[csw-maintainers] CSW packaged MTAs and /usr (continued from "CSWcswclassutils: it wants to write in /usr")

[Dagobert Michelsen]

Hi Sebastian,

Am 13.01.2010 um 22:59 schrieb Sebastian Kayser:
> as our postfix packages needs some makeover, there is something I took
> away from the discussion about cswclassutils and /usr [1] which  
> relates
> to our MTAs in general:
>
> #1 Automatically messing with system binaries is considered evil.
>   (e.g. /usr/lib/sendmail, /usr/bin/mailq, and /usr/sbin/newaliases)
>
> #2 A CSW MTA that doesn't replace /usr/lib/sendmail isn't really
>   integrated with the system (i.e. not guaranteed to catch all mail
>   originating from the system)
>
> Currently the postfix package automatically tries to move away the
> system binaries and to link its own binaries into place. While this
> tries to fully integrate with the system, it violates rule #1. There  
> are
> also a couple of bugs open against the package where this procedure
> fails in sparse zone enviroments [2].
>
> With an updated postfix package I would like to make the package as
> simple as possible and leave control to the user. Therefor I would  
> like
> to emit a notification message on package installation, either  
> pointing
> the user to a README.CSW, a script, an additional integration package,
> or simply to echo commands that one can issue to integrate postfix  
> with
> the system.
>
> Now I am wondering what these commands should do. Should they mimic  
> the
> current behavior of
>
> 	mv <sysbin> <sysbin>.OFF && ln <cswbin> <sysbin>
>
> or would it rather be preferable to say
>
> 	pkgrm <syssendmail-pkgs> && ln <cswbin> <sysbin>

I would go as far as
   pkgrm <syssendmail-pkgs> && pkgutil -i <cswsendmail-substitute>

> I am specifically thinking about the latter option because of Solaris
> patches. What would happen if we left the system sendmail packages in
> place and simply moved away the binaries? Wouldn't a sendmail patch
> notice the installed sendmail package and overwrite our link with
> possibly patched binaries?

Yes.

> Granted, pkgrm wouldn't make it easy for a
> user to revert back to system sendmail .. just trying to get a feeling
> for the different approaches.

It is easy. Just pkgadd the previous sendmail from Solaris.

As we discussed there should be a catalog ("extra"? "solreplace"?)
with the stub packages being incompatible with the Solaris provided
ones and doing the integration.


Best regards

   -- Dago