[Dovecot] Feature Request - Authentication Scheme - Linuxconf

[Dominic Marks]

On Saturday 16 July 2005 23:59, Marc Perkel wrote:
> This would make my life a lot easier in migrating to Dovecot. And it
> should be really easy to implement. Here's how linuxconf does it:
>
> Password files are placed in the /etc/vmail directory as follows:
>
> /etc/vmail/passwd.domain1
> /etc/vmail/shadow.domain1
> /etc/vmail/passwd.domain2
> /etc/vmail/shadow.domain2
>
> The password and shadow files are exactly the same format as the
> /etc/password and /etc/shadow files. The user name within the files
> would be the %n part of the email address passed to authenticate
> with.
>
> Basically the password file names are /etc/vmail/passwd.%d with the
> user withing the file being %n.
>
> marc:x:40000:12:Marc Perkel:/vhome/perkel.com/home/marc:/bin/false
> test:x:40001:12::/vhome/perkel.com/home/test:/bin/false
> dd:x:40002:12:Atia:/vhome/perkel.com/home/dd:/bin/false
> test2:x:40003:12::/vhome/perkel.com/home/test2:/bin/false
>
> It also makes merging several servers with separate passwd/shadow
> files into one virtual system because all you have to do is copy
> their existing passwd/shadow files into the /etc/vmail directory and
> rename them with the domain at the end.
>
> So - wouldn't that be easy to add? Sure would make migrating easy for
> me.

Not commenting on the idea, but:

From the Dovecot Wiki: http://wiki.dovecot.org/moin.cgi/Authentication

"Dovecot 1.0-tests support defining multiple password databases, so that 
if password doesn't match in the first database, it checks the next 
one. This can be useful if you want to easily support having both local 
system users in /etc/passwd but also virtual users..."

Using this you could implement what you describe, with one small 
exception that usernames would have to be renamed in your passwd
files to their appropriate user at domain form. I think that it is
good practice to name your users with the complete name in the passwd
file.

Cheers,
-- 
Dominic Marks