[Dovecot] Server-side mail archiving - possible dovecot lda feature?

[Charles Marcus]

Johannes Berg wrote:
> On Fri, 2006-11-03 at 08:30 -0500, Charles Marcus wrote:
> 
>> Is the dovecot LDA the best place for this to go? Or would an entirely 
>> new plug-in be more appropriate?

> Neither?

Why not? Have you ever googled on what is available for an integrated 
email archiving solution? There are no (good) OSS solutions available, 
and there are only a few commercial ones, most of those aimed at 
Exchange servers. I did quite a bit of googling, and there doesn't seem 
to be a good OSS solution to archiving all email on a server, which is 
why I am asking about this here.

> For archive.inbox, simply make your MTA deliver a second copy to there,

Postfix has an 'always_bcc' option, but it does not preserve the message 
with all of the headers intact, so this is not an option.

> or configure the dovecot LDA to put a copy into it. That should be
> trivial.

For a programmer, maybe - but sadly I am not. But at least you have 
partially answered my question - apparently it *is* possible to do this 
with dovecots lda. Thanks...

anmar at gmx.net said:
> dovecot LDA has already -m that allows what you're looking for, just
 > make your MTA do a second delivery adjusting LDA arguments.

Well, since I'm not a programmer, I wouldn't know where to begin, which, 
again, is why I asked.

What I'd like is something that is easily configurable *and* *fully* 
*supported* (ie, no 'hacks' required). Something like:

archive_incoming=
archive_sent=
archive_directory=

Hacking is fine for someone with the requisite skills to dig themselves 
out of the holes they inevitably dig for themselves.

Why would you object to some extra options to the LDA that would support 
feeding Postfix (or other MTA's via a documented list of arguments for 
each supported MTA) the required command(s) to accomplish the delivery 
to the correct maildir?

> For archive.outbox, you need to make your MTA deliver a copy of the
> message to the right folder, with exim that's easy with the unseen
> router option (IIRC, but I do know that the exim FAQ contains an entry
> answering exactly your question)

Again, Postfix's 'always_bcc' option won't work for us because it 
doesn't preserve the headers. I did quite a bit of googling, and there 
doesn't seem to be a good OSS solution to this, which is why I asked. I 
want an *exact* *duplicate* of all messages.

It does indeed sound like dovecots LDA is fully capable of doing this, 
at least for the 'incoming' mail, and it sounds like it would also work 
for outgoing mail if you have your MTA configured to use the dovecot 
LDA. What I'd like to know is, is it *feasible* to consider hiring 
someone to modify the LDA to fully support this using documented 
switches? Or via a new plug-in?

-- 

Best regards,

Charles