[Dovecot] Dovecot Convert

[Marc Perkel]

Trying to figure out how to convert an existing mbox system to maildir 
Below is my dovecot.conf file. Tried adding this at the bottom of the 
file and nothing happens.
 
plugin {
  convert_mail = mbox:/vhome/%d/home/%n:INBOX=/vhome/%d/home/%n/INBOX
  convert_skip_broken_mailboxes=yes
} 
 
What am I doing wrong?

## Dovecot 1.0 configuration file

# '#' character and everything after it is treated as comments. Extra spaces
# and tabs are ignored. If you want to use either of these explicitly, 
put the
# value inside quotes, eg.: key = "# char and trailing whitespace  "

# Default values are shown after each value, it's not required to uncomment
# any of the lines. Exception to this are paths, they're just examples
# with real defaults being based on configure options. The paths listed here
# are for configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var
# --with-ssldir=/etc/ssl

# Base directory where to store runtime data.
#base_dir = /var/run/dovecot/

# Protocols we want to be serving:
#  imap imaps pop3 pop3s
protocols = imap imaps pop3 pop3s

# IP or host address where to listen in for connections. It's not currently
# possible to specify multiple addresses. "*" listens in all IPv4 
interfaces.
# "[::]" listens in all IPv6 interfaces, but may also listen in all IPv4
# interfaces depending on the operating system.  If you want to specify 
ports
# for each service, you will need to configure these settings inside the
# protocol imap/pop3 { ... } section, so you can specify different ports
# for IMAP/POP3.
#listen = *

# IP or host address where to listen in for SSL connections. Defaults
# to above if not specified.
#ssl_listen =

# Disable SSL/TLS support.
#ssl_disable = no

# PEM encoded X.509 SSL/TLS certificate and private key. They're opened 
before
# dropping root privileges, so keep the key file unreadable by anyone but
# root. Included doc/mkcert.sh can be used to easily generate self-signed
# certificate, just make sure to update the domains in dovecot-openssl.cnf
#ssl_cert_file = /etc/pki/dovecot/dovecot.pem
#ssl_key_file = /etc/pki/dovecot/private/dovecot.pem

ssl_cert_file = /usr/share/ssl/certs/imapd.pem
ssl_key_file = /usr/share/ssl/certs/imapd.pem

# File containing trusted SSL certificate authorities. Usually not needed.
#ssl_ca_file =

# Request client to send a certificate.
#ssl_verify_client_cert = no

# SSL parameter file. Master process generates this file for login 
processes.
# It contains Diffie Hellman and RSA parameters.
#ssl_parameters_file = /var/run/dovecot/ssl-parameters.dat

# How often to regenerate the SSL parameters file. Generation is quite CPU
# intensive operation. The value is in hours, 0 disables regeneration
# entirely.
#ssl_parameters_regenerate = 24

# SSL ciphers to use
#ssl_cipher_list = all:!low

# Disable LOGIN command and all other plaintext authentications unless
# SSL/TLS is used (LOGINDISABLED capability). Note that 127.*.*.* and
# IPv6 ::1 addresses are considered secure, this setting has no effect if
# you connect from those addresses.
disable_plaintext_auth = no

# Use this logfile instead of syslog(). /dev/stderr can be used if you 
want to
# use stderr for logging (ONLY /dev/stderr - otherwise it is closed).
log_path = /var/log/dovecot

# For informational messages, use this logfile instead of the default
info_log_path = /var/log/dovecot

# Prefix for each line written to log file. % codes are in strftime(3)
# format.
#log_timestamp = "%b %d %H:%M:%S "

##
## Login processes
##

# Directory where authentication process places authentication UNIX sockets
# which login needs to be able to connect to. The sockets are created when
# running as root, so you don't have to worry about permissions. Note that
# everything in this directory is deleted when Dovecot is started.
#login_dir = /var/run/dovecot/login

# chroot login process to the login_dir. Only reason not to do this is 
if you
# wish to run the whole Dovecot without roots.
# http://wiki.dovecot.org/Rootless
#login_chroot = yes

# User to use for the login process. Create a completely new user for this,
# and don't use it anywhere else. The user must also belong to a group where
# only it has access, it's used to control access for authentication 
process.
# Note that this user is NOT used to access mails.
# http://wiki.dovecot.org/UserIds
#login_user = dovecot

