December 2025 - dovecot

About mail_inbox_path and mail location
by Aki Tuomi 06 Feb '26

06 Feb '26

Hi! We've been noticing that many people are configuring mail_inbox_path. I assume that for most people this is because debian decided to include it in their default config, so that it would use /var/mail boxes for user INBOXes. If your inbox *does not* reside in some weird location, you should *not* set this setting to any value, instead you can either ensure it's commented out, or set to empty value. IN PARTICULAR, IT IS **NOT** REQUIRED SETTING. Setting it to some random weird value like '.' will just cause Problems, setting it to $MAIL_HOME/ or something else will just be either pointless or cause problems. Some most common conversions (please adjust to your environment) mail_home= /home/vmail/%u => mail_home = /home/vmail/%{user} mail_home = /home/vmail/%d/%u => mail_home = /home/vmail/%{user|domain}/%{user|username} or some variant of this. mail_location = maildir:~/ => mail_path = ~/ mail_driver = maildir mail_location = maildir:/var/srv/foo/%d/%u => mail_path = /var/srv/foo/%{user|domain}/%{user|username} mail_driver = maildir In addition you might want to convert INDEX=~/.index => mail_index_path=~/.index CONTROL=~/.control => mail_control_path=~/.control LAYOUT=fs => mailbox_list_layout=fs A minimal working config is mail_home=/home/vmail/%{user} mail_driver=maildir mail_path=~/maildir mail_uid=vmail mail_gid=vmail ## If you have settings like namespace other { location = maildir:/foo/bar } this converts into namespace other { mail_path = /foo/bar # optional, if this is matches your top level mail_driver = maildir } Hope this clears out some of the confusion. Aki

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2.4.2 breaks big-endian builds
by Noah Meyerhans 19 Jan '26

19 Jan '26

From the Debian s390 build log, no merging parent is NULL ............................................ : ok no merging parent sent to stats ...................................... : ok no merging parent timestamp differs .................................. : ok merge events parent NULL ............................................. : ok merge events parent sent to stats .................................... : ok skip empty parents ................................................... : ok merge events and skip empty parents .................................. : ok parent updated after send ............................................ : ok large event id ....................................................... : ok merge events global .................................................. : ok 0 / 10 tests failed test-master-service-settings.c:472: Assert(#16) failed: strstr(error, tests[i].error) != NULL test-master-service-settings: Error: Failed to parse configuration: Settings block doesn't end with NUL at offset 70 test-master-service-settings.c:472: Assert(#19) failed: strstr(error, tests[i].error) != NULL test-master-service-settings: Error: Failed to parse configuration: Settings block doesn't end with NUL at offset 84 master_service_settings_read() - binary corruption ................... : FAILED 1 / 1 tests failed make[4]: *** [Makefile:958: check-local] Error 1 make[4]: Leaving directory '/build/reproducible-path/dovecot-2.4.2+dfsg1/src/lib-master' make[3]: *** [Makefile:806: check-am] Error 2 make[3]: Leaving directory '/build/reproducible-path/dovecot-2.4.2+dfsg1/src/lib-master' make[2]: *** [Makefile:604: check-recursive] Error 1 make[2]: Leaving directory '/build/reproducible-path/dovecot-2.4.2+dfsg1/src' make[1]: *** [Makefile:739: check-recursive] Error 1 make[1]: Leaving directory '/build/reproducible-path/dovecot-2.4.2+dfsg1' The build failure was introduced with commit 41bd7a502 ("lib-settings, config: Use native CPU endianess in binary config file"). The build is successful at the previous commit, but fails at that commit. I haven't yet determined whether the failure is with the code itself or the test. Full build log is available at https://buildd.debian.org/status/fetch.php?pkg=dovecot&arch=s390x&ver=1%3A2… noah

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Panic in logs
by Kamil Jońca 13 Jan '26

13 Jan '26

Recently I found in my lda logs: 2025-12-30T07:55:14.717927+01:00 alfa dovecot: lda(kjonca): Error: Raw backtrace: #1 [unw_get_proc_name() failed: -10] -> #2 i_syslog_fatal_handler[0x7f99a2351430] -> #3 i_panic[0x7f99a226d453] -> #4 [unw_get_proc_name() failed: -10] -> #5 [unw_get_proc_name() failed: -10] -> #6 [unw_get_proc_name() failed: -10] -> #7 buffer_append[0x7f99a2345270] -> #8 dregex_code_match_groups[0x7f99a233f1a0] -> #9 [unw_get_proc_name() failed: -10] -> #10 [unw_get_proc_name() failed: -10] -> #11 sieve_match_value[0x7f99a117f770] -> #12 sieve_match[0x7f99a117fa30] -> #13 [unw_get_proc_name() failed: -10] -> #14 sieve_interpreter_continue[0x7f99a117e100] -> #15 sieve_multiscript_run[0x7f99a1190330] -> #16 [unw_get_proc_name() failed: -10] -> #17 mail_deliver[0x7f99a27e54a0] -> #18 main[0x55e371c555e0] -> #19 __libc_start_call_main[0x7f99a1e29f00] -> #20 __libc_start_main_alias_2[0x7f99a1e29fa0] -> #21 _start[0x55e371c566a0] And sadly it seems, that mail is missing (it was passed to pipe program to further processing) KJ -- http://wolnelektury.pl/wesprzyj/teraz/ When you go out to buy, don't show your silver.

