[Dovecot] Simplest (static?) build & config for loopback access?

[FZiegler]

I am installing Dovecot for the sole purpose of maintaining a local mail 
store that I could 1) manage with any client; 2) keep duplicated on 
several machines, using Unison; 3) hopefully, index using Spotlight 
(http://article.gmane.org/gmane.mail.mh-e.user/1308 ...). In particular, 
I have no intention to allow connections from anywhere but localhost.

I've followed the instructions at http://wiki.dovecot.org/HowTo/Rootless 
and it all seems to work quite well, but I'm not sure about 3 things:

1) Initially Dovecot would not respond to Thunderbird ("Could not 
connect to server localhost; the connection was refused"). Eventually, a 
"Trying ::1..." in the telnet log (see below) made me find hidden pref 
"network.dns.disableIPv6" and set it to FALSE. Which solves the problem 
-- but is this really needed, or have I done something wrong?

2) The Dovecot I built on OS X 10.4 appears to work fine when copied on 
another Mac running 10.5. Now, I'd love to avoid installing developer 
tools on both machines, but I fear this an illusion (some libraries are 
changing under us, e.g. libiconv.2.2.0.dylib --> libiconv.2.4.0.dylib). 
Does this mean I should try a static build? If so, what are the flags 
and how do I go about specifying a minimal set of libraries to include 
for my purposes?

3) Probably offtopic here, but has anyone seen a better way to index 
mail in Spotlight than just as plain text? E.g. to hook up Apple's 
importer (Mail.mdimporter in /System/Library/Spotlight) or Thunderbird's 
(https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=290057), which I guess can 
better deal with quoted-printable and other encodings?

Thanks in advance; I include my compilation and config data below.
Francois Z.

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mini:~ fz$ curl -O http://www.dovecot.org/releases/1.1/dovecot-1.1.2.tar.gz
mini:~ fz$ tar xzf dovecot-1.1.2.tar.gz
mini:~ fz$ cd dovecot-1.1.2
mini:~/dovecot-1.1.2 fz$ ./configure --prefix=$HOME/sw
mini:~/dovecot-1.1.2 fz$ make
mini:~/dovecot-1.1.2 fz$ make install
mini:~ fz$ cd
mini:~ fz$ sw/sbin/dovecot
Warning: fd limit 256 is lower than what Dovecot can use under full load 
(more than 640). Either grow the limit or change 
login_max_processes_count and max_mail_processes settings
mini:~ fz$ telnet localhost 10143
Trying ::1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
* OK Dovecot ready.
. login fz ********
. OK Logged in.
. list "" *
* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "." "Drafts"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "." "Trash"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "." "INBOX"
. OK List completed.
. logout
* BYE Logging out
. OK Logout completed.
Connection closed by foreign host.
mini:~ fz$ sw/sbin/dovecot -n
# 1.1.2: /Volumes/Home/FZ/sw/etc/dovecot.conf
Warning: fd limit 256 is lower than what Dovecot can use under full load 
(more than 640). Either grow the limit or change 
login_max_processes_count and max_mail_processes settings
log_path: /Volumes/Home/FZ/Library/Logs/Dovecot/error.log
info_log_path: /Volumes/Home/FZ/Library/Logs/Dovecot/info.log
listen: localhost:10143
ssl_disable: yes
disable_plaintext_auth: no
login_dir: /Volumes/Home/FZ/sw/var/run/dovecot/login
login_executable: /Volumes/Home/FZ/sw/libexec/dovecot/imap-login
login_user: fz
login_chroot: no
mail_location: maildir:~/Library/Maildir
auth default:
   user: fz
   passdb:
     driver: passwd-file
     args: /Volumes/Home/FZ/sw/etc/dovecot.passwd
   userdb:
     driver: passwd
mini:~ fz$