/etc/security et.al. could probably be solved in any number of ways that 
didn't depend on some mail daemon functionality.
Why not have a simple sendmail lookalike that just appends the output in 
the proper format to /var/mail/root unless some real mail daemon exist, 
for instance?

Sure, postfix currently is the name of the game, it seems. But so was 
sendmail for a number of years. Obviously, postfix can go the same way. 
So if you really want to use postfix, I'd definitely recommend anyone to 
install it themself from pkgsrc, so they don't get bitten the same way 
people who used to use sendmail just got bitten.

Why do we really need a mail daemon in the base system? Just for a few 
scripts to deliver reports? If so, then it is obviously overkill. That 
functionality can easily be solved in simpler way. How do people read 
these reports? Either locally, using mail(1), in which case they are 
just accessing a local mail file, and everything can be done simpler, or 
they forward the mail somewhere which means they have to setup a 
configuration to deliver mail somewhere, possibly involving 
certificates, and all kind of fiddling. But in that case they have a 
system up and running with a network, and then they might as well 
install their preferred mail daemon from the network anyway.

So why have a mail daemon in the base system? I can't really see the 
point. Especially when it might change from one day to the next. People 
simply cannot depend on that item being there and stable, so if they in 
fact need a mail daemon, they should just install it themself.
And if they don't need a mail daemon, the few things inside the system 
should definitely be able to live without one.

Just my $.02

	Johnny

Rick Kelly wrote:
> John Nemeth said:
> 
> 
>>On Oct 30,  9:13am, Johnny Billquist wrote:
>>}
>>} I just had a thought.
>>} In view of the fact that sendmail was removed, maybe the recommendation 
>>} should be that if you want to use any mail daemon, you should install it 
>>} yourself, from pkgsrc, since you cannot count on programs in the base 
>>} system to stay around, nor configurations and files to be left alone?
>>} 
>>} And if we can draw this conclusion, why include any mail daemon at all?
>>} 
>>} What other parts of the base system risks the same effects?
>>
>>    UUCP is probably up next.  I believe the plan is to move it to
>>pkgsrc.
> 
> 
> However, NetBSD does need a mail daemon of some sort. Postfix is pretty
> stable. Without the ability to send and receive mail, one might not even
> know about pkgsrc.
> 
> If there is no mail, them /etc/security, /etc/daily, etc might as well be
> removed as they would then be effectively writing to >/dev/null.
> 
> How high an interest is there in gimpy UNIX?

-- 
Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
                                   ||  on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt@update.uu.se           ||  Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol