But it's in contrib, there is an alternative in main => what's the problem?
The problem is while I'm a Mandrake monkey and can handle the misisng package other SA's who just want a fully shipped distro don't want to have to 1) ask for it 2) look for it 3) get it 4) install it. They want basic things like nfs-network browsing to WORK out of the box.... we CANNOT do that on mandrake as it ships. I have to add this as an add-on post-install. Also, since I added it make the list of crap I have to "watch for security related problems" bigger.
Well, if am-utils is better, it should replace autofs in main (autofs can go to contrib). But, AFAIK, there is no alternative for uucp, and packages in main (postfix) contain entries in the default config for it (thus you kind of expect it to be available ...).
When mandrake had them both I used them both (I still use them both but I have to add am-utils myself) I used autofs for NIS mappings. But since It's limited to having maps for mounting, I needed am-utils for on the fly dynamic nfs browsing. If autofs was removed I'd use am-utils for both... but autofs can't do both... so I have to add am-utils.
BTW, I haven't used am-utils, only autofs, but does anyone know if am-utils has ldapv3 support (autofs at present only has ldapv2 support, and this makes connections to openldap-2.1.x not work out-the-box).
If mandrake ditched autofs for am-utils I'd be happy and just use that.
-- Bryan Whitehead SysAdmin - JPL - Interferometry and Large Optical Systems Phone: 818 354 2903 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
