November 2025 - dovecot

Fresh mailbox missing directories tmp/new/cur
by Andreas Pflug 24 Nov '25

24 Nov '25

My configuration is this: mail_driver = maildir mail_path=/mailboxes/%{user} mailbox_list_layout=fs mailbox_directory_name=mbxInternal After connecting to Dovecot with Thunderbird for the first time, the following directory structure is created: ./dovecot.index.log ./Trash ./Trash/mbxInternal ./Trash/mbxInternal/dovecot.index.cache ./Trash/mbxInternal/cur ./Trash/mbxInternal/dovecot-uidlist ./Trash/mbxInternal/new ./Trash/mbxInternal/tmp ./Trash/mbxInternal/dovecot.index.log ./Trash/mbxInternal/dovecot-keywords ./dovecot.mailbox.log ./dovecot-uidvalidity ./subscriptions ./dovecot-uidvalidity.69245ab1 ./dovecot.list.index.log ./dovecot-uidlist Trying to copy a mail (using thunderbird) to the Trash will succeed, but trying to copy to INBOX gives the error Error: Mailbox INBOX: open(/mailboxes/me/tmp/1763990412.M635852P115610.mailstore) failed: No such file or directory which isn't surprising, the tmp/cur/new directories aren't there. After creating a subfolder, I have ./tmp ./dovecot.mailbox.log ./dovecot-uidvalidity ./INBOX ./INBOX/subfolder ./INBOX/subfolder/mbxInternal ./INBOX/subfolder/mbxInternal/new ./INBOX/subfolder/mbxInternal/cur ./INBOX/subfolder/mbxInternal/dovecot-uidlist ./INBOX/subfolder/mbxInternal/dovecot.index.log ./INBOX/subfolder/mbxInternal/tmp ./cur ./subscriptions ./dovecot.list.index.log ./Junk ./Junk/mbxInternal ./Junk/mbxInternal/cur ./Junk/mbxInternal/ ./new all directories are there as expected, and copying to INBOX works as well. Tested with Dovecot 2.4.1 (Debian13) and Thunderbird 140.5 NB: with mailbox_directory_name and mailbox_list_layout unset, cur/new/tmp directories are created immediately. Regards Andreas

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multiple passdbs on 2.4.1
by Lou Duchez 23 Nov '25

23 Nov '25

I recently upgraded from 2.3 to 2.4.1, a little unwillingly (thanks Fedora), and I've almost got 2.4.1 working on my failover mail server. The failover server's job is, if the main mail server is inaccessible, mail gets delivered to the failover instead. Then the main server will retrieve mail from the failover server when it can. This has worked very well for many years. The way I implemented it was, I had two passdb's on the failover server: one for ordinary users who might need to access the failover server directly (login and password required), and one so that the main mail server could grab mail from the failover server (no password required). This broke when I went to 2.4.1; now, no matter what I do, Dovecot honors only one of the passdbs. Here is the configuration as it stands now. The intention is that, if the user properly authenticates with the first passdb, they're authenticated and the second passdb isn't consulted. But if the user doesn't authenticate with the first passdb, Dovecot moves on to the second passdb. # the passdb for normal users to check their mail on the failover server passdb passwd-file { passwd_file_path = /vmail/Maildir/passwdfile passdb_result_success = return-ok passdb_result_failure = continue-fail } # the passdb for the main server to grab mail from the failover server passdb passwd-file { passwd_file_path = /vmail/Maildir/passwdfile passdb_skip = authenticated fields { nopassword = yes allow_nets = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/32 } passdb_result_success = return-ok passdb_result_failure = return-fail } As things stand now, Dovecot always moves on to the second passdb and authenticates the user, or not, according to the outcome of the second passdb. The outcome of the first passdb does not seem to matter. Curiously, if I comment out the second passdb, the first passdb authenticates users as expected. I've tried all kinds of gyrations with passdb_result_success and passdb_result_failure, and none of them seem to work. The options I have there right now are, to the best of my knowledge, the ones that best match the flow I want to be seeing. There's a chance there's a bug in 2.4.1, but I bet I'm doing something wrong. What am I doing wrong?

