[Koha] Email alert from Koha

[Emrys Minnig]

Your concerns are valid.  Installation is obviously not Koha-specific and I certainly didn't mean for my instructions to be adopted as canon; rather, I sought to answer the question at hand with explicit information.  The tarball is unsigned -- bad practice, true enough -- but I know enough about qmailrocks.org and the surrounding community to be not overly worried.  Further, the tarball (and instructions) include John Simpson's qmail patch collection, which should sort out any spam bounce/backscatter issues.
 
As for qmail itself, its security credentials are sound, it's familiar to me and personally I prefer it to exim.  To quote the thread in which J. Jaspert made the comment you refer to:
 
On Fri, 21 Dec 2007, John H. Robinson, IV wrote:
> On Fri, 21 Dec 2007, Don Armstrong wrote:
> > On Fri, 21 Dec 2007, John H. Robinson, IV wrote:
> > > On Fri, 21 Dec 2007, Don Armstrong wrote:
> > > > On Fri, 21 Dec 2007, John H. Robinson, IV wrote:
> > > > > On Fri, 21 Dec 2007, Don Armstrong wrote:
> > > > > > On Fri, 21 Dec 2007, John H. Robinson, IV wrote:
> > > > > > > On Fri, 21 Dec 2007, Don Armstrong wrote:
> > > > > > > > On Fri, 21 Dec 2007, John H. Robinson, IV wrote:
> > > > > > > > > On Fri, 21 Dec 2007, Don Armstrong wrote:
> > > > > > > > > > On Fri, 21 Dec 2007, John H. Robinson, IV wrote:
> > > > > > > > > > > On Fri, 21 Dec 2007, Don Armstrong wrote:
> > > > > > > > > > > > On Fri, 21 Dec 2007, John H. Robinson, IV wrote:
> > > > > > > > > > > > > Joerg Jaspert wrote:
> > > > > > > > > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > > > > > > > > There are *way* better MTAs [than qmail] out
> > > > > > > > > > > > > > there that dont need tons of patches applied
> > > > > > > > > > > > > > just to fulfill basic requirements for a
> > > > > > > > > > > > > > MTA.
> > > > > > > > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > > > > > > > No, there are not.
> > > > > > > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > > > > > > Yes, there are.
> > > > > > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > > > > No, there are not.
> > > > > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > > > > Yes, there are.
> > > > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > > > No, there are not.
> > > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > > Yes, there are.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > No, there are not.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > Yes, there are.
> > > > > 
> > > > > No, there are not.
> > > > 
> > > > Yes, there are.
> > > > 
> > > No, there are not.
> > 
> > Yes, there are.
>
> No, there are not.
Yes, there are.
Next? ;-)

Don Armstrong

I had to laugh at that one.  To some extent, it seems MTA choice is largely a matter of opinion.
 
 
Emrys

________________________________

From: MJ Ray [mailto:mjr at phonecoop.coop]
Sent: Sat 30/01/2010 02:10
To: Emrys Minnig
Cc: koha at lists.katipo.co.nz
Subject: Re: [Koha] Email alert from Koha



"Emrys Minnig" <emrysminnig at varndean.co.uk>
> I prefer qmail, which I've set up on several Koha servers.  I wrote
> these (hopefully) easy instructions for qmail installation on Debian
> Lenny, though it should be similar for other *nix systems.

Those instructions don't look koha-specific and also seem to have some
risky practices like downloading unsigned tarballs.  Using one of the
various qmail packages (like netqmail or qmail-ldap) is probably
simpler, but I'm reminded of this quote from debian ftpmaster Joerg
Jaspert:-

  "And then there is the question if such a piece of software should really
   go into Debian. There are *way* better  MTAs out there that dont need
   tons of patches applied just to fulfill basic requirements for a MTA."
  http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=457318#15

Please, only install qmail if you really want it and are sure that you
have dealt with the spam backscatter and silly error message problems.

Scarred,
--
MJ Ray (slef)  Webmaster and LMS developer at     | software
www.software.coop http://mjr.towers.org.uk <http://mjr.towers.org.uk/>         |  .... co
IMO only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html |  .... op