Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
If most users had to set up an SMTP server, we know what would happen:
They'd be set to accept mail from all domains, and relay to all, as it'd
be too hard to work out how to do it otherwise.
This is precisely why a usable configuration should be supplied, so the
users don't make such mistakes. Exactly the same is true for samba,
ftp, sshd, and most other services. If someone has to set any of these
up from scratch they are going to make mistakes the first time and have
an insecure system.
This sounds like a good reason not to ship Sendmail as the default
mail program. Change to something like Postfix that has a readable
config file format, and does not require you to use a macro language
to generate an overly complicated config file.
Why would that matter in the least if you didn't have to edit the file
but instead had tools equivalent to your network or printer setup?
> Plus you don't need
all the extra files that Sendmail requires to expand the macro's
into a config file.
Why would those bother anyone?
It would also be a better starting point if you did want to create a
GUI to configure it. No need to modify a source file, and use that
to generate a config file for every little change. Just change the
value in the config file, and tell postfix to reload its config
file. (And you have to do this step with Sendmail as well.)
If you are willing to settle for a web based config, you could just
load Webmin and use the Sendmail or Postfix module...
Webmin keeps you from making syntax errors in the file, but it doesn't
help much conceptually - that is you still have to understand too many
irrelevant details to make something that just follows a standard protocol.
--
Les Mikesell
lesmikesell@xxxxxxxxx
