Re: [Exim] crazy idea?

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Author: Yann Golanski
Date:  
To: Alexander Sabourenkov
CC: Nico Erfurth, exim-users
Subject: Re: [Exim] crazy idea?
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Quoth Alexander Sabourenkov on Tue, Nov 12, 2002 at 12:06:19 +0300
> Yes, the whole of it. As I understand, it is read on initial startup
> and restarts only, and though I'm not familiar with ldap typical
> performance, it seems to me that it would be adequate.


The preformance would be worst in all cases. Say your config file is
50k you must read 50k off memory _each time you create a proccess_ which
will be slower than not reading anything.

Stability would be an issue as well. If the LDAP server crashes or
restarts or whatever your mail breaks instantanously as well. This is a
bad thing (tm).

Besides, some people don't use LDAP and would have to learn just to make
Exim work. It adds another layer of complexity that no one needs.

> Hmm. When a our typical machine starts up, it is about five hundred
> exims starting in strict sequence. After that they are typically
> restarted about once a week. Will a LDAP server on a dedicated to it
> machine cope with that?


Ah, but the configuration file is read only once! All the processes
that are forked from the deamon (you _are_ running it in deamon mode,
yes?) inherite all the configuration options from the deamon.

If you are really worried about changing the configuration and it
working as by magic, add a small statement that stats the confige file
and if it's newer than the deamon process then HUP the deamon. Add this
just before the deamon calls fork(). Nice and easy but wastefull as
it's even more disk IO which you do not need!

It is good practice to test things on a test machine and then roll it
out to production systems. Yes, it's hassle. Yes, it will save you
time and stress.

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