[NCLUG] New linux server

[Sean Reifschneider]

On Thu, Jan 31, 2002 at 05:38:55PM -0800, J. Paul Reed wrote:
>Conveniently, you didn't address any of *those* concerns.

Of course not...  They include "technical reasoning" such as "I don't
like the way qmail throws hundreds of little .qmail files around (I know
about fastforward, it doesn't count)"...

For those unfamiliar with fastforward, it implements sendmail-like aliases
for (.forward, /etc/aliases).

So, you want to talk technical reasons?  From what I can tell, your
argument boiled down to:

   Using .qmail files.

I've alread addressed that before.  It's not a weakness, it's one of
qmail's strengths, and if you don't like it you don't have to use them.
There are handfuls of ways to not have to use them...

   That he installs things in "non-standard" places.

Define "standard".  Back when he started writing qmail, HP and Sun had
fairly different file-system layouts -- so selecting "/var/qmail" doesn't
sound like such a bad idea.  Having supported Qmail on quite a few
different system types, I can tell you that knowing qmail is going to be in
"/var/qmail" has made things significantly easier when somone calls up in a
panic because their SunOS 4 mail server is freaking out.  Or BSD/OS.

They have, like it or not, become the "standard" location for installing
qmail, started back before there was a standard...

   That he has to reinvent the wheel.

If you want to run qmail from inetd and /etc/rc.d/init.d, do it...
When inetd starts choking on high load, think about replacing it with
tcpserver.  When your mail server dies (which is DAMN rare under qmail,
but still) and doesn't re-start, you may want to put it under daemontools.
You *DO NOT* have to though.

   The license

Not a technical decision...  Since you bring it up, has Postfix gotten
around it's licensing issues in which IBM was specifically saying they may
retract your ability to use Postfix at some point down the line?  You
mention the implied ability for DJB to do this as a large reason why you
don't use Qmail -- why is it ok for Postfix to be subject to it?

Oh, and your linking to Rick Moen's ravings about qmail really doesn't do
anything for me.  Dan's response to that page is:

   Q) Rick Moen says you can revoke these permissions by changing your web
   page!

   A) Is that a question?

   Rick Moen is an idiot. (In case there are several Rick Moens in the
   world: I'm talking about rick at linuxmafia.com.) Feel free to ask your
   attorney to explain waivers to you.

Based on the discussions I've had with Rick, I'd have to agree with DJB
here...  Rick was part of the reason I did the benchmarking of the IDE
versus SCSI drives which I posted about last month.  His argument boiled
down to that when he last used IDE back in 1996, it was 3x slower at
compiling things than a similar SCSI box, and that IDE couldn't have caught
up to SCSI.

As my benchmarks showed, he was quite mistaken...

Anyway, back to the topic at hand...  Are there any other technical reasons
you have for not liking qmail?

Sean
-- 
 George Washington was first in war, first in peace -- and first to
 have his birthday juggled to make a long weekend.
Sean Reifschneider, Inimitably Superfluous <jafo at tummy.com>
tummy.com - Linux Consulting since 1995. Qmail, KRUD, Firewalls, Python