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Migrate deliver conf from 2.3 to 2.4 help and get panic
by Barry Scott 21 Nov '25

21 Nov '25

I'm trying to migrate my dovecot config from Fedora 42's dovecot-2.3.21.1-5.fc42.x86_64 to Fedora 43's dovecot-2.4.1-6.fc43.x86_64. I use this command to run the LDA via deliver.sh: ---- #!/bin/sh exec /usr/libexec/dovecot/deliver -c $HOME/fetchmail/barry(a)barrys-emacs.org/dovecot-deliver-rc -e "$@" ---- It's called from a procmail script like this: ---- LDA="$HOME/fetchmail/$MAILACCOUNT/deliver.sh" :0 * ^List-Id:.*<dovecot.dovecot.org> | $LDA -m "Others.Dovecot" ---- The dovecot-deliver-rc that I use for 2.3 is ---- log_path = /home/barry-mail/fetchmail/barry(a)barrys-emacs.org/logs/deliver.log protocol lda { postmaster_address = barry(a)barrys-emacs.org mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir lda_mailbox_autocreate = yes } ---- But for 2.4 that config is invalid. For 2.4 I iterated to this: ---- dovecot_config_version = 2.4.0 dovecot_storage_version = 2.4.0 protocol lda { postmaster_address = barry(a)barrys-emacs.org lda_mailbox_autocreate = yes log_path = /home/barry-mail/fetchmail/barry(a)barrys-emacs.org/logs/deliver.log mail_driver = maildir mail_home = /home/barry-mail mail_path = /home/barry-mail/Maildir } ---- But that crashed /usr/libexec/dovecot/deliver ---- Panic: file mailbox-list.c: line 1163: unreached Error: Raw backtrace: libdovecot.so.0(backtrace_append+0x40) [0x7efe1a0f8320] libdovecot.so.0(backtrace_get+0x2f) [0x7efe1a0f846f] libdovecot.so.0(+0x101322) [0x7efe1a101322] libdovecot.so.0(+0x101365) [0x7efe1a101365] libdovecot.so.0(+0x2ad0f) [0x7efe1a02ad0f] libdovecot.so.0(+0x2b062) [0x7efe1a02b062] libdovecot-storage.so.0(+0x13dd5) [0x7efe1a28cdd5] libdovecot-storage.so.0(+0x6bfcc) [0x7efe1a2e4fcc] libdovecot-storage.so.0(mail_storage_create+0x504) [0x7efe1a2b56b4] libdovecot-storage.so.0(raw_storage_create_from_set+0x1ab) [0x7efe1a31672b] deliver(main+0x800) [0x557e6bbab6a0] libc.so.6(+0x35b5) [0x7efe19e0f5b5] libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0x88) [0x7efe19e0f668] deliver(_start+0x25) [0x557e6bbac0e5] ---- Is the config for 2.4 in principle correct? Where do I report the crash? Barry

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control and index
by Marek Greško 21 Nov '25

21 Nov '25

Hello, I just upgraded my server from Fedora 42 to Fedora 43 and found out there is an upgrade to dovecot 2.4 which requires completely new config. I am in doubt how I should convert it. My main issue is now hot co convert this line: mail_location = maildir:/var/maildir/%u:INDEX=/var/dovecot-index/%u:CONTROL=/var/dovecot-control/%u I am uncertain whether the first part should look like: mail_home = /var/maildir/ mail_driver = maildir mail_path = /var/maildir/%{user} But I am completely lost how to convert INDEX and CONTROL section. Could someone help me in this matter? Thanks Marek Hello, I just upgraded my server from Fedora 42 to Fedora 43 and found out there is an upgrade to dovecot 2.4 which requires completely new config. I am in doubt how I should convert it. My main issue is now hot co convert this line: mail_location = maildir:/var/maildir/%u:INDEX=/var/dovecot-index/%u:CONTROL=/var/dovecot-control/%u I am uncertain whether the first part should look like: mail_home = /var/maildir/ mail_driver = maildir mail_path = /var/maildir/%{user} But I am completely lost how to convert INDEX and CONTROL section. Could someone help me in this matter? Thanks Marek

