On Wed, 14 Jun 2006 09:13:40 -0700 (PDT) Matthew Dillon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Ok. This may come as a surprise to some of you but I am frankly > all for changing the default MTA from sendmail to postfix. I've used > sendmail ever since 1985, and I have dug into the code on more > then one occassion. It's a huge mess and I've been unhappy with > the way it has been going for at least a decade. > > But I am not going to pull the rug out of sendmail users. I use > sendmail myself... at this point only because I have three other > subsystems (popper, domain routing, spam filter) heavily > integrated into it and cringe at the thought of having to rewire the > whole mess. > > So if people want postfix, this is how you have to go about it: > > (1) Either bring postfix into base or integrate it into the > NRELEASE infrastructure as a package. > > (2) Provide an RC option to select postfix instead of sendmail > as the MTA. > > The default would still have to be sendmail. That is, if > someone were to installworld after these changes and 'reboot' without > making any other changes, the system would have to come up > using sendmail. > > But the nrelease / installer could certainly enable postfix > as the default for new installations instead of sendmail. > > (3) It is important that either sendmail or postfix be selectable > via an RC option. Both do not have to operate in tandem, > one or the other is just fine. But it is important that we do not > blow up existing mail subsystems. > > :FYI, sendmail was recently removed from the base of NetBSD leaving > only :postfix. The core of NetBSD AFAIK did not come yet with official > :announcement so reasons for that are just speculations. > : > :[...] > : > :Cheers, > :Marcin. > > They did announce it. Well, it was on slashdot a few weeks ago > anyhow. The reason is simple: Too many security holes, with more > being found. Not enough functionality. A basic refusal by the > authors to bring the feature set into the 21st century. The code is > a huge mess. They added threading without dealing with races. They > added all sorts of junk without cleaning up the existing junk. I > never liked the sendmail code but I really *HATE* it now. Funny thing how good the timing of this announcement was: http://security.freebsd.org/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-06:17.sendmail.asc As modular and secure as postfix ? Eh... Marcin.
