On Thu, 2007-10-04 at 13:57 +0100, Mike Brudenell wrote:

Scenario 1: Change to dovecot.conf

If I make a change to dovecot.conf am I right in thinking I can
simply send a HUP signal to the main dovecot process to get it to re- read the configuration file and act on its revised content?

One problem with SIGHUP is that it kills connections that are currently logging in (sending "* BYE Server is shutting down." to client). Would be nice if one day the login and auth processes simply stop accepting new connections and kill themselves only after the last client has disconnected.

Scenario 2: Altered SSL Certificates

I need to replace our current certificates and have prepared new
files containing the replacement certificate and private key. Am I
right in thinking that I can simply modify dovecot.conf to point at
the new files and send a HUP signal to dovecot? Specifically, will
new connections use the revised certificates, and existing
connections continue to work OK without interruption?

Yes, the SSL files are read by login processes at startup. And SIGHUP restarts login processes.