[CLUG] Migrating to Debian

[David Dorgan]

> I've heard great things about apt and I've used it on my Red Hat boxes for a
> little while, but not long enough to find it all that revolutionary.

You will if it's your desktop.

> Sendmail will do me fine if it comes standard on Debian, I've used it for
> years and it's served me well.

It uses exim by default, but apt-get install sendmail
should do the trick. Exim is actually pretty ok once you
set it up right, I had been meaning to move sponge to postfix
for ages, but I just needed some features quick on it,
so I tinkered with exim and it worked fine.

> You mean older packages and the like? I'm not bothered about that, I rarely
> do cutting edge.

They're fine becuase they're all up to date, and if you want
to be a little paranoid, either:

1) Sub an account to debian-security-announce, and let a script
sms you if anything it sent.
2) Give a role account sudo access to a script which it can't
write to, which can use sudo to run apt-get update and apt-get upgrade.
So once the mail comes in, it's run through the script (basically
just invokes it) and it upgrades your box as soon as anything
comes out on the debian-security-announce list. Automatic
patching.


David.