[csw-maintainers] CSWcswclassutils: it wants to write in /usr

[Ben Walton]

Excerpts from Gary Law's message of Wed Dec 23 05:24:10 -0500 2009:

> I would really not expect a CSW install to move, delete or link things
> that are already in /usr/lib. Especially something as core to many
> admins assumptions as sendmail. It just doesn't follow the 'least
> surprise' approach, never mind the 'nothing in /usr' policy. What if I
> have a working sendmail setup I'm happy with, but want to test CSW
> sendmail or exim or postfix? I'd be very unhappy if something came
> along and blatted default sendmail.

Yes, and in this case, CSWexim (and CSWpostfix?) does the right
thing.  It's an interactive (which sucks for jumpstart/automation)
postinstall script, giving you the choice.  You can leave the sendmail
binaries in place or replace them, at your choosing.

> As for alternatives, a big fat message echoing to the console on
> install would be handy, and the documentation you suggest explaining
> why the link might be needed in some cases, but I don't think it
> should be automatically created. There's perhaps a case for creating

It's not automatically created.  You need to select the right option
in the postinstall and can certainly opt to leave it alone.

The bigger picture here is that no matter how superior the CSW
packages are (CSWsendmail included), we're still trespassing on the
system.  Solaris doesn't provide the functionality to transparently
replace important system functions like the mailer.  I used to
leverage the RHEL alternatives system to redirect mail functions to
use exim until I modified our kickstart to omit sendmail and provide
only exim.  Unfortunately, we can't do that here since the solaris
side of things would remain ignorant of the feature.

-Ben
-- 
Ben Walton
Systems Programmer - CHASS
University of Toronto
C:416.407.5610 | W:416.978.4302

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