dovecot - Apr 2010 - version 1.2.11 creating symlink loop for config file

What is the following at the end of "main_init" in dovecot 1.2.11
(src/master/main.c) intended to accomplish?

        base_config_path = t_strconcat(settings_root->defaults->base_dir,
                                       "/"PACKAGE".conf",
NULL);
        (void)unlink(base_config_path);
        if (symlink(configfile, base_config_path) < 0) {
                i_error("symlink(%s, %s) failed: %m",
                        configfile, base_config_path);
        }
}

With our compilation parameters and runtime setup it ends up removing
the working base_config_path file and making it instead a symlink to
itself.  (I.e. a non-working loop).  Strangely, the one instance of
dovecot continues and seems to mostly work.  But (for now) I need to
put back the proper dovecot.conf before I can restart it.

I think that would be the expected result if
strcmp(configfile, base_config_path) == 0.
Is that in fact not expected to be the case?  (See my initial question).

I did not expect self-modifying of configuration like this.
(See my initial question).

Pattern matches (e.g. "config_path") find no apparent mention
of this in recent postings.


Adrian Pepper
Computer Science Computing Facility
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
University of Waterloo
arpepper at uwaterloo.ca
========================================================================
After the bug has happened...
services110.cs# servers/dovecot -n
# 1.2.11: /software/imap-dovecot-1.2/data/etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
Error: Can't open configuration file
/software/imap-dovecot-1.2/data/etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf: Number of symbolic
links encountered during path name traversal exceeds MAXSYMLINKS
Fatal: Invalid configuration in
/software/imap-dovecot-1.2/data/etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
services110.cs# 

services110.cs# servers/dovecot -n
# 1.2.11: /software/imap-dovecot-1.2/data/etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
Warning: fd limit 256 is lower than what Dovecot can use under full load (more
than 768). Either grow the limit or change login_max_processes_count and
max_mail_processes settings
# OS: SunOS 5.8 sun4u  
base_dir: /software/imap-dovecot-1.2/data/etc/dovecot/
protocols: imap imaps pop3 pop3s
ssl_cert_file: /software/sslCerts/config/certs/dovecot.pem
ssl_key_file: /software/sslCerts/config/certs/private/dovecot.key
disable_plaintext_auth: no
login_dir: /software/imap-dovecot-1.2/data/etc/dovecot/home/
login_executable(default): /software/imap-dovecot-1.2/libexec/dovecot/imap-login
login_executable(imap): /software/imap-dovecot-1.2/libexec/dovecot/imap-login
login_executable(pop3): /software/imap-dovecot-1.2/libexec/dovecot/pop3-login
first_valid_uid: 100
last_valid_uid: 65535
first_valid_gid: 100
last_valid_gid: 65535
mail_location: mbox:~:INDEX=~/.imap:INBOX=/var/mail/%u
mmap_disable: yes
dotlock_use_excl: no
mail_nfs_storage: yes
mail_nfs_index: yes
mail_executable(default): /software/imap-dovecot-1.2/libexec/dovecot/imap
mail_executable(imap): /software/imap-dovecot-1.2/libexec/dovecot/imap
mail_executable(pop3): /software/imap-dovecot-1.2/libexec/dovecot/pop3
mail_plugin_dir(default): /software/imap-dovecot-1.2/lib/dovecot/imap
mail_plugin_dir(imap): /software/imap-dovecot-1.2/lib/dovecot/imap
mail_plugin_dir(pop3): /software/imap-dovecot-1.2/lib/dovecot/pop3
namespace:
  type: private
  separator: /
  prefix: maildir_mail/
  location: maildir:~/.maildir
  list: yes
  subscriptions: yes
namespace:
  type: private
  separator: /
  location: mbox:~/.:INBOX=/var/mail/%u:INDEX=~/.imap1
  inbox: yes
  list: yes
  subscriptions: yes
namespace:
  type: private
  separator: /
  prefix: mail/
  location: mbox:~/mail:INDEX=~/.imap2
  list: yes
  subscriptions: yes
lda:
  postmaster_address: postmaster at cs.uwaterloo.ca
  hostname: cs.uwaterloo.ca
auth default:
  verbose: yes
  debug: yes
  passdb:
    driver: passwd-file
    args: /etc/shadow
  userdb:
    driver: passwd
    args: blocking=yes
services110.cs#  

This is not a production setup; some/most configuration is
experimental or speculative.

"dovecot -n" does not appear to remove the config file.

On Wed, 2010-04-14 at 13:25 -0400, Adrian Pepper wrote:
> services110.cs# servers/dovecot -n
> # 1.2.11: /software/imap-dovecot-1.2/data/etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
> Warning: fd limit 256 is lower than what Dovecot can use under full load
(more than 768). Either grow the limit or change login_max_processes_count and
max_mail_processes settings
> # OS: SunOS 5.8 sun4u  
> base_dir: /software/imap-dovecot-1.2/data/etc/dovecot/
base_dir really isn't meant to be under etc/. Why did you think of
putting it there? Maybe the symlink loop is the only problem currently,
but I can't promise other things won't break in future. The base_dir
should point to somewhere that doesn't contain any other files, so
Dovecot should be free to delete all files under it if it so chooses.
Dovecot also doesn't need any files to permanently exist there, the
whole directory could be deleted every time before startup.

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