On Sun, 14 Jul 2019 02:20:55 +0000, A. Dumas wrote:

> A. Dumas  wrote:
>> I can't check anymore because I do have one (indeed, Exim) as a
>> dependency of the scheduler 'at' which I installed manually. This was
>> from a fresh Buster install and it only came when I installed 'at'
>> [...]
>>
>>> When I found it I assumed it was there to keep RPi4 folks happy if
>>> they were expecting to use one as a cheap desktop Linux box.
>>
>> Meh. Thunderbird or other GUI mail clients work just like their Win/Mac
>> counterparts: they connect to the mail server themselves so don't need
>> or use an MTA.
>
> Oh! I do have another Buster install without at. No MTA there. The GUI
> mail client is claws-mail.
>
> Packages that explicitly depend on exim4 listed below. It's not
> exhaustive "anything that might install exim", e.g. at is not listed
> because it picks a  but I have no idea how it decides,
> maybe simply the first available from its own list.
>
> $ apt-cache rdepends exim4 exim4 Reverse Depends:
>   alpine
>  |fex |gitlab |whatsnewfm |vzdump |vm |uucp |uqwk-spool |uqwk
>  |typo3-src-4.5 |typo3-dummy |tkrat |systraq |systemd-cron |sxid |sauce
>  |rt4-clients
>   rmail
>  |ripit |reportbug |renattach
>   prayer-accountd postgrey
>  |popa3d |pop-before-smtp |phpbb3 |owncloud |movabletype-opensource
>  |mlmmj |mailto |mailgraph |maildrop |mailagent |killer |ipband
>   greylistd
>  |gotmail |gnats-user |gnats |geximon |debsecan |debbugs |debarchiver
>  |darcs-monitor |broctl
>   bley
>  |biabam |backuppc

Explicit dependencies on exim looks very much like a faulty conversion
from the old 'alternatives' way of handling dependencies of the 'must
have an MTA' variety from the old initd to systemd - IOW where the
dependency is really 'must have an MTA installed' rather than 'must have
Exim' installed.


--
Martin    | martin at
Gregorie  | gregorie dot org

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