Re: msmtp 1.8.5 built using ${prefix}/${SYSCONFDIR}

[Ken Brown <kbrown at cornell dot edu>]

On 10/9/2019 4:03 PM, Stephen Carrier wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 02, 2019 at 01:38:13PM -0600, Brian Inglis wrote:
>> On 2019-10-02 12:18, Stephen Carrier wrote:
>>> On Tue, Oct 01, 2019 at 08:43:40PM -0600, Brian Inglis wrote:
>>>> On 2019-10-01 18:47, Stephen Carrier wrote:
>>>>> The latest verion of the msmtp package: 1.8.5+20190811+git7912c76-1 .
>>>>> Differs from the previous version: 1.6.6-1 .
>>>>>
>>>>> In that the location of the system-wide configuration file is changed
>>>>> from /etc/msmtprc to /usr/etc/msmtprc.
>>>>>
>>>>> I think this has the potential to break installations during an upgrade.
>>>>>
>>>>> In my case it only confused me as I set up a new system.
>>>>>
>>>>> Please consider changing this default back to what it was for the
>>>>> convenience of those who will otherwise need to figure this out.
>>>>
>>>> Definitely not a standard location and nothing there currently on my system.
>>>> The package contents shows only server configuration, nothing on /usr/etc/, no
>>>> defaults provided in /etc/defaults/usr/etc/, and /usr/bin/msmtp-config defaults
>>>> the CONFDIR to /etc, so unless you have a symlink, link or junction from /etc to
>>>> /usr/etc, or changed the location during the server config, /etc/ should have
>>>> been used.
>>>
>>> This is not what I meant.  The package doesn't provide a configuration
>>> file.  msmtp-config generates one in /etc/msmtprc, exactly as I would
>>> want and expect since that's where to find the configuration file for
>>> previous versions.
>>>
>>> The problem is that the binary looks for its configuration file in a
>>> different place:
>>
>>> $ msmtp --version
>>> msmtp version 1.8.5
>>> Platform: x86_64-pc-cygwin
>>> ....
>>> System configuration file name: /usr/etc/msmtprc
>>
>>> and only after I moved the configuration file to that nonstandard location
>>> would msmtp start working instead of complaining that it couldn't find
>>> any configuration file.
>>>
>>> This seems like something that could be fixed by tweaking the package
>>> build scripts; I think it would be great to do that.
>>
>> So this is a discrepancy between the built exe and the config script, which
>> should be resolved by having the built exe use the standard SYSCONFDIR, by
>> removing ${prefix} from its definition.
>> [changing subject]
> 
> Could the package maintainer join in?  I don't see how discussing the
> minutae of the build process actually helps without the maintainer's
> participation.
> 
> Pre-existing msmtp installations use /etc/msmtprc, and the current
> configuration script creates a valid configuration in that same location.
> Clearly, fixing the binary and not the configuration script is the way
> forward, unless there is compelling reason to move the configuration
> file from where it used to be.

I've added the maintainer, Jari Aalto, to the Cc.  I don't think he reads the 
list regularly.

Ken

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