[Dovecot] system v. virtual mailboxes, was Re: Thunderbird problem

[Noel Butler]

On Wed, 2010-06-30 at 18:11 -0400, Charles Marcus wrote:


> but if they don't virtual users is
> just as easy/legitimate as system users with no shell access.



I agree, virtual users are not only easier to deal with, it gives you
greater flexibility, but most importantly, better security.
in the mid nineties I started pooling my own mail onto my own server
using system users, yes, lazy %$$* i was :)
By  early 2000 I had not only my domain but several friends domains as
well, a  PITA to administer, as ever wanted change had to wait for me, I
refused to run any of the scripts around that permitted user management
as I felt none were secure and ended up having 'root', I then
migrated to using sendmail front end to what we used at my employers, a
qmail-vpopmail solution (IMHO having qmail exposed was and is, like
having M$ exchange exposed), this made things easier they can add/delete
do whatever to their own users, so more free time for me, infact I've
not had to do anything for any of them since, except, add their new
domains, but it was a painful task converting all of them from mbox to
maildir, it took nigh on 15 hours.
(incidently we also used dovecot for pop3 as well as imap inplace of
vpopmails pop3,  much saner solution.)

(I wrote a script to convert from vpopmail structure to a better
structure when we moved from that mess to postfix/dovecot/mysql a few
years back, that conversion, including moving mail took all of 45
minutes, most of that was copying mail, in the early days I did not like
nor trust postfix, but are with it today and wouldnt use anything else
again, in case I change jobs I've always kept my converting script hehe)

Hrmm., boy, so far OT now I'll finish...

So, my recommendation, is to plan for what might be some day, rather
than wait until that "someday" arrives.


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