On 06/09/2013 18:21, Canek Peláez Valdés wrote: > On Fri, Sep 6, 2013 at 11:14 AM, Canek Peláez Valdés <can...@gmail.com> wrote: >> On Fri, Sep 6, 2013 at 10:51 AM, Jarry <mr.ja...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> On 06-Sep-13 17:32, Michael Orlitzky wrote: >>>> >>>> On 09/06/2013 11:23 AM, Jarry wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> It wasn't part of @system before, you just removed the thing that pulled >>>>>> it in. >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> No I did not. mail-mta/ssmtp was part of stage3. And I did not >>>>> remove now any "thing" that pulled it in. All I did was >>>>> "emerge --ask --update --deep --newuse world". >>>>> >>>>> As a result, python-exec, python-argparse and libxml2 were >>>>> reinstalled and automake-wrapper, gtk-doc-am, eselect and >>>>> linux-header updated. Nothing else. >>>>> >>>>> After that I did "emerge --depclean" and the above mentioned >>>>> packages were suddenly removed... >>>>> >>>> >>>> It could be that a package's deps were updated to no longer include >>>> virtual/mta. But it was never part of @system, you can check for yourself: >>>> >>>> >>>> http://sources.gentoo.org/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi/gentoo-x86/profiles/base/packages?view=log >>> >>> >>> Then something got broken because I have packages installed >>> that need mailer (i.e. app-admin/monit or sys-fs/mdadm are >>> configured to send emails). And these packages do not have >>> "mail" use-flag, because their maintainers apparently expect >>> standard *nix mailer (/usr/bin/sendmail) exists on the system... >>> >>> So now I have "stable" system, updated to the latest level, >>> where a lot of things suddenly do not work. This should *never* >>> happen! If it was some package's dep that caused it, it's clear >>> this change was premature... >> >> I think is a bug in the packages. In my system the only package that >> pulls vitual/mta (and therefore ssmtp) is vixie-cron. > > The change happened in the cron eclass: > > http://sources.gentoo.org/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi/gentoo-x86/eclass/cron.eclass?r1=1.15&r2=1.16 > > From the commit log: "Per extensive discussion with zmedico about > removing the need for package.provided, several packages have been > changed, like sudo, to not explicitly require an mta. Cron will > follow, leaving mta support optional." > > The rationale (I suppose) is that the programs in question still work, > just the sending of emails fails. > > Good riddance, if you ask me. If you need/want an MTA, just install > ssmtp by hand.
Agreed. It's a bit daft relying on a cron daemon to be the only package pulling in a mailer. One can't even argue that it makes sense as a default - cron merely has this feature to notify the root user if a cron job wrote something to STDOUT. That's a notification. It is not an absolute need to have sendmail. If you want a syslogger, install a syslogger. If you want a print server, install a print server. Likewise, if you want a mailer, install one. The days of classic Unix servers representing what a Gentoo system should be are looooong gone. -- Alan McKinnon alan.mckin...@gmail.com
