[Mageia-dev] [RFC] msec (nail) can't send reports to local users accounts - require an MTA?

Wed Sep 28 21:31:25 CEST 2011

Samuel Verschelde a écrit :
+> Le mercredi 28 septembre 2011 15:02:32, Balcaen John a écrit :
+>    
+>> Le Mercredi 28 Septembre 2011 14:42:56 Samuel Verschelde a écrit :
+>>      
+>>> Le mercredi 28 septembre 2011 14:40:46, Florian Hubold a écrit :
+>>>        
+>>>> So if nobody objects or sees other problem with this, i'll modify
+>>>> the defaults in /etc/security/msec/level.* to not send email by
+>>>> default and making dma a suggest for msec.
+>>>>          
+>>> As I said in the other thread, I think sendmail-command is a better
+>>> suggest than forcing the use of dma.
+>>>        
+>> Well it's just  a suggests not a requires.
+>> Also suggesting sendmail-command would requires the user to first choose
+>> one of  the possible alternative ( ssmtp,postfix, sendmail,mstmp or dma
+>> actually but we can still expect to have more mta for the end user)
+>> which is by default currently postfix.
+>> Even if i personally find quite easy to configure postfix we can still
+>> expect than the end user can probably mis configured the mta,&  configure
+>> it (wrongly) as an open relay.
+>> Suggesting something like dma or mstmp or ssmtp is for msec is (from my
+>> point of view) far better than providing a « real » mta.
+>>
+>>
+>>      
+> In fact, we could have dma by default while letting other people choose
+> another mail server and thus not install dma.
+>
+> During a system installation, no question is asked, the first choice is always
+> taken. This first choice could be made to be dma. This is something we can
+> change in the meta-task package (/etc/urpmi/prefer.vendor.list).
+>
+> Of course, this would mean than any package requiring sendmail-command would
+> see dma first in the list. I don't know if it would be a good think or not. I
+> tend to think yes, because for standard users dma will be preferred whereas
+> experience admins will choose the MTA they want.
+>
+> So if we had not an update to issue, this would be my choice. Suggest
+> sendmail-command and make sure that dma is preferred when there's an automatic
+> selection.
+>
+> If what I say here makes sense, maybe in Mageia 1 msec could suggest dma and
+> in Cauldron sendmail-command, + we would alter meta-task ? If not, then let's
+> go for dma and forget my comments.
+>
+> Best regards
+>
+> Samuel
+>    
+
+I have a slightly different take on this
+Note that
+1) If we send emails to root and they aren't noticed and removed, they 
+will accumulate and eventually occupy a lot of disk space.  As well, it 
+is evident that most users won't know what to make of much of msec's 
+messages.  If a user sets an email address, local or remote, they are 
+presumably more likely to know what these messages mean.
+Setting a no-email default for all levels is simpler than doing it 
+selectively by "level"
+
+2) dma is very small, only 64k, and if another MTA is installed, dma 
+lets the other handle the function.  So users can install another MTA, 
+and dma will be ignored.  If dma is always installed, then it will 
+always be available if another MTA has been installed and subsequently 
+uninstalled.
+
+3) In the longer term, it seems to me a good idea to have a local-only 
+MTA integrated in msec, as suggested by Frank.
+
+So I go for the proposed solution of
+1) Changing the msec default to not send email by default
+
+but
+2) making a requires for dma (instead of suggest), so that it is always 
+installed.
+
+and
+3) If/when a local-only MTA is integrated in msec, we remove the 
+requires for dma.
+
+my 2 cents :)
+
+-- 
+André
+
+