dovecot config: invalid (obsolete) configuration directive

Submitted by cerebrum on Sun, 04/13/2014 - 23:34

webmin writes an invalid (obsolete) configuration directive into dovecot's configuration, which results in a warning:

"Obsolete setting in /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf:99: ssl_ca_file has been replaced by ssl_ca = <file"

How to reproduce:

  • Webmin -> Servers -> Dovecot IMAP/POP3 Server -> SSL Configuration
  • Set a path/file name at "SSL CA certificate file"
  • Click "Save"

Login to the server via SSH (user root) and restart dovecot "service dovecot restart". Alternatively, dump non-default settings to stdout: "doveconf -n" or check log file /var/log/mail.log.

The obsolete directive (incl. the path/filename configured) reads:

ssl_ca_file = /etc/ssl/custom/RootCaCertificate.crt

I should read:

ssl_ca = </etc/ssl/custom/RootCaCertificate.crt

This issue occurs with dovecot 2.1.7 (standard package of Debian 7.x Wheezy).

Status: 
Closed (fixed)

Comments

Submitted by JamieCameron on Mon, 04/14/2014 - 15:18

That's odd, as Virtualmin should already use the correct directive.

Did you perhaps upgrade your Dovecot from an older version, which could lead to the dovecot.conf file having a ssl_ca_file line commented out?

Submitted by cerebrum on Tue, 04/15/2014 - 00:44

It is quite possible that Dovecot got updated as part of the usual Debian update process (apt-get -u upgrade). We noted this issue on several servers and I assume they were set up as Debian 7.0 or 7.1 initially and then updated to 7.2, 7.3 and 7.4 over time.

However, I can't say if Dovecot received version updates as part of these Debian updates (we definitely did not do any distribution updates on these servers, e.g. 6.x to 7.x).

I can't say, if the conf files contained ssl_ca_file commented out, because I manually corrected the conf files to get rid off this warning, sorry :-)

Submitted by andreychek on Tue, 04/15/2014 - 07:56

On one of the servers where you experienced that issue, what is the output of these two commands:

dovecot --version
dpkg -l dovecot-common

Submitted by cerebrum on Wed, 04/16/2014 - 21:09

dovecot --version

2.1.7

dpkg -l | grep dovecot-common

ii dovecot-common 1:2.1.7-7 all Transitional package for dovecot

Submitted by JamieCameron on Thu, 04/17/2014 - 00:37

If you go to Webmin -> Servers -> Dovecot IMAP Server in Virtualmin, what version does it show at the top of the page?

Submitted by cerebrum on Wed, 04/23/2014 - 18:17

Hmmm... it's Version 1.2.15 :-(

I wonder, how and when does virtualmin "detect" the version number? And in case, the version number changes over time, how can I (manually) force virtualmin to detect this?

Another question would be: how can I check which version number virtualmin believes is the currently installed version, so I can check this on all servers we running (in an ideal world, via command line, so I don't need to login to virtualmin everywhere)? :-)

Submitted by andreychek on Wed, 04/23/2014 - 18:53

If you look in Webmin -> Servers -> Dovecot -> Module Config, what is "Dovecot server program" set to?

It runs that, with the "--version" parameter, to determine the Dovecot version.

Submitted by cerebrum on Wed, 07/08/2015 - 21:07

Closing this ticket now (I can not reproduce/debug the issue).