atom feed16 messages in net.sourceforge.lists.courier-usersRe: [courier-users] Re: Erroneous bui...
FromSent OnAttachments
Robin BowesOct 28, 2002 6:01 pm 
Sam VarshavchikOct 28, 2002 7:32 pm 
Robin BowesOct 29, 2002 2:15 am 
Juri HaberlandOct 29, 2002 2:25 am 
Robin BowesOct 29, 2002 4:43 am 
Sam VarshavchikOct 29, 2002 4:43 am 
Juri HaberlandOct 29, 2002 4:59 am 
Robin BowesOct 29, 2002 6:22 am 
Robin BowesOct 29, 2002 6:59 am 
Sam VarshavchikOct 29, 2002 2:56 pm 
Robin BowesOct 30, 2002 7:01 am 
Juha SaarinenOct 30, 2002 12:13 pm 
Robin BowesOct 30, 2002 3:06 pm 
Jesse KeatingOct 30, 2002 3:17 pm 
Robin BowesOct 31, 2002 9:36 am 
Jesse KeatingOct 31, 2002 10:56 am 
Subject:Re: [courier-users] Re: Erroneous build dependencies in courier-imap-1.6.0-20021025
From:Robin Bowes (robi@robinbowes.com)
Date:Oct 30, 2002 3:06:41 pm
List:net.sourceforge.lists.courier-users

Juha,

On Wed, 30 Oct 2002, Robin Bowes wrote:

FAM may be available to "all recent versions of Red Hat" but that doesn't mean that it is installed. xinetd is available to "all recent versions of Red Hat" but that doesn't mean it is installed on every server.

I think you're missing the point here. Sam and other software packagers make reasonable assumptions based on standard installations of e.g. RHL. FAM and Xinetd are installed by RHL by default with RHL.

Of course, some people remove these or add something else. In doing so, another assumption is reasonable: that these people know what they're doing, and are capable of working with a non-standard distribution instead of griping about it on mailing lists.

Au contraire, I think *you* (and Sam) are missing the point.

Sam writes software which doesn't cost me anything. I am grateful for that.

He can and does release/build it it whatever way he sees fit. That's his prerogative.

As you reasonably assume, I *am* capable of working with a non-standard distribution and I'm not griping about the fact that it creates certain challenges related to software dependencies.

All I'm saying is that a bit of documentation would make life easier.

For example, somewhere in the RPM build instructions, it wouldn't be unreasonable to say "In order to build this package you need the following packages installed: blah, blah, FAM, blah"

After all, it's *optional*, so if I'm building from source (./configure ; make ; make install) then the configure script will detect that I don't have (for example) FAM installed and alter the build config accordingly.

Is that unreasonable? Am I really griping?

R.

PS. One small point regarding FAM and Redhat; I started with a "standard" Redhat 7.2 install. FAM was not included. Sure, it's on the disks, but if you choose a minimal install it does not get installed.