postfix installing w/ pcre
I've got Ubuntu 8.0.4 (Hardy) with Postfix installed through the Ubuntu repos. I need to use Postfix's pcre support, which isn't included in the base postfix package I installed, and it appears all I need to do is install the 'postfix-pcre' package. However, I've managed to get postfix & dovecot working pretty smoothly, so I'm wary of messing with the configuration unless I really need to. My big question is, will installing the postfix-pcre package stomp over all my customized config files. If so, are there any that I need to preserve beyond the contents of /etc/postfix/ ? And is there anything else this simple procedure might possibly screw up?
Thanks.
- geoff
3 Replies
Barring a misconfigured package, which I'll admit could in theory happen, you shouldn't need to worry in general - config files are marked as such in packages and contain an original checksum. If the same files already exist on the system with a different checksum they are left alone and/or you are prompted for the action to take depending on what activity you are doing. Debian packages are designed to preserve local modifications, including any pre or post installation scripts.
Not that this is a big enough change, but as a general purpose option, if you have enough unallocated disk space, or choose to temporarily add enough to your Linode, an alternative to locally backing up files is to create a duplicate of your system disk image. You can then use it to restore if something goes wrong. Or, for really significant changes, there's always the option of purchasing another Linode temporarily, clone your current Linode, and do the changes/testing. Then delete the new Linode, and the cost will be prorated to whatever time you actually used it for.
– David
@db3l:
There aren't any configuration files in the postfix-pcre package (just a shared library in /usr/lib/postfix and some docs beneath /usr/share/doc), so no need to worry. The post-installation configuration will add the new pcre mapping to your /etc/postfix/dynamicmaps.cf file, but it only appends the entry, does not touch any existing information.
Barring a misconfigured package, which I'll admit could in theory happen, you shouldn't need to worry in general - config files are marked as such in packages and contain an original checksum. If the same files already exist on the system with a different checksum they are left alone and/or you are prompted for the action to take depending on what activity you are doing. Debian packages are designed to preserve local modifications, including any pre or post installation scripts.
Not that this is a big enough change, but as a general purpose option, if you have enough unallocated disk space, or choose to temporarily add enough to your Linode, an alternative to locally backing up files is to create a duplicate of your system disk image. You can then use it to restore if something goes wrong. Or, for really significant changes, there's always the option of purchasing another Linode temporarily, clone your current Linode, and do the changes/testing. Then delete the new Linode, and the cost will be prorated to whatever time you actually used it for.
– David
Thanks, David. I will make a backup of the image, as a precaution, and of the config files, but it's good to know it doesn't (well, shouldn't:) ) mess with local modifications.
- geoff