Subject: Linux-Activists - DOC Channel digest. 93-2-1-15:5
From: "Linux Activists" <[email-masked]>
To: "Linux-Activists" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1993 20:11:47 +0200

Topics:
	 Ballooning Mail Chapter

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From: Olaf Kirch <[email-masked]>
Subject: Ballooning Mail Chapter
Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1993 16:47:12 +0200

Hi, everybody!

As you will remember, I'm currently busy writing a chapter on email
management. However, I have the feeling that things are getting out
of hand. To introduce people to the configuration of smail, I started
describing the smail configuration files. However, I fear I've gone
into detail a bit too much.
In the meanwhile, I've reached page 25, with a dozen more pages to go.
In my defense, I would like to say that I prefer to have as much information
as necessary in the chapter, so that someone configuring smail need
not handle two (or more) documents at the same time. Especially
documentation for smail, where the man'page' for the config files
has 71 troff pages alone:-)

I think, this will definitely be too much for the sysadmin
manual, where it is intended to go by common will. Think
of 20 pages for UUCP, 30-something for mail, some 20 or more for
netnews, finally a 'little bit' on TCP/IP (remember the NET-FAQ
alone has 70K?)... looks a bit like a NET guide, doesn't it?

Now, that's exactly what I currently think would be worth
thinking about. IMHO, only the most basic things about
networking (TCP or UUCP) should be explained in the sysadmin
guide, as well as ongoing maintenance tasks (being newsmaster, 
postmaster; checking log files, maintaining a routing database,
running crontab entries, ...), with the rest either being thrown
away (:-() or going into a separate NETadm guide.

So, what do you think of it?

Yours, Olaf

PS: Of course I know that a person making such silly proposals
usually has to take over the job:-) So, if you like the idea,
and are not afraid that my knowledge of TCP networking is
nearly entirely theoretic, I'd volunteer to manage this
as well as contribute to it.

--
Olaf Kirch      [email-masked], [email-masked]

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