One issue that every *nix manager must face
is the question of whether to use prebuilt
ports and packages, or to build from source code.
I've been building from source code since
I started managing *nix systems long before
there were any ports or packages. However,
I have to admit that ports and packages can
make life easier. But not always.
I recently moved my department's email server (running
Postfix) from one IP address to another. Email to outside
users was working but not to internal users. To make
a long story short, one of the people in my group
realized that the Postfix package we were using
was built to use a chroot jail, and therefor had
its own hosts file. So, Postfix couldn't find the
correct IP address for the system it was running
on, and couldn't handle local email.
The point of bringing this up is that I had no
idea that the Postfix package I was using had
been built that way. When I had built it by
hand on other servers I didn't build it that
way. This kind of thing could happen with
any non-trivial program and it scares me to death.
Needless to say, I now build from sources.
Cordially,
Jon Forrest
Computer Resources Manager
Civil and Environmental Engineering Dept.
305 Davis Hall
Univ. of Calif., Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-1710
510-642-0904
forrest@ce.berkeley.edu
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Received on Sat Feb 26 19:59:54 2005
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