F20 System Wide Change: No Default Sendmail

[Marcela Mašláňová]

On 07/15/2013 03:45 PM, Sérgio Basto wrote:
> On Seg, 2013-07-15 at 10:36 +0200, Jaroslav Reznik wrote:
>> = Proposed System Wide Change: No Default Sendmail =
>> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/NoDefaultSendmail
>>
>> Change owner(s): Lennart Poettering <lennart at poettering net>, Matthew
>> Miller <mattdm at fedoraproject org>
>>
>> No longer install an MTA by default. (Specifically let's remove sendmail from
>> @core and @standard comps groups.)
>>
>> == Detailed description ==
>> Let's change the default install to no longer install an MTA by default.
>> Specifically, let's remove sendmail from the @standard and @core group.
>>
>> On today's Internet most SMTP hosts do not accept mail from a server which is
>> not configured as a mail exchange for a real domain, hence the default
>> configuration of sendmail is seldom useful. Even if the server is not tied to a
>> real mail domain, it can be configured to authenticate as a user on the target
>> server, but again, this requires explicit configuration on both ends and is
>> fairly awkward. Something that doesn't work without manual configuration should
>> not be in the default install.
>>
>> Most MUAs we ship (especially those we install by default) do not deliver to a
>> local MTA anyway but rather include an SMTP client. Usually, they will not
>> pick up mail delivered to local users. This means that unless the user knows
>> about local mail and takes steps to receive local mail addressed to root, such
>> messages are likely to be ignored.
>>
>> On top of that, sendmail has always been a quite surprising choice for an MTA,
>> as most administrators tend to prefer mail systems such as Postfix or Exim
>> these days, and Sendmail appears to be quite arcane to most.
>>
>> Administrators should install the MTA of their choice after installation (or
>> via kickstart) and sendmail should not be the default anymore.
>>
>> Many other distributions do not install an MTA by default anymore, and so
>> should we. Running systems without MTA is already widely tested.
>>
>> The various tools (such as cron) which previously required a local MTA for
>> operation have been updated already to deliver their job output to syslog
>> rather than sendmail, which is a good default.
>>
>> Also see the previous attempt:
>> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/NoDefaultMTA
>>
>> == Scope ==
>> Simply remove "sendmail" from all default install groups in "comps".
>>
>> Packages which strictly require a MTA to run might need updating to gain
>> dependencies on "server(smtp)" (but they needed that before too, so this is
>> mostly just bugfixing that's useful anyway). If any of the packages in the
>> default install is one of those, we need to look at it in detail, and find a
>> solution. However, currently no package of the default install is requiring an
>> MTA.
>>
>> Proposal owners: Commit a change to "comps" to remove "sendmail" from it.
>>
>> Other developers: logwatch/logcheck might need updating to not require an MTA
>> for delivering log changes. Some packages might need a dependency on
>> "server(smtp)" added.
>
> I'd like understand how cronjobs deliver his emails , to root user ?
>
>
>> Release engineering: nothing really.
>>
>> Policies and guidelines: nothing really. Maybe the guidelines should clarify
>> that /usr/bin/sendmail doesn't exist on many systems, but that was already the
>> case before -- so little changes.
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>
As a part of cronie upstream I should probably answer. Cron was patched 
long time ago to log into syslog if mail can't be send. There is also 
option for using syslog by default.

Marcela