cvs commit: ports/mail/procmail Makefile

[Matthias Andree]

Am 30.08.2011 17:24, schrieb Julian H. Stacey:
> Matthias Andree wrote:
>> Am 30.08.2011 10:23, schrieb Sunpoet Po-Chuan Hsieh:
>>> sunpoet     2011-08-30 08:23:18 UTC
>>>
>>>   FreeBSD ports repository
>>>
>>>   Modified files:
>>>     mail/procmail        Makefile 
>>>   Log:
>>>   - Take maintainership
>>>   
>>>   Revision  Changes    Path
>>>   1.60      +1 -1      ports/mail/procmail/Makefile
>>
>> I was just about to grab the port, deprecate and set two months
>> expiration date.
> 
> Sorry No, it would be most irresponsible to consider a timeout of
> 2 months !  Procmail has been compiling regularly, working fine &
> vitaly necessary here for a decade.  If one were considering to
> toss out such a vital tool, one should give a warning of a release or 2. (*)

It should have been tossed out half a decade ago, but if people feel
it's so hard to migrate away from it we should extend the period.

But we should really deprecate dead software.

> It's not hard to use, Read the manual & learn. Examples
> 	http://www.berklix.com/~jhs/dots/.procmailrc

WARNING - DO NOT USE THOSE.

Essentially all those examples have no error handling for delivering
recipes (see my earlier post in this thread for a remedy that limits
usefulness of some recipes), but the all-too-typical problem that in
temporary disk-full condition, mail can end up anywhere, because
procmail silently proceeds to the next recipe after the previous one has
failed.

And that's extactly the reason why procmail must die.  I don't mean to
disrupt existing installations, but I do mean to discourage new ones.

>> DEPRECATED=		use mail/maildrop instead
> 
> No,
> 
>> EXPIRATION_DATE=	2011-10-31
> 
> (*)
> Irresponsible lack of warning !

No need, we can bump the PORTREVISION so it appears on the users' radars.

> Lots of users of releases dont even read ports@
> ( Reminds me of the Hitch Hikers Guide episode where the vogons
> come to destroy the earth, & claim due warning was lodged in Alpha Centauri ;-)

We're not trying to build an Intergalactic Expressway through Earth
though, but my goal is to prevent nasty surprises.  Once you have the
necessary error handling in place in your .procmailrc, a .mailfilter
file of equal usefulness in maildrop is shorter and more concise.