When building from source, is it possible to use "make install" to switch
between version 1.x and 2.x on the same machine (just for testing)?
I do that all the time.
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.
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: /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? I guess if I install the binaries to a separate place using the --prefix option, the config files also get moved?
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)