The challenge of customizing Dovecot

[Robert Moskowitz]

On 03/23/2017 12:15 AM, Rob McAninch wrote:
>
>
> -- Rob McAninch robmcaninch.com (Sent from my iPhone)
>> On Mar 22, 2017, at 23:53, Robert Moskowitz<rgm at htt-consult.com>  wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> On 03/22/2017 09:16 PM, Rob McAninch wrote:
>>>> On Mar 22, 2017, at 18:25, Robert Moskowitz<rgm at htt-consult.com>  wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> On 03/22/2017 11:36 AM, chaouche yacine wrote:
>>>>> Robert,
>>>>>
>>>>> What would be the benefit of using sed against making customized files and just copying them ? I'd probably just want to copy a working version of/etc/dovecot/  conf files instead of modifying my existing files with sed scripts (or create new ones with cat).
>>>> new options are left unaltered.  I learned this with postfix, to use postconf instead of trying to replace main.cf.
>>>>
>>>> I thought about mv old confs then cat new confs, but again, there are other things set up, and I worked at changing what needed customization, rather than wholesale replacement.
>>> Did you consider putting your customization in a local.conf which should be tried at the end? Could put whatever explanation in there you want. On a system like Debian this would more easily allow the default files to be upgraded without intervention.
>>>
>> I have not seen any reference to a local.conf.  Can you point this out to me?  I will have to see that it is maintained in Centos.  But some of the mods are additions (like plugins) to existing lines.  I would have to find out how those are processed.
> It is mentioned here
> http://wiki.dovecot.org/ConfigFile
>
> Debian Jessie has the last line of dovecot.conf as:
>
> !include_try local.conf

Did a tail and see the same line in Centos.

I will have to think about the best way to use this and if it CAN be 
used for all the customization.

I have some ideas.  Starting with a comment of which conf.d file a 
particular section is customizing.

thanks