On 6 Apr 1998, Adam P. Harris wrote: > Hugo Haas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > > > However, when the MTA package is removed, the symlinks aren't restored. We > > need to call manually update-alternatives --auto (I don't think it would > > be sensible to ask all MTA maintainers to use alternative just for the > > sSMTP package). Therefore, /usr/sbin/sendmail won't exist anymore, and the > > user is not warned by dpkg about this. > > > > Would it be a clean way to use a configuration script, ssmtpconfig say, > > which would ask if ssmtp should be used as a sendmail (update-alternatives > > --install) or not (update-alternatives --remove)? Well, if the user > > installs and then removes another MTA, he will have to rerun the script, > > but I don't see any other solution... > > Well, ask at install time in the postinst script. Then in the postrm > script, check the file system state (i.e., if sendmail is diverted and > nothing is at /usr/sbin/sendmail) and restore it reasonable like > before the package was installed. You'd have to be careful in the > postinst/postrm scripts to make sure that you don't have > divert/undivert at the wrong times (i.e., error-unroll, upgrade, etc > etc). Cf the maintainer script skeletons that were posted here > earlier.
Sorry, my explanation was not clear (or perhaps I didn't quite understand your solution). The problem (with update-alternatives stuff and a ssmtpconfig script) appears in the following sequence: * installation ssmtp package: ask in postinst script if sendmail has to be diverted (assume answer here is yes, otherwise there's no problem) -> /usr/sbin/sendmail is a symlink to /usr/sbin/ssmtp * installation of sendmail package (for instance) dpkg is overwriting /usr/sbin/sendmail (it would be possible to do that since ssmtp would no more conflict with mail-transport-agent) -> /usr/sbin/sendmail is sendmail's program * remove sendmail package dpkg removes /usr/sbin/sendmail program -> /usr/sbin/sendmail doesn't exist anymore (ssmtp would be the only package using alternatives for sendmail, so the state of sendmail's diversion wouldn't be updated) PROBLEM: the ssmtpconfig has to be rerun to put the symlink back, and there will be no dpkg's warning after sendmail's deinstallation. Therefore, the user could think that he has a valid MTA, but he has not until he has rerun the script. If I put enough warnings in ssmtp configuration script about that, and if I had a file in /usr/doc/smmtp explaining this "problem" is it an acceptable behaviour? Thanks. Regards, Hugo -- Hugo Haas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <http://www.via.ecp.fr/~hugo/> PGP2 key id 0x8a5af90d, fingerprint 45AB 8D24 B3E4 C9DD E85C 25C8 DB0B BFA3 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
