Re: kissing exim
On Sun, Feb 17, 2002 at 07:43:35AM +0000, Anthony Rowe wrote:
> On Sun, Feb 17, 2002 at 02:42:15AM -0800, Joseph Carter wrote:
>
> > On Sun, Feb 17, 2002 at 05:59:31AM +0000, Anthony Rowe wrote:
> > > Debian installs with Exim as the default mta but many users (especially
> > > dial-up users) only need the mta to hand their mail to a smarthost.
> > > sSMTP is easily configured to hand over outgoing mail to an ISP's smtp
> > > server, since that is the only thing sSMTP does. Exim is very difficult
> > > to configure to do this (even by selecting option #2 for dialup in
> > > eximconfig).
> >
> > An easy Debian installation project might ignore this in favor of giving
> > you a more intelligent wizard-type thing for setting up mail on your
> > system and use ssmtp when it's all that's needed and exim/postfix/whatever
> > when a bigger MTA is called for. But for the most part Debian's policies
> > are better followed than not and ssmtp might belong better in a dialup
> > networking task.
>
> A dialup networking task is what I would like to see here. Configuring
> Exim to hand mail to a smarthost proved to be too difficult for me. The
> questions in Eximconfig option #2 for dialup when answered to the best
> of my ability, always failed to generate a good configuration for Exim.
> The best I ever managed was to have Exim configured to behave as though
> my box was my ISP. Editing the Exim config file by hand was a daunting
> task because so many config options deal with issues that I have no clue
> about. sSMTP writes a good configuration for my purposes, by asking only
> three clear questions. It should be possible for eximconfig to do the
> same - if "dialup" is chosen as the config option.
>
> My problem is more with the choice of tool than with exim's quality
> (which I do not question) or with eximconfig's useability (which I
> should file a bug against - if I was chiefly concerned with using exim).
> In keeping with the unix way of having many small applications to do
> specific tasks, a dialup user (especially a newbie) should indeed be
> able to select a task such as "dialup" and then select the mta best
> suited to their needs. Mail is a basic function for a networked box and
> a newbie, having selected "dialup" should be able to have an mta that is
> "right" for the selected task - configured and functional with ease.
> sSMTP may be a better choice than Exim in this case.
The problem is that it's not possible inside Debian, for the reason
explained in the mail you're responding to, and in the part you've cut ;)
What are the three simple questions asked by sSMTP ?
We could add a new entry to the main eximconfig menu "Simple configuration of
a dialup machine", and ask them. Using these answers to generate a valid
exim.conf should be easy for the exim gurus around there.
You would have to answer 4 questions before of 3, but we can do it without
changing the policy ;)
Bye, Mt.
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