postfix-2.7.1 mail_params.c:531: error: expected expression before '/' token
I attempted to build from sources and was stopped by an odd error : /opt/csw/gcc4/bin/gcc -DDEF_COMMAND_DIR="/usr/local/sbin" -DDEF_DAEMON_DIR="/usr/local/libexec/postfix" -DDEF_DATA_DIR="/var/lib/postfix" -DDEF_MAILQ_PATH="/usr/local/bin/mailq" -DDEF_NEWALIAS_PATH="/usr/local/bin/newaliases" -DHAS_DB -DHAS_PCRE -DUSE_SASL_AUTH -DUSE_CYRUS_SASL -DUSE_TLS -DHAS_MYSQL -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/local/ssl/include -I/opt/csw/mysql51/include/mysql -Dstrcasecmp=fix_strcasecmp -Dstrncasecmp=fix_strncasecmp -g -O -I. -I../../include -DSUNOS5 -c mail_params.c mail_params.c: In function 'mail_params_init': mail_params.c:531: error: expected expression before '/' token make: *** [mail_params.o] Error 1 make: *** [update] Error 1 I looked at the code and did not see an errant slash. A complete log of the build failure may be seen at : http://www.opn4.com/sendmail/postfix/postfix-2.7.1-32bit-try1.txt I did a "make tidy" and tried again. Failed again: http://www.opn4.com/sendmail/postfix/postfix-2.7.1-32bit-try1-patch.txt Anyone seen this ? Insights gladly appreciated ! -- Dennis
Re: postfix-2.7.1 mail_params.c:531: error: expected expression before '/' token
> Dennis Clarke: >> >> I attempted to build from sources and was stopped by an odd error : >> >> /opt/csw/gcc4/bin/gcc -DDEF_COMMAND_DIR="/usr/local/sbin" > > That is not what the INSTALL instructions tell you to do. > > Wietse :-O oh .. let me look closely ... 4.4 - Overriding built-in parameter default settings All Postfix configuration parameters can be changed by editing a Postfix configuration file, except for one: the parameter that specifies the location of Postfix configuration files. In order to build Postfix with a configuration directory other than /etc/postfix, use: % make makefiles CCARGS='-DDEF_CONFIG_DIR=\"/some/where\"' % make IMPORTANT: Be sure to get the quotes right. These details matter a lot. Parameters whose defaults can be specified in this way are: |Macro name |default value for|typical default | |_|_|| |DEF_COMMAND_DIR |command_directory|/usr/sbin | |_|_|| |DEF_CONFIG_DIR |config_directory |/etc/postfix| |_|_|| |DEF_DAEMON_DIR |daemon_directory |/usr/libexec/postfix| |_|_|| |DEF_DATA_DIR |data_directory |/var/lib/postfix| |_|_|| |DEF_MAILQ_PATH |mailq_path |/usr/bin/mailq | |_|_|| |DEF_HTML_DIR |html_directory |no | |_|_|| |DEF_MANPAGE_DIR |manpage_directory|/usr/local/man | |_|_|| |DEF_NEWALIAS_PATH|newaliases_path |/usr/bin/newaliases | |_|_|| |DEF_QUEUE_DIR|queue_directory |/var/spool/postfix | |_|_|| |DEF_README_DIR |readme_directory |no | |_|_|| |DEF_SENDMAIL_PATH|sendmail_path|/usr/sbin/sendmail | |_|_|| Let's see what I did wrong : make makefiles CCARGS="-DDEF_COMMAND_DIR=\"/usr/local/sbin\" -DDEF_DAEMON_DIR=\"/usr/local/libexec/postfix\" -DDEF_DATA_DIR=\"/var/lib/postfix\" -DDEF_MAILQ_PATH=\"/usr/local/bin/mailq\" -DDEF_NEWALIAS_PATH=\"/usr/local/bin/newaliases\" -DHAS_DB -DHAS_PCRE -DUSE_SASL_AUTH -DUSE_CYRUS_SASL -DUSE_TLS -DHAS_MYSQL -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/local/ssl/include -I/opt/csw/mysql51/include/mysql" AUXLIBS="-R/usr/local/lib:/usr/local/ssl/lib:/opt/csw/mysql51/lib/i386/mysql -L/usr/local/lib:/usr/local/ssl/lib:/opt/csw/mysql51/lib/i386/mysql -ldb -lpcre -lsasl2 -lssl -lcrypto -lmysqlclient -lz -lm" make -f Makefile.in MAKELEVEL= Makefiles I see a missing single quote at the beginning , perhaps this should be : make makefiles CCARGS='-DDEF_COMMAND_DIR=\"/usr/local/sbin\" -DDEF_DAEMON_DIR=\"/usr/local/libexec/postfix\" -DDEF_DATA_DIR=\"/var/lib/postfix\" -DDEF_MAILQ_PATH=\"/usr/local/bin/mailq\" -DDEF_NEWALIAS_PATH=\"/usr/local/bin/newaliases\" -DHAS_DB -DHAS_PCRE -DUSE_SASL_AUTH -DUSE_CYRUS_SASL -DUSE_TLS -DHAS_MYSQL -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/local/ssl/include -I/opt/csw/mysql51/include/mysql' AUXLIBS='-R/usr/local/lib:/usr/local/ssl/lib:/opt/csw/mysql51/lib/i386/mysql -L/usr/local/lib:/usr/local/ssl/lib:/opt/csw/mysql51/lib/i386/mysql -ldb -lpcre -lsasl2 -lssl -lcrypto -lmysqlclient -lz -lm' okay ... now I get a *different* error message so that may be a good thing : make . . . /opt/csw/gcc4/bin/gcc -DDEF_COMMAND_DIR=\"/usr/local/sbin\" -DDEF_DAEMON_DIR=\"/usr/local/libexec/postfix\" -DDEF_DATA_DIR=\"/var/lib/postfix\" -DDEF_MAILQ_PATH=\"/usr/local/bin/mailq\" -DDEF_NEWALIAS_PATH=\"/usr/local/bin/newaliases\" -DHAS_DB -DHAS_PCRE -DUSE_SASL_AUTH -DUSE_CYRUS_SASL -DUSE_TLS -DHAS_MYSQL -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/local/ssl/include -I/opt/csw/mysql51/include/mysql -Dstrcasecmp=fix_strcasecmp -Dstrncasecmp=fix_strncasecmp -g -O -I. -I../../include -DSUNOS5 -c xsasl_server.c /opt/csw/gcc4/bin/gcc -DDEF_COMMAND_DIR=\"/usr/local/sbin\" -DDEF_DAEMON_DIR=\"/usr/local/libexec/postfix\" -DDEF_DATA_DIR=\"/var/lib/postfix\" -DDEF_MAILQ_PATH=\"/usr/local/bin/mailq\" -DDEF_NEWALIAS_PATH=\"/usr/local/bin/newaliases\" -DHAS_DB -DHAS_PCRE -DUSE_SASL_AUTH -DUSE_CYRUS_SASL -DUSE_TLS -DHAS_MYSQL -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/local/s
postfix-2.8.1 cc: acomp failed for postconf.c
kedefs.out Makefile.in >Makefile [src/postmulti] cat ../../conf/makedefs.out Makefile.in >Makefile [src/postscreen] cat ../../conf/makedefs.out Makefile.in >Makefile [src/dnsblog] cat ../../conf/makedefs.out Makefile.in >Makefile [src/tlsproxy] cat ../../conf/makedefs.out Makefile.in >Makefile rm -f Makefile; (cat conf/makedefs.out Makefile.in) >Makefile $ make rm -f libexec/post-install && ln -sf ../conf/post-install libexec/post-install rm -f libexec/postfix-files && ln -sf ../conf/postfix-files libexec/postfix-files rm -f libexec/postfix-script && ln -sf ../conf/postfix-script libexec/postfix-script . . . [src/postalias] /opt/studio/SOS11/SUNWspro/bin/cc -DNO_CLOSEFROM -DNO_DEV_URANDOM -DNO_FUTIMESAT -Dstrcasecmp=fix_strcasecmp -Dstrncasecmp=fix_strncasecmp -g -O -I. -I../../include -DSUNOS5 -c postalias.c /opt/studio/SOS11/SUNWspro/bin/cc -DNO_CLOSEFROM -DNO_DEV_URANDOM -DNO_FUTIMESAT -Dstrcasecmp=fix_strcasecmp -Dstrncasecmp=fix_strncasecmp -g -O -I. -I../../include -DSUNOS5 -o postalias postalias.o ../../lib/libglobal.a ../../lib/libutil.a -lresolv -lsocket -lnsl cp postalias ../../bin [src/postcat] /opt/studio/SOS11/SUNWspro/bin/cc -DNO_CLOSEFROM -DNO_DEV_URANDOM -DNO_FUTIMESAT -Dstrcasecmp=fix_strcasecmp -Dstrncasecmp=fix_strncasecmp -g -O -I. -I../../include -DSUNOS5 -c postcat.c /opt/studio/SOS11/SUNWspro/bin/cc -DNO_CLOSEFROM -DNO_DEV_URANDOM -DNO_FUTIMESAT -Dstrcasecmp=fix_strcasecmp -Dstrncasecmp=fix_strncasecmp -g -O -I. -I../../include -DSUNOS5 -o postcat postcat.o ../../lib/libglobal.a ../../lib/libutil.a -lresolv -lsocket -lnsl cp postcat ../../bin [src/postconf] /usr/xpg4/bin/awk -f auto.awk touch autos_dummy /usr/xpg4/bin/awk -f extract.awk ../*/*.c | /bin/sh touch makes_dummy /opt/studio/SOS11/SUNWspro/bin/cc -DNO_CLOSEFROM -DNO_DEV_URANDOM -DNO_FUTIMESAT -Dstrcasecmp=fix_strcasecmp -Dstrncasecmp=fix_strncasecmp -g -O -I. -I../../include -DSUNOS5 -c postconf.c "str_table.h", line 46: non-constant initializer involving a cast cc: acomp failed for postconf.c *** Error code 2 make: Fatal error: Command failed for target `postconf.o' Current working directory /export/medusa/dclarke/build/postfix/i386/postfix-2.8.1_i386.001/src/postconf *** Error code 1 make: Fatal error: Command failed for target `update' $ Also the -DNO_DEV_URANDOM seems wrong given : $ ls -l /dev/urandom lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 34 Feb 19 2008 /dev/urandom -> ../devices/pseudo/random@0:urandom Which works fine. $ /usr/xpg4/bin/od -Ax -t x1 -N 16 /dev/urandom | /bin/head -1 000 e5 c5 a8 13 b6 6c fc b9 40 df a0 46 9c a2 0f 7e $ -- Dennis Clarke dcla...@opensolaris.ca <- Email related to the open source Solaris dcla...@blastwave.org <- Email related to open source for Solaris
