Re: [exim] Exim development

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Author: Ian Eiloart
Date:  
To: W B Hacker, exim users
Subject: Re: [exim] Exim development


--On 5 October 2009 20:59:32 +0800 W B Hacker <wbh@???> wrote:

> Ian Eiloart wrote:
>>
>> --On 5 October 2009 13:36:53 +0800 W B Hacker <wbh@???> wrote:
>>
>>> Christian Balzer wrote:
>>>> On Sat, 03 Oct 2009 02:37:15 +0800 W B Hacker wrote:
>>>>> .. there is nothing remotely resembling the Qmail saga here...
>>>>>
>>>> While that is certainly true, the lack of fully native DKIM support (no
>>>> patching, binary packages from the distro of your choice) is starting
>>>> to hurt.
>>>> Lets not repeat the discussion about pro and cons of DKIM, this is a
>>>> question of having an easy and fully supported way to offer DKIM for
>>>> those who want it or have a political (managerial) need to implement
>>>> it.
>>>>
>>>> The last official word about this from Tom was on March 30th IIRC and
>>>> since then nothing about it and Exim 4.70.
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>>
>>>> Christian
>>> 4.69 is not the barrier.
>>>
>>> WITH_DKIM =
>>>
>>> .. is already in the Makefile.
>>
>> yes, but libdkim isn't.
>
> But it is, and has been for a long time.


I should clarify: libdkim isn't distributed with exim 4.69. It is intended
that it will be distributed with exim 4.70, and the library distributed
with 4.70 is intended to have no additional dependencies. All of that will
make it easier to compile Exim with DKIM. Perhaps not very much benefit for
you and other FreeBSD users.

So, there's some DKIM benefit to be had from doing a release, there are
other changes in 4.70, too, I think.

And, there are some other, perhaps more important benefits:

a) it shows that we're still alive
b) it gives a chance to ensure that our release process is still functional.

> Tom did the Exim work, sky@ and krion@, the FreeBSD port maintainers
> picked up the dependencies and put them into place:
>
> Under /usr/ports/mail/libdkim
>
> even my now-obsolete FreeBSD 7.1 has libdkim-1.0.17-tk.tar.gz
>
> and it is found and used under /usr/ports/mail/exim
>
> with a simple:
>
> make -DWITH_DKIM=yes
>
> .. producing the expected output:
>
> /usr/ports/mail/exim/work/exim-4.69/build-FreeBSD/dkim-exim.o
>
> etc.
>
>> The docs refer to
>> <http://duncanthrax.net/exim-experimental/libdkim-1.0.15-tk.tar.gz> two
>> more recent versions are available there, but not easily discoverable,
>> and I don't see documentation about that fact.
>
> Present-day FreeBSD 7.2 production release and ports does list the newer
> libdkim-1.0.17_1
>
> Both call the requisite openssl version (discussed in April-May 2008
> thread).
>
>>
>> Tom said about 4.70 that the DKIM implementation is stand-alone (library
>> included in Exim bundle, no additional dependencies), and the new
>> library supports some non-POSIX platforms like Windows (I know). On the
>> other hand, support for domainkeys is dropped - not that I think that's
>> a great loss.
>>
>
> There is still a domainkeys lib in ports for that also - same maintainer,
> sky@???
>
> I haven't checked NetBSD, OpenBSD, DragonFlyBSD, but 'pkgsrc' may well
> have the DKIM option also.
>
>>> As to 'binary' and 'distro' ISTR the tools to make the result of
>>> compilation into an RPM or similar 'package' are free, plentiful, and
>>> not hard to utilize.
>>>
>>> If it was a *Pony* you wanted 'compiled', OTOH .. 'wishing' is probably
>>> safer.
>>>
>>> ;-)
>>>
>>>
>>> Bill
>>
>>
>
> Long story short:
>
> - Yes, docs could/should be updated to better reflect the current state,
> above.
>
> - But if FreeBSD rolled it all into ports NLT 7.1-RELEASE, (over a year
> ago), there must be at least ONE of the many Linux distros if not
> *several*, that has/have done so already. Linux is usually quicker off
> the mark on new stuff than the more conservative *BSD's.
>
> - In any case, given that the 'official' release is an OS-agnostic / fits
> all POSIX-critters *source* tarball, I don't see distro-specific binaries
> *or* third-party dependencies as entirely an Exim-devel responsibility.
>
> YMMV,
>
> Bill
>




--
Ian Eiloart
IT Services, University of Sussex
01273-873148 x3148
For new support requests, see http://www.sussex.ac.uk/its/help/