On Thu, 28 Mar 2002, Michael Kukat wrote:

> some time ago, i wanted to update my OpenSSH in a NetBSD-1.5.2 system. It was
> not really a problem, but it looked a bit "unclean" to have to remove the
> binaries contained in the base system to have it looking clean.

So I assume this means you updated via pkgsrc and not via 1.5.2 source.[1]

> Now, i want to update my sendmail to use STARTTLS, and i encounter the same
> fact, that sendmail is included in the base system.

Is not "looking clean" a problem? :)

Anyways, have a look at mailer.conf(5) and mailwrapper(8) manual pages. It
is one way to choose which sendmail is used.

> What about splitting the base.tgz into a real base.tgz just containing the
> base system, and maybe a tools.tgz or so to include sendmail/postfix/ssh.
>
> The other way would be to completely leave out such stuff un base.tgz and
> install the corresponding packages if needed.

Except the base.tgz would still need some type of "sendmail" as sendmail
and mail is used by a lot of utilities like cron (itself), daily scripts,
etc.

   Jeremy C. Reed
   http://www.reedmedia.net/

[1] I have been working on binary updates for security advisories (like
ssh, lpd, and gzip)> Basically, each binary update backs up the current
files and places the new ones. It can also back out (reverse) the changes.
It is a lot easier and quicker to use a binary update (especially for
several systems) than to retrieve source, apply patches, build and
install.