Re: postfix-2.8.1 cc: acomp failed for postconf.c
> On Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 12:35:48AM -0500, Dennis Clarke wrote: > >> /opt/studio/SOS11/SUNWspro/bin/cc -DNO_CLOSEFROM -DNO_DEV_URANDOM >> -DNO_FUTIMESAT -Dstrcasecmp=fix_strcasecmp >> -Dstrncasecmp=fix_strncasecmp -g -O -I. -I../../include -DSUNOS5 -c >> postconf.c >> "str_table.h", line 46: non-constant initializer involving a cast >> cc: acomp failed for postconf.c > > What do you see on line 46 of str_table.h? $ cat -n str_table.h | head -46 | tail -1 46 VAR_TLS_BUG_TWEAKS, DEF_TLS_BUG_TWEAKS, &var_tls_bug_tweaks, 0, 0, > >> Also the -DNO_DEV_URANDOM seems wrong given : >> >> $ ls -l /dev/urandom >> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 34 Feb 19 2008 /dev/urandom -> >> ../devices/pseudo/random@0:urandom > > Which version of SunOS first introduced unconditional support for > /dev/urandom? I don't know what you mean by "unconditional" but the feature was added to Solaris 8 in : Patch-ID# 112439-02 Keywords: random number generator prng Synopsis: SunOS 5.8_x86: /kernel/drv/random patch Date: Aug/15/2003 On Sparc that would be 112438-02. In any case, a long time ago. -- Dennis Clarke dcla...@opensolaris.ca <- Email related to the open source Solaris dcla...@blastwave.org <- Email related to open source for Solaris
Re: postfix-2.8.1 cc: acomp failed for postconf.c
> On Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 01:17:08AM -0500, Dennis Clarke wrote: > >> >> $ ls -l /dev/urandom >> >> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 34 Feb 19 2008 /dev/urandom -> >> >> ../devices/pseudo/random@0:urandom >> > >> > Which version of SunOS first introduced unconditional support for >> > /dev/urandom? >> >> I don't know what you mean by "unconditional" but the feature was added >> to >> Solaris 8 in : >> Patch-ID# 112439-02 > > That's conditional on the SunOS patch. The question is which SunOS > releases *always* have /dev/urandom. Well, two responses here : 1) that patch is deemed essential and no one, ever, runs without it 2) Solaris 9 provides SSH built in and thus it has a PRNG built into the kernel. Guess which patch in the Solaris 9 beta provides that feature? Yep, you guessed it, the one that applies to Solaris 8 was actually a patch from the Sol 9 dev stage. Anyways the hard answer is Solaris 9 but in practice Solaris 8. >> > On Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 12:35:48AM -0500, Dennis Clarke wrote: >> > >> >> /opt/studio/SOS11/SUNWspro/bin/cc -DNO_CLOSEFROM -DNO_DEV_URANDOM >> >> -DNO_FUTIMESAT -Dstrcasecmp=fix_strcasecmp >> >> -Dstrncasecmp=fix_strncasecmp -g -O -I. -I../../include -DSUNOS5 -c >> >> postconf.c >> >> "str_table.h", line 46: non-constant initializer involving a cast >> >> cc: acomp failed for postconf.c >> > >> > What do you see on line 46 of str_table.h? >> >> $ cat -n str_table.h | head -46 | tail -1 >> 46 VAR_TLS_BUG_TWEAKS, DEF_TLS_BUG_TWEAKS, &var_tls_bug_tweaks, 0, >> 0, > > Well, DEF_TLS_BUG_TWEAKS is defined as the constant expression: > > ((TLS_BUG_TWEAK_A TLS_BUG_TWEAK_B)+1) > > where TLS_BUG_TWEAK_A and TLS_BUG_TWEAK_B are string literals. In your > case: "" and " ". So the expression is: > > (("" " ") + 1) > > which should be the constant pointer to the second (NUL) character of " ". > Not quite sure why your compiler objects, but I guess the expression > needs to be simplified. :-( I could try with GCC but really it *should* compile with baseline Solaris 8 and Sun Studio 11 fully patched. > Does the patch below solve the problem? Let me try it and report back shortly ! Did I say thank you? Well people in the open source world need to say it much more often. Postfix is simply the best and I thank thee from the bottom of my heart and man .. I mean it ! -- Dennis Clarke dcla...@opensolaris.ca <- Email related to the open source Solaris dcla...@blastwave.org <- Email related to open source for Solaris
