[Dovecot] Orientation and configuration help

[Wouter Van Hemel]

On Sat, 27 Nov 2004, J Moore wrote:

>> No, dovecot doesn't deliver anything. Your MTA (or LDA) configuration will
>> determine where mail ends up. You just tell dovecot where to find the
>> mailbox files with the default_mail_env variable (see dovecot.conf).
>
> OK - I see that now. I kind of glossed over it when I read the file as
> it indicated that dovecot would try to detect this automatically.
>

It will, but if you set it once, you won't have to depend on other users 
having a maildir directory.

> When you say, "[My] MTA [] will determine where the mail ends up." I
> assume you mean where it delivers the mail. In my case, sendmail leaves
> all mail in /var/mail/<username>; I believe this is "mbox format"???
>

Yes.

> So if I understand, I need the following entry in /etc/dovecot.conf:
>
> default_mail_env = mbox:~/mail/:INBOX=/var/mail/%u
>
> Is that correct?
>

Yes, if you want everything in mbox. I think you said you'd like to use 
maildir for the non-inbox folders, so you'd have to add a namespace for 
them.

It's explained right here:

   http://wiki.dovecot.org/moin.cgi/Namespaces (1.3)

... and in the faq (wiki).