# http://devmanual.gentoo.org/general-concepts/virtuals/index.html virtual/mta providers (for eg. mail-mta/postfix, mail-mta/sendmail, etc) ebuilds use old-style virtuals making impossible to have installed more than one package providing the feature. Please, please please, fix this. Here's a rough list of ebuilds featuring PROVIDE="virtual/mta": fabio@mars /usr/portage $ grep -r "PROVIDE.*virtual/mta" mail-mta/* mail-mta/courier/courier-0.61.1.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta mail-mta/courier/courier-0.59.0.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta mail-mta/courier/courier-0.62.2.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta mail-mta/courier/courier-0.61.2.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta mail-mta/courier/courier-0.60.0.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta mail-mta/esmtp/esmtp-0.6.0.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta" mail-mta/esmtp/esmtp-0.5.0-r1.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta" mail-mta/esmtp/ChangeLog: Made esmtp PROVIDE virtual/mta. Closes #63775, reported by Stephan Kapfinger mail-mta/esmtp/esmtp-1.0.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta" mail-mta/exim/exim-4.69-r3.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta" mail-mta/exim/exim-4.69.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta" mail-mta/mini-qmail/mini-qmail-1.05.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta mail-mta/mini-qmail/mini-qmail-1.05-r1.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta mail-mta/msmtp/msmtp-1.4.7.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta" mail-mta/msmtp/msmtp-1.4.5.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta" mail-mta/msmtp/msmtp-1.4.9.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta" mail-mta/msmtp/msmtp-1.4.16.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta" mail-mta/msmtp/msmtp-1.4.14.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta" mail-mta/msmtp/msmtp-1.4.17.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta" mail-mta/nbsmtp/nbsmtp-1.00-r2.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta" mail-mta/nbsmtp/nbsmtp-1.00.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta" mail-mta/nullmailer/nullmailer-1.04.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta" mail-mta/postfix/postfix-2.5.5.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta virtual/mda" mail-mta/postfix/postfix-2.6.2-r1.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta virtual/mda" mail-mta/postfix/postfix-2.4.11.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta virtual/mda" mail-mta/postfix/postfix-2.5.7.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta virtual/mda" mail-mta/sendmail/sendmail-8.13.7.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta" mail-mta/sendmail/sendmail-8.14.2.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta" mail-mta/sendmail/sendmail-8.14.1.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta" mail-mta/sendmail/sendmail-8.14.3.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta" mail-mta/sendmail/sendmail-8.13.7-r1.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta" mail-mta/sendmail/sendmail-8.13.8.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta" mail-mta/sendmail/sendmail-8.13.6-r1.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta" mail-mta/sendmail/sendmail-8.14.0.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta" mail-mta/ssmtp/ChangeLog: re-add PROVIDE=virtual/mta mail-mta/ssmtp/ssmtp-2.62-r6.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta" mail-mta/ssmtp/ssmtp-2.62-r4.ebuild:PROVIDE="virtual/mta" Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce:
(In reply to comment #0) > # http://devmanual.gentoo.org/general-concepts/virtuals/index.html | There are some things that are still only possible with old-style | virtuals, which is why they are still useful: | | * Packages providing the virtual can block the virtual, so you can | ensure nothing else is installed that also provides that virtual. > virtual/mta providers (for eg. mail-mta/postfix, mail-mta/sendmail, etc) > ebuilds use old-style virtuals making impossible to have installed more than > one package providing the feature. That's not possible because of the sendmail compatibility provided by all of them. > Please, please please, fix this. Only possible if we/the user can control the colliding binaries (see the old mailwrapper idea, or some sort of replacement).
I'd like to see this resolved myself. But currently this is LATER (or never).