[Dovecot] cache questions

[Daniel Watts]

Hi Guys,

We have:

auth_cache_size = 2048 #Kb
auth_cache_ttl = 900   #life of the cache

Seems to work well (though haven't tried looking at stats). Only problem 
is that every so often, one of our new users tries to log in quickly 
before the account is marked (in a db) as 'active'. They use the right 
password but the sql query fails because the active flag is not yet set.

This results in their trying to log in and failing for 15 minutes (900 
seconds) until the cache clears.

Is this dovecot caching negative results? Is this a good idea and can it 
be disabled?

Some more questions:

1. Is the expire time on a per-login basis or for the entire cache? If 
someone logs in 14 minutes after the last expiry is their data cached 
for just 1 minute?

2. If it is per-login, is the time reset after every hit? If someone is 
using webmail and hitting the cache every 5 minutes, will the cache keep 
the information?

3. How does the cache size relate to number of distinct logins? Roughly 
how many auth datasets cached per 1MB of cache?

Thanks!
Daniel

tg3 dovecot # dovecot --version
1.0.rc27

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