[PLUG] debian packages question

[Aaron Burt]

On Mon, Oct 31, 2005 at 09:33:25PM -0800, Russ Gilman-Hunt wrote:
> Ok, running Debian ( etch ) at home. This is just sort of a _general_
> question;
> 
> If I install sendmail from apt-get, and then spamassassin from apt-get,
> does sendmail then use spamassassin?

Nope.  You'll still have to tell your mail system how to actually
pass mail through spamassassin.  The package's author wouldn't want
to presume, after all.  ;)

Me, I just use a procmail rule instead of installing SA sitewide.  
If I were just doing it on a desktop, I'd use a Spamassassin proxy
(google for it) or Evolution's built-in Spamassassin support.  See:
http://software.newsforge.com/software/05/07/01/1521254.shtml?tid=130

And unless you already have a special affinity for Sendmail, I implore
you to use Exim (Debian's default MTA) or Postfix (another popular
MTA).  It's much easier to configure them.

> Is this answer pretty much the same across the board? Ie, if I apt-get
> apache2 and then apt-get php5 and then apt-get mysql4, will I be able to
> write my LAMP applications using this setup, or is there something I'll
> have to configure or compile?

It depends on whether there's only one obvious way to hook it up (I
think PHP5 + Apache is in this category.)  If there's a bunch of
reasonable ways to do it (e.g. Spamassassin can be configured for
several different MTAs, as a proxy, as an individual filter or for
sitewide operation) then the package author will leave it to you, the
Mighty Sysadmin, to figure out where the tentacles and squeaky bits go.


-- 
"All software grows until it can send and receive e-mail, not because
 this is a useful function, but because by becoming an MTA it can be
 complete in its suckfulness."  -- Anthony de Boer