# Set max. process size in megabytes. If you don't use
# login_process_per_connection you might need to grow this.
login_process_size = 64

# Should each login be processed in it's own process (yes), or should one
# login process be allowed to process multiple connections (no)? Yes is more
# secure, espcially with SSL/TLS enabled. No is faster since there's no need
# to create processes all the time.
login_process_per_connection = no

# Number of login processes to create. If login_process_per_user is
# yes, this is the number of extra processes waiting for users to log in.
#login_processes_count = 3

# Maximum number of extra login processes to create. The extra process count
# usually stays at login_processes_count, but when multiple users start 
logging
# in at the same time more extra processes are created. To prevent 
fork-bombing
# we check only once in a second if new processes should be created - if all
# of them are used at the time, we double their amount until limit set 
by this
# setting is reached. This setting is used only if login_process_per_use 
is yes.
#login_max_processes_count = 128

# Maximum number of connections allowed in login state. When this limit is
# reached, the oldest connections are dropped. If login_process_per_user
# is no, this is a per-process value, so the absolute maximum number of 
users
# logging in actually login_processes_count * max_logging_users.
#login_max_logging_users = 256

# Greeting message for clients.
#login_greeting = Dovecot ready.

# Space-separated list of elements we want to log. The elements which have
# a non-empty variable value are joined together to form a comma-separated
# string.
#login_log_format_elements = user=<%u> method=%m rip=%r lip=%l %c

# Login log format. %$ contains login_log_format_elements string, %s 
contains
# the data we want to log.
#login_log_format = %$: %s

##
## Mail processes
##

# Maximum number of running mail processes. When this limit is reached,
# new users aren't allowed to log in.
#max_mail_processes = 1024

# Show more verbose process titles (in ps). Currently shows user name and
# IP address. Useful for seeing who are actually using the IMAP processes
# (eg. shared mailboxes or if same uid is used for multiple accounts).
#verbose_proctitle = no

# Show protocol level SSL errors.
#verbose_ssl = no

# Valid UID range for users, defaults to 500 and above. This is mostly
# to make sure that users can't log in as daemons or other system users.
# Note that denying root logins is hardcoded to dovecot binary and can't
# be done even if first_valid_uid is set to 0.
#first_valid_uid = 500
#last_valid_uid = 0

# Valid GID range for users, defaults to non-root/wheel. Users having
# non-valid GID as primary group ID aren't allowed to log in. If user
# belongs to supplementary groups with non-valid GIDs, those groups are
# not set.
#first_valid_gid = 1
#last_valid_gid = 0

# Grant access to these extra groups for mail processes. Typical use 
would be
# to give "mail" group write access to /var/mail to be able to create 
dotlocks.
#mail_extra_groups =

# ':' separated list of directories under which chrooting is allowed for 
mail
# processes (ie. /var/mail will allow chrooting to /var/mail/foo/bar too).
# This setting doesn't affect login_chroot or auth_chroot variables.
# WARNING: Never add directories here which local users can modify, that
# may lead to root exploit. Usually this should be done only if you don't
# allow shell access for users. See doc/configuration.txt for more 
information.
#valid_chroot_dirs =

# Default chroot directory for mail processes. This can be overridden for
# specific users in user database by giving /./ in user's home directory
# (eg. /home/./user chroots into /home). Note that usually there is no real
# need to do chrooting, Dovecot doesn't allow users to access files outside
# their mail directory anyway.
#mail_chroot =

# Enable mail process debugging. This can help you figure out why Dovecot
# isn't finding your mails.
#mail_debug = no

# Default MAIL environment to use when it's not set. By leaving this empty
# dovecot tries to do some automatic detection as described in
# doc/mail-storages.txt. There's a few special variables you can use, eg.:
#
#   %u - username
#   %n - user part in user at domain, same as %u if there's no domain
#   %d - domain part in user at domain, empty if there's no domain
#   %h - home directory
#
# See doc/variables.txt for full list. Some examples:
#
#   default_mail_env = maildir:/var/mail/%1u/%u/Maildir
#   default_mail_env = mbox:~/mail/:INBOX=/var/mail/%u
#   default_mail_env = mbox:/var/mail/%d/%n/:INDEX=/var/indexes/%d/%n
#
default_mail_env = 
mbox:/vhome/%d/home/%n:INBOX=/vhome/%d/home/%n/INBOX:INDEX=/nobackup/imap-cache/%d-%n

