[Dovecot] Maildir owner importance

[Peter Lacey]

> OK, I'v set all the directory tree from the main maildir
> (/var/local/virtualdir/) to the virtualmail user using chmod -R
> virtualmail.virtualmail /var/local/virtualdir
>
> And correct me if I'm wrong,
> The auth_user is still "auth_user = root" and I need to have the
> "default_mail_env"
> set as default_mail_env = maildir:/var/local/virtualdir/%d/%n .
> But I also need to set:
> first_valid_uid = 100
> last_valid_uid = 100
> first_valid_gid = 101
> last_valid_gid = 101
> which are the uid and gid for the user virtualmail

The auth_user should _not_ be root.  It should be set to a less 
privileged user, such as "dovecot."  This user should not have a shell 
account. The dovecot user should have been created for you by the 
post-compilation install script (make install) or by the package 
installation.  If it's not there, something like this should work on 
RedHat like systems:

/usr/sbin/groupadd -g [some unused group id less than 100] -r dovecot
/usr/sbin/useradd -d /var/run/dovecot -s /bin/false -g dovecot -M -r -u 
[some user id less that 100] dovecot

The rest of your settings look good.

If you are looking for information on how to set up Dovecot with LDAP 
and virtual users, I'll point you at my own HOWTO on the subject:  
http://www.wanderingbarque.com/mailserver.html

- Pete