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

[andre999]

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