[Dovecot] Migrating from UW IMAP - pine - Thunderbird - squirrelmail

[Gerhard Wiesinger]

Hello!

In this email you can find a configuration primer for a Migration from UW 
IMAP with pine, Thunderbird and squirrelmail as client. For compatibility 
the mbox format is used.

A description for pine with imap acces without entering any password is 
also discussed. Please use dovecot 1.0beta1 or later for correct handling 
with pine.

Short overview of Mail folders:
===============================
                    | Used             | elm             | pine             |   Thunderbird                 | squirrelmail | UW imapd | dovecot  |
Base directoy      | ~/Mail           | ~/Mail          | ~/mail           | as configured                 | mail         |          |          |
Sent Folder        | ~/Mail/sent      | ~/Mail/sent     | ~/mail/sent-mail | Sent                          | Sent         |          |          |
Trash Folder       | ~/Mail/Trash     |                 |       -          | Trash                         | Trash        |          |          |
Drafts Folder      | ~/Mail/Drafts    |                 | saved-messages   | Drafts                        | Drafts       |          |          |
Templates          | ~/Mail/Templates |                 |                  | Templates                     |              |          |          |
Unsent Folder      | wie Thunderbird  |                 |                  | Local Folders/Unsent Messages |              |          |          |
Postponed          |                  |                 | postponed-msgs   |                               |              |          |          |
Canceled Mail      |                  | ~/Canceled.mail | ~/dead.letter    |                               |              |          |          |
Personal namespace |                  |                 |                  |                               |              |          |          |
Public namespace   |                  |                 |                  |                               |              | #news    |          |
Other Users        |                  |                 |                  |                               |              |          |          |

pine setup:
===========
SETUP(S)/collectionLists(L)/Mail
Just add the following to Server:
localhost/notls

Before:
Nickname  : Mail
Server    :
Path      : Mail/
View      :

After:
Nickname  : Mail
Server    : localhost/notls
Path      : Mail/
View      :

In ~/.pinerc modify the following configuration parameters:
mail-check-interval=15
rsh-open-timeout=30000
rsh-path=
rsh-command=/usr/sbin/dovecot --exec-mail imap
# For large Mailboxes
tcp-read-warning-timeout=180

For details have a look at:
http://www.unix.org.ua/orelly/networking_2ndEd/ssh/ch11_03.htm
http://www.cs.unc.edu/cgi-bin/howto?howto=pine-imap
http://www.ii.com/internet/messaging/pine/
http://www.umanitoba.ca/acn/docs/pine/pine-imap.html

Migration from UW Imapd to dovecot:
===================================
Disable UW Imapd in xinetd

http://wiki.dovecot.org/Migration

Migrate Mailboxes:
http://wiki.dovecot.org/uw2dovecot.sh
or
cd $USER
cp .mailboxlist .subscriptions

dovecot configuration:
Config (/etc/dovecot.conf):
UW Imapd compatible
protocols = imaps

default_mail_env = mbox:~:INBOX=/var/mail/%u

mail_full_filesystem_access = yes

mbox_read_locks = fcntl
mbox_write_locks = fcntl

mbox_lazy_writes=no

Self signed Certificate for SSL:
cd /etc/pki/dovecot/private
openssl genrsa -out dovecot.pem 2048
openssl req -new -x509 -nodes -sha1 -days 3650 -key dovecot.pem >../dovecot.pem
Enter the data for the certificate

http://sial.org/howto/openssl/self-signed/

dovecot debugging:
==================
Config (/etc/dovecot.conf):
#GW:
mail_executable = /usr/libexec/dovecot/rawlog /usr/libexec/dovecot/imap
Directory ~/dovecot.rawlog must exist and the input/output will be logged 
there

For ethereal debugging use the following dovecot configuration:
Sniffing:
#GW:
protocols = imap imaps

#GW:
disable_plaintext_auth = no

maildir/mbox documentation:
===========================
http://techpubs.sgi.com/library/tpl/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?coll=fw&db=man&fname=/usr/freeware/catman/u_man/cat5/mbox.Z
http://people.redhat.com/rkeech/maildir-migration.txt

squirrelmail:
=============
$use_imap_tls = true;
$imapPort               = 993;
$imap_server_type ='dovecot';
$optional_delimiter = 'detect';
$force_username_lowercase = true;

$default_folder_prefix          = '~/Mail/';
$sent_folder                    = 'sent';
$show_prefix_option             = false;
$show_contain_subfolders_option = false;

Thunderbird Plugins
===================
With imap Folder the Xpunge plugin is very usefull to have consitent 
mailboxes.

Xpunge
https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?application=thunderbird&category=Top%20Rated&numpg=10&id=1279
http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/~tegos/mozilla/tb/

Hope is helps.

Feedback is welcome.

Ciao,
Gerhard