Uh-oh.  Here comes the DJB-quotation squad.

Quoting likot ([EMAIL PROTECTED]):

> no patches - install fastforward or/and dotforward

Huh?  What am I missing, here?   To the best of my recollection, _those_
don't add support for sendmail's command-line switches:  Fastforward
adds /etc/alias support.  Dotforward adds .forward support.

> false - qmail supports /var/spool/mail, $HOME/Mailbox and Maildir
> style deliveries

Hmm.  I didn't remember qmail being able to drop off mail in mbox
format, but on reflection it's indeed a matter of the mail delivery
agent.  Thus, all that's required is getting your MTA talking fruitfully
to your preferred MDA (e.g., procmail, maildrop, etc.).  For qmail, this
amounts to configuring /var/qmail/rc correctly.  There's an example
/var/qmail/rc for procmail provided.  

Point of information for you:  Saying "mbox format" _doesn't_ imply
/var/spool/mail.  The MDA might be configured to use ~/Mail/mbox, or any 
of a variety of alternatives.  The assumption to the contrary is a
Bernsteinism.  I suggest wider reading.

> (IMHO maildir is the way to go )

Gratuitous advocacy noted without further comment.  I figure admins will 
make their own decisions based on their own needs.

> i agree, but most people don't need most of the patches ( i.e. diff.
> people diff. need )

Gratuitous advocacy noted without further comment.  I figure admins will 
make their own decisions based on their own needs.

> well the basic flow in SENDMAIL is the  design, any changes will be
> futile if they can't get the design correctly  ( i.e. postfix and
> qmail)

In rhetoric, we call this fallacy "begging the question".  This means
basing your conclusion on a doubtful premise that is carefully unexamined.
E.g., you haven't shown that a monolithic binary MTA cannot be "correct
design" according to any reasonable understanding of the term.  Why?
Because you cannot.  Nor can anyone else.

Please note:  "Correct design" is _not_ defined as "Our Hero said this
is the only acceptable way."

> it's about style, qmail is ported to MOST/almost ALL UNIX platform

Painfully and very manually, I wouldn't doubt:  I must say that writing
one's own substitute for stdio.h is a bit pathological.  

> ...and qmail is the most easiest to install from source ( as to my
> opinion,your's may differ)

As long as you don't try to depart even minutely from the Approved
Bernstein Way, yes.  Want FHS compliance, for example?  Good luck.

(Yes, I _know_ Our Hero disapproves of the FHS.  Gratuitous advocacy
anticipated without further comment.  I figure admins will make their
own decisions based on their own needs.)

>> Qmail's mail spool cannot be backed up or migrated to a different
>> host, because it uses inode numbers.  (Dan feels this is justified
>> for performance reasons.)
> 
> Not true anymore.

Huh?  Please explain.  You referred me to qmail-queue.  Here's the
manpage:  http://www.mathematik.uni-ulm.de/help/qmail/qmail-queue.8.html
Reading through that, I don't see it.  Are you talking about a different
program?

If you're talking about some wacko program that can _export_ qmail's
inode-encoded spool contents so that a backup or copying program can get
at them, then that's half a loaf, anyway.  Almost as useful as being
able to treat the spool as regular files.  (But my interest in the
minutiae of qmail administration is pretty small.  I finally escaped
having to administer the damned thing professionally in late 1999.
Hated it.  But chacun a son gout.)

> hrmm postfix too right  
> http://www.postfix.org/faq.html#copying

Hey, good point!  I hadn't realised that Postfix also uses inode numbers
in queue filenames.  Will note that for the future.  (I haven't run
Postfix, only Sendmail, Qmail, and Exim.)

>> Last, of course, qmail is the only one of the four under a
>> proprietary licence -- 
> 
> let us just clear this thing up, most people think that you _can't_
> modify qmail's source which is wrong.  [...]

But I _don't_ think that.  Nor did I say so.

And what I said before _is_ precisely (and concisely) the issue.  What
you're bringing up is a tiresome, time-wasting red herring.

> but please give him credit qmail is DJB's work all he ask is that you
> don't distribute modified qmail and call it qmail....

He forbids distributing modified qmail under _any_ name without special
permission.  If you believe otherwise, show me.  Quoting:  "If you want
to distribute modified versions of qmail (including ports, no matter how
minor the changes are) you'll have to get my approval."

 ( i think as for my opinion....

Gratuitous advocacy noted without further comment. 

>> the main consequence of which is that the project cannot be forked,
>> and that if/when Dan loses interest or dies, without some additional
>> licence grant the package will become effectively unmaintainable and
>> a dead project.
> 
> things can continue via patches.

You'll note that I very specifically said -=effectively unmaintainable=-.  
An MTA that can be developed only via patches against a legacy codebase
would be impractical and absurd.  Obviously.

And, absent some new permissions grant by Dan Bernstein or a successor
copyright holder (e.g., an heir), it's _exactly_ the dilemma that the
entire qmail and djbdns user communities will find themselves in, some
day.  Avoiding such situations, and favouring the right to fork as a
general remedy, is the main (pragmatic) advantage of open source.
-- 
Cheers,           "I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate
Rick Moen         those who do.  And, for the people who like country music,
[EMAIL PROTECTED]         denigrate means 'put down'."      -- Bob Newhart
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