Re: [gentoo-user] No mailer for Gentoo???

[Jarry]

On 06-Sep-13 18:56, Alan McKinnon wrote:
> On 06/09/2013 18:21, Canek Peláez Valdés wrote:
>> On Fri, Sep 6, 2013 at 11:14 AM, Canek Peláez Valdés <caneko@×××××.com> wrote:
>>> On Fri, Sep 6, 2013 at 10:51 AM, Jarry <mr.jarry@×××××.com> wrote:
>>>> On 06-Sep-13 17:32, Michael Orlitzky wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> On 09/06/2013 11:23 AM, Jarry wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> It wasn't part of @system before, you just removed the thing that pulled
>>>>>>> it in.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> No I did not. mail-mta/ssmtp was part of stage3. And I did not
>>>>>> remove now any "thing" that pulled it in. All I did was
>>>>>> "emerge --ask --update --deep --newuse world".
>>>>>>
>>>>>> As a result, python-exec, python-argparse and libxml2 were
>>>>>> reinstalled and automake-wrapper, gtk-doc-am, eselect and
>>>>>> linux-header updated. Nothing else.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> After that I did "emerge --depclean" and the above mentioned
>>>>>> packages were suddenly removed...
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> It could be that a package's deps were updated to no longer include
>>>>> virtual/mta. But it was never part of @system, you can check for yourself:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> http://sources.gentoo.org/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi/gentoo-x86/profiles/base/packages?view=log
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Then something got broken because I have packages installed
>>>> that need mailer (i.e. app-admin/monit or sys-fs/mdadm are
>>>> configured to send emails). And these packages do not have
>>>> "mail" use-flag, because their maintainers apparently expect
>>>> standard *nix mailer (/usr/bin/sendmail) exists on the system...
>>>>
>>>> So now I have "stable" system, updated to the latest level,
>>>> where a lot of things suddenly do not work. This should *never*
>>>> happen! If it was some package's dep that caused it, it's clear
>>>> this change was premature...
>>>
>>> I think is a bug in the packages. In my system the only package that
>>> pulls vitual/mta (and therefore ssmtp) is vixie-cron.
>>
>> The change happened in the cron eclass:
>>
>> http://sources.gentoo.org/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi/gentoo-x86/eclass/cron.eclass?r1=1.15&r2=1.16
>>
>>  From the commit log: "Per extensive discussion with zmedico about
>> removing the need for package.provided, several packages have been
>> changed, like sudo, to not explicitly require an mta. Cron will
>> follow, leaving mta support optional."
>>
>> The rationale (I suppose) is that the programs in question still work,
>> just the sending of emails fails.
>>
>> Good riddance, if you ask me. If you need/want an MTA, just install
>> ssmtp by hand.
>
>
> Agreed. It's a bit daft relying on a cron daemon to be the only package
> pulling in a mailer. One can't even argue that it makes sense as a
> default - cron merely has this feature to notify the root user if a cron
> job wrote something to STDOUT.
>
> That's a notification. It is not an absolute need to have sendmail.
>
> If you want a syslogger, install a syslogger.
> If you want a print server, install a print server.
> Likewise, if you want a mailer, install one.

If I want syslog-support, I add "syslog" to USE.
If I want ssl-support, I add "ssl" to USE.
If I want perl-support, I add "perl" to USE.
If I want mta-support, I add... wait, no! I can not add "mta"
to USE, I have to install mta manually...

Got the picture now?

Jarry
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