[Dovecot] best choice of user database file to work with postfix

[Stan Hoeppner]

Phil Howard put forth on 4/22/2010 11:18 AM:
> On Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 12:12 PM, Jerry <dovecot.user at seibercom.net> wrote:
> 
>> On Thu, 22 Apr 2010 17:03:00 +0200
>> Rainer <rainer.frey at inxmail.de> articulated:
>>
>>> Well, it leaves out the *one tricky part* of using a flat file
>>> database for virtual users with dovecot and postfix: there is no
>>> common format that both understand directly.
>>
>> I have not been following this thread as closely as I probably should
>> have; however, I was wondering what the OP's problem was with using
>> MySQL? It would greatly simplify the job of constructing and
>> maintaining databases. It is even possible to create tables that both
>> Postfix and Dovecot can use jointly if desired. I use MySQL for several
>> projects, and would never go back to using 'flat files" unless there
>> was no other way to achieve my goal.
>>
> 
> The administration is going to be handed off to less technical people, and
> my goal is to mimize the number of elements in this.  It's not about MySQL
> itself ... it's about not running yet another server/daemon.

With this many lookup table types supported by Postfix, is it true that it
has no "simple" table type in common with Dovecot?

              btree  A sorted, balanced tree structure.  This  is
                     available on systems with support for Berke-
                     ley DB databases.

              cdb    A read-optimized structure with  no  support
                     for  incremental updates.  This is available
                     on systems with support for CDB databases.

              cidr   A table that associates values  with  Class-
                     less  Inter-Domain  Routing (CIDR) patterns.
                     This is described in cidr_table(5).

              dbm    An indexed file type based on hashing.  This
                     is available on systems with support for DBM
                     databases.

              environ
                     The  UNIX  process  environment  array.  The
                     lookup  key is the variable name. Originally
                     implemented for testing,  someone  may  find
                     this useful someday.

              hash   An indexed file type based on hashing.  This
                     is available on  systems  with  support  for
                     Berkeley DB databases.

              internal
                     A non-shared, in-memory hash table. Its con-
                     tent are lost when a process terminates.

              ldap (read-only)
                     Perform lookups  using  the  LDAP  protocol.
                     This is described in ldap_table(5).

              mysql (read-only)
                     Perform  lookups  using  the MYSQL protocol.
                     This is described in mysql_table(5).

              pcre (read-only)
                     A lookup table based on Perl Compatible Reg-
                     ular   Expressions.   The   file  format  is
                     described in pcre_table(5).

              pgsql (read-only)
                     Perform lookups using the PostgreSQL  proto-
                     col. This is described in pgsql_table(5).

              proxy (read-only)
                     A  lookup  table that is implemented via the
                     Postfix proxymap(8) service. The table  name
                     syntax is type:name.

              regexp (read-only)
                     A lookup table based on regular expressions.
                     The file format is described  in  regexp_ta-
                     ble(5).

              sdbm   An indexed file type based on hashing.  This
                     is available on  systems  with  support  for
                     SDBM databases.

              static (read-only)
                     A  table  that  always  returns  its name as
                     lookup result.  For  example,  static:foobar
                     always  returns  the string foobar as lookup
                     result.

              tcp (read-only)
                     Perform lookups using a simple request-reply
                     protocol  that is described in tcp_table(5).
                     This feature is not included with the stable
                     Postfix release.

              unix (read-only)
                     A  limited way to query the UNIX authentica-
                     tion  database.  The  following  tables  are
                     implemented:

                     unix:passwd.byname
                            The  table is the UNIX password data-
                            base. The key is a login  name.   The
                            result  is  a  password file entry in
                            passwd(5) format.

                     unix:group.byname
                            The table is the UNIX group database.
                            The  key is a group name.  The result
                            is a group  file  entry  in  group(5)
                            format.


-- 
Stan