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control and index
by Marek Greško 20 Nov '25

20 Nov '25

Hello, I just upgraded my server from Fedora 42 to Fedora 43 and found out there is an upgrade to dovecot 2.4 which requires completely new config. I am in doubt how I should convert it. My main issue is now hot co convert this line: mail_location = maildir:/var/maildir/%u:INDEX=/var/dovecot-index/%u:CONTROL=/var/dovecot-control/%u I am uncertain whether the first part should look like: mail_home = /var/maildir/ mail_driver = maildir mail_path = /var/maildir/%{user} But I am completely lost how to convert INDEX and CONTROL section. Could someone help me in this matter? Thanks Marek Hello, I just upgraded my server from Fedora 42 to Fedora 43 and found out there is an upgrade to dovecot 2.4 which requires completely new config. I am in doubt how I should convert it. My main issue is now hot co convert this line: mail_location = maildir:/var/maildir/%u:INDEX=/var/dovecot-index/%u:CONTROL=/var/dovecot-control/%u I am uncertain whether the first part should look like: mail_home = /var/maildir/ mail_driver = maildir mail_path = /var/maildir/%{user} But I am completely lost how to convert INDEX and CONTROL section. Could someone help me in this matter? Thanks Marek

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folders in folders
by Marek Greško 20 Nov '25

20 Nov '25

Hello, after upgrade of the dovecot to 2.4.1 version my folders in folders stopped working. For example I had folder work and subfolder done. When accessing folder work everything is working, but after accessing inner folder done, I get error in kmail: A000210 NO Character not allowed in mailbox name: '.' ( 0.001 + 0.000 secs ) . [ CANNOT ] When I look into disk structure on disk, the folder name is .work.done. It seems new version of dovecot does not allow the . in the name. How could I fix this? Thanks Marek Hello, after upgrade of the dovecot to 2.4.1 version my folders in folders stopped working. For example I had folder work and subfolder done. When accessing folder work everything is working, but after accessing inner folder done, I get error in kmail: A000210 NO Character not allowed in mailbox name: '.' ( 0.001 + 0.000 secs ) . [ CANNOT ] When I look into disk structure on disk, the folder name is .work.done. It seems new version of dovecot does not allow the . in the name. How could I fix this? Thanks Marek

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ee key too small
by Marek Greško 20 Nov '25

20 Nov '25

Hello, after upgrading from Fedora 42 to Fedora 43 the dovecot got upgraded to version 2.4. I tweaked the configuration, dovecot starts, but when client is trying to connect to imap, I get: imap-login: Error: Failed to initialize SSL connection: Couldn't initialize SSL server context: Can't load SSL certificate (ssl_server_cert_file setting): error:0A00018F:SSL routines ::ee key too small: I tried replacing 2048 bits RSA with 4096 bits RSA, I tried to not use the dh.pem file (I read somewhere it is not neede any more), I deleted /var/lib/dovecot/ssl-parameters.dat file, but still the same error. Where should I look next? My ssl config: ssl = required #ssl_server_dh_file = /etc/dovecot/dh.pem ssl_server { #ssl_server_dh_file = /etc/dovecot/dh.pem ssl_server_cert_file = /somewhere/dovecot.pem ssl_server_key_file = /somewhere/dovecot.pem prefer_ciphers = server } ssl_min_protocol = TLSv1.2 ssl_cipher_list = PROFILE=SYSTEM #ssl_verify_client_cert = no #ssl_prefer_server_ciphers = no Thanks Marek Hello, after upgrading from Fedora 42 to Fedora 43 the dovecot got upgraded to version 2.4. I tweaked the configuration, dovecot starts, but when client is trying to connect to imap, I get: imap-login: Error: Failed to initialize SSL connection: Couldn't initialize SSL server context: Can't load SSL certificate (ssl_server_cert_file setting): error:0A00018F:SSL routines ::ee key too small: I tried replacing 2048 bits RSA with 4096 bits RSA, I tried to not use the dh.pem file (I read somewhere it is not neede any more), I deleted /var/lib/dovecot/ssl-parameters.dat file, but still the same error. Where should I look next? My ssl config: ssl = required #ssl_server_dh_file = /etc/dovecot/dh.pem ssl_server { #ssl_server_dh_file = /etc/dovecot/dh.pem ssl_server_cert_file = /somewhere/dovecot.pem ssl_server_key_file = /somewhere/dovecot.pem prefer_ciphers = server } ssl_min_protocol = TLSv1.2 ssl_cipher_list = PROFILE=SYSTEM #ssl_verify_client_cert = no #ssl_prefer_server_ciphers = no Thanks Marek

