Received: from ncopa-desktop.lan (unknown [IPv6:2001:4646:fb05:0:8f62:93a:59c1:df29]) (Authenticated sender: ncopa@alpinelinux.org) by gbr-app-1.alpinelinux.org (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id D130322586C; Tue, 3 Jun 2025 10:21:06 +0000 (UTC) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=alpinelinux.org; s=smtp; t=1748946067; h=from:from:reply-to:subject:subject:date:date:message-id:message-id: to:to:cc:cc:mime-version:mime-version:content-type:content-type: content-transfer-encoding:content-transfer-encoding: in-reply-to:in-reply-to:references:references; bh=ZGWbVKERRt20Xb2vrq7ZgeS+rBt5KGyDGHtJXeP0Azg=; b=jYMa1Hf2GcEE7ab6VbDOhZG97JvDl0WMBk5YfeEZADs7OO1qsJ+BKGdkl1gWOHQamfaUzj YU0UbovfhcgK1usxhv7Rp0KbM8DImVc21IMw/nsBv9rcu67xk+bxo/UtWub4N6TN/srX2q Z33KTwRQVQjCYgj4zHLFaWFxjVlFF9Y= Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2025 12:21:04 +0200 From: Natanael Copa To: Martin Steigerwald Cc: ~alpine/users@lists.alpinelinux.org Subject: Re: Dovecot 2.4 with Alpine 3.22 warning: dovecot.conf removed and configuration syntax changed Message-ID: <20250603122104.15420931@ncopa-desktop.lan> In-Reply-To: <7813744.EvYhyI6sBW@lichtvoll.de> References: <7813744.EvYhyI6sBW@lichtvoll.de> X-Mailer: Claws Mail 4.3.1 (GTK 3.24.49; x86_64-alpine-linux-musl) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Hi! Thank you for sharing! Might even be worth a wiki page. I would appreciate if someone could help writing it. https://wiki.alpinelinux.org Thanks! -nc On Mon, 02 Jun 2025 18:52:51 +0200 Martin Steigerwald wrote: > Hi! >=20 > On upgrading my private mail server with 3.21 to 3.22 with "apk upgrade -- > available" Dovecot was not started cause of: >=20 > % service dovecot start > * dovecot: `/etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf' is not readable > * ERROR: dovecot failed to start >=20 > That file was gone! >=20 > I restored it from backup. >=20 > And then I had to convert it to 2.4 format. >=20 > First off I added >=20 > dovecot_config_version =3D 2.4.1 > dovecot_storage_version =3D 2.4.1 >=20 > at the beginning of dovecot.conf. It needs to be the first configuration= =20 > statement. >=20 > Then I went through >=20 > https://doc.dovecot.org/2.4.1/installation/upgrade/2.3-to-2.4.html >=20 > and other parts of the documentation of Dovecot and the configuration fil= e=20 > example referenced in above link. >=20 > I started dovecot on command line to test changes as I did not see the=20 > configuration syntax errors reported in "/var/log/messages" or "/var/log/ > mail.log". The mail server uses Rsyslog. >=20 > Updating the configuration is not trivial. It is not completely explained= =20 > with examples in one page. I needed to review other parts of the Dovecot= =20 > 2.4.1 documentation to dig out configuration examples on how things are=20 > supposed to look now. >=20 > All in all the configuration seems to be more complex and more verbose=20 > now: Sections need to be named, "passwd" section needs to have a "fields"= =20 > group with what was in "args" before, names of configuration directories= =20 > have been changed, configuration directives like "mail_location" have bee= n=20 > split up. Oh, and SSL cert file options have been renamed as well and do= =20 > not take input redirection with "<" anymore. If you still try Dovecot=20 > treats the contents of the file as filename. So just remove that "<"=20 > there. While some options may be clearer now I am not really sure I=20 > whether I like most of those changes, but it is what it is. >=20 > It took me a bit more than half an hour for a simple private server=20 > configuration in a single file in "/etc/dovecot/conf.d". Cause the versio= n=20 > declaration needs to be the first statement I now seem to have to modify > "/etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf" as well. If there is a way around that please= =20 > let me know. I'd prefer to leave "dovecot.conf" untouched. >=20 > So if you upgrade, plan accordingly. >=20 > And make sure you have a backup / snapshot. >=20 > At least in the future due to setting the configuration file format=20 > version such surprises should not happen anymore. >=20 > It is currently not mentioned in Alpine 3.22 release notes=B2 but IMHO=20 > should be. >=20 > I can open a bug report about the missing configuration file and also=20 > about the release notes mentioning Dovecot configuration file syntax=20 > change, if you advice on which packages / components to report to. I am=20 > still quite new to Alpine Linux. >=20 > [1] Over the years Postfix has been much more comfortable for me than=20 > Dovecot regarding configuration updates. >=20 > [2] https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Release_Notes_for_Alpine_3.22.0 >=20 > Best,