Replacing Sendmail with Postfix in the base system

[Matthew Dillon]

     Ok.  This may come as a surprise to some of you but I am frankly all
     for changing the default MTA from sendmail to postfix.  I've used
     sendmail ever since 1985, and I have dug into the code on more
     then one occassion.  It's a huge mess and I've been unhappy with the
     way it has been going for at least a decade.

     But I am not going to pull the rug out of sendmail users.  I use 
     sendmail myself... at this point only because I have three other
     subsystems (popper, domain routing, spam filter) heavily integrated
     into it and cringe at the thought of having to rewire the whole mess.

     So if people want postfix, this is how you have to go about it:

     (1) Either bring postfix into base or integrate it into the NRELEASE
	 infrastructure as a package.

     (2) Provide an RC option to select postfix instead of sendmail as the
	 MTA.

	 The default would still have to be sendmail.  That is, if someone
	 were to installworld after these changes and 'reboot' without
	 making any other changes, the system would have to come up using
	 sendmail.

	 But the nrelease / installer could certainly enable postfix as 
	 the default for new installations instead of sendmail.

     (3) It is important that either sendmail or postfix be selectable
	 via an RC option.  Both do not have to operate in tandem, one or
	 the other is just fine.  But it is important that we do not 
	 blow up existing mail subsystems.

:FYI, sendmail was recently removed from the base of NetBSD leaving only
:postfix. The core of NetBSD AFAIK did not come yet with official
:announcement so  reasons for that are just speculations.
:
:[...]
:
:Cheers,
:Marcin.

    They did announce it.  Well, it was on slashdot a few weeks ago anyhow.
    The reason is simple:  Too many security holes, with more being found.
    Not enough functionality.  A basic refusal by the authors to bring
    the feature set into the 21st century.  The code is a huge mess.  They
    added threading without dealing with races.  They added all sorts of
    junk without cleaning up the existing junk.  I never liked the sendmail
    code but I really *HATE* it now.

					-Matt
					Matthew Dillon 
					<dillon at xxxxxxxxxxxxx>