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

[Stephen Carrier <carrier@berkeley.edu>]

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.

Thanks,

Stephen Carrier

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