[Mailman-Developers] 2.1.8 documentation mismatch

[Brad Knowles]

At 3:51 PM +0100 2006-06-07, Ian Eiloart wrote:

>  Perhaps. Even better would be to hold rosters in open databases. Exim, for
>  example, can read sql, ldap, flat files and so on.

	That's just rosters.  That's a small part of the overall set of 
things that Mailman is going to be looking at when it comes to 
deciding whether or not to accept or reject a given message.

	Moreover, we've been trying to go to an integrated database model 
for all data regarding users, but what you're proposing here would be 
a push towards simplified, almost flat, databases with minimal 
specific information about users, so that the MTA could parse that 
information and understand who was subscribed to what list.

	Unless you've got some ideas of how to teach all MTAs how to 
reach deeply into our database and pull out subscription information 
for a given message, I don't see how these two goals are anything but 
diametrically opposed.


	We can't just be thinking of a single MTA here.  Just because it 
would be convenient to you to make all this magic happen in a way 
that would be perfectly fine for Exim, doesn't mean that we can 
ignore sendmail, postfix, and other programs.

	If you want to write up some Exim-specific ways that would result 
in a tighter integration between the MTA and Mailman, I think that 
would be fine so long as they don't cause architectural changes 
within Mailman that would result in a significantly worse integration 
with other MTAs.

>                                                      I don't think it's
>  Mailman's job to examine the content of messages - that's the job of a spam
>  or virus filter.

	But once the spam or virus filter has done their work, we need to 
look at that as part of the output in making our decisions.

	I don't think there's any way in the world that you're going to 
escape this.

-- 
Brad Knowles, <brad at stop.mail-abuse.org>

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

     -- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), reply of the Pennsylvania
     Assembly to the Governor, November 11, 1755

  LOPSA member since December 2005.  See <http://www.lopsa.org/>.