[Dovecot] Telnet access creates new maildir folders

[Fabio Catunda]

Mr. Seasoul,

What is your MDA?

Ok, maybe you don't have this answer right now, but it's pretty 
important. MDA is a Mail Delivery Agent, it's responsible for delivery 
an e-mail to the user e-mail folder. I tend to use maildrop, again, just 
because I like it.

Apparently there is a misunderstood between your MDA and Dovecot. Your 
MDA is delivering e-mail to a folder and Dovecot is trying to take 
e-mail from another folder, that's probably your problem.

There are two ways to fix it, or your MDA starts to deliver e-maiil to 
the correct folder or you reconfigure Dovecot to search for e-mail in 
the same folder that your MDA deliver it.

To know what MDA you are using you have to look in postfix files. And if 
you are using dovecot as your MDA I can't help you a lot since I don't 
use it as MDA. :-( Sorry.

Att,

Fábio Catunda.

On 12/30/2010 12:58 AM, Seasoul wrote:
> Hi Fabio,
>
> Many thnaks for your prompt reply, I was typing the below :)
> So my path for mail_location is /var/mail/vmail/%d/%u but apparently that's
> not what happens..any idea why ?
>
> My dovecot.conf:
>
> # 1.0.15: /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
>
> log_timestamp: %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S
> protocols: imap imaps pop3 pop3s
> disable_plaintext_auth: no
> login_dir: /var/run/dovecot/login
> login_executable(default): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap-login
> login_executable(imap): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap-login
> login_executable(pop3): /usr/lib/dovecot/pop3-login
> first_valid_gid: 0
> last_valid_gid: 12000
> mail_privileged_group: mail
> mail_location: maildir:/var/mail/vmail/%d/%u
> mail_executable(default): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap
> mail_executable(imap): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap
> mail_executable(pop3): /usr/lib/dovecot/pop3
> mail_plugin_dir(default): /usr/lib/dovecot/modules/imap
> mail_plugin_dir(imap): /usr/lib/dovecot/modules/imap
> mail_plugin_dir(pop3): /usr/lib/dovecot/modules/pop3
> pop3_uidl_format(default):
> pop3_uidl_format(imap):
> pop3_uidl_format(pop3): %08Xu%08Xv
> auth default:
>    mechanisms: plain login
>    passdb:
>      driver: pam
>    passdb:
>      driver: sql
>      args: /etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf
>    userdb:
>      driver: passwd
>    userdb:
>      driver: sql
>      args: /etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf
>    socket:
>      type: listen
>      client:
>        path: /var/spool/postfix/private/auth
>        mode: 432
>        user: postfix
>        group: postfix
>
> My dovecot-sql.conf (although not sure this is relevant for my issue):
>
> driver = mysql
> connect = dbname=postfix user=**** password=**** host=localhost
> default_pass_scheme = PLAIN-MD5
> password_query = SELECT password FROM mailox WHERE local_part= '%u'
> user_query = SELECT home, uid, gid FROM users WHERE userid = '%u'
>
>
> On Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 10:52 AM, Fabio Catunda
> <fcatunda at contactnet.com.br>wrote:
>
>> Seasoul,
>>
>> Right from dovecot.conf:
>> # Location for users' mailboxes. This is the same as the old
>> default_mail_env
>> # setting. The default is empty, which means that Dovecot tries to find the
>> # mailboxes automatically. This won't work if the user doesn't have any
>> mail
>> # yet, so you should explicitly tell Dovecot the full location.
>> #
>> # If you're using mbox, giving a path to the INBOX file (eg. /var/mail/%u)
>> # isn't enough. You'll also need to tell Dovecot where the other mailboxes
>> are
>> # kept. This is called the "root mail directory", and it must be the first
>> # path given in the mail_location setting.
>> #
>> # There are 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 /usr/share/doc/dovecot-common/wiki/Variables.txt for full list. Some
>> # examples:
>> #
>> #   mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir
>> #   mail_location = mbox:~/mail:INBOX=/var/mail/%u
>> #   mail_location = mbox:/var/mail/%d/%1n/%n:INDEX=/var/indexes/%d/%1n/%n
>> #
>> #<doc/wiki/MailLocation.txt>
>>
>> In my case:
>> mail_location = maildir:/var/virtual/%Ld/%Ln/Maildir
>>
>> Just because I prefer this way.
>>
>> In your case I believe that something like this would be good:
>> mail_location = maildir:/var/mail/vmail/%Ln@%Ld
>>
>> The "L" if for lowercase (I think). In e-mail RFC is specified that mail
>> should be case sensitive, but it might give you some problems where people
>> send e-mail to foo at domain.com  and FOO at domain.com, as we are working with
>> UNIX like OS, these are different folders and different mailboxes.
>>
>> With best regards,
>>
>> Fábio Catunda.
>>
>>
>>
>> On 12/30/2010 12:40 AM, Seasoul wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>> I am running Dovecot Version 1.0.15on a Debian server, with postfix and
>>> postfixadmin.
>>> My mailbox base is /var/mail/vmail
>>>
>>> When I send an email to a user1 at domain.com for the first time, the user
>>> "mail" creates a set of dovecot folders under /var/mail/vmail/
>>> user1 at domain.com/ and my new emails are found in /var/mail/vmail/
>>> user1 at domain.com/new
>>> When I test my server using telnet (telnet domain.com 110), I can log in
>>> fine as a user1, but when I type "LIST", it tells me there are no emails.
>>> And I realize a new set of dovecot folders were created under
>>> /var/mail/vmail/user1/ ! The folders are created by the user "user1".
>>> Obviously the folder "new" under that is empty, since my emails received
>>> are
>>> in /var/mail/vmail/user1 at domain.com/new and not /var/mail/vmail/user1/new
>>> .
>>> Therefore, connecting with an email client via POP also shows an empty
>>> inbox.
>>>
>>> I am lost as to what to do to fix this, and how to let the server know
>>> that
>>> pop access should be looking into /var/mail/vmail/user1 at domain.com/instead
>>> of /var/mail/vmail/user1/ .
>>>
>>> Hopefully someone on this list will be able to save me from my misery :)
>>>
>>> Cheers
>>> Sea
>>>
>>>