Re: postfix-2.8.1 cc: acomp failed for postconf.c
> Dennis Clarke: >> >> > On Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 01:17:08AM -0500, Dennis Clarke wrote: >> > >> >> >> $ ls -l /dev/urandom >> >> >> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 34 Feb 19 2008 /dev/urandom >> -> >> >> >> ../devices/pseudo/random@0:urandom >> >> > >> >> > Which version of SunOS first introduced unconditional support for >> >> > /dev/urandom? >> >> >> >> I don't know what you mean by "unconditional" but the feature was >> added >> >> to >> >> Solaris 8 in : >> >> Patch-ID# 112439-02 >> > >> > That's conditional on the SunOS patch. The question is which SunOS >> > releases *always* have /dev/urandom. >> >> Well, two responses here : >> >> 1) that patch is deemed essential and no one, ever, runs without it >> >> 2) Solaris 9 provides SSH built in and thus it has a PRNG built >> into the kernel. Guess which patch in the Solaris 9 beta >> provides that feature? Yep, you guessed it, the one that >> applies to Solaris 8 was actually a patch from the Sol 9 >> dev stage. >> >> Anyways the hard answer is Solaris 9 but in practice Solaris 8. > > I can confirm that my Solaris 9 test machine has /dev/urandom. > > In fact, the makedefs script enables /dev/urandom access by default > for Solaris 9 and onwards. > > My Solaris 8 test machine didn't have /dev/urandom, so I guess I > am in the category of "no one, ever" :-) > > Wietse You're totally in the category of "".. are you crazy?" Patch that box ! -- Dennis Clarke dcla...@opensolaris.ca <- Email related to the open source Solaris dcla...@blastwave.org <- Email related to open source for Solaris
Re: Postfix 2.8.2 stable release available
> [An on-line version of this announcement will be available at > http://www.postfix.org/announcements/postfix-2.8.2.html] > > Postfix stable release 2.8.2 is available. This release has minor > fixes that are already in the experimental (2.9) release. > > - Bugfix: postscreen DNSBL scoring error. When a client disconnected > and then reconnected before all DNSBL results for the earlier > session arrived, DNSBL results for the earlier session would be > added to the score for the later session. This is very unlikely > to have affected any legitimate mail. > > - Workaround: the SMTP client did not support mail to [ipv6:ipv6addr]. > > - Portability: FreeBSD closefrom() was back-ported to FreeBSD 7, > breaking FreeBSD 7.x support retroactively. > > - Portability: the SUN compiler had trouble with a pointer expression > of the form ``("text1" "text2") + constant'' so we don't try to > be so clever. Thank you for that last bit. I'll let you know what I get for a result. -- Dennis Clarke dcla...@opensolaris.ca <- Email related to the open source Solaris dcla...@blastwave.org <- Email related to open source for Solaris
Re: spamcop abusing mail systems worldwide
> > > Today I had an unhappy unix student try to submit an assignment .. tell your students to use the email address provided by the school on the school domain. Also, as a policy, I blacklist all yahoo, gmail, hotmail junk and life is much better at the office. If someone does not have a valid email address at a reasonable domain then we don't want to hear from them anyways. Dennis
Re: spamcop abusing mail systems worldwide
