Reasons for ikeeping an MTA (was Re: Ubuntu is under attack)

Derek Broughton news at pointerstop.ca
Tue Dec 20 15:48:08 UTC 2005


Dick Davies wrote:

> On 20/12/05, Tim Frost <timfrost at xtra.co.nz> wrote:
> 
>> If no MTA is installed by default, I *can* guarantee that *all* mail
>> messages that installed utilities attempt to generate *MUST* go
>> to /dev/null, as there is no tool to send them anywhere else.  This may
>> be fine for a user who only has M$ as a reference poijt, but the idea
>> does NOT pass muster for anybody who has ever administered any *ix
>> system.
> 
> Can you explain where these essential emails are going to go?
> Because unless you configure it, they'll go to roots mailspool. Which
> isn't going to be checked anyway.

Surely that is a requirement of the 'cron' (or any other app that sends
email) postinst script.  It is, after all, a cron parameter and exactly the
sort of thing we usually use debconf for.

Some have said that we don't need an MTA _just_ for cron, but the fact is
that cron is one specific app that _is_ installed and needs to be able to
send mail.  Any app that needs to send mail also needs to either force a
dependency on _an_ MTA or have an alternative method of notifying a user. 
The real error here is that cron can be installed in such a way that it
_doesn't_ provide any notification.  If that's fixed in a way that doesn't
involve an MTA some people are going to be annoyed, but it would at least
be consistent.
-- 
derek





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