[Dovecot] dovecot runs from shell, but not as "service" -- MY MISTAKE, not xinetd

[Mark Jeghers]

All,

I was mistaken in how I described my problem, please forgive this dovecot newbie for describing the problem incorrectly!  It is not under xinitd, it is trying to run as an init.d service.

Ok, let's try again...

I am able to run it from a root shell prompt, but the errors below occur if it was started as a SERVICE, e.g. from the init.d script.  So now the question is: what is different in those two environments...?

Thanks, hope this clarifies things,

/Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: Stan Hoeppner [mailto:stan at hardwarefreak.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2012 1:42 AM
To: Mark Jeghers
Cc: dovecot at dovecot.org
Subject: Re: [Dovecot] dovecot runs from shell, but not xinetd

On 3/20/2012 11:26 PM, Mark Jeghers wrote:
> Hi Stan
> 
> Afraid it did not help.  Here is what I got:
> 
> *** entered into a telnet session...
> user ann
> +OK
> pass ********
> -ERR [IN-USE] Couldn't open INBOX: Internal error occurred. Refer to server log for more information. [2012-03-20 21:16:05]
> Connection closed by foreign host.
> [root at t4pserver2 mailpop3]#
> 
> *** resulted in maillog...
> Mar 20 21:16:05 t4pserver2 dovecot: auth: Debug: passwd-file(ann,::1): lookup: user=ann file=/etc/passwd.dovecot
> Mar 20 21:16:05 t4pserver2 dovecot: auth: Debug: client out: OK#0112#011user=ann
> Mar 20 21:16:05 t4pserver2 dovecot: auth: Debug: master in: REQUEST#0113180593153#01113546#0112#0116c9a0569dcd246a9f9e7a94dbe852843
> Mar 20 21:16:05 t4pserver2 dovecot: auth: Debug: passwd(ann,::1): lookup
> Mar 20 21:16:05 t4pserver2 dovecot: auth: Debug: master out: USER#0113180593153#011ann#011system_groups_user=ann#011uid=501#011gid=501#011home=/home/ann
> Mar 20 21:16:05 t4pserver2 dovecot: pop3-login: Login: user=<ann>, method=PLAIN, rip=::1, lip=::1, mpid=13549, secured
> Mar 20 21:16:05 t4pserver2 dovecot: pop3(ann): Debug: Effective uid=501, gid=501, home=/home/ann
> Mar 20 21:16:05 t4pserver2 dovecot: pop3(ann): Debug: fs: root=/var/spool/mailpop3, index=, control=, inbox=/var/spool/mailpop3/ann
> Mar 20 21:16:05 t4pserver2 dovecot: pop3(ann): Error: stat(/var/spool/mailpop3/ann) failed: Permission denied
> Mar 20 21:16:05 t4pserver2 dovecot: pop3(ann): Debug: Namespace : Using permissions from /var/spool/mailpop3: mode=0777 gid=-1
> Mar 20 21:16:05 t4pserver2 dovecot: pop3(ann): Error: stat(/var/spool/mailpop3/ann) failed: Permission denied
> Mar 20 21:16:05 t4pserver2 dovecot: pop3(ann): Debug: Namespace : Using permissions from /var/spool/mailpop3: mode=0777 gid=-1
> Mar 20 21:16:05 t4pserver2 dovecot: pop3(ann): Error: stat(/var/spool/mailpop3/ann) failed: Permission denied
> Mar 20 21:16:05 t4pserver2 dovecot: pop3(ann): Error: Couldn't open INBOX: Internal error occurred. Refer to server log for more information. [2012-03-20 21:16:05]
> Mar 20 21:16:05 t4pserver2 dovecot: pop3(ann): Couldn't open INBOX top=0/0, retr=0/0, del=0/0, size=0
> 
> *** file permissions...
> [root at t4pserver2 mailpop3]# ls -al
> total 248652
> drwxrwxrwx.  2 root         mail      4096 Mar 20 21:11 .
> drwxr-xr-x. 17 root         root      4096 Mar 18 18:22 ..
> -rw-rw-r--.  1 ann          mail     58739 Mar 17 04:26 ann
> -rw-rw-r--.  1 annphone     mail   2708345 Mar 17 05:22 annphone
> -rw-rw-r--.  1 root         mail 127272960 Mar 18 18:28 backups.tar
> -rw-rw-r--.  1 crimsonblues mail    327563 Dec  3 14:38 crimsonblues
> -rw-rw-r--.  1 mark         mail         0 Mar 18 13:09 mark
> -rw-rw-r--.  1 markphone    mail 124147068 Mar 18 04:21 markphone
> -rw-rw-r--.  1 nathan       mail      5119 Dec 22 18:52 nathan
> -rw-rw-r--.  1 root         mail         0 Mar 18 13:13 root
> -rw-rw-r--.  1 testuser     mail     58739 Mar 18 18:42 testuser
> -rw-rw-r--.  1 tim          mail     16212 Mar 18 15:51 tim
> 
> My CentOS installation created a user "mail" so I am hesitant to remove it, but it is no longer in use here.
> 
> Any other ideas?

What user does dovecot run as in the shell?  Under xinetd?

-- 
Stan