MTA packaging (exim, postfix, sendmail, ssmtp)

[Yaakov Selkowitz]

On 2014-10-08 07:52, Corinna Vinschen wrote:
> On Oct  6 17:19, Yaakov Selkowitz wrote:
>> Because MTAs must be user-configured, and we certainly don't want to lose
>> the selection during package upgrades, the alternatives cannot be handled in
>> package postinst/prerm.  I think the only way to make this work is for each
>> MTA config script to handle these instead by including the following
>> snippets in the respective MTA config scripts.
>>
>> Please review this carefully in case I missed anything.
>
> The ssmtp part looks ok to me.  Two questions:
>
> - Don't we have to add something to preremove as well?

No, because we don't distinguish between removing and upgrading a 
package in preremove.  Whenever a user wishes to switch MTAs, they will 
need to run alternatives --set, preferably via the MTA config scripts.

> - What if the user installs multiple MTA packages at the same time?

That's why we need both --install and --set, to make these manually 
configured.  Trying to let alternatives auto-configure this will just 
lead to problems.


Yaakov