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TLS cipher preference - yes or no or both?
by Edmund Lodewijks 20 Nov '25

20 Nov '25

Hello list, In the latest Dovecot docs I read: > For TLSv1.3 server ciphers should not longer be preferred: > > ssl_server_prefer_ciphers = client Source: https://doc.dovecot.org/2.4.2/core/config/ssl.html I am not so much wondering why TLS 1.3 should no longer have server preference enabled; I am wondering HOW one can set server preference to 'yes' for TLS <= 1.2, and to 'no' for TLS 1.3+. If this is not possible, which setting would be preferred? Would setting it to 'yes' break something with TLS 1.3, or would it be safe to leave it on 'yes' despite the docs (here, I suppose, I am asking for a bit of clarification on the 'why' of this change)? Thank you for enlightening me! Kind regards, Edmund -- Edmund Lodewijks <edmund(a)proteamail.com> TZ: UCT+2 / GMT+2

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[PATCH] doc: dovecot.conf is 644 file permission, not 755
by Xiao Pan 20 Nov '25

20 Nov '25

Use INSTALL_DATA instead of INSTALL in doc/Makefile.am to install dovecot.conf with 644 instead of 755 file permission. After the patch, after ./autogen.sh and ./configure, doc/Makefile shows dovecot.conf is correclty installed with INSTALL_DATA which is `/usr/bin/install -c -m 644` instead of INSTALL which is `/usr/bin/install -c`. More info about INSTALL_DATA see `info make`. Signed-off-by: Xiao Pan <xyz(a)flylightning.xyz> --- doc/Makefile.am | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/doc/Makefile.am b/doc/Makefile.am index 87b52dbe46..845e70e2db 100644 --- a/doc/Makefile.am +++ b/doc/Makefile.am @@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ all-local: stamp-man install-data-hook: $(INSTALL) -d $(DESTDIR)$(sysconfdir)/dovecot test -e $(DESTDIR)$(sysconfdir)/dovecot/dovecot.conf || \ - $(INSTALL) dovecot.conf $(DESTDIR)$(sysconfdir)/dovecot/dovecot.conf + $(INSTALL_DATA) dovecot.conf $(DESTDIR)$(sysconfdir)/dovecot/dovecot.conf install-data-local: $(MKDIR_P) $(DESTDIR)$(docdir); \ -- 2.52.0

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inet_listener_address unimplemented
by Allan Zhang 18 Nov '25

18 Nov '25

Hello, I was hoping to use inet_listener_address to specify different listening addresses for IMAP (143) and IMAPS (993). It looks like inet_listener_address appears in the documentation[1] but is unimplemented[2]. 1. https://doc.dovecot.org/2.4.2/core/config/service.html#inet_listener_address 2. https://github.com/dovecot/core/blob/13ac9959a3c399e8a9d53f40f7858109dc0801… Best, Allan

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