[Dovecot] when the user has no home directory

[Dave Yost]

At 11:45 PM +0300 2011-05-10, Timo Sirainen wrote:
>On 6.5.2011, at 4.25, Dave Yost wrote:
>
>>  A user on our server for some reason didn't have a home directory. 
>>As a result, the pop3 server was complaining. Apple's Mail app 
>>reported that the server said:
>>
>>   The attempt to send data to the server "(null)" failed.
>>
>>  It would be nice if the server would say something to the effect 
>>that the connection failed because the user account has no home 
>>directory.
>
>I'm pretty sure Dovecot said something different. I don't know why 
>Apple Mail would only say (null). Dovecot also should have logged 
>something in its error log.
>
>You could try reproducing it. But instead of connecting with Apple 
>Mail, connect directly with telnet and see what Dovecot really says:
>
>telnet pop3.example.com 110
>user foobar
>pass secret
>
>http://wiki2.dovecot.org/TestPop3Installation has more possibilities

I tried again just now with a user whose home dir doesn't exist.

Apparently I get no error message back. The connection just closes. 
Perhaps Apple Mail's "(null)" is the result of the summary closing of 
the connection.

Wed 0:16:39
0 222 Z% telnet localhost 110
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
+OK Dovecot ready.
user xxxxx
+OK
pass xxxxx
Connection closed by foreign host.
Wed 0:17:05
1 223 Z%

/var/log/maillog says

May 11 00:17:05 xx dovecot: pop3-login: Login: user=<xxxxx>, 
method=PLAIN, rip=127.0.0.1, lip=127.0.0.1, secured
May 11 00:17:05 xx dovecot: POP3(xxxxx): mail_location: mbox: 
mkdir(/home/xxxxx/mail) failed: Permission denied (euid=11111(xxxxx) 
egid=1111(ootbc) missing +w perm: /home)
May 11 00:17:05 xx ovecot: POP3(xxxxx): Fatal: Namespace initialization failed

Thanks