Re: Problem with dependency handling in debian (driving me crazy!)
On 26-Jun-04, 09:34 (CDT), Jos? Ildefonso Camargo Tolosa <icamargo@merkurio.com.ve> wrote:
> Hi!
> + There should not be "hard" conflicts between packages wich provides
> the same service, for example: If I'm deciding wich MTA use (exim,
> postfix, qmail, any other compiled from source code), I can only install
> one of them at the time, no matter that there are not files conflicting
> between them, I should be able to install all of them, if I wanted to,
> and only enable one at the time (and anyway, what if I want to have
> three of them on different ports?, it should be my problem, off course,
> there should be a warning (to save us from newbies on *nix systems)).
To "save us from newbies" is *exactly* why the conflict exists. It's not
just a matter of using the same files (/usr/sbin/sendmail), there's port
issues, there's spool file issues, etc. It's been discussed extensively,
and the general conclusion has been that anyone who has the need and
knowledge to run multiple mail servers or ftp servers or whatever also
has the knowledge to build the packages from source and configure them
by hand. In particular, writing the appropriate scripts to guide a
newbie[1] through configuring an MTA is hard enough; doing it in such a
way as to deal with multiple MTAs is likely to be confusing, buggy, and
most importantly not really what the user needs anyway: the reasons for
running multiple MTAs are so rare and unique that doing it by hand is
probably more convenient than working around maintainer scripts.
Steve
[1] Not even necessarily Unix/Linux newbies, but MTA newbies: I had many
years of Unix user/programming experience before I ever had to deal with
setting up a mail system.
--
Steve Greenland
The irony is that Bill Gates claims to be making a stable operating
system and Linus Torvalds claims to be trying to take over the
world. -- seen on the net
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