June 2007 - dovecot - dovecot.org

[Dovecot] Backing up mail?
by Knute Johnson 04 Jun '07

04 Jun '07

My mail server is running on a Fedora FC5 box. I need to move the mail server to another computer and so I need to back up my user's mail and move it. I have found mail in /var/spoo/mail/[users] and in their home directories there is a 'mail' directory. All users have an 'Inbox' file that is empty and I think the one IMAP user has a 'Trash' file that is huge! Are those the only files I need to copy or are there others lurking out there that I don't know about? Thanks, -- Knute Johnson Molon Labe...

1 0

[Dovecot] tweaking performance
by Paul A 04 Jun '07

04 Jun '07

Hi, I was wondering if anyone had some ideas on what I can tweak to gain more performance. We have tome timeouts reports on pop3 during heavy load periods. Using imap/pop3 with maildir with 7,000 users using mostly pop3. # /usr/local/etc/dovecot.conf protocols: imap pop3 ssl_disable: yes disable_plaintext_auth: no login_dir: /usr/local/var/run/dovecot/login login_executable(default): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/imap-login login_executable(imap): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/imap-login login_executable(pop3): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/pop3-login login_greeting: Cape.Com D-V.1 wpam - ready. login_processes_count: 16 login_max_processes_count: 500 max_mail_processes: 9000 mail_location: maildir:/home/%1u/%u/Maildir maildir_copy_with_hardlinks: yes mail_executable(default): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/imap mail_executable(imap): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/imap mail_executable(pop3): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/pop3 mail_plugin_dir(default): /usr/local/lib/dovecot/imap mail_plugin_dir(imap): /usr/local/lib/dovecot/imap mail_plugin_dir(pop3): /usr/local/lib/dovecot/pop3 pop3_uidl_format(default): pop3_uidl_format(imap): pop3_uidl_format(pop3): %v.%u pop3_client_workarounds(default): pop3_client_workarounds(imap): pop3_client_workarounds(pop3): outlook-no-nuls oe-ns-eoh auth default: count: 6 passdb: driver: pam userdb: driver: passwd TIA, PA

2 1

[Dovecot] dovecot-shared tries to fchown index+control files but fails
by Adam McDougall 04 Jun '07

04 Jun '07

I have some public mailboxes setup in 1.0.0, location = maildir:/egr/mail/shared/org:CONTROL=%h/Maildir/dovecot/public/control/org:INDEX=%h/Maildir/dovecot/public/indexes/org I also have a dovecot-shared file in the maildir folders so messages that are added to the inbox get a decent set of default permissions. However, I think dovecot is also trying to fchown the index files (stored in a user home directory, far away from the shared mail) to match the owner of the dovecot-shared file. When I rename dovecot-shared, these errors (apparently harmless at this point) go away: May 24 18:45:35 hostname dovecot: IMAP(username): fchown(/home/username/Maildir/dovecot/public/control/org/.mailfolder/dovecot-uidlist) failed: Operation not permitted May 24 18:45:35 hostname dovecot: IMAP(username): fchown() failed with file /home/username/Maildir/dovecot/public/indexes/org/.mailfolder/dovecot.index.log: Operation not permitted At this point it is just clogging up the log, but I see two issues: 1. Isn't dovecot already running as the imap user, so as long as that user isn't root, it shouldn't be possible to change file owners at all. This is the behavior I see of dovecot-shared on new mail files, that is the group and file mode from dovecot-shared are applied, but not the owner. 2. Since these kind of metadata files aren't generally supposed to be shared anyway, why would it even want to change the permissions? Especially since I have them stored in a place where the user has ownership already. Please let me know if I am missing something, or a behavior change is needed. Thanks.

