sys-devel/m4 is currently a build dependency for mail-mta/sendmail, but it should be a dependency for both build and runtime. This is because in order to customize sendmail.cf/submit.cf (through sendmail.mc/submit.mc) after installation, m4 is required to interpret the files in /usr/share/sendmail-cf/... Reproducible: Sometimes Steps to Reproduce: 1. Build mail-mta/sendmail 2. emerge --depclean --with-bdeps=n 3. attempt to customize sendmail.cf/submit.cf (sys-devel/m4 is cleaned) Actual Results: m4 should be available to customize the sendmail.cf or submit.cf (using sendmail.mc or submit.mc) after installation. If m4 is not needed by any other packages, and build dependencies are cleaned, m4 will not be available. Expected Results: m4 should be available even after mail-mta/sendmail is built in order to interpret a customized sendmail.mc/submit.mc and make a new sendmail.cf/submit.cf This is a low-priority change, and can be worked-around by adding sys-devel/m4 to the system's "world" ... however it is (perhaps arguably) more accurate that sys-devel/m4 be a full dependency of sendmail given that it is highly likely that sendmail.cf or submit.cf (through sendmail.mc/submit.mc) will be customized after installation.