[Dovecot] Imap unlink "failed, is a directory".

[Timo Sirainen]

On Feb 9, 2009, at 8:44 PM, dovecot at corwyn.net wrote:

> I'm seeing this set of messages repeat every 15 min. My best guess  
> is the user tried to delete an imap folder and is failing?
>
> Feb  9 20:05:58 mailserver dovecot: imap-login: Login: user=<user at example.com 
> >, method=PLAIN, rip=10.0.0.1, lip=192.168.250.80, TLS
> Feb  9 20:05:58 mailserver dovecot: IMAP(user at example.com): unlink(/ 
> var/spool/mail/example.com/user/Maildir/cur/cur:2,ST) failed: Is a  
> directory
> Feb  9 20:05:58 mailserver dovecot: IMAP(user at example.com): unlink(/ 
> var/spool/mail/example.com/user/Maildir/cur/new:2,ST) failed: Is a  
> directory

This means that "new" and "cur" directories were created to either  
Maildir/cur/ or Maildir/new/ and since there should be only messages  
Dovecot tried to handle them as files/messages. Dovecot didn't create  
those directories. You probably misconfigured some other program at  
some point which created those (or you did it manually).

So the solution is to just rmdir those directories away. They just  
shouldn't be there. If they come back, try to figure out what creates  
them.