[Bug 347881] [NEW] dovecot-imapd incompatible with ntpdate use

[Whit Blauvelt]

Public bug reported:

Binary package hint: dovecot-imapd

As described at http://wiki.dovecot.org/TimeMovedBackwards, any reset of
the system clock backwards causes dovecot-imapd to abort itself. In
Ubuntu's standard /etc/network/if-up.d is an "ntpdate" script which runs
ntpdate if static interface is brought up. In my case, taking an
interface up and down triggered ntpdate's reset of the system clock back
by 6 seconds. It took some hours for a user to bring to my attention
that imapd was down.

Possible fixes:

1. Add an "ntp" dependency to the dovecot-imapd package, so that ntpdate
invocation won't be so likely to trigger a clock reset backwards and
imapd failure. For extra points (if this isn't the case already) have
the if-up.d/ntpdate script abort if ntpd is running.

- or -

2. Alter the if-up.d/ntpdate script so it does _not_ run ntpdate just if
dovecot-imapd is running.

- or -

3. Patch dovecot-imapd so that when it aborts for this reason it puts a
notice on all open tty's - since asking sysadmins to watch the logs for
its shutdown notice when doing the seemingly unrelated task of bringing
up an interface is a bit much.

- or -

4. Make all 3 changes.

(This is on an Intrepid system that the behavior was noticed. But if-
up.d/ntpdate has been there for awhile - certainly it's in Hardy - with
dovecot-imapd 1:1.1.4-0ubuntu1.2.)

** Affects: dovecot (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

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dovecot-imapd incompatible with ntpdate use
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/347881
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