[Mageia-dev] [RFC] prefer dma rather than postfix in prefer.vendor.list for msec mga1 -> mga2 upgrade

[andre999]

Michael Scherer a écrit :
> Le mercredi 09 novembre 2011 à 22:41 +0200, Anssi Hannula a écrit :
>    
>> On 09.11.2011 22:34, Florian Hubold wrote:
>>      
>>> Am 09.11.2011 20:48, schrieb Michael Scherer:
>>>        
>>>> Le mercredi 09 novembre 2011 à 19:38 +0100, Florian Hubold a écrit :
>>>>          
>>>>> Hi there,
>>>>>
>>>>> as Anssi made me aware msec currently has a Requires on
>>>>> sendmail-command for cauldron, this was the outcome of the
>>>>> last discussion about msec / MTA.
>>>>> However, currently in /etc/urpmi/prefer.vendor.list postfix
>>>>> is preferred as sendmail-command and mail-server.
>>>>>
>>>>> Anssi's vote and mine is to replace preference on postfix
>>>>> with dma to ensure users get dma installed with the
>>>>> upgrade from Mageia 1 ->   2 and not postfix which needs
>>>>> configuration.
>>>>>            
>>>> What configuration ?
>>>> AFAIK, Postfix work out of the box for the use case of msec/cron, mail
>>>> sent to root are delivered to root mailbox, unless someone added a
>>>> aliase.
>>>>
>>>>          
>>>>>  From a quick look at dma, it behave the same ( ie, it take aliase from
>>>>>            
>>>> the same file, thus requiring the same configuration, or needing the
>>>> same declaration of a smart host ).
>>>>
>>>> Wouldn't it be better to send everything to /var/log if no mta are
>>>> found ?
>>>> ( ie, do something like that :
>>>> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/NoMTA ). We have the proper
>>>> version of cronie ( I hope ), so what prevent us ?
>>>>
>>>>          
>>> msec already sends everything also to /var/log, which was disregarded
>>> in last discussion because normal users don't look there and it
>>> slowly adds up on diskspace.
>>>        
>> Normal users also do not read local mailboxes and the mailboxes slowly
>> add up on diskspace.
>>      
> And log files can be rotated, unlike mailboxes. Maybe the log are not
> rotated on the other hand, so that's a bug that could/should be fixed,
> if that's the case.
>    
Since log files are rotated and compressed, it is a lot better to avoid 
duplicating all that detail to mailboxes, where it is not compressed, 
accumulates indefinitely if not removed by user action.
(On my system log files have always been properly rotated.)

> What we could do is either :
> - install nothing by default
> - install postfix/dma/whatever by a drakwizard if/when user give a email
> for msec alert.
>    

I have tended to favour installing dma, as personally I like being 
notified, but I'm beginning to think that we need another solution.
> Maybe another solution would be to make msec smarter and not spew 100
> lines per hours. I am all for msec but as I say often, this look like a
> Homer Simpson invention.

That I agree with totally.
Summaries to the mailing list (like x packages updated, y removed, z 
added), with references to log would be much better.
The defaults for the standard level are a bit ridiculous also.  How many 
users care about which applications listen on ports ?  (Which is usually 
only Internet.)

Maybe a better alternative (by default) would be to send a persistant 
alert to the screen, which refers to the log file.  And maybe has a link 
to view the detail in the log file.
The current alert disappears automatically after a few seconds, so is 
very easily missed.  (Especially since it runs at 4 in the morning, at 
least on my system.)
With a persistant alert, I wouldn't need email notification.
(I'm not running a server.)

It might be an idea for msec to store these alerts (of not more than a 
few lines each) in a special file, until each is acknowledged.  Every 
new alert appears in a window on the screen, with all unacknowledged 
previous alerts.  The window stays there until closed.  Much like a 
dedicated mailing list without headers, and very compact.  With the 
detail going to the logs.
The more I think about it, I would very much prefer this sort of default 
solution.
Just an idea :)
>
> WDYT ?
>    
-- 
André