Features/NoDefaultMTA

No Default MTA

Summary

Remove sendmail from the default install.

Owner

• Name: Will Woods

• Email: wwoods@redhat.com

Current status

• Targeted release: Fedora 16
• Last updated: 12 April 2011
• Percentage of completion: 1%

Detailed Description

Remove sendmail from the default install. Machines that need an MTA can install an MTA of their choosing, rather than being forced to use sendmail by default.

This is an extension of the previous NoMTA feature.

Benefit to Fedora

One less service to start, reduce system complexity, put system log info into the system logs.

Scope

Minor changes to comps, cronie, and possibly other packages:

TODO

• Remove sendmail from the base group

• Edit /etc/sysconfig/cron to make the situation clear:

# If you want cron to deliver logs as email, uncomment this line and install an MTA
CRONDARGS="-s -m off"

• Find a suitable way to log per-user cron output
  • And some way to notify the user of the delivery of that info

• Check the default logwatch config and make sure it works with syslog
• Find and check other packages that send mail locally

How To Test

Place the following in /etc/cron.hourly/test.cron:

 echo "Testing cron output - this should appear in /var/log/cron"

and chmod 755 /etc/cron.hourly/test.cron. After an hour, that log message should appear in /var/log/cron.

User Experience

• Most users won't notice
• Sysadmins who want an MTA can pick their favorite MTA

Dependencies

• None

Contingency Plan

• Keep sendmail in comps

Documentation

• None

Release Notes

• Sendmail is no longer installed by default.
• Logs from cron will appear in /var/log/cron.

Comments and Discussion

• See Talk:Features/NoDefaultMTA