Merge dovecot-configuration with an opaque-dovecot-configuration?

Merge dovecot-configuration with an opaque-dovecot-configuration?

[Marek Paśnikowski]

Good morning or afternoon.

I want to extend my dovecot configuration with a replication feature,
[found on the internet][1].  I am almost there, but I am stuck with a
situation where some configuration lines are not implemented within the
<dovecot-configuration> record.  With most of them, I concluded that
they do not appear to be vital to the configuration and decided to not
include them in my implementation.

However, I must find a way to incorporate a "doveadm_password" key in my
implementation, without throwing away all the other nice code that I had
already written.  Is it possible to somehow merge
<dovecot-configuration> and <opaque-dovecot-configuration> for a single
(service dovecot-service-type <merged-configuration>) call?

Here is my current top-level implementation of the
<dovecot-configuration>:

(define dovecot-configuration*
  ((@ (gnu services mail) dovecot-configuration)
   (disable-plaintext-auth? #t)
   (mail-location "maildir:~/Maildir")
   (mail-plugins (list "notify"
		       "replication"))
   (namespaces (list dovecot-namespace-marekpasnikowski))
   (passdbs (list dovecot-passdb-passwd-file))
   (protocols (list dovecot-protocol-imap
		    dovecot-protocol-lmtp))
   (services (list dovecot-service-aggregator
		   dovecot-service-doveadm
		   dovecot-service-imap-login
		   dovecot-service-lmtp
		   dovecot-service-replicator))
   (ssl? "required")
   (ssl-cert dovecot-ssl-cert-path)
   (ssl-key dovecot-ssl-key-path)
   (ssl-min-protocol "TLSv1.2")
   (userdbs (list dovecot-userdb-static-configuration))))

[1]: https://shoreup.co.uk/two-way-dovecot-server-replication/

Re: Merge dovecot-configuration with an opaque-dovecot-configuration?

[Marek Paśnikowski]

I have abandonded this approach because of two reasons other than the
inability to configure dovecot to my initial wish:

1. I realised I may leak secrets into /gnu/store with the
doveadm_password line.
2. This is a semi-XY problem.  While having a robust two-way replication
of my mailbox on all my machines would be nice, I started with the real
problem of Gnus locking up during regular usage.  I ended up solving
this with (nnimap-keepalive-intervals '(60 . 15)).

Re: Merge dovecot-configuration with an opaque-dovecot-configuration?

[Marek Paśnikowski]

Marek Paśnikowski <marek@marekpasnikowski.pl> writes:

> I ended up solving this with (nnimap-keepalive-intervals '(60 . 15)).

I should have composed the message in the morning.  The above code is
incorrect.  The correct code is (nnimap-keepalive-intervals (60 . 15)) .

I thought I had the above code running, and failed to account for
another environment variable, whose existence this incident proved.  For
future success of people searching for solutions to gnus locking up
during nnimap usage:

My network router kills connections after some time of inactivity.  What
fooled me is that Gnus would never lock up in my LAN regardless of
settings because the traffic would not need to cross over the external
firewall, or that it recognizes traffic from the inside — I am not sure.

So, before anything else, I recommend testing the keepalive options in
all software interfacing with home servers, if it regularly locks up.

Over and out