Odhiambo Washington via dovecot said on Sun, 13 Jul 2025 11:44:59 +0300 >On Sun, Jul 13, 2025 at 7:56 AM Steve Litt via dovecot ><dovecot@dovecot.org> wrote: > >> Andreas Haerter via dovecot said on Sat, 12 Jul 2025 15:08:53 +0200 >> >> >Hi, >> > >> >I am currently planning the migration from Dovecot 2.3 to 2.4 and >> >was wondering if version 2.4.2 is just around the corner (and it >> >therefore might make sense to wait a few more days). >> > >> >Is there any planned schedule or does it still make sense to migrate >> >to 2.4.1 within the next ~14 days? >> >> Hi Andreas, >> >> My advice would be to hold off on the 2.3.x to 2.4.x upgrade for the >> forseeable future. This upgrade involves a great many changes to >> dovecot.conf and the files in conf.d: The very grammar of these >> files. I didn't find the current state of Dovecot documentation on >> 2.4.x dovecot.conf helpful. Sooner or later good documentation will >> appear, on Dovecot's website or somewhere else. Once you have a >> solid path forward, that's the time to upgrade. >> >> After fighting with 2.4.1 for a couple days, I downgraded back to >> 2.3.21 and held it there to prevent upgrade. When I get the time, >> I'll create a virtual machine guest on which to put 2.4.1 working on >> a very small and simple Maildir, in order to learn the ins and outs >> of the new dovecot.conf via reverse engineering, trial and error, >> and collecting info from many sources. Only after I understand it >> will I once again upgrade my main machine to 2.4.1. >> >> When it comes to this upgrade, only the most Dovecot >> knowledgeable should be early adopters. The rest of us should wait >> and follow the path they forge. >> >> So to answer your question, my advice is not to upgrade in the next >> 14 days, or even the next month or two, regardless of any 2.4.2 >> progress. >> >> SteveT >> >> Steve Litt > > >This advice sounds quite unfortunate. Does it mean you were never >assisted by anyone when you got stuck?
This is *exactly* what I mean. Keep in mind that once my Dovecot stopped working, getting help via mailing lists was not possible. So I asked a couple basic questions on #dovecot on Libera chat IRC, and got no answers after an hour, after a day, I don't think anybody answered me at all. Almost the same thing at #dovecot on OFTC, although localhorst and cmouse responded. >How complicated is your setup? In my opinion my setup is trivially simple. Dovecot is running on my desktop computer for the sole purpose of storing emails in a Maildir. I look at these stored emails with any email client running on that same desktop computer. As far as how the emails get to the Maildir, fetchmail feeds procmail, whose recipes put my emails in the right maildir folders. ISP_IMAP=>fetchmail=>procmail=>Dovecot_maildir=>Dovecot=>Claws-Mail Notice that with this setup, no Dovecot, no email > I believe it is not, since you mention >that, and I quote: ><quote> >When it comes to this upgrade, only the most Dovecot knowledgeable >should be early adopters. >The rest of us should wait and follow the path they forge. ></quote> > >I don't know the reason why Andreas is hesitant about migration to >2.4.x, but IMHO, you do not have any good reason for not upgrading. >Where exactly did you get stuck? Bring it up and let the community >decide where it was a real show-stopper that made you take this >position. There was no one place I got stuck. On July 7 my email stopped working, griping about P12 certs in the .pem (don't remember the exact message). It quickly became obvious the problem was in Dovecot, and dovecot -F gave a "bad config file" error with a config that had worked for years. More research showed that the Void distribution had upgraded from Dovecot 2.3.21 to 2.4.1 around July 3, and I had subsequently done a distro upgrade on July 7. Perhaps if I had been paying more attention to the Dovecot mailing list I would have seen this coming and would have been more ready for it. But my bad, I just lightly skimmed the Dovecot mailing list because up until now, Dovecot *never* had problems or drama. So I came upon the following: https://doc.dovecot.org/2.4.1/installation/upgrade/2.3-to-2.4.html https://willem.com/blog/2025-06-04_breaking-changes/ Neither told the complete story, and my email was down so I couldn't email this list. As far as being a show-stopper, yeah, I'll let the community decide. But for me it was an absolute show-stopper. Time will tell whether I'm just some dummy who can't admin, or whether I'm the canary in the coal mine with most distros still on 2.3.x. SteveT Steve Litt http://444domains.com _______________________________________________ dovecot mailing list -- dovecot@dovecot.org To unsubscribe send an email to dovecot-le...@dovecot.org
