Re: [Dovecot] Time moved backwards

At 11:13 AM +0400 5/13/08, Eugene wrote:

Hello,

I would like to suggest a change in handling of 'Time moved backwards' problem. Right now dovecot just dies. So, the scenario:

1. Colocation server is shut down for some reason. The internal time drifts.
2. Server is started again.
3. Dovecot starts successfully.
4. In about a minute, NTP daemon feels confident about adjusting the system time.

That's broken. Either your startup is running in the wrong order, it is missing a step, or your NTP daemon is misconfigured.

This sort of problem is why some OS's default startup procedure is intentionally designed to block on 'ntpdate' running successfully. You are likely to be better off with a system that is obviously not working than one which started and then was subjected to a backwards clock change, which can harm more than Dovecot.

-- Bill Cole
bill@scconsult.com