Webmin 'Software Package Updates'

[watercooled]

Does anyone know if Webmin will send mail to a proper email address e.g. example@gmail.com or if it only does system mail? Also is there a way to test it?
Thanks

Edit: Sorry I should have been a bit more clear, under System>System Package Updates you can set a schedule to check for package updates and email you if it finds any.

[ikonia]

first of all, what platform are you running it ?

secondly, you do know that a lot of operating systems have dropped webmin for big security issues ?

finally, you do know that it's not fully compatible with all operating systems (mostly some newer linux distributions) due to the web they have laid out their configuration files.

webmin is not an MTA - so it will send mail where it's allowed to send mail, and that will be defined by your MTA.

[peterb]

As Ikonia says - webmin is an administrative tool - really designed for simple aspects of administration - and the applications it will administer depends on the modules that have been written. It's good - within its limitations - but no real substitute for either the graphical tool written for an app (if there is one) or getting down and editing config files etc by hand.

So if you want your system to send you e mails, you need a 'proper' mMail Transfer Agent (MTA). Sendmail is the traditional *nix MTA - others are Postfix, Excim and Qmail and others. Asking which is best is like asking which is the best disk drive, linux disto, laptop etc - ask a large group of people and each one will have it's devotees.

Personally I like Postfix. It was written to overcome some of the security and useability shortcomings of sendmail, and is what I use on my mail server. Excim doesn't seem to be widely used, and as far as I can tell <dangerous statement mode> doesn't seem to offer anything that postfix offers </dangerous statement mode>. No doubt that will attract some excim devotees! Qmail is often used by ISPs (and a lot of spammers seem to use Qmail) I looked at it, but it seemed to make some changes to the daemon system which I didn't fully understand at the time (and still don't) so I decided to leave it. The documentation wasn't that good, and it didn't seem to be actively maintained.

Once you have configured postfix, then it will send system (or if you configure it appropriately - external mail - and if you configure it inappropriately - you will end up with an open relay - a BAD idea) to wherever you want. So something like logwatch will send you 24 hour updates of selected apps.

(Note - open relay - I miscongured Postfix as an open relay for 36 hours - in that time it relayed over 30,000 spam messages through my ISP. Fortunately I detected it before my ISP did)

Back to your original question? Do you want to be notified wne webmin module updates are available or when system updates are available? If it is the latter, it will be the package manager that send those messages, not webmin.

[watercooled]

Thanks for the advice, sorry for not replying I wasn't being ignorant - I've not been able to get online for a few days.
I'm using Debian BTW but TBH I have found I end up using SSH for pretty much all configuration, Webmin just seemed nice for checking stuff but I'd have no problems doing without it.

[peterb]

Thanks for the advice, sorry for not replying I wasn't being ignorant - I've not been able to get online for a few days.
I'm using Debian BTW but TBH I have found I end up using SSH for pretty much all configuration, Webmin just seemed nice for checking stuff but I'd have no problems doing without it.

TBH - I think that neatly sums it up! It's nice to have, and it can make configuration a bit quicker and easier, but it is no substitute gor getting down in the weeds on the command line - and that is where you get the best understanding of what is going on! (and SSH is usually a faster a protocol anyway)

[watercooled]

I might just uninstall it later, the security issues would explain why it's not on the official repos (pretty much everything else is). It's not exposed to the net so security issues aren't as serious as they could be but I believe there's some browser-based attacks recently patched which allowed someone to access your server if a Webmin page was open in the same browser or something.

[SiM]

D'oh, being a linux n00b I installed Webmin, but I haven't used or updated it in over 18 months... I am going to migrate over to vail when it is available, so don't think I'll bother removing it now.