[Dovecot] Upgrading 1.2 to 2.x

[Steffen Kaiser]

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On Wed, 6 Mar 2013, Daniel Parthey wrote:

> Noel Butler wrote:
>> On Tue, 2013-03-05 at 08:28 -0800, Professa Dementia wrote:
>>> On 3/5/2013 7:34 AM, Simon Brereton wrote:
>>>
>>>> What's the recommended approach then?  Pack it all into dovecot.conf
>>>> as it was before, or use the split config files under conf.d/ - is
>>>> this even a choice?
>>>
>>> Split configs are nicer and easier to work with and I am all for nicer
>>> and easier.
>>
>> WTF?  Everything in one file is much nicer and easier, and you don't
>> have to guess what option is in what file
>
> We're using a single file too, since this can be easily managed by
> a configuration management system and avoids unexpected changes.

A single file with just one place a configuration setting might exist is 
easier for novices or installations without (half-)automatic processing, I 
agree with Noel.

But I wonder why this is true for a configuration management system? Esp. 
then I would consider to put local options into yet another file is easier 
to manage and more robust.

> Split files might get accidentally updated or added on package
> updates and change the behaviour of your whole mail system.

In Dovecot I can override any setting of the default files with 
conf.d/99-my-XYZ.conf, so the package management of the distribution keeps 
its hands off my files and my conf management system doesn't interfere 
with the packager and/or original author. I would expect a monolitic file 
to break easier, when an automatic script changes something therein.

I do not have good experience with all-in-one config files and automatic 
processing. At least comments got screwed up.

I want to enable ACLs, so I add conf.d/99-my-acl.conf

protocol imap {
   mail_plugins = $mail_plugins imap_acl
}
plugin {
   acl = vfile
}
plugin {
   acl_shared_dict = proxy::acl
}
dict {
   acl = pgsql:[...]/dovecot-dict-sql.conf.ext
}

This file is part of my conf management system, but I leave 10-mail.conf 
and 20-imap.conf alone. If I change my ACL setting, I (well, the script or 
management system) need to fiddle in one small file with dramatic less 
places to get something wrong.

One GoodThing(tm) with Dovecot is that you can have both: one monolitic 
flat file (no !include in primary .conf) and split files. That's however 
opens the probability for flame wars about what's better. ;-)

Kind regards,

- -- 
Steffen Kaiser
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