Re: [DEBIAN] Why does sendmail depend on procmail?
Hi,
>>"Scott" == Scott Ellis <storm@gate.net> writes:
Scott> On Tue, 7 Oct 1997, Michael Meskes wrote:
>> How about creating a virtual package mda that's provided by
>> both. Also both should use update-alternatives to create a binary
>> (link) that's called mda (or so). This binary may then be called by
>> sendmail via sendmail.cf.
Scott> Before this, sendmail depended on deliver or procmail. This
Scott> however created a situation where procmail could be replaced by
Scott> deliver (or the other way around) without the sendmail config
Scott> changing. This would break mail setups rather silently.
Unless both procmail and deliver delivered a wrapper
/usr/bin/mda using update alternatives. The wrapper shall have a
common interface.
Scott> The problem with making an "mda" link is that procmail and
Scott> deliver don't support the same option set. They are not really
Scott> alternative interfaces (like mawk and gawk for instance), but
Scott> two different programs that accomplish the same thing.
Scott> Sendmail needs to know which one it is using.
This is handled by the wrapper solution above. So technically,
it *is* possible to have any number of packages delivering the
virtual package mds, and still have sendmail not break or have
different sendmail.cf files.
manoj
--
Conceptual integrity in turn dictates that the design must proceed
from one mind, or from a very small number of agreeing resonant
minds. Frederick Brooks Jr., "The Mythical Man Month"
Manoj Srivastava <url:mailto:srivasta@acm.org>
Mobile, Alabama USA <url:http://www.datasync.com/%7Esrivasta/>
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