Dovecot woes

So after an upgrade, Dovecot failed to start:

Error: socket() failed: Address family not supported by protocol
Error: service(imap-login): listen(::, 143) failed: Address family not supported by protocol
Error: socket() failed: Address family not supported by protocol
Error: service(imap-login): listen(::, 993) failed: Address family not supported by protocol
Fatal: Failed to start listeners
* start-stop-daemon: failed to start `/usr/sbin/dovecot'
* ERROR: dovecot failed to start

How irritating.

A google search wasn’t particularly conclusive, but “listen(::, 143) Address family not supported by protocol” gave me some idea that it might be complaining about IPv6 support.  I removed support some time ago from the kernel and libraries.  (I don’t have a problem with IPv6 per se, but why have it when my ISP doesn’t support it?)  I’ve had Dovecot running well for ages without it, so what changed?

I found the culprit in /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf:

# A comma separated list of IPs or hosts where to listen in for connections. 
# "*" listens in all IPv4 interfaces, "::" listens in all IPv6 interfaces.
# If you want to specify non-default ports or anything more complex,
# edit conf.d/master.conf.
#listen = *, ::

So the default configuration now enables IPv6. At least the fix is easy:

listen = *