Why is sendmail is part of the system and not a package?

[Gary Kline]

On Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 06:34:35PM +0000, RW wrote:
> On Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:08:24 +0200
> Giorgos Keramidas <keramida at ceid.upatras.gr> wrote:
> 
> 
> > What is nice about Sendmail today is that with minimal changes to a
> > base FreeBSD installation (the rc.conf(5) variable called
> > "sendmail_enable" and a SMART_HOST value in sendmail.mc) one can
> > quickly get up and running with a local-only MTA that:
> > 
> 
> sendmail_enable exposes sendmail to the world. You don't need
> to set anything for a local relay. 
> 
> 
> > Having a local MTA, even in a SOHO network may be useful.  Instead of
> > going through the same hoops to configure 4 different email clients,
> > you can set up the local MTA and tell all your local mailer programs
> > "send any of your messages to `localhost' and they will be delivered
> > as usual".
> 
> It's also potentially a  useful interface for spammers and viruses
> that bypasses remote authentication, in particular if the MTA is
> misconfigured as an open-relay.


	I may as well offer my dime's worth since I have used and
	fought-with sendmail sinve FreeBSD-2.0.5.   I bought the book;
	it is super-dense.  Still, sendmail, with it's horrible
	complexity and remaining bug [!] has knobs that its authors
	have forgotten.

	How about this: A small bunch of us get together and write up
	(say) 50 pages of readable material with examples.  I'll be
	one of the few [3 to 5] writers.  There very well may be
	better MTAs out there, but at least sendmail works!

	gary


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-- 
 Gary Kline  kline at thought.org  http://www.thought.org  Public Service Unix
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