[Dovecot] Why is dovecot involved in my smtp process

[/dev/rob0]

On Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 12:10:20PM -0500, Steve Campbell wrote:
> On 2/23/2012 11:33 AM, /dev/rob0 wrote:
> >On Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 10:16:34AM -0500, Steve Campbell wrote:
> >>Why is dovecot involved in my smtp processes and how do I fix
> >>this.
> >I would question that these failures are in fact related to what 
> >Sendmail is doing. Does Sendmail even support Dovecot SASL? AFAIK 
> >it does not, therefore there is no way that Dovecot could possibly 
> >interfere with SMTP AUTH in Sendmail.
> Why is sendmail using Dovecot sasl when I have the regular sasl set 
> up.

Fortunately it seems that Peter has identified the issue: Cyrus SASL 
being configured to use IMAP for authentication.

snip
> In other words, don't use sendmail if I use dovecot?

I didn't say that at all, and did not mean to imply it.

> I'm really having problems following the logic here. Seems that
> postfix and dovecot are the only way to go if I use alternate ports
> with smtp auth. Is that what everyone is implying?

One thing I *did* say is that what you posted was inadequate to be 
able to provide real help. And it seems that your issue is only 
tangentially related to Dovecot.

> I'll try to see what sendmail guys are saying, but I don't think
> they'll provide much as long as it involves dovecot.

As Peter said, consult the Cyrus SASL documentation. If your SASL 
will be using IMAP for authentication, you need to ensure that it 
does so correctly for your Dovecot IMAP.

As an alternative, change how Cyrus SASL is configured. The usual 
suggestion for Sendmail users is to use the same data backend for 
Cyrus SASL and Dovecot.
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