Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2025 12:21:04 +0200
From: Natanael Copa <ncopa@alpinelinux.org>
To: Martin Steigerwald <martin@lichtvoll.de>
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>
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 <martin@lichtvoll.de> 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,