2 4

[Dovecot] Client certificate verification/authentication
by eizert 04 Jun '07

04 Jun '07

I would like to use Client certificate verification/authentication. My MTA used this function. I've a problem to make a valid certificate. For my MTA i used : openssl req -new -nodes -x509 -keyout user_key.pem -out user_req.pem -days 365 openssl ca -out user_signed.pem -infiles user_req.pem openssl pkcs12 -in user_signed.pem -inkey user_key.pem -out user.p12 -export -name "user@hotsname" user.p12 match in my MTA Not in Dovecot... In my log, i've simply : dovecot: auth(default): Client didn't present valid SSL certificate Also, in the documentation The username is taken from the subject's DN's CommonName <http://wiki.dovecot.org/CommonName> field (using OpenSSL's X509_NAME_get_text_by_NID() function). But when i used openssl req -new -nodes -keyout user_key.pem -out user_req.pem -days 365 my common name is my hostname not my username. I don't think that the option -name user@hostname (in manpage openssl :: -name is friendly name)... Sorry but it's ambiguous for me...

2 4

[Dovecot] dovecot-sieve-1.0 (hg) does not build
by Bernhard Schmidt 04 Jun '07

04 Jun '07

Hi, the dovecot-sieve plugin from the hg repository (http://hg.dovecot.org/dovecot-sieve-1.0/) does not build against current dovecot-1.0 repository. /bin/bash ../../libtool --tag=CC --mode=link gcc -std=gnu99 -g -O2 -Wall -W -Wmissing-prototypes -Wmissing-declarations -Wpointer-arith -Wchar-subscripts -Wformat=2 -Wbad-function-cast -DENABLE_REGEX -o sievec sievec.o map.o imparse.o libsieve.la /usr/src/dovecot-1.0/src/lib/liblib.a gcc -std=gnu99 -g -O2 -Wall -W -Wmissing-prototypes -Wmissing-declarations -Wpointer-arith -Wchar-subscripts -Wformat=2 -Wbad-function-cast -DENABLE_REGEX -o sievec sievec.o map.o imparse.o /.libs/libsieve.a /usr/src/dovecot-1.0/src/lib/liblib.a /.libs/libsieve.a(script.o): In function `sieve_script_parse': /usr/src/dovecot-sieve-1.0/src/libsieve/script.c:140: undefined reference to `yylineno' /.libs/libsieve.a(sieve.o): In function `sieveerror': /usr/src/dovecot-sieve-1.0/src/libsieve/sieve.y:568: undefined reference to `yylineno' /.libs/libsieve.a(sieve.o): In function `sieveparse': /usr/src/dovecot-sieve-1.0/src/libsieve/sieve.c:1644: undefined reference to `sievelex' /.libs/libsieve.a(sieve.o): In function `sieve_parse': /usr/src/dovecot-sieve-1.0/src/libsieve/sieve.y:551: undefined reference to `yyrestart' /.libs/libsieve.a(addr.o): In function `addrparse': /usr/src/dovecot-sieve-1.0/src/libsieve/addr.c:1289: undefined reference to `addrlex' collect2: ld returned 1 exit status make[3]: *** [sievec] Error 1 make[3]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/dovecot-sieve-1.0/src/libsieve' make[2]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1 make[2]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/dovecot-sieve-1.0/src' make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1 make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/dovecot-sieve-1.0' make: *** [all] Error 2 dovecot-sieve-1.0.1.tar.gz builds fine. 1.0.1 is from January 2007, the last changes in the hg repository are three months ago, but none of them look like they would be causing this issue. Also there is no r_1_0_1 tag. It looks to me like 1.0.1 is something quite different to the hg-repository, right? Does the latter compile against anything at the moment? Thanks, Bernhard

2 3

[Dovecot] Sharing nested folders / maildir variations?
by SeattleServer.com 04 Jun '07