# If you need to set multiple mailbox locations or want to change default
# namespace settings, you can do it by defining namespace sections:
#
# You can have private, shared and public namespaces. The only difference
# between them is how Dovecot announces them to client via NAMESPACE
# extension. Shared namespaces are meant for user-owned mailboxes which are
# shared to other users, while public namespaces are for more globally
# accessible mailboxes.
#
# REMEMBER: If you add any namespaces, the default namespace must be added
# explicitly, ie. default_mail_env does nothing unless you have a namespace
# without a location setting. Default namespace is simply done by having a
# namespace with empty prefix.
#namespace private {
   # Hierarchy separator to use. You should use the same separator for all
   # namespaces or some clients get confused. '/' is usually a good one.
   #separator = /

   # Prefix required to access this namespace. This needs to be 
different for
   # all namespaces. For example "Public/".
   #prefix =

   # Physical location of the mailbox. This is in same format as
   # default_mail_env, which is also the default for it.
   #location =

   # There can be only one INBOX, and this setting defines which namespace
   # has it.
   #inbox = yes

   # If namespace is hidden, it's not advertised to clients via NAMESPACE
   # extension or shown in LIST replies. This is mostly useful when 
converting
   # from another server with different namespaces which you want to 
depricate
   # but still keep working. For example you can create hidden 
namespaces with
   # prefixes "~/mail/", "~%u/mail/" and "mail/".
   #hidden = yes
#}

# Space-separated list of fields to initially save into cache file. 
Currently
# these fields are allowed:
#
#  flags, date.sent, date.received, size.virtual, size.physical
#  mime.parts, imap.body, imap.bodystructure
#
# Different IMAP clients work in different ways, so they benefit from
# different cached fields. Some do not benefit from them at all. Caching 
more
# than necessary generates useless disk I/O, so you don't want to do that
# either.
#
# Dovecot attempts to automatically figure out what client wants and it 
keeps
# only that. However the first few times a mailbox is opened, Dovecot hasn't
# yet figured out what client needs, so it may not perform optimally. If you
# know what fields the majority of your clients need, it may be useful 
to set
# these fields by hand. If client doesn't actually use them, Dovecot will
# eventually drop them.
#
# Usually you should just leave this field alone. The potential benefits are
# typically unnoticeable.
#mail_cache_fields =

# Space-separated list of fields that Dovecot should never save to cache 
file.
# Useful if you want to save disk space at the cost of more I/O when the 
fields
# needed.
#mail_never_cache_fields =

# Like mailbox_check_interval, but used for IDLE command.
#mailbox_idle_check_interval = 30

# Allow full filesystem access to clients. There's no access checks 
other than
# what the operating system does for the active UID/GID. It works with both
# maildir and mboxes, allowing you to prefix mailboxes names with eg. /path/
# or ~user/.
#mail_full_filesystem_access = no

# Maximum allowed length for mail keyword name. It's only forced when trying
# to create new keywords.
#mail_max_keyword_length = 50

# Save mails with CR+LF instead of plain LF. This makes sending those mails
# take less CPU, especially with sendfile() syscall with Linux and FreeBSD.
# But it also creates a bit more disk I/O which may just make it slower.
#mail_save_crlf = no

# Use mmap() instead of read() to read mail files. read() seems to be a bit
# faster with my Linux/x86 and it's better with NFS, so that's the default.
# Note that OpenBSD 3.3 and older don't work right with mail_read_mmaped 
= yes.
#mail_read_mmaped = no

# Don't use mmap() at all. This is required if you store indexes in remote
# filesystems (NFS or clustered filesystem).
#mmap_disable = no

# Don't write() to mmaped files. This is required for some operating systems
# which use separate caches for them, such as OpenBSD.
#mmap_no_write = no

