dovecot - Feb 2006 - Dovecot stops logging of imap logins after logrotation

Hi list,

on my Debian box there is a logrotation cron job that will gzip existing 
/var/log/mail.log file and create a new mail.log.

It seems that after running logrotation dovecot stops logging successful 
POP or IMAP logins to /var/log/mail.log (nevertheless, it still works to 
login with POP or SMTP).

This is bad because pop-before-smtp mechanisms also stop working.

I have deactivated logrotation cron job and will monitor mail.log file.

Maybe I should just run
   /etc/init.d/dovecot restart
after logrotation script.

What do you think?

TIA
Gerhard

Gerhard Hofmann wrote:
> Maybe I should just run
>   /etc/init.d/dovecot restart
> after logrotation script.
Indeed.


In alternative you can use syslog to log dovecot activity and let 
logrotate deal with syslogd restart business.


ciao,
luigi

Gerhard Hofmann wrote:
> Maybe I should just run
>   /etc/init.d/dovecot restart
> after logrotation script.
> 
Probably overkill (sorry for the pun!). We just kill -HUP the Dovecot
master process :-

kill -HUP `cat /var/run/dovecot/master.pid`

Best Wishes,
Chris

-- 
--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+-
Christopher Wakelin,                           c.d.wakelin at reading.ac.uk
IT Services Centre, The University of Reading,  Tel: +44 (0)118 378 8439
Whiteknights, Reading, RG6 2AF, UK              Fax: +44 (0)118 975 3094

Gerhard Hofmann wrote:
> Hi list,
> 
> on my Debian box there is a logrotation cron job that will gzip existing 
> /var/log/mail.log file and create a new mail.log.
> 
> It seems that after running logrotation dovecot stops logging successful 
> POP or IMAP logins to /var/log/mail.log (nevertheless, it still works to 
> login with POP or SMTP).
Most likely Dovecot is still holding onto the file.  Sensible log rotation 
leaves the most recently rotated log uncompressed, in case the daemon is still 
holding a file descriptor.  Most programs (Dovecot included) allow you to send 
them a signal to tell them to release the log files.
> Maybe I should just run
>   /etc/init.d/dovecot restart
> after logrotation script.
> 
> What do you think?
I think someone else has already pointed out a SIGHUP should be enough.

--
Curtis Maloney
cmaloney at cardgate.net