[Dovecot] Dovecot LDA munging INBOX access times?

[Steven F Siirila]

We are running Dovecot 1.0.0 using mbox format (currently in the midst
of conversion from UW IMAP).  We discovered today that the Dovecot LDA
is accessing the user's INBOX at delivery time!  Not only do our users
rely on this access time being when they last accessed their e-mail,
we also rely on it to migrate "inactive" users to cheaper disk.
I consider this a major bug for us and wondered if there is some reason
why the LDA is doing this.  I can understand that in the absence of
index files it may choose to build them from scratch and therefore need
to access the INBOX, but in normal cases I don't see that being necessary.

It seems to me there should be a few options for how the LDA operates:

 1) Deliver to INBOX, do not create or update the index.
    This would avoid accessing the INBOX.

 2) Deliver to INBOX, update the index only if it is already current.
    This would avoid accessing the INBOX.
    (not sure if this is possible)
 
 3) Deliver to INBOX, update/create the index as necessary to make it current.
    This obviously may involve accessing the INBOX.

We would rather not go with option #1 -- what's the point of using
Dovecot LDA in that scenario??

Comments appreciated.

-- 

Steven F. Siirila			Office: Lind Hall, Room 130B
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