Initialization failed: Namespace '': mkdir(/var/www/mail) failed: Permission denied

[Aki Tuomi]

> On October 26, 2017 at 7:10 PM trash at skrilnetz.net wrote:
> 
> 
>   Quoting trash at skrilnetz.net:
> 
> > Quoting Aki Tuomi <aki.tuomi at dovecot.fi>:
> >
> >>> On October 26, 2017 at 5:53 PM trash at skrilnetz.net wrote:
> >>>
> >>>   Quoting Aki Tuomi <aki.tuomi at dovecot.fi>:
> >>>
> >>> On October 26, 2017 at 5:40 PM trash at skrilnetz.net wrote:
> >>>
> >>>   Quoting Steffen Kaiser <skdovecot at smail.inf.fh-brs.de>:
> >>>
> >>> On Thu, 26 Oct 2017, trash at skrilnetz.net wrote:
> >>>
> >>> /dovecot: lda(www-data): Error: user www-data: Initialization
> >>> failed: Namespace '': MKDIR(/VAR/WWW/MAIL) failed: Permission
> >>> denied (euid=33(www-data) egid=33(www-data) missing +w perm:
> >>> /var/www, dir owned by 1001:1001 mode=0755//)  /
> >>>
> >>> I did some troubleshooting and I don't understand where
> >>> the MKDIR(/VAR/WWW/MAIL) is coming from. Mailboxes are in /var/mail
> >>> and
> >>>
> >>> ^^ /var/mail contains the INBOX only
> >>>
> >>> sending/receiving emails is working as it always did.
> >>>
> >>> mail_location is still setup to be MAIL_LOCATION =
> >>> MBOX:~/MAIL:INBOX=/VAR/MAIL/%U
> >>>
> >>> Everything else is in ~/MAIL (why uppercase?)
> >>>
> >>> Why is it trying a mkdir in /var/www?
> >>>
> >>> Because most likely /var/www is the home directory of www-data and
> >>> you've configured to use $HOME/MAIL as base directory, which is
> >>> /var/www/mail
> >>> - -- Steffen Kaiser
> >>>
> >>> I don't know where the uppercase is coming from. In the email I've
> >>> sent its lower case.
> >>>
> >>> How can I fix that without changing permissions of /var/www? Where is
> >>> $HOME/MAIL configured? Why do I get this error now for the first time,
> >>> when there was no change to the system configuration?
> >>>
> >>> Probably someone attempted to send email via a crappy script and
> >>> it's now trying to deliver to www-data.
> >>>
> >>> first_valid_uid = 1001
> >>> last_valid_uid = 1001
> >>>
> >>> also, doveconf -n would be useful.
> >>> Aki
> >>>
> >>> Here is doveconf -n: https://pastebin.com/raw/s6cKwHGc
> >>
> >> Home directory is provided by passwd userdb when present in passwd  
> >> file. to override it, use
> >>
> >> userdb {
> >>   driver = passwd
> >>   override_fields = home=/var/mail/%Lu
> >> }
> >> Aki
> >
> >   Thanks for the quick replies.
> >   I've checked, and the user database information is stored in  
> > /home/user/mail/ for every user.
> >   That works as expected without changing anything. I have still the  
> > same question…
> >   Why is it trying to write to /var/www when the mailbox is in  
> > /var/mail/ and the user data in /home/user/mail/?
> >
> >    
> 
>   Ok, got it!
>    
>   It's trying to deliver to user www-data and because of below line in  
> passwd, it attempts to create the dir in www, right?
>    
>   /www-data:x:33:33:www-data:/var/www:/usr/sbin/nologin/
>    
>   How can I find out with email is causing the error message?

If you are using postfix, try mailq

Aki