Strange permissions error - Failed to stat sieve storage path

[Graham Leggett]

Hi all

I have dovecot-lda set up to run as vmail:vmail, with some sieve scripts in /var/lib/dovecot/sieve.

The sieve scripts fail to be found with the following (detailed and very helpful) error message:

Oct 14 16:13:33 gatekeeper dovecot[8109]: lda(minfrin at example.com)<8109><ZJ9nMo0Hh1+tHwAAKdTwig>: Error: sieve: file storage: Failed to stat sieve storage path: stat(/var/lib/dovecot/sieve/vacation.sieve) failed: Permission denied (euid=387(vmail) egid=387(vmail) missing +x perm: /var/lib/dovecot, we're not in group 97(dovecot), dir owned by 97:97 mode=0750)

In this case, the user vmail is a member of the dovecot group:

[root at gatekeeper dovecot]# cat /etc/group | grep vmail
mail:x:12:postfix,vmail,opendmarc,opendkim,openarc
dovecot:x:97:vmail
vmail:x:387:
[root at gatekeeper dovecot]# sudo su - vmail
Last login: Wed Oct 14 16:15:48 SAST 2020 on pts/0
[vmail at gatekeeper ~]$ wc -c /var/lib/dovecot/sieve/vacation.svbin 
530 /var/lib/dovecot/sieve/vacation.svbin

Does dovecot-lda do anything odd with respect to group memberships?

Regards,
Graham
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