Stewart Dean wrote:
Alas, when I actually tried to run dovecot, it was asking for its
resource /in the original build tree/ location, which wasn't there. Is
there some way I can do what I want?
While I haven't done this specifically with Dovecot, you should be able
to manage everything in a simple manner like you want; I currently do
this with Exim and Courier-IMAP on the old production server solely with
switches to ./configure. Here's how it basically works, maybe it'll help
you get dovecot working:
Source:
/opt/build/courer-imap-1.2.3
$ ./configure --prefix=/opt/courier-imap-1.2.3
--with-authchangepwdir=${exec_prefix}/libexec/authlib
--with-makedatprog=${exec_prefix}/libexec/makedatprog (more and more
switches that don't matter for this)
After building, a simple "make install" places everything in
/opt/courier-1.2.3. Then there's a symlink like so:
/opt/courier-imap -> /opt/courier-1.2.3
...and finally the /etc/init.d/ script loads the actual courier
processes using /opt/courier-imap, not the "standard" /usr based things
(so you'll need to customize to fit the default dovecot init.d script).
When I upgrade (or downgrade) it's as simple as running the same
scenario on the new code (which means a new make install does not
overwrite the old), migrate the config files as needed, stop the old
daemon, switch the symlink, then start the new daemon up. Users don't
see interruption in their email experience and I'm confident of a backup
plan in an emergency.
This has been working great for many years upgrading Courier and Exim on
the same machine; rarely do I have to fall back but when it does happen
it's been as simple as pie.
-te
--
Troy Engel | Systems Engineer
Fluid, Inc | http://www.fluid.com
