Postfix question

[Rick Stevens]

Bob McClure Jr wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 30, 2004 at 11:32:33AM -0700, Rick Stevens wrote:
> 
>>Waldher, Travis R wrote:
>>
>>>They aren't hard links, editing one, doesn't show up as a change in the
>>>other.
>>>
>>>So the question becomes, does postfix modify in anyway, those files
>>>under postfix/etc.  
>>
>>No, it doesn't modify the files, but remember that postfix runs in a
>>chrooted environment.  Links (be they symbolic or hard) can't back up
>>beyond what the chroot directory is, so postfix won't be able to see the
>>targets of the links. That's why it needs local copies and not links
>>to the system files.
> 
> 
> Umm, I disagree about hard links.  In the chrooted environment,
> /etc/passwd contains the same inode that /etc/passwd does in the real
> world.  So changes made to it (as long as the inode doesn't change) in
> the real world will be seen in the chroot environment.  But as I
> mentioned earlier you couldn't hard-link them anyway if they are on
> separate filesystems.  I normally put /var/spool on a different FS on
> my server installations.

Well, you're right about the hard linksExactly correct.  Hard links only 
work on the same filesystem for that
exact reason--shared inodes.

Unless you set up a very weird system where /etc and /var are on the
same filesystem (a practice I STRONGLY disagree with), hard links won't
work.

>>This is similar to setting up a chrooted anonymous FTP server...if you
>>want user and group names to be displayed for the "ls" command, the FTP
>>server must have copies of /etc/passwd and /etc/group in its own
>>filesystem.
>>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
>>- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
>>-                                                                    -
>>-           This message printed using recycled bandwidth            -
>>----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 
> Cheers,


-- 
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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-      Always remember you're unique, just like everyone else.       -
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