail/prodconf.mc
> 
> >   and the .cf file(s) will be regenerated.
> 
> >YMMV,
> >Cheers
> 
> I appreciate the response and could use that method on my own systems
> (although I probably won't need to now as I pretty much always use Postfix).
> It doesn't really solve the original issue though. 
>
> It's not exactly ideal to tell all users they should edit /etc/make.conf just
> so they can use Sendmail and not have to mess about with cf files on every
> upgrade. (To be honest I got to the point where I used to just accept the
> merge even though it left errors in the config file, then went and ran
> /etc/mail/make to re-create everything. For a user that's easier that trying
> to merge files in a terminal editor). As I said there is/has been a large
> effort to make sure users don't have to edit base config files in FreeBSD so
> that base can be updated without affecting user config or requiring merging.
> Unless there's some awkward issue I'm not aware of, I don't really see why
> the two .cf files are included in base in the first place, rather than
> generated at runtime. 
>
> I didn't really post this to fix my own problem, I'm just trying to suggest
> something that may make upgrades easier for everyone. When running
> freebsd-update these cf files are some of the very few files that regularly
> require manual intervention. 
>
> Matt
Include it/them in /etc/mergemaster.rc, as IGNORE_FILES?

eg;

IGNORE_FILES='/etc/mail/sendmail.cf /etc/mail/submit.cf /some/other/file'

Just a thought && HTH!

--Chris
> 
> > In most cases this sort of issue has been solved by providing "default
> > files" such as /etc/defaults/rc.conf, and letting the user override this
with
> > files they create themselves. Obviously there is a concerted effort to make
> > sure users don't have to edit base files where possible so that they don't
> > get these sort of issues. 
> > 
> > For Sendmail, would it not make sense to remove these 2 .cf files from base
> > and update the sendmail rc.d script to run 'make install' in /etc/mail if
> > they don't exist? It may also be nice if the freebsd.* files were stored
> > somewhere else such as /usr/share/sendmail, as these just causes confusion
> > about which files are actually used if you're new to it. 
> > 
> > Personally I'm on the side that would rather have Sendmail removed entirely
> > and replaced with a simple smtp submission daemon/lda but I think that
> > discussion has already been had. 
> > 
> > -
> > 
> > Matt Churchyard





Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?0ce8655a2bcddc3b5b0e226fa90fd1f8>