[Dovecot] @2.0, --sysconfdir incorrectly populated with dovecot/*.conf

[PGNet Dev]

On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 7:40 PM, Timo Sirainen <tss at iki.fi> wrote:
> This is intended, because there are now lots of config files by default. Or
> should this be done somehow differently?

lots of config file is fine ...

according to:

  http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/Directory-Variables.html
  " ... The directory for installing read-only data files  ..."

should, iiuc, specify the DIR that CONF FILES are installed in. not a
DIR that another DIR is installed in.   admittedly, i have NO clue as
to how "rigid" that's supposed to be.

>  Anyway the point is that just doing
> "./configure" should still access /usr/local/etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf.

the default, as spec'd @ ./configure --help says,

  --sysconfdir=DIR        read-only single-machine data [PREFIX/etc]

which seems to imply that the .conf files are installed in PREFIX/etc
... not PREFIX/etc/dovecot

the fact remains that, atm, ./configure "as usual" (1) doesn't seem to
create the /dovecot/ directory _under_ sysconfdir, and (2) causes an
error (e.g., dovecot -n) when it doesn't find the files that a user
would even manually place in the directory they'd expect the files to
be in.

of course it's trivial to "figure out" once you get the error msg, but
the goal would be to avoid the problem in the 1st place ...

>> 2.0's behavior should be made consistent with the correct
>> implementation in 1.2.x, or clarified as different in --help/docs.
>
> I don't think it's possible to change --help's text. As for other docs.. I'm
> not really sure how I should even start describing all the v2.0 changes and
> where.. The v2.0's changed configuration is going to break so many wiki
> pages..

personally, i'd suggest cloning the 1.0/1.2 wiki to a parallel site,
and making it just a 2.0 wiki -- to which changes can be made.  imo,
trying to maintain a single site for all versions is just going to get
horribly confusing, tough to maintain, and almost impossible to
deprecate when the time comes.  Apache HTTPD does a very nice job of
parallel sites for each version.