From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Oct 28 08:40:38 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 4B470106566B for ; Wed, 28 Oct 2009 08:40:38 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bennett@cs.niu.edu) Received: from mp.cs.niu.edu (mp.cs.niu.edu [131.156.145.41]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2068F8FC17 for ; Wed, 28 Oct 2009 08:40:37 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mp.cs.niu.edu (bennett@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mp.cs.niu.edu (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id n9S8e5og028496; Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:40:05 -0500 (CDT) Date: Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:40:05 -0500 (CDT) From: Scott Bennett Message-Id: <200910280840.n9S8e5sG028495@mp.cs.niu.edu> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, Gonzalo Nemmi Cc: 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: Wed, 28 Oct 2009 08:40:38 -0000 On Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:03:12 -0200 Gonzalo Nemmi wrote: >On Tuesday 27 October 2009 4:32:45 pm Erik Norgaard wrote: >> Jonathan McKeown wrote: >> > Just as a matter of interest, if you want to rip sendmail out of >> > the base system, which MTA would you like to replace it with? Or >> > are you suggesting the system ship with no way to handle mail? >> >> This thread moving of topic from OP, but it is always fair to debate >> what should be considered a base system. Is an MTA a requirement or a >> remnant from history? > >Dear Erik: > >Contrary to your belief the thread isn't moving of topic from OP, it's >just taking the same default route it has been taking for ages: Just so. >1) telling the OP the OS needs an MTA >2) telling the OP he can replace the default MTA >3) telling the OP he can remove given MTA from base >4) telling the OP about "historical reason" This item has been neglected thus far in the current iteration of this topic. The *historical* distinction that places sendmail squarely in the base system and also relegates all other MTAs to ports is this: sendmail was written for, and has been part of, BSD UNIX since the earliest TCP/IP releases of BSD UNIX (4.1BSD or perhaps even 4.0cBSD), whereas the rest were not and have not been. >5) Not telling the OP why has FreeBSD has left so many historical reason >behind to persuit new goals but retained Sendmail as the default >MTA "for historical reasons". > >Sorry .. but that's the way it goes every time someone asks the same >question. > And George Santayana's famous dictum may well apply even in this case. :) Scott Bennett, Comm. ASMELG, CFIAG ********************************************************************** * Internet: bennett at cs.niu.edu * *--------------------------------------------------------------------* * "A well regulated and disciplined militia, is at all times a good * * objection to the introduction of that bane of all free governments * * -- a standing army." * * -- Gov. John Hancock, New York Journal, 28 January 1790 * **********************************************************************