04 Jun '07

Hey all, So I've got a shared namespace in dovecot where users can, via a custom control panel, share their folders into (which creates a symlink) in order to allow anyone on their domain to access it. I store mail in maildir. The issue is that when people share folders, they expect that when they make subfolders, those are automatically shared as they are contained within it. According to the Maildir++ specification, "Can folders have subfolders, defined in a recursive fashion? The answer is no. If you want to have a client with a hierarchy of folders, emulate it. Pick a hierarchy separator character, say ":". Then, folder foo/bar is subdirectory .foo:bar." It says some other stupid things too though that nobody seems to actually follow, and I've never actually seen anything but a '.' used as the delimiter... The same is true in IMAPdir: "As with Maildir++, submailboxes can not be represented in a recursive fashion in the file system. The mailbox' representation name will contain the soft hierarchy delimiter character dot '.', and all mailboxes must reside in the same root level directory." I don't understand the reasoning behind avoiding recursion, honestly. If somebody wants to enlighten me on that one, it would be appreciated. i.e. instead of: .Folder/{cur,new,tmp} .Folder.SubFolder1/{cur,new,tmp} .Folder.SubFolder1.foo/{cur,new,tmp} .Folder.SubFolder1.bar/{cur,new,tmp} .Folder.SubFolder2/{cur,new,tmp} We'd have: .Folder/{cur,new,tmp} .Folder/.SubFolder1/{cur,new,tmp} .Folder/.SubFolder1/{cur,new,tmp} .Folder/.SubFolder1/.foo/{cur,new,tmp} .Folder/.SubFolder1/.bar/{cur,new,tmp} .Folder/.SubFolder2/{cur,new,tmp} That would both solve my issue and be a lot more convenient when browsing/scripting around maildirs (i.e. "cd ../.foo" vs "cd ../.Folder.Subfolder1.foo"). It seems to me that this would be a really easy thing to add support for via the config option used to choose between maildir/mbox/dbox. Call it rmaildir or somesuch... Thoughts? Cheers, -- Casey Allen Shobe | mailto:casey@shobe.info | http://casey.shobe.info SeattleServer.com, inc. | http://seattleserver.com

2 3

[Dovecot] Dovecot waking every 50ms when doing nothing
by Ross Burton 04 Jun '07

04 Jun '07

Hi, My laptop runs a local IMAP server so that I'm immune from breaking my mail client, and when playing around with powertop I discovered that Dovecot (in particular imap-login) wakes up every 1000ms and then every 50ms even when no clients are connected. A bit of stracing shows this: gettimeofday({1180875699, 667917}, NULL) = 0 <0.000010> poll([{fd=7, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI|POLLERR|POLLHUP|POLLNVAL}, {fd=10, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI|POLLERR|POLLHUP|POLLNVAL}, {fd=3, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI|POLLERR|POLLHUP|POLLNVAL}, {fd=0, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI|POLLERR|POLLHUP|POLLNVAL}, {fd=1, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI|POLLERR|POLLHUP|POLLNVAL}], 5, 999) = 0 <0.999595> gettimeofday({1180875700, 667627}, {4294967236, 0}) = 0 <0.000007> gettimeofday({1180875700, 667670}, NULL) = 0 <0.000007> poll([{fd=7, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI|POLLERR|POLLHUP|POLLNVAL}, {fd=10, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI|POLLERR|POLLHUP|POLLNVAL}, {fd=3, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI|POLLERR|POLLHUP|POLLNVAL}, {fd=0, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI|POLLERR|POLLHUP|POLLNVAL}, {fd=1, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI|POLLERR|POLLHUP|POLLNVAL}], 5, 0) = 0 <0.000006> gettimeofday({1180875700, 667762}, {4294967236, 0}) = 0 <0.000007> gettimeofday({1180875700, 667801}, NULL) = 0 <0.000006> poll([{fd=7, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI|POLLERR|POLLHUP|POLLNVAL}, {fd=10, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI|POLLERR|POLLHUP|POLLNVAL}, {fd=3, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI|POLLERR|POLLHUP|POLLNVAL}, {fd=0, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI|POLLERR|POLLHUP|POLLNVAL}, {fd=1, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI|POLLERR|POLLHUP|POLLNVAL}], 5, 999) = 0 <0.999699> gettimeofday({1180875701, 667638}, {4294967236, 0}) = 0 <0.000010> Is there any reason why dovecot wakes up so frequently even when there is apparently nothing to do? If it is to perform some routine task, can this timeout be extended? There are many daemons on my machine (lighttpd is another) that are waking up every second when nothing is happening, and each of these is contributing to waking the CPU from sleep. Cheers, Ross -- Ross Burton mail: ross(a)burtonini.com jabber: ross(a)burtonini.com www: http://www.burtonini.com./ PGP Fingerprint: 1A21 F5B0 D8D0 CFE3 81D4 E25A 2D09 E447 D0B4 33DF

