[H-GEN] Logwatch - sendmail loadaverage?

[Bruce Campbell]

[ Humbug *General* list - semi-serious discussions about Humbug and     ]
[ Unix-related topics. Posts from non-subscribed addresses will vanish. ]

On Tue, 14 Oct 2003, David Jericho wrote:

> Paul Gearon wrote:
> > This might be the Right Way (TM) but looking at the above syntax I'd MUCH
> > rather edit the sendmail.cf file!  No wonder people hate configuring sendmail
> > (and the ORA book is so huge).
>
> Well, as some background, Paul has been exposed to my stand up sys admin
> routines that often involve rants about bad software. Paul has basically
> summed up why I don't believe Sendmail is the answer.

It used to be popular to comment:

	'You do not know how to Sysadmin until you have become one with
	 the Tao of the Sendmail.'[1]

But the problem today is that the Tao has become corrupted with the
effluent at the bottom of the kitchen sink.  Whilst once a good tool, the
Sendmail has been force-grown under the influence of the dreaded Feeping
Creaturism, bending and twisting the Tao out of recognition.

ahem.

The main problem is that Sendmail's underlying structure renders it, at
times, awkward to extend, and it is simply not able to perform as well as
some of the newer MTAs.  Whilst a lot of issues people have with sendmail
would go away if it had an easily-parseable and consistent configuration
file (I'm sure that some people have written something to do so), there
are still a large number of things that are a veritable nightmare to do
with Sendmail.

> Robert Brockway wrote:
> > Hi Paul.  The .mc file really isn't scary, and it is _a lot_ easier to
> > change than the .cf when it comes to more complex options in sendmail.
> > Checkout a couple of .mc files and I'm sure you'll see the syntax is easy
> > to follow.

The dual configuration file approach goes out the window the first time
you discover that you cannot implement feature FOO in .mc-speak, but can
in .cf-speak.  The .cf file itself, on some installations, reaches the
point where a higher existence plane is required to grok the full
possibilities, even with full documentation and reference to the code.

Quite simply, Sendmail has had too many things grafted onto it in order to
stay the Swiss Army Knife of MTAs, and many other unwanted sharp things
pop out when you just wanted the jeweler's screwdriver.

--==--
Bruce.

[1] As requested ;)

--
* This is list (humbug) general handled by majordomo at lists.humbug.org.au .
* Postings to this list are only accepted from subscribed addresses of
* lists 'general' or 'general-post'.  See http://www.humbug.org.au/