[Dovecot] Not getting new mail notification

[Anand Buddhdev]

Robert Creager writes:

>> Do the timestamps of the directories change, when you get new mail?
>> Did you searched the mail archive for inotify/dnotify problems?
>> 
> 
> No, they don't change:
>  From dspam  Wed Sep 13 08:32:03 2006
>   Subject: Re: [GENERAL] Template1 oops
>    Folder: .PostgreSQL.General/new/1158157923.13449_0.thunder.logicalch 
>      6091
> 
> [robert at thunder Maildir]$ ll -d .PostgreSQL.General/new
> drwx------  2 robert users 8 Sep 13 07:57 .PostgreSQL.General/new/
> 
> ll -a .PostgreSQL.General/new/
> total 16
> drwx------  2 robert users    8 Sep 13 07:57 ./
> drwx------  5 robert users 4096 Sep 13 08:01 ../
> -rw-------  1 robert users 6091 Sep 13 08:32 
> 1158157923.13449_0.thunder.logicalchaos.org
> 
> Hmmm...  I see the problem, but what is to be done about it?

This is the reason why you're not getting notifications. Dovecot checks the 
timestamp of the directory to see if it has changed. That is how it detects 
if there is new mail. Normally, when a new message is inserted into a 
directory, the directory's timestamp should be updated. In your case, 
something strange is going on. I missed your earlier message, so I'm not 
sure if you described what kind of filesystem you have. Could you supply 
details of your filesystem (type and mount options)?

> I'm not using dnotify.  I tried dnotify briefly, and the problem didn't 
> appear to get any better, so I recompiled without - using poll now.

I don't know the details of dnotify or poll, but if they also depend on 
metadata updates to detect a change, then they will also fail to work on 
your system. I think that if you solve the problem of the directory 
timestamp update, then you'll be alright.

--
Anand