# Locking method for index files. Alternatives are fcntl, flock and dotlock.
# Dotlocking uses some tricks which may create more disk I/O than other 
locking
# methods.
#lock_method = fcntl

# By default LIST command returns all entries in maildir beginning with dot.
# Enabling this option makes Dovecot return only entries which are 
directories.
# This is done by stat()ing each entry, so it causes more disk I/O.
# (For systems setting struct dirent->d_type, this check is free and it's
# done always regardless of this setting)
#maildir_stat_dirs = no

# Copy mail to another folders using hard links. This is much faster than
# actually copying the file. This is problematic only if something modifies
# the mail in one folder but doesn't want it modified in the others. I don't
# know any MUA which would modify mail files directly. IMAP protocol also
# requires that the mails don't change, so it would be problematic in 
any case.
# If you care about performance, enable it.
#maildir_copy_with_hardlinks = no

# Which locking methods to use for locking mbox. There's four available:
#  dotlock: Create <mailbox>.lock file. This is the oldest and most NFS-safe
#           solution. If you want to use /var/mail/ like directory, the 
users
#           will need write access to that directory.
#  fcntl  : Use this if possible. Works with NFS too if lockd is used.
#  flock  : May not exist in all systems. Doesn't work with NFS.
#  lockf  : May not exist in all systems. Doesn't work with NFS.
#
# You can use multiple locking methods; if you do the order they're declared
# in is important to avoid deadlocks if other MTAs/MUAs are using multiple
# locking methods as well. Some operating systems don't allow using some of
# them simultaneously.
#mbox_read_locks = fcntl
#mbox_write_locks = dotlock fcntl

# Maximum time in seconds to wait for lock (all of them) before aborting.
#mbox_lock_timeout = 300

# If dotlock exists but the mailbox isn't modified in any way, override the
# lock file after this many seconds.
#mbox_dotlock_change_timeout = 30

# When mbox changes unexpectedly we have to fully read it to find out what
# changed. If the mbox is large this can take a long time. Since the change
# is usually just a newly appended mail, it'd be faster to simply read the
# new mails. If this setting is enabled, Dovecot does this but still safely
# fallbacks to re-reading the whole mbox file whenever something in mbox 
isn't
# how it's expected to be. The only real downside to this setting is that if
# some other MUA changes message flags, Dovecot doesn't notice it 
immediately.
# Note that a full sync is done with SELECT, EXAMINE, EXPUNGE and CHECK
# commands.
#mbox_dirty_syncs = yes

# Like mbox_dirty_syncs, but don't do full syncs even with SELECT, EXAMINE,
# EXPUNGE or CHECK commands. If this is set, mbox_dirty_syncs is ignored.
#mbox_very_dirty_syncs = no

# Delay writing mbox headers until doing a full write sync (EXPUNGE and 
CHECK
# commands and when closing the mailbox). This is especially useful for POP3
# where clients often delete all mails. The downside is that our changes
# aren't immediately visible to other MUAs.
#mbox_lazy_writes = yes

# umask to use for mail files and directories
# umask = 077

# Drop all privileges before exec()ing the mail process. This is mostly
# meant for debugging, otherwise you don't get core dumps. It could be a 
small
# security risk if you use single UID for multiple users, as the users could
# ptrace() each others processes then.
#mail_drop_priv_before_exec = no

# Set max. process size in megabytes. Most of the memory goes to mmap()ing
# files, so it shouldn't harm much even if this limit is set pretty high.
#mail_process_size = 256

# Log prefix for mail processes. See doc/variables.txt for list of possible
# variables you can use.
#mail_log_prefix = "%Us(%u): "


##
## IMAP specific settings
##

protocol imap {
  # Login executable location.
  #login_executable = /usr/libexec/dovecot/imap-login

  # IMAP executable location
  #mail_executable = /usr/libexec/dovecot/imap
  # This would write rawlogs into ~/dovecot.rawlog/ directory:
  #mail_executable = /usr/libexec/dovecot/rawlog /usr/libexec/dovecot/imap

  # Maximum IMAP command line length in bytes. Some clients generate 
very long
  # command lines with huge mailboxes, so you may need to raise this if 
you get
  # "Too long argument" or "IMAP command line too large" errors often.
  #imap_max_line_length = 65536

