[Dovecot] Building Dovecot RHEL RPMs with custom LDAP packages

[/dev/rob0]

On Mon, Mar 19, 2012 at 03:47:24PM +0200, Nikolaos Milas wrote:
> On 19/3/2012 2:32 μμ, /dev/rob0 wrote:
> 
> >ISTM that herein lies the whole problem. Why did you not rpmbuild
> >your OpenLDAP? That would have avoided all further fuss.
> 
> Thanks for the reply.
> 
> First, how would I rpmbuild my openldap v2.4.x as a standard CentOS 
> 5 package (i.e. replacing native openldap-2.3.43-25)? If I were 
> more experienced, I could have tried to engineer 
> openldap-2.3.43-25.el5.src.rpm to upgrade the system to use 

That's what I would have tried.

> 2.4.x... But still, I haven't seen any OpenLDAP packages attempting 
> to do so, probably because of the tight integration of CentOS with 
> some openldap v2.3 libraries.

I don't have anything to tell you there, and I note that we are now 
fully off-topic. :)

> I think it's good that third-party packages (even of the same
> software) give the ability to not mess with standard system. The same
> is true for reputable Symas OpenLDAP packages.
> 
> So, I simply use LTB OpenLDAP, even though it's installed at
> non-standard locations.

Failing the SRPM translation, why not just install into the CentOS 
standard locations? ... oops, I typed too fast ...

> (This has an added benefit of easy migration. You can setup any/all
> of those on the same system and decide which one to enable at any
> time.)

So you are in fact using both the CentOS OpenLDAP and your own 
version? This does not sound good at all. :(

> >Another observation I can offer, unwelcome as it may be: your
> >OS choice was not a good one when you want the features of
> >recent software. Perhaps you should rethink that choice. You
> >have invested much effort in this task.
> 
> I like CentOS from many aspects as an enterprise server OS. I
> wouldn't change it.

I don't doubt that CentOS/RHEL offers many benefits, but my point 
here is that in this endeavor you are seeing the drawbacks.

> Yet, it's important to me to be able to build/combine non-standard
> packages. Even with CentOS 6, I would still continue to use LTB
> OpenLDAP for a number of reasons.
> 
> It's true that I've invested much effort in this task, but mostly
> because my knowledge on this subject is very basic.

And there too, the better forum, with more of the skills you need, 
would be the CentOS one. :)

> Note that Dovecot RPM works fine as is (compiled with OpenLDAP 2.3),
> i.e. there is no real need in re-building it using OpenLDAP 2.4 libs.
> We just try to make things better (and make our life a bit more
> difficult) :-)
> 
> >
> >And that is really more a question for a CentOS forum than here.
> >
> 
> True, but I am hoping that there might be some Dovecot RHEL/CentOS
> packagers in this list, and that would help resolve issues more
> effectively, as it is a Dovecot-specific (even if for a package
> thereof) question.
> 
> So, any help will be appreciated!
> 
> >The latter requirement seems curious to me. In what way does
> >Dovecot use Cyrus SASL?
> 
> Hmm, I can't tell. I hope atrpm packager(s), if present on this 
> list, can provide some feedback.

I was thinking maybe Timo would know. As far as I can tell it 
doesn't. I do see in configure.in's check for LDAP, a search for 
sasl.h or sasl/sasl.h, so it appears that Cyrus SASL might be 
required to build Dovecot's LDAP support.
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