Leigh Jones writes:

I don't want to tread on toes too very hard here.

It seems to me that Sam Varshavchik has been clear here, but the brevity 
with which he has spoken belies the depth of meaning.

So let me attempt to expound.

If you come from the background of running a very "tiny" linux 
implementation, as in not particularly well supported, you may miss entirely 
the strength of a very "large" linux implementation.

FSF software can be compiled and run with some degree of success on a Debian 
system.  But to make full use of the Debian linux implementation you need to 
"hook in" to the full strength of the Debian organization.

Debian has locations for system files that it considers to be "just so".  As 
soon as you start compiling FSF programs over the top of Debian linux you 
will start to misplace files.  For instance, openssl wants all of the 
certificate files that it uses to be located in a particular place, and the 
default location for these certificate files is decided at compile time. 
Type "openssl version -d".  If you compile the openssl program yourself, you 
can manage that location with command line options, and put it where you 
want it.  But if you haven't carefully studied the Debian party line you 
probably won't know where that is.  So if you use apt-get to grab openssl 
from the Debian servers you will get back "/usr/lib/ssl" in response to 
"openssl version -d", but if you try the same thing with an RPM package for 
Red Hat on a Red Hat system you'll get a different directory.

Now, Sam Varshavchik could probably quote you verse and line on where Debian 
puts all the files in a Courier e-mail server and would probably tell you 
why he wishes they would accept the default locations.  But Debian puts 
Courier here and Apache there and Apache-SSL somewhere else, and all the 
files would probably be found in a different location on Red Hat.  Then 
Debian builds packages for apt so that they locate everything just so.  So 
if you keep on installing the required software using apt-get or Synaptic 
Package Manager or Debian's Update Manager, then you will keep getting 
software packages that don't have any conflicts on installation, and you 
will have fewer copies of libraries all over everywhere.  That gets to be 
important, because the library updates need to be managed to prevent that 
updating one software package doesn't break another.

Debian does this extremely well, and has more FSF software available on 
their servers than any other linux implementation.  And a number of popular 
linux implementations such as Ubuntu are essentially Debian at heart, so 
packages from the Debian servers may work pretty well on Ubuntu.

Red Hat, and of the "nearly Red Hat" implementations such as Centos also do 
it very well, but the choice of RPM packages that are ready to go might not 
allow you to run Courier.  Well, frankly, Debian doesn't really allow you to 
run the most current version of Courier using apt-get, etc.  They won't 
update my Debian Etch Courier 0.53.3 right now, anyway, and I sure would 
like the Courier 0.57 stuff instead.  Oh well.  Nothing's perfect, but 
frankly working within the system seems pretty smart with Debian.

I can tell you that Apache with Openssl and Courier with Openssl work 
straight out of the box without doing any compiling using Debian and 
apt-get.  And before too long Debian will get around to providing more 
current versions of Courier.

Lydiard writes:

> ----- Message from [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------
>> Lydiard writes:
>>
>>> I am running debian
>>> I downloaded the source of courier-imap-4.2.1
>>> I unpacked it as a user
>>> All commands that I've run to date have been as non-root
>>>
>>> I am using these flags
>>> CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/include/openssl -I/usr/local/include/openssl"
>>
>> Why?
>
> God, I've missed you :)
>
>> Why are you not using Debian's OpenSSL package?
>
> Cos Apache wouldn't compile with it

And why do you want to compile Apache? Debian also has a perfectly fine
Apache package.

>> The standard OpenSSL library does not get installed in /usr/local. This
>> must be some custom version of OpenSSL that you installed, and it's not
>> built correctly. OpenSSL must be built as a shared library, not as a
>> static library.
>
> I'm starting to think it may be the version/installation of make

No, it's not.

> that's the issue - postfix is choking as well (but not on the TLS).

Maybe, but if the compile gets to the linking stage, it'll choke on it in
exactly the same way.

>> You need to clean up your system and remove all duplicate libraries and
>> binaries that you installed yourself, that conflict with existing
>> Debian packages, and are giving you these problems for no good reason.
>> Debian has perfectly working OpenSSL runtime and development libraries,
>> and there is no good reason to waste your time installing some mutated
>> version of OpenSSL into /usr/local.
>>
>> Just use the standard Debian software libraries to build your code.
>
> Sam - tbh, if that's your opinion, I'm inclined to go with it.  And
> whilst it's not your problem, what will happen to Apache if I rip out
> the OpenSSL?

Debian should not let you rip out openssl if you have Apache installed,
because Apache requires OpenSSL.



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