  # Support for dynamically loadable modules.
  #mail_use_modules = no
  #mail_modules = /usr/lib/dovecot/imap

  # Send IMAP capabilities in greeting message. This makes it 
unnecessary for
  # clients to request it with CAPABILITY command, so it saves one 
round-trip.
  # Many clients however don't understand it and ask the CAPABILITY anyway.
  #login_greeting_capability = no

  # Workarounds for various client bugs:
  #   delay-newmail:
  #     Send EXISTS/RECENT new mail notifications only when replying to NOOP
  #     and CHECK commands. Some clients ignore them otherwise, for example
  #     OSX Mail. Outlook Express breaks more badly though, without this it
  #     may show user "Message no longer in server" errors. Note that 
OE6 still
  #     breaks even with this workaround if synchronization is set to
  #     "Headers Only".
  #   outlook-idle:
  #     Outlook and Outlook Express never abort IDLE command, so if no mail
  #     arrives in half a hour, Dovecot closes the connection. This is still
  #     fine, except Outlook doesn't connect back so you don't see if 
new mail
  #     arrives.
  #   netscape-eoh:
  #     Netscape 4.x breaks if message headers don't end with the empty 
"end of
  #     headers" line. Normally all messages have this, but setting this
  #     workaround makes sure that Netscape never breaks by adding the 
line if
  #     it doesn't exist. This is done only for FETCH BODY[HEADER.FIELDS..]
  #     commands. Note that RFC says this shouldn't be done.
  #imap_client_workarounds = outlook-idle
}
 
##
## POP3 specific settings
##

protocol pop3 {
  # Login executable location.
  #login_executable = /usr/libexec/dovecot/pop3-login

  # POP3 executable location
  #mail_executable = /usr/libexec/dovecot/pop3

  # Don't try to set mails non-recent or seen with POP3 sessions. This is
  # mostly intended to reduce disk I/O. With maildir it doesn't move files
  # from new/ to cur/, with mbox it doesn't write Status-header.
  #pop3_no_flag_updates = no

  # Support LAST command which exists in old POP3 specs, but has been 
removed
  # from new ones. Some clients still wish to use this though. Enabling this
  # makes RSET command clear all \Seen flags from messages.
  #pop3_enable_last = no
 
  # POP3 UIDL format to use. You can use following variables:
  #
  #  %v - Mailbox UIDVALIDITY
  #  %u - Mail UID
  #  %m - MD5 sum of the mailbox headers in hex (mbox only)
  #  %f - filename (maildir only)
  #
  # If you want UIDL compatibility with other POP3 servers, use:
  #  UW's ipop3d         : %08Xv%08Xu
  #  Courier version 0   : %f
  #  Courier version 1   : %u
  #  Courier version 2   : %v-%u
  #  Cyrus (<= 2.1.3)    : %u
  #  Cyrus (>= 2.1.4)    : %v.%u
  #
  # Note that Outlook 2003 seems to have problems with %v.%u format which is
  # Dovecot's default, so if you're building a new server it would be a good
  # idea to change this. %08Xu%08Xv should be pretty fail-safe.
  pop3_uidl_format = %v.%u

  # POP3 logout format string:
  #  %t - number of TOP commands
  #  %T - number of bytes sent to client as a result of TOP command
  #  %r - number of RETR commands
  #  %R - number of bytes sent to client as a result of RETR command
  #  %d - number of deleted messages
  #  %m - number of messages (before deletion)
  #  %s - mailbox size in bytes (before deletion)
  #pop3_logout_format = top=%t/%T, retr=%r/%R, del=%d/%m, size=%s

  # Support for dynamically loadable modules.
  #mail_use_modules = no
  #mail_modules = /usr/lib/dovecot/pop3

  # Workarounds for various client bugs:
  #   outlook-no-nuls:
  #     Outlook and Outlook Express hang if mails contain NUL characters.
  #     This setting replaces them with 0x80 character.
  #   oe-ns-eoh:
  #     Outlook Express and Netscape Mail breaks if end of headers-line is
  #     missing. This option simply sends it if it's missing.
  # pop3_client_workarounds = outlook-no-nuls
}

