dovecot - Nov 2018 - Testing validity of Dovecot config in a script

While trying to determine a given configuration is valid from within a
script, I found that the following works with Dovecot version 2.3.2.1:

  #!/usr/bin/env bash
  doveconf -n >/dev/null || echo "Config is invalid"

However, the return code is not documented in the doveconf manual page,
and I wonder if the observed behaviour can be relied on? Is this the
recommended method to test configuration validity?

Personally, I'd like to have a dedicated call available. Something like

  # Proposal: "-t" for "test config"
  doveconf -t [-c config-file]

with documented return codes would be ideal.

-Ralph

> On 24 November 2018 at 16:45 Ralph Seichter <m16+dovecot at
monksofcool.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> While trying to determine a given configuration is valid from within a
> script, I found that the following works with Dovecot version 2.3.2.1:
> 
>   #!/usr/bin/env bash
>   doveconf -n >/dev/null || echo "Config is invalid"
> 
> However, the return code is not documented in the doveconf manual page,
> and I wonder if the observed behaviour can be relied on? Is this the
> recommended method to test configuration validity?
> 
> Personally, I'd like to have a dedicated call available. Something like
> 
>   # Proposal: "-t" for "test config"
>   doveconf -t [-c config-file]
> 
> with documented return codes would be ideal.
> 
> -Ralph
doveconf will reliably fail if config file cannot be parsed. It will not catch
all possible misconfigurations, but it will catch most. Particularly plugin
settings are not validated.

Aki

* Aki Tuomi:
> doveconf will reliably fail if config file cannot be parsed.
Thanks, that's what I was hoping for.

-Ralph