nullmailer should not directly conflict with lsb

[Todd Vierling]

Binary package hint: nullmailer

Yes, we know that the full LSB spec specifies that "-bs" be provided by the sendmail frontend. However, this interface is not supplied by ssmtp, nor is it supplied by the default lsb-invalid-mta (of course). I don't see why [only] nullmailer should have an explicit exclude entry against the simple "lsb" metapackage, contrary to what the Debian maintainers thought in 2004.

If this is really the desired conflict behavior, though, there's still a change required (the inverse: add the conflict to ssmtp).

[Jonathan Riddell (jr)]

What problem does this solve?

[Todd Vierling (duh)]

Jonathan, it's not possible to install the "lsb" metapackage, which aids in building/maintaining some third-party source that is distro-independent, if nullmailer is installed (though it's possible to do so if other noncompliant MTAs are installed, such as ssmtp or the lsb-invalid-mta).

[JohnWashington (ubuntu-johnwash)]

Presumably this is why I've just encountered the following problem on 10.10 today? Thanks for your report Todd.

root@ion:~# lsb_release
No LSB modules are available.
root@ion:~# aptitude install lsb
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  alien{a} bsd-mailx{a} debhelper{a} gettext{a} html2text{a} intltool-debian{a} libmail-sendmail-perl{a} libqt3-mt{a} libqt4-gui{a}
  libqt4-sql-sqlite{a} librpm1{a} librpmbuild1{a} librpmio1{a} libsys-hostname-long-perl{a} libunistring0{a} lsb lsb-core{a} lsb-cxx{a}
  lsb-desktop{a} lsb-graphics{a} lsb-printing{a} m4{a} ncurses-term{a} pax{a} po-debconf{a} rpm{a} rpm-common{a} rpm2cpio{a}
0 packages upgraded, 28 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 11.7MB of archives. After unpacking 30.8MB will be used.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
  nullmailer: Conflicts: lsb but 4.0-0ubuntu8 is to be installed.
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

     Keep the following packages at their current version:
1) lsb [Not Installed]

Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?] q
Abandoning all efforts to resolve these dependencies.
Abort.
root@ion:~#

[Todd Vierling (duh)]

JohnW, a version of nullmailer with this restriction removed is available in this PPA for Lucid, Maverick, and Natty:

https://launchpad.net/~duh/+archive/duh

[Marc Deslauriers (mdeslaur)]

Thanks for reporting this issue. The best way for us to get this fixed in Ubuntu is to get it fixed in the upstream Debian package, and to sync the package to Ubuntu. Could you please file a bug in the upstream Debian bug tracker, and link the bug here?

http://www.debian.org/Bugs/

Thanks!

[Nick Leverton (nick-leverton)]

Hi,

Just dropping in - I'm the intending new Debian maintainer for nullmailer and I'd be open to reviewing the decision on dbug:271662 ( http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=271662 )

It still seems to be the case, however, that the -bs option for SMTP mail submission is mandated by LSB. Nullmailer doesn't do it by design, so the conflict is genuine and not likely to go away without some work. It may be possible to split the package so that only the part with /usr/lib/sendmail has the LSB conflict, or to find some lesser part of the LSB that we can conflict or conform with - I'll investigate this aspect once I've got my adoption upload done. Alternatively perhaps someone who wants LSB compliance could write a patch to implement -bs and solve the problem ? Please followup on the Debian BTS if you can, thanks.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

[As per recent comments, unmarking patch as a solution since the patch is a workaround and not an appropriate fix. Also, ubsubbing sponsors since it sounds like further discussion is required with upstream to find a suitable long term fix, and the severity of the issue is not such that we require a short-term fix for ubuntu. Please re-subscribe sponsors once a consensus is reached with upstream, or provide clarifying rationale if diverging from upstream is needed.]

[Todd Vierling (duh)]

On Mon, Apr 4, 2011 at 8:44 AM, Nick Leverton <email address hidden> wrote:
> It still seems to be the case, however, that the -bs option for SMTP
> mail submission is mandated by LSB.  Nullmailer doesn't do it by design,
> so the conflict is genuine and not likely to go away without some work.

Ubuntu has already violated this with the introduction of
lsb-invalid-mta, a "MTA" script that always fails, including on -bs.
It was created to provide something as a dependency of the lsb
metapackages, which would not build up unchecked mbox files on systems
that are (ostensibly) workstations without local mail.

Additionally, ssmtp (and one other, I think, but which one escapes me
at the moment) does not support -bs, but is not listed as conflicting
with lsb. I took this as a hint that the conflict was not actually
necessary on nullmailer, either.

Unfortunately, I don't have the time to work on a 'real'
implementation of the feature; I needed it for my workstation at
$dayjob, and created my own ~suffixed dpkg without the conflict. I
offered the conflicts change solely for real-world practicality.

--
-- Todd Vierling <email address hidden> <email address hidden>

[Clive Darra (osde8info)]

there are also a lot of errors if postfix is installed after lsb

dpkg: lsb-invalid-mta: dependency problems, but removing anyway as you requested:
 lsb-core depends on lsb-invalid-mta | mail-transport-agent; however:
  Package lsb-invalid-mta is to be removed.
  Package mail-transport-agent is not installed.
  Package lsb-invalid-mta which provides mail-transport-agent is to be removed.
 bsd-mailx depends on default-mta | mail-transport-agent; however:
  Package default-mta is not installed.
  Package mail-transport-agent is not installed.
  Package lsb-invalid-mta which provides mail-transport-agent is to be removed.
 lsb-core depends on lsb-invalid-mta | mail-transport-agent; however:
  Package lsb-invalid-mta is to be removed.
  Package mail-transport-agent is not installed.
  Package lsb-invalid-mta which provides mail-transport-agent is to be removed.
(Reading database ... 147461 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing lsb-invalid-mta ...
Selecting previously deselected package postfix.
(Reading database ... 147458 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking postfix (from .../postfix_2.7.0-1_i386.deb) ...

[Nick Leverton (nick-leverton)]

IANOMOTU but as Debian maintainer I'm happy to say that nullmailer now implements -bs and no longer conflicts with the LSB. This fix was recently imported to Ubuntu in version 1.11.