[Dovecot] Running 1.x and 2. x on same machine

[Timo Sirainen]

On 11.5.2011, at 21.58, email builder wrote:

>>> Do both versions  install the same binaries?
>> 
>> No, but as long as you don't use the other  one's extra binaries it
>> doesn't matter.
> 
> OK, great.  I assume you mean as long as I only use /usr/local/sbin/dovecot to 
> start the IMAP server, it will start whatever version I last installed with 
> "make install" right?  If it does that, I'm good.

Yep.

>>> Is configuration from 2.x  backward 
>>> compatible with 1.x? (so we can have the newest configuration  files on our 
>>> system without bothering to have a second set of 1.x  config files)
>> 
>> v2.0 can read most v1.x config files, but it'll give a lot  of warnings
>> about it. Their default configs are anyway in different  locations. I
>> just keep them both:
> 
> What about the other way around?  If I already have 2.0 configuration files 
> done, can I point 1.x to them?  Will 1.x choke on 2.0 config files?

v1.x definitely won't like any service {} blocks, and probably fails in other places too.

>> v1.x:  /usr/local/etc/dovecot.conf
>> v2.x:  /usr/local/etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
> 
> If it's best to keep the two sets of configuration files, I'd rather separate 
> them better than that. Is there a configure option that can move the location of 
> the config directory only?

configure --sysconfdir=/etc/dovecot2

>  I guess if I install the binaries to a separate 
> place using the --prefix option, the config files also get moved?

Yes, that too.

>>> Or instead should we be changing  something like the installation and config 
> 
>>> directorie for one of the  versions when we install it (how?).
>> 
>> ./configure  --prefix=/usr/local/dovecot-2.0
> 
> OK, but according to your answer at the top of this message, this isn't 
> necessary unless I want to have the binaries installed at the same time (which 
> isn't a bad idea I suppose)

If it's only a testing machine, it doesn't really matter what you do. For a production server I wouldn't recommend installing v1.x and v2.x to same prefix.