> On 17/11/2011 14:39, Dennis Clarke wrote: >> >>> >>> >>> Today I had an unhappy unix student try to submit an assignment .. >> >> tell your students to use the email address provided by the school on >> the >> school domain. Also, as a policy, I blacklist all yahoo, gmail, hotmail >> junk and life is much better at the office. >> >> If someone does not have a valid email address at a reasonable domain >> then >> we don't want to hear from them anyways. > > Yes, but you're not selling anything or providing any kind of public > service. Doing both, quite well and quite a while now. Regardless, I would think that the school would provide email service, web based interface of some sort or similar, which would any issues of the delivery of a paper. As for yahoo, hotmail and other cesspools, I block them, and life and revenue goes on just fine. dc -- -- http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=vindex&search=0x1D936C72FA35B44B +-+---+ | Dennis Clarke | Solaris and Linux and Open Source | | dcla...@blastwave.org | Respect for open standards. | +-+---+
the mail server from source problem
n.b. : this is a request for a discussion as opposed to "fix me". Also I am fully prepared for acid like shame for even asking. -- Dear postfix users : About a week ago or so I was asked if it were possible to setup a very small mail server for a very few users. With total abject niave enthusiasm I said "sure, how hard can that be?" I thought that one may use postfix and dovecot together to produce a very nice little mail MTA along with a POP3 or similar service. Even better, there are only four users. Yep. Four. No more. This means a pure whitelist where ALL OTHER addresses can be safely rejected and no mail will be allowed from any outside domains. Sounds like a perfect little world where those four users can email each other and nothing else. Maybe send email out to the world but never ever receive anything other than from themselves. Lovely. So I then decided that I would build postfix from source and that was fairly easy. Everything goes into /usr/local and nothing in the OS gets touched. Great. Then I went looking for a simple easy to follow configuration guide that would allow for these four users to exist and for a totally draconian security approach of "accept mail from nowhere". Do you think I can figure that one out ? No way. What I do find is vast amounts of info about how to put in ClamAV and SSL bits and auth bits and endless web pages that point to apt-get and RHEL yum this that and the other thing. [1] What I am seeing is that no one seeems to just get the sources and "do it". Perhaps my entire understanding and philosophy around open source is terribly flawed? These are my questions then : 1) is it "bad thinking" to approach an open source software project such as postfix and think one MAY simply get the sources and build it with out-of-the-box functionality assured ? 2) is it "bad thinking" to even try to create a mail server, even a very very small one, from sources ? 3) lastly, has the open source world moved whole hog into a method where one relies entirely on large corporate funded distros for everything AND any other approach is a dogma violation to be met with confusion, blockade and obfuscation? Please forgive my leading questions and tone. I welcome any and all comments. Dennis Clarke dcla...@blastwave.org [1] typical stuff I see for documentation or "guides" : http://rimuhosting.com/support/settingupemail.jsp?mta=postfix excellent docs that *assume* you have other software packages in place already with no guide on how to get/build/implement them : http://www.postfix.org/SASL_README.html See the sentence in section "Using Cyrus SASL version 1.5.x" : This library is being deprecated and applications should transition to using the SASLv2 library (source: Project Cyrus: Downloads). source --> dead link to no where That dead link is not isolated. One only need try to get Berkeley DB and head into the world of register/login/provide a contract and who knows what else to Oracle to dl simple sources to open source software. ps: I come from a deep dark cave where UNIX lives and users are granted no more access than they deserve. Perhaps it is time to leave the cave and just eat the prepared bioengineered chemical laced packages that someone else gives me. Be happy. And shut up.
