From: James Garrison (jhgathensgroup.com)
Date: Tue Jul 13 2004 - 13:01:18 CDT

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Wietse Venema wrote:

> James Garrison:
>
>>>One question: If I read the access(5) man page
>>>correctly, I only need parent_domain_matches_subdomains
>>>if I want a domain _without_ a leading period to match
>>>subdomains. Here's the relevant text from the postfix
>>>website:
>>
>>On further consideration I think I see what you are saying.
>>Is it true that parent_domain_matches_subdomains is
>>either-or -- i.e. if it's turned on then domain.tld
>>matches subdomains but .domain.tld doesn't, and toggling
>>the flag reverses this behavior? Then is it also true
>>that the default is currently ON for smtpd_access_maps?
>
>
> http://www.postfix.org/postconf.5.html#parent_domain_matches_subdomains
>
> parent_domain_matches_subdomains (default: see postconf -d out-
> put)
> What Postfix features match subdomains of "domain.tld"
> automatically, instead of requiring an explicit
> ".domain.tld" pattern. This is planned backwards compati-
> bility: eventually, all Postfix features are expected to
> require explicit ".domain.tld" style patterns when you
> really want to match subdomains.
>

I've read this section of the manpage many, many times, but,
no disrespect intended, what part of it indicates to you that
parent_domain_matches_subdomains is a toggle as opposed to
additive? The clear future intention is that to match entire
subdomains you will need .domain.tld. This would imply that
currently, .domain.tld matches subdomains, and that to get
the old behavior you need to set parent_domain_matches_subdomains
for the access list in question. AFAICT, it isn't explicitly
stated that parent_domain_matches_subdomains being enabled
*turns off* the new behavior in favor of the old. A much
better assumption given the lack of explicitness _and_ the
stated future direction is that the parent_domain_matches_subdomains
flag is additive -- i.e. that it enables older behavior in addition
to newer, future-standard behavior. All of this guesswork
wouldn't be needed if the manpage specifically said that
parent_domain_matches_subdomains being enabled actually
toggles the behavior :-)

None of this is intended as flame-bait, I'm just frustrated.
While Postfix is *clearly* one of the best MTAs in existence,
sometimes the documentation isn't as clear or explicit as it could
be, and for us newbies it can be difficult to get a handle on some
of the stuff implicitly understood by the veterans.

--
James Garrison Athens Group, Inc.
mailto:jhgathensgroup.com 5608 Parkcrest Dr
http://www.athensgroup.com Austin, TX 78731
PGP: RSA=0x92E90A3B DH/DSS=0x498D331C (512) 345-0600 x150

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