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Default mail-transport-agent



Hi Debian dudes!

In Ubuntu we've had a discussion about setting a default mta[1].

For purposes of consistency, I believe it would be a good idea if any
package that states a dependency on mail-transport-agent would also
state a (the same, of course) preferred package providing
mail-transport-agent, too.  This ensures that all users who have no
preferred mta gets the same mta.  This eases the support and
documentation burden significantly, while still allowing the user to
install a different mta if he/she has a personal preference.

However, since it's not likely that Debian and all its derivatives is
going to agree on a preferred mta (Debian has traditionally preferred
exim4, while Ubuntu traditionally has preferred postfix, just to name a
few), it has been suggested to add a meta package (called
default-mail-transport-agent or something to that effect) that each
distribution can choose to make depend on its preferred mta. That limits
the delta the derivatives will need to carry to just that package.  All
packages that currently "Depends: mail-transport-agent" will then be
changed to "Depends: default-mail-transport-agent |
mail-transport-agent".

Thoughts? Flames? Let me have it! :)

[1]: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2007-September/024290.html

-- 
Soren Hansen
Ubuntu Server Team
http://www.ubuntu.com/

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