dovecot configuration oops

[Liam Parker]

Hi,

 

I've just transitioned from using courier to dovecot.  Thanks for making
this possible.

 

During the 'quite simple' transition process, I didn't do much prep as I'm
in more of a more of a fix-compile-fix-compile mode rather than a 'read all
the docs first' so you may just want to give up now :)

 

If you are still with me, I just wanted to say, it wasn't completely obvious
that I needed a password and a user database [PAM not virtual].  Maybe
that's just me but anyway, I spent longer than I should have trying to get
PAM to work before eventually realising 'internal error check server logs'
meant 'where's your user database'.  I guess I assumed PAM could cover it
all.

 

If you are in to that kind of thing (usability), it might be sensible to
have some kind of "basic errors" check during the config file parse phase
which picks up stuff like this and points out a more specific error.  I did
check the logs vigorously and I even turn on every kind of debug_ (to the
extent I started getting plain text passwords in the log!) but the 'internal
server error check logs' was actually the only log entry for this issue.

 

In case the point is still unclear, I would have spent less time running in
the wrong direction if the error message had been "At least one user
database must be configured" or some such.  I completely understand if your
philosophy is "read the manual or suffer the consequences" and it wasn't a
complete fail but a simple up front config check could have helped.

 

Thanks for your time today, 

 

 

Kind Regards,

 

Liam