##
## Authentication processes
##

# Executable location
#auth_executable = /usr/libexec/dovecot/dovecot-auth

# Set max. process size in megabytes.
#auth_process_size = 256

# Authentication cache size in kilobytes.
#auth_cache_size = 0
# Time to live in seconds for cached data. After this many seconds a cached
# record is forced out of cache.
#auth_cache_ttl = 3600

# Space separated list of realms for SASL authentication mechanisms that 
need
# them. You can leave it empty if you don't want to support multiple realms.
# Many clients simply use the first one listed here, so keep the default 
realm
# first.
#auth_realms =

# Default realm/domain to use if none was specified. This is used for both
# SASL realms and appending @domain to username in plaintext logins.
#auth_default_realm =

# List of allowed characters in username. If the user-given username 
contains
# a character not listed in here, the login automatically fails. This is 
just
# an extra check to make sure user can't exploit any potential quote 
escaping
# vulnerabilities with SQL/LDAP databases. If you want to allow all 
characters,
# set this value to empty.
#auth_username_chars = 
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ01234567890.-_@

# Username character translations before it's looked up from databases. The
# value contains series of from -> to characters. For example "#@/@" means
# that '#' and '/' characters are translated to '@'.
auth_username_translation = #@/@

# Username to use for users logging in with ANONYMOUS SASL mechanism
#auth_anonymous_username = anonymous

# More verbose logging. Useful for figuring out why authentication isn't
# working.
# auth_verbose = yes

# Even more verbose logging for debugging purposes. Shows for example SQL
# queries.
#auth_debug = no

# Maximum number of dovecot-auth worker processes. They're used to execute
# blocking passdb and userdb queries (eg. MySQL and PAM). They're
# automatically created and destroyed as needed.
#auth_worker_max_count = 30

auth default {
  # Space separated list of wanted authentication mechanisms:
  #   plain digest-md5 cram-md5 apop anonymous
  mechanisms = plain
 
  #
  # Password database is used to verify user's password (and nothing more).
  # You can have multiple passdbs and userdbs. This is useful if you want to
  # allow both system users (/etc/passwd) and virtual users to login without
  # duplicating the system users into virtual database.
  #
  # http://wiki.dovecot.org/Authentication
  #

  # PAM authentication. Preferred nowadays by most systems.
  # Note that PAM can only be used to verify if user's password is correct,
  # so it can't be used as userdb. If you don't want to use a separate user
  # database (passwd usually), you can use static userdb.


  # Linuxconf passwd-like file with specified location
  passdb passwd-file {
    args = /etc/vmail/shadow.%d
  }


  # Linuxconf passwd-like file with specified location
  userdb passwd-file {
    args = /etc/vmail/passwd.%d
  }

  # User to use for the process. This user needs access to only user and
  # password databases, nothing else. Only shadow and pam authentication
  # requires roots, so use something else if possible. Note that passwd
  # authentication with BSDs internally accesses shadow files, which also
  # requires roots. Note that this user is NOT used to access mails.
  # That user is specified by userdb above.
  user = root


  # Number of authentication processes to create
  #count = 1

}


# It's possible to export the authentication interface to other programs,
# for example SMTP server which supports talking to Dovecot. Client socket
# handles the actual authentication - you give it a username and password
# and it returns OK or failure. So it's pretty safe to allow anyone 
access to
# it. Master socket is used to a) query if given client was successfully
# authenticated, b) userdb lookups.

# listener sockets will be created by Dovecot's master process using the
# settings given inside the auth section

auth_debug_passwords = yes
#auth_master_user_separator=*

auth default_with_listener {
  mechanisms = plain

#  passdb passwd-file {
    # Master users that can log in as anyone
#    args = /etc/dovecot.masterusers
#    master = yes
    #pass =yes
#  }

  passdb passwd-file {
    # Path for passwd-file
    args = /etc/vmail/shadow.%d
  }

  userdb passwd-file {
    # Path for passwd-file
    args = /etc/vmail/passwd.%d
  }

  socket listen {
    master {
      path = /var/run/dovecot/auth-master
      mode = 0666
    }
  }

}


protocol lda {

  # UNIX socket path to master authentication server to find users.
  auth_socket_path = /var/run/dovecot/auth-master

}