Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
So you are saying that the configuration should be changed to one that helps a few people of the people that want to run a mail server, while making it harder the people that do not need it, and makes no difference to most people that are going to run a mail server.
No, I'm saying it should be easy to make it do what you want in the same way RH/fedora configurations make it easy to use other network services like sshd without having to write your own configuration or edit one that was built to make a network service not use the network.
> It makes more sense to have a configuration that works for
most people.
"Most" people were only using linux for servers back when this setup was created. Regardless, that's not the point. Some people need a real name server, some need a caching version, some don't need any. You can accommodate all of those choices with RedHat-style packaging and commands.
> And it does work for most machines that are not mail
servers. (Are you trying to say most machines are configured as mail servers, not counting delivering locally generated mail?)
I'm saying that if someone, somewhere doesn't have a mail server for you, you aren't going to find mail very useful. Why do you want to make it difficult for that person even if it isn't you?
Regardless of what kind of configuration is shipped, it is not going to work for most people running a mail server without changes.
Why do you think that a mail server that works in one place could not work with the same configuration in many places? Now that almost all client programs speak authenticated smtps, a canned server that authenticates with your system PAM setup would be as portable as sshd.
You talk about shipping "expertly built working configuations". Maybe if you defined what they should be, there could be packages containing those configurations for people that need them.
If I were an expert, I wouldn't be complaining about having to write my own configuration to get something that works at all. What I'm saying is that someone else could have done it better - like they have done for sshd, httpd, etc. and it would be easier to discuss and solve problems if everyone started from the same working setup.
Something like the caching-nameserver package for Bind.
Ahh, so you do understand what is missing... -- Les Mikesell lesmikesell@xxxxxxxxx