7 16

[Dovecot] frequent index rebuilds versus disabled indexes
by Justin McAleer 04 Jun '07

04 Jun '07

Ok, here's the short and sweet version of my dilemma. I have a group of servers mounting a shared NFS device to hold mail data for many different domains. Is it worth the load balancing management nightmare of setting up dedicating smtp, pop, and imap to one server (failing over to another in the group if the server goes down) to keep indexes on local disk? It's very tempting to just disable indexes and not worry about which server a user hits, and considering the vast majority of our 170,000 accounts only have about a 20MB quota, I'm not sure indexes will help that many users. Although, I guess I would need to work out something for the few huge accounts we do have.

2 1

[Dovecot] Quota handling - v2 - updated FR
by Charles Marcus 04 Jun '07

04 Jun '07

This revised proposal for a Feature Request is the result of my desire to implement quotas, but not have the attendant headaches that inevitably accompany its implementation. Ralf Hildebrandt wrote: > I have to face it, my users are retards: Is there any other kind of user? ;) <snip> > Thus I need a feature in dovecot that will tell them via email: > > Level1: "You ALMOST exceeded your quota, you're at 90% now" > Level2: "You're very close to exceededin your quota, you're at 95% > now" > Level3: "Would you please clean up now? You're at 99% now" What I'd *really* like to see implemented is something along the lines outlined below - but of course, this will depend entirely on whether or not Timo thinks it is doable - or desirable... I'm thinking this would be best handled by the Quota plug-in - either as part of the current one, or as a separate/different one... *** 1. Have a 'special' user-specific folder (by special, I mean like the Drafts, Sent, Templates folders) that dovecot controls. For purposes of this FR, call it the 'over-quota' folder. Question: could the .tmp folder be used for this? No sense in reinventing the wheel if necessary... and then if someone migrated from dovecot to something else, and messages were left in there from an over-quota condition, that other solution would most likely just move these to .new the first time it ran, right? Or, possibly, could dovecot create a new one maybe, .oqt (for over-quota), and store the queued messages there until the over-quota condition was rectified? Anyway, the main thing is, this folder should be essentially hidden from the user so they do *not* have access to it, and should temporarily hold messages that come in that are unable to be delivered due to an over-quota condition. *** 2. Make dovecot aware of and use a special 'Quota Status' message that it uses to inform a user that they are over quota. This message should be able to be customized, with variables (like, for example, it should list the messages that are currently being prevented from being moved to the Inbox - including, optionally, the Subject, the sender, date/time, attachments, size, etc - as well as provide general quota information (ie, how close to or over quota they are, and how much they'd need to delete or move to Local Folders to allow delivery of all of the messages being held), and lastly, any custom information the System Admin wanted to provide - like, maybe, specific instructions for how to move messages to Local Folders, how to request additional storage allowance, etc. *** 3. When user is over quota, have LDA deliver to the folder referenced above (# 1) - (yes, accept the message for final delivery from the sending mta), and then update the Quota Status message and move it to the Inbox. Optionally, a bounce/notification could be generated to the sender, informing them that their message is being 'held in queue' or something to that effect, due to the recipient being over-quota. *** 4. Once the user deletes enough mail to come back under quota, dovecot would then move messages from the 'over-quota' folder to his Inbox. Ok, again, am willing to hear *valid* reasons how/why this is a terrible idea... :) -- Best regards, Charles

6 10

[Dovecot] delivery and quota question
by Arkadiusz Miskiewicz 04 Jun '07

04 Jun '07

Hi, I'm considering using delivery for delivering emails. The question is about quota. Does delivery check quota for single maildir or for entire collection of user folders? Example: /var/mail/user/{new,cur,tmp} /var/mail/user/.Some_Folder/{new,cur,tmp} /var/mail/user/.Some_Other_Folder/{new,cur,tmp} Can I somehow get deliver checking size for all these folders? I need quota per user not per folder. -- Arkadiusz Miśkiewicz PLD/Linux Team arekm / maven.pl http://ftp.pld-linux.org/

2 1