[Dovecot] moving 1.2.13 system to another hard drive

[William Blunn]

On 18/09/2010 01:15, Paul Scott wrote:
> I have just set up a new system on a new hard drive on the same 
> computer. fetchmail is correctly putting mail in /var/mail/<username>.

Whilst I am no expert on fetchmail, as far as I know fetchmail does not 
deliver mail itself but rather passes it on to an MTA. So I think it may 
be your MTA that is delivering mail to mbox files in /var/mail.

> I have copied my entire Maildir directory from the old hard drive. I 
> have made what changes I understood to dovecot.conf.
>
> Dovecot was working on the other drive even though I'm not completely 
> sure how I got it working before.

How about looking at the old Dovecot configuration under /etc on the old 
drive?

Having said that, having mail delivered to mbox files under /var/mail, 
but other folders under Maildir might not be the best configuration:

* to get Dovecot to be able to handle that setup means having two 
different mailbox formats which means a namespace configuration,

* your INBOX is going to an mbox under /var/mail, which is fraught with 
potential locking problems (unless this has somehow magically been taken 
care of for you).

You may be better off getting all mail delivered straight to Maildir, 
thereby making everything Maildir.

This would then make your Dovecot configuration simpler, and also remove 
the potential locking problems of using mbox.

> Any ideas for debugging this certainly simple problem for some of you.

Please try to describe a specific symptom or specific symptoms you are 
experiencing.

Please provide the output of "dovecot -n".

It might also be an idea to say what MTA you are using.

For The Avoidance Of Doubt, I am not 'taking on your case', but merely 
providing one step of suggestions. Please reply to the list (i.e. not to 
me).

Bill