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Re: [desktop] Installation of mail server by default



On Fri, Mar 28, 2003 at 10:56:17AM +0100, Thomas Viehmann wrote:
> Andreas Metzler wrote:
> > I kind of doubt that it is feasible writing an init-script that works
> > for all MTAs. Take a look at the init-scripts for sendmail and exim4.
> I think the key element is that the ?dm init-scripts check whether or not they
> are the default and base the decision if they start anything or not on that.
> Assuming that the daemons all provide /usr/sbin/sendmail, one could use the
> alternative for /usr/bin/sendmail to check.

Following the Principle of Least Astonishment, the alternatives system
should not be used to make decisions on what daemons to start. I can
also see corner cases where one MTA is supposed to start at boot, but
another one has to provide the sendmail functionality.

A file /etc/default-mail-transport-agent (or /etc/default-mta for short)
could be created, similar to /etc/X11/default-display-manager, and used
in exactly the same way.

Cheers,
Nick

-- 
x----------------------------------------------------------------------x
|              Benford's Corollary to Clarke's Third Law:              |
| Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.|
|              -- Gregory Benford. Foundation's Fear. 1997             |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Nicolas Kratz <nick@ikarus.dyndns.org> <n_kratz@cs.uni-frankfurt.de> |
x----------------------------------------------------------------------x

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