On 18.02.2013, at 07:07, Timo Sirainen <tss@iki.fi> wrote:
On 17.2.2013, at 22.04, Michael Grimm <trashcan@odo.in-berlin.de> wrote:
First of all: whenever you referred to "hostname" in this thread you have been using it as a synonym for the local part [1] of a FQDN, right?
I mean what gethostname() function returns, which is what "hostname" command usually also returns. And yes, I think it's the local part always.
I am not familiar with the gethostname() function within FreeBSD, but the "hostname" command normally returns your FQDN, if set. That has been the case because I didn't configure my service jails with FQDNs, thus a "hostname" couldn't return something else then the local hostname.
Given that all my interpretations of your statements are correct I do have difficulties in understanding why a "generic communication between Dovecot servers" should be limited to enforcing different local parts of all Dovecot servers implied instead of different FQDN? That would make much more sense regarding uniqueness in hostnames, IMHO. Two servers like "dovecot.forget-about.it" and "dovecot.you-name.it" should be able to communicate generically, again: IMHO.
I think systems named those would belong to different clusters and wouldn't need to communicate with each others.
Well, now I do understand my misunderstanding: I did consider replication between different clusters a "generic communication between Dovecot servers", as well.
I looked through the code. The hostname (without domain) are currently used for:
- maildir filenames
- temporary filenames
- authentication challenge strings in some auth mechanisms
- logging
So I think the hostname uniqueness matters mainly when using a shared filesystem (e.g. NFS).
So, I'm confident that I may stick to identical local hostnames regarding both servers of mine.
Thanks and with kind regards, Michael