Re: the mail server from source problem
> Dennis Clarke: > > Do you think I can figure that one out ? No way. What I do > find is > > vast amounts of info about how to put in ClamAV and SSL bits and auth > > bits and endless web pages that point to apt-get and RHEL yum this that > > and the other thing. [1] What I am seeing is that no one seeems to just > > get the sources and "do it". Perhaps my entire understanding and > > philosophy around open source is terribly flawed? > > Of course there are plenty people, but they have prior experience. With postfix and dovecot etc. Yes of course. > If you have no prior experience, then you should not build a system > from scratch, when you don't even know what a working system is > supposed to look like. Well this is the process. Probably worth the battle in the end and one would hope that building an MTA and DoveCot is not even remotely close to rocket science. It isn't. It is an art however and art requires both practice and talent. I probably have the talent. > Instead, your time is better spent learning from a system that > already works. In other words, start with a pre-built distribution. OKay, I have a RHEL6 system sitting in front of me and will go through the motions. In the end however I hope to write a nice step by step article about how I got here. > Have a wonderful learning experience. Indeed ! That is the plan. > And please ignore the idiots on this list who say that you are stupid. I always do and know better regardless. Also, thank you for truely wonderful software that saves me from SendMail. Dennis
Re: the mail server from source problem
- Original Message - From: Stan Hoeppner Date: Saturday, July 28, 2012 12:14 pm Subject: Re: the mail server from source problem To: postfix-users@postfix.org > On 7/27/2012 10:18 AM, Wietse Venema wrote: > > Dennis Clarke: > >> Do you think I can figure that one out ? No way. What I do > find is > >> vast amounts of info about how to put in ClamAV and SSL bits and auth > >> bits and endless web pages that point to apt-get and RHEL yum this > that > >> and the other thing. [1] What I am seeing is that no one seeems to > just > >> get the sources and "do it". Perhaps my entire understanding and > >> philosophy around open source is terribly flawed? > > > > Of course there are plenty people, but they have prior experience. > > > > If you have no prior experience, then you should not build a system > > from scratch, when you don't even know what a working system is > > supposed to look like. > > > > Instead, your time is better spent learning from a system that > > already works. In other words, start with a pre-built distribution. > > > > Have a wonderful learning experience. > > > > And please ignore the idiots on this list who say that you are stupid. > > > > Wietse > > To drive the prior experience point home, I've been building my own > Linux kernels from vanilla source for about 8 years because I don't like > stock kernels and hardware drivers as loadable modules, and 15MB kernel > files when 1.7MB works fine. I'm very comfortable with it and get the > results I want. There was a steep learning curve, not for the process, > but understanding which of the 1000s of configuration options I needed > to understand and change to meet my goals. > > If I wanted to or really had a need to, I'm sure I could build my own > Postfix and Dovecot and etc from source. Actually that was the easy part. Did that with no real problem and have been building bins from various software projects for years. No biggie. > But given how well the Debian > packaging system works, and the fact their Backports repo tends to keep > up fairly closely with Postfix releases, I see no point in embarking > upon yet another learning curve with no tangible payoff. I've better > things to do these days with my time. However what if you are running a T5240 Niagara Sparc server with Solaris 10 ? This is where I wander off the Linux reservation. > I don't build any applications from source, only my kernels. I'm > probably bass ackwards in this regard compared to many/most others. You know, funny enough I have a whole collection of weird and interesting servers. Once upon a time I install Red Hat 6.2 ( zoot ) onto a Sparc 20 server with no reason other than to follow the Linux from Scratch project guide. I di the same thing on some embedded Motorola PowerPC equipment and the process is very educational. I even have an old DEC Alpha in my pile. As for building my own kernel? Well I would love to really. However, as you say, the learning curve is a real mountain to climb and takes a pile of man hours. So I decided to simply stick with the task at hand which was a really minimal postfix dovecot config. I plan to go back and fight with that some more later today in fact. Dennis