Milter-greylist

Hello all,

I just built and installed 1.6; previously was running 1.5.3.1

I'm a bit puzzled by the start-up scripts provided in both my old
version and the new one.

As nearly as I can tell, both the design and the current functioning
of milter-greylist behave as follows:
   Most options may be overridden in the config file itself.
   An option specified on the command line overrides whatever is in the
   config file.
so far, so good

However, the supplied startup script for bsd systems specifies
default options as:

   pidfile="/var/run/milter-greylist.pid"
   command_args="-P ${pidfile} -u root"

Won't this prevent the options in the config file for the pidfile
and the runas user from functioning properly?
If so, shouldn't these arguments be defaulted as empty / missing,
so the config file can perform its job as advertised?

Unfortunately, I can't currently test all of this on a freebsd 5.x
system, but the above comments are consistent with fbsd 4.10.

A couple of other documentation related comments:

greylist.conf
   It would be helpful if the default (sample) greylist.conf file
   specified for each option what the corresponding command line
   option was, e.g.
   # The "greylist" option is overridden by the "-a" argument
   # on the command line if it is specified

   Is there a reason there is no equivalent of the -L command
   line options in the config file?

   Note that when the verbose option is specified in the config
   file, verbose output is only activated from the point at which
   the option appears in the configuration file.  This implies one
   probably should specify it as the first option in the file.

man page
   It would be useful to note that the storage of transient
   information defaults to files in the directory /var/milter-greylist,
   and that directory should be owned and writeable by the user id
   under which milter-greylist will run.

   For the arguments, it should specify which args may also be
   configured in config file, and that the startup args take
   precedence.  This is useful since only some of the args have
   equivalents in the config file.

   -A  ... This option disable that feature ...
     should say
                       disables
     This feature may also be specified via the "nooauth" option
     in the configuration file.

   -a delay
     This feature may also be specified via the "autowhite" option
     in the configuration file.

   -D  Do not fork and run in the foreground
     should say
       Do not fork; run in the foreground instead.
     This feature may also be specified via the "nodetach" option
     in the configuration file.

   -d dumpfile
     This feature may also be specified via the "dumpfile" option
     in the configuration file.

   -P pidfile
     should specify the default is /var/run/milter-greylist.pid?
     This feature may also be specified via the "pidfile" option
     in the configuration file.

   -p socket
        ... This option is mandatory
     Not true:
     This feature may also be specified via the "socket" option
     in the configuration file.
     The synopsis for milter-greylist should have "-p socket"
     in square brackets: "[-p socket]".

   -q
     This feature may also be specified via the "quiet" option
     in the configuration file.

   -S
     This feature may also be specified via the "nospf" option
     in the configuration file.

   -u username
     This feature may also be specified via the "user" option
     in the configuration file.

   -v
     This feature may also be specified via the "verbose" option
     in the configuration file.

   -w delay
     This feature may also be specified via the "greylist" option
     in the configuration file.

Gary

Gary Aitken <greylist@...> wrote:

> Won't this prevent the options in the config file for the pidfile
> and the runas user from functioning properly?

Yes, it will.

> If so, shouldn't these arguments be defaulted as empty / missing,
> so the config file can perform its job as advertised?

But if we do this, we'll need a sample config file for each operating
system, taking into account the location of the PID file or the
unprivilegied user. The current setup is not that bad.
 
> A couple of other documentation related comments:

Would you like to contribute a patch for theses?

-- 
Emmanuel Dreyfus
Il y a 10 sortes de personnes dans le monde: ceux qui comprennent 
le binaire et ceux qui ne le comprennent pas.
manu@...

Gary Aitken <greylist@...> writes:

> However, the supplied startup script for bsd systems specifies
> default options as:
>
>    pidfile="/var/run/milter-greylist.pid"
>    command_args="-P ${pidfile} -u root"
>
> Won't this prevent the options in the config file for the pidfile
> and the runas user from functioning properly?
> If so, shouldn't these arguments be defaulted as empty / missing,
> so the config file can perform its job as advertised?
>
> Unfortunately, I can't currently test all of this on a freebsd 5.x
> system, but the above comments are consistent with fbsd 4.10.

Hello Gary,

Since it's infancy, the startup script provided with fbsd port allows
full config: http://tinylink.com/?XgdLfcRsRM  

For those wanting to live on the edge, I have a devel version of the port
in my TODO list.

manu@... wrote:

>>Won't this prevent the options in the config file for the pidfile
>>and the runas user from functioning properly?
> 
> 
> Yes, it will.
> 
> 
>>If so, shouldn't these arguments be defaulted as empty / missing,
>>so the config file can perform its job as advertised?
> 
> 
> But if we do this, we'll need a sample config file for each operating
> system, taking into account the location of the PID file or the
> unprivilegied user. The current setup is not that bad.

OK, I understand the problem a bit better now.
I've tweaked the milter-greylist man page in the diffs I sent to
indicate that the default install scripts will make some of the
options ineffectual.

>>A couple of other documentation related comments:
> 
> 
> Would you like to contribute a patch for theses?

Done.