From: MacShane, Tracy (Tracy.MacshaneAirservicesAustralia.com)
Date: Thu Oct 11 2007 - 20:01:38 CDT

• Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-postfix-userspostfix.org
> [mailto:owner-postfix-userspostfix.org] On Behalf Of Terry Carmen
> Sent: Friday, 12 October 2007 5:14 AM
> To: Noel Jones
> Cc: Postfix users
> Subject: Re: access file not working as expected
>
> Noel Jones wrote:
> > At 01:11 PM 10/11/2007, Terry Carmen wrote:
> >
> >> http://www.postfix.org/cidr_table.5.html
> >>
> >> *NAME*
> >> cidr_table - format of Postfix CIDR tables
> >>
> >> *SYNOPSIS*
> >> *postmap -q "*/string/*" cidr
> >> <http://www.postfix.org/cidr_table.5.html>:/etc/postfix/*/filename/
> >>
> >> *postmap -q - cidr
> >> <http://www.postfix.org/cidr_table.5.html>:/etc/postfix/*/filename/
> >> </inputfile/
> >
> > Yes, those commands demonstrate how to test or query a cidr table.
It
> > doesn't say you need to compile the cidr table. It's not practical
for
> > the documentation to list everything you should NOT do.
> Although it's not practical to list everything that the user
> should not do with postmap, it would make things clearer if
> the docs simply listed the various file types and mentioned
> which get compiled and which don't.
>
> It's not a huge deal, but would have saved me (and I suspect other
> people) a bunch of time.
>
> Terry
>

Yes, I fell over precisely that issue too. I think the part that was the
most confusing to me was the mention of db and dbm files in the
description. It's the big "_Alternatively_, lookup tables may be
specified in CIDR..." that should perhaps have made things obvious.

What might be more obvious, considering it's the cidr_table man page, is
something like as follows:

       The Postfix mail system uses optional lookup tables.
       Lookup tables may be specified in CIDR (Classless
       Inter-Domain Routing) form. In this case, each input is
       compared against a list of patterns. When a match is
       found, the corresponding result is returned and the search
       is terminated.

       To test lookup tables, use the "postmap -q" command as
       described in the SYNOPSIS above.
       
       Postfix tables are usually specified in *dbm* or *db* format.
       To find out what types of lookup tables your Postfix system
       supports, use the "postconf -m" command.

       See DATABASE_README for further information on *dbm*, *db*
       and all other available table types.

I do realise that the table description section for all the table types
is pretty much boilerplate. But it might be helpful if the more generic
boilerplate is inserted after table-specific material (and require less
rejuggling of the documentation).

Specifying the table types that do or don't require an indexed map
(whichever is quicker) would probably be best in DATABASE_README for
those of us who don't instantly realise that creating an indexed lookup
of, say, cidr or pcre would require generating every possible value.
It's certainly obvious when it's pointed out to you, but not so much
when you're a newb at managing these kinds of systems.

It didn't bother me that I'd been doing unneccessary postmaps, but it
does make you feel like an idiot when you realise!

• Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]