Binary package “lsb-invalid-mta” in ubuntu-rtm 14.09
Linux Standard Base sendmail dummy
The Linux Standard Base (http://
core system that third-party applications written for Linux can
depend upon.
.
This package contains nothing else than a fake /usr/sbin/sendmail
command to fulfill the LSB's requirement of providing this command without
requiring an MTA to get installed, which once introduces a daemon which
can cause security problems and second, users get asked questions about
how they want their MTA configured when in reality they simply wanted to
install a desktop application or a printer driver, but the dependency on
LSB compliance pulls in an MTA with the installation.
.
The LSB requirement on /usr/sbin/sendmail comes from old times where Linux
and Unix machines had all fixed IPs and did server tasks in data centers.
Today's typical desktop Linux machines do not do local e-mail any more as
users use external e-mail services.
.
The /usr/sbin/sendmail always exits with exit status -1 (255) and sends a
warning message to stderr, so that if a program actually tries to send e-mail
via the sendmail command the user gets note.