On Fri, Sep 6, 2013 at 11:45 AM, Jarry <mr.ja...@gmail.com> wrote: > On 06-Sep-13 18:29, Canek Peláez Valdés wrote: >> >> On Fri, Sep 6, 2013 at 11:22 AM, Jarry <mr.ja...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> >>> On 06-Sep-13 18:14, Canek Peláez Valdés wrote: >>>> >>>> >>>> On Fri, Sep 6, 2013 at 10:51 AM, Jarry <mr.ja...@gmail.com> wrote: >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> On 06-Sep-13 17:32, Michael Orlitzky wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> On 09/06/2013 11:23 AM, Jarry wrote: >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> It wasn't part of @system before, you just removed the thing that >>>>>>>> pulled >>>>>>>> it in. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> No I did not. mail-mta/ssmtp was part of stage3. And I did not >>>>>>> remove now any "thing" that pulled it in. All I did was >>>>>>> "emerge --ask --update --deep --newuse world". >>>>>>> >>>>>>> As a result, python-exec, python-argparse and libxml2 were >>>>>>> reinstalled and automake-wrapper, gtk-doc-am, eselect and >>>>>>> linux-header updated. Nothing else. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> After that I did "emerge --depclean" and the above mentioned >>>>>>> packages were suddenly removed... >>>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> It could be that a package's deps were updated to no longer include >>>>>> virtual/mta. But it was never part of @system, you can check for >>>>>> yourself: >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> http://sources.gentoo.org/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi/gentoo-x86/profiles/base/packages?view=log >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> Then something got broken because I have packages installed >>>>> that need mailer (i.e. app-admin/monit or sys-fs/mdadm are >>>>> configured to send emails). And these packages do not have >>>>> "mail" use-flag, because their maintainers apparently expect >>>>> standard *nix mailer (/usr/bin/sendmail) exists on the system... >>>>> >>>>> So now I have "stable" system, updated to the latest level, >>>>> where a lot of things suddenly do not work. This should *never* >>>>> happen! If it was some package's dep that caused it, it's clear >>>>> this change was premature... >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> I think is a bug in the packages. In my system the only package that >>>> pulls vitual/mta (and therefore ssmtp) is vixie-cron. >>> >>> >>> >>> That is strange. I have sys-process/vixie-cron-4.1-r12 and yet >>> revdep-rebuild does not want to pull virtual/mta. But It should, >>> as cron can be configured to send emails too. >> >> >> Read my last mail; they changed the RDEPEND for the cron eclass. >> >>> As I wrote: there are *many* packages that expect standard >>> *nix mailer exists! If it does not, a lot of packages must >>> be fixed to include mailer as dependency. >> >> >> The devs disagree. I think I'm with them; the packages in question >> actually work, it just happens that they can't send mails anymore. If >> you need/want them to send mails, install an MTA. >> > > "Just" can't send mails. So if mdadm detects failed drive in raid1 > and I do not get mail about it, I will discover it at least when > the 2nd drive fails. That's a relief...
I believe we can trust Gentoo users to know when they have (or not) an MTA. > Why is there no global use-variable "mta"? Why not even local > for packages that might use mailer? This goes completely against > Gentoo-principles, if user has to search which other packages are > required and install them manually. Is it not what we have > use-flags for? The problem with USE flags is that they trigger a recompile when they change. In this case a recompile is completely unnecessary, since the package *works* with and without an MTA. As I said, the only difference is that you can (or not) send mails. I don't see a problem with that; if you need an MTA, install an MTA. If you think is a problem, file a bug. But I think it will be closed as WONTFIX. Regards. -- Canek Peláez Valdés Posgrado en Ciencia e Ingeniería de la Computación Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
