Alex, Don't be too hard on DJB. Dan made an incorrect assumption in the tarball documentation. He assumed that the user installing qmail was a knowledgeable system administrator. As Linux becomes more popular and more people begin using it, the number of users who don't know the ins and outs of system administration increase dramatically. That is not a GOOD THING. Most system administrators know that inetd comes in "flavors" and make any necessary adjustments to inetd.conf examples for their particular flavor. The "unwashed masses" beginning to use qmail don't have the knowledge necessary to make these adjustments and as is often the case, the expert failed to realize the impact that this "knowledge gap" would have. Who among us has never made "that" mistake to a lesser or greater degree. I use Linux as an example because that's where the majority of these problems come from, but the point is equally valid with any *NIX. There's no reason to get upset with Dan's documentation simply because you're ignorant of the subtle differences between one "flavor" of inetd and another. That would be like me getting mad at the writer of the Space Shuttle documentation: I don't know enough about the Space Shuttle to land it even if I RTFM. However, you are right in that software documentation in general sucks. Dave Sill is working very hard on an excellent qmail documentation project. He could give pointers to the Micro$oft people. If you've never had the opportunity to wade through the vast morass of inaccurate, misleading and poorly written gobbledy-gook that they call documentation, I invite you to indulge yourself. If you're feeling really masochistic, read the O'Reilly Sendmail manual. --------------------------------------------------- At 03:24 PM 7/1/99 , you wrote: >Every car manual specifies what kind of gas you use, haven't you read yours? >I no longer drive my own car, I ride a bianchi and do most of my own >repairs. > >I have read the manual for each car that I have driven, as well as other >vehicles, such as the Cessna 150, and Cessna 152 (those are both airplanes, >those specify gas and many other things) > >I assume you made a typo when you compared my reading the QMail >documentation when attempting to install QMail to learning to use your car >by reading your car stereo manual. > >I didn't read the wrong manual. I read the correct one, and more. That's my >habit. This particular manual even makes a point of including many steps >which are "read this document" as an actual step. Which of course I did. >It's good advice. > >Question: since, as you say, every competent system administrator needs to >know the syntax of the base networking deamons his system uses, why don't >you save us idiots some time. The following could be included in the QMail >documentation since it is required knowledge. > >"To get the syntax of any system daemon, for example inetd, type "man inetd" >at the system prompt. > >Here is a list of the base network system daemons, including firewall >daemons you need to know the syntax of to install qmail: > >1) inetd >..." > >Why don't you fill in the rest Adam. This sounds like a REALLY useful list, >that would be useful to anyone on the list. I wish I had such a list >beforehand. I wish I had such a list now. > >Or were you just talking. > >Alex Miller > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Adam D. McKenna [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] >> Sent: Thursday, July 01, 1999 2:11 PM >> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> Subject: Re: Howto >> >> >> On Thu, Jul 01, 1999 at 01:50:10PM -0400, Alex Miller wrote: >> > That is not an RTFM. >> > >> > The QMail documentation said nothing about inetd syntax being >> different on >> > different systems. >> >> Oh please. This is like saying "I was looking in my car stereo manual and >> it didn't say anything about what kind of gas to use! So I tried >> using diesel >> fuel and it wrecked my engine!" >> >> Any competent system administrator needs to know the syntax that the base >> networking daemons on his operating system use, and if he doesn't know the >> syntax, he should at least know where to look it up. >> >> --Adam >> > ______________________ NovaMetrix Development Robbie Walker, head muckety-muck and programmer P.O. Box 635 or 910-653-4006 106-B S. Main St 800-773-5647 Tabor City, NC 28463 910-653-2052 FAX
