dovecot - Aug 2008 - RfE: use HOSTNAME environment variable in hostpid_init()

Hi,

All parts of dovecot except deliver uses the result of hostpid_init() in
src/lib/hostpid.c as a hostname which only asks gethostname().

deliver honours environment variable HOSTNAME in src/deliver/deliver.c:

    getenv("HOSTNAME");

and uses the hostname of hostpid_init() as a fallback.

Wouldn't it be consequent to evaluate the environment variable HOSTNAME in
hostpid_init() with fallback to gethostname() and remove the special
behavior from deliver? The dovecot master process should export $HOSTNAME
to all childs in this case.

Motivation:

Dovecot uses the hostname as part of Maildir file names and gethostname()
is not fully qualified on all operating systems (it is on IRIX but not on
Linux). But unqualified hostnames are not unique and it is frequent that
dovecot hosts are named "mail" oder "imap" as hostname. To
distinguish
between mail.domain1.com and mail.domain2.net would be easier if dovecot
evaluate $HOSTNAME in all case not just deliver as program imap can create
Maildir files as well.

Heiko

Heiko Schlichting          Freie Universit?t Berlin
heiko at FU-Berlin.DE         Zentraleinrichtung f?r Datenverarbeitung (ZEDAT)
Telefon +49 30 838-54327   Fabeckstra?e 32
Telefax +49 30 838454327   14195 Berlin

On Aug 13, 2008, at 4:42 AM, Heiko Schlichting wrote:
> All parts of dovecot except deliver uses the result of  
> hostpid_init() in
> src/lib/hostpid.c as a hostname which only asks gethostname().
>
> deliver honours environment variable HOSTNAME in src/deliver/ 
> deliver.c:
>
>    getenv("HOSTNAME");
>
> and uses the hostname of hostpid_init() as a fallback.
Well, this is actually trying to use the hostname setting from  
dovecot.conf. The settings just happen to get passed in environment.
> Wouldn't it be consequent to evaluate the environment variable  
> HOSTNAME in
> hostpid_init() with fallback to gethostname() and remove the special
> behavior from deliver? The dovecot master process should export  
> $HOSTNAME
> to all childs in this case.
Another alternative would be to make the hostname setting global in  
dovecot.conf and have imap processes use that.
> Dovecot uses the hostname as part of Maildir file names and  
> gethostname()
> is not fully qualified on all operating systems (it is on IRIX but  
> not on
> Linux). But unqualified hostnames are not unique and it is frequent  
> that
> dovecot hosts are named "mail" oder "imap" as hostname.
To distinguish
> between mail.domain1.com and mail.domain2.net would be easier if  
> dovecot
> evaluate $HOSTNAME in all case not just deliver as program imap can  
> create
> Maildir files as well.
I always thought that hostnames were unique within the installation  
everywhere even without the domain part, and the domain would just  
waste disk space in the filenames (and dovecot-uidlist)..
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