General IMAP question

[Joseph Tam]

"Scott Techlist" <techlist06 at msws.org> writes:

> How will the IMAP account behave with the current mail_location setting below?
>
> mail_location = mbox:~/mail:INBOX=/var/mail/%u
>
> That is, where will the IMAP account's mail "go"? Right now it goes to
> /var/mail/[localusername].  Maybe incorrectly, I assumed IMAP required
> Maildir format? How are folders handled with this setting?.  The one
> IMAP account would be used for spamassassin training, it would need 2
> shared/public folders ("spam", "ham").

IMAP is a protocol: it does not dictate the storage format.  You're
free to use whatever format dovecot supplies a backend for, including
mbox or maildir.

What your mail_location specifies is that the INBOX is a mbox (not
maildir) formatted file located at /var/mail/[localusername].  Other
mailboxes are located in ~[localusername]/mail/* (also mbox formatted).

If the IMAP account requires 2 externally supplied mailboxes or folders
(spam, ham) accessible via IMAP, you'll either have to copy them into
the IMAP user's mail/ folder, or setup special name spaces that maps to
the mailboxes' path.  The mailboxes need appropriate file permissions
so that the IMAP user can access it.

Joseph Tam <jtam.home at gmail.com>