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mail-crypt transition from Dovecot 2.3 to 2.4
by m＠maltris.org 11 Jan '26

11 Jan '26

In Dovecot 2.3 I had used the following query: password_query = \ SELECT USER.user, USER.host, \ SECRET.password, SECRET.public_key AS mail_crypt_global_public_key, SECRET.private_key AS mail_crypt_global_private_key \ FROM USER \ WHERE USER.user = '%Lu' This worked fine, enabling encryption and decryption properly. For Dovecot 2.4 this does not work anymore. Example from LMTP: Dec 11 15:02:59 lmtp(975838): Info: lmtp-server: conn unix:pid=975905,uid=113 [1]: rcpt user(a)test.de: <Ti6aNxPPOmne4w4APAc66w>: Failed to send message to <user(a)test.de> at server:24: 451 4.2.0 <user(a)test.de> get_public_key(INBOX) failed: mailbox_attribute_get(INBOX, /shared/vendor/vendor.dovecot/pvt/crypt/active) failed: Mailbox attributes not enabled (1/1 at 12 ms) I tried to adapt it to Dovecot 2.4 per the documentation, ending up with this: query = \ SELECT \ USER.user, USER.host, \ SECRET.password, \ concat('inline:', SECRET.public_key) AS crypt_global_public_key_file, \ 'main' AS crypt_global_private_key, \ concat('inline:', SECRET.private_key) AS 'crypt_global_private_key/main/crypt_private_key_file' \ FROM USER \ WHERE USER.user = '%{user | lower}' Still the error message: get_public_key(INBOX) failed: mailbox_attribute_get(INBOX, /shared/vendor/vendor.dovecot/pvt/crypt/active) failed: Mailbox attributes not enabled Additionally I tried without the "inline:" prefix, because without, doveadm mailbox cryptokey list would return a "no such file or directory error" trying to treat the key as a filename. With the "inline:" prefix it returns nothing except a warning: Warning: mailbox cryptokey list: Nothing was matched. Use -U or specify mask? What is the right way to proceed here?

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How can I use /etc/passwd auth for linux users and a passwd-file for virtual mailbox users?
by Ethan Merrill 06 Jan '26

06 Jan '26

Hello, I hope this is the right mailing list to send questions to. Please direct me where to go if it is not. Thanks. --- I am setting up a postfix/dovecot email server on a Debian 13 VPS. Dovecot is v2.4.1. I have thus far been able to successfully configure the server for smtp and imap support for my primary domain (we'll say `user(a)example.com` who is a linux user with a home folder). I have been even been able to configure postfix to have virtual mailboxes and aliases, and from ssh I can can even see that the mail gets delivered to the correct place. However, I am struggling to set up dovecot to authenticate a virtual mailbox user (we'll say `user(a)example.net` who only has a virtual mailbox). [This documentation page](https://doc.dovecot.org/2.4.2/core/config/auth/mutltiple.html) describes the process to configure multiple authentication databases. It describes being able to use multiple `passdb` and `userdb` sections in order to authenticate dovecot users. Based upon what it suggested, I tried this configuration: > ## Snippet from /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf ## > passdb passwd-file { > # So example.net => /etc/dovecot/passwd/example.net > passwd_file_path = /etc/dovecot/passwd/%{user | domain} > } > # Fall thru to PAM for unix users > passdb pam { > } > > userdb passwd-file { > passwd_file_path = /etc/dovecot/passwd/%{user | domain} > } > # Fall thru to /etc/passwd for unix users > userdb passwd { > } > > ## Snippet from /etc/dovecot/passwd/example.net ## > support@example.net:$y$j9...hash...:800:800::/var/postfix/virtual/example.net/support:: This is the configuration I landed on that hypothetically checks multiple databases for authentication that allows at least `user(a)example.com` to still login with Thunderbird and do email stuff. However it does not authenticate `user(a)example.net`. The biggest difference between my config and the example is that they use a `sql` database while I am trying the `passwd-file` database. In principle this seems like it should work, unless I am understanding the dovecot docs or have made my passwd file incorrectly. I even tried reversing the order of `userdb` and `passdb` sections to see if it would help to no avail. [This thread](https://dovecot.org/mailman3/archives/list/dovecot@dovecot.org/thre… seems to address a similar issue, and more or less has the same configuration setup suggested as the one in the snippet above. It's also from 2006 so the API looks kinda different from the current docs. [This thread](https://dovecot.org/mailman3/archives/list/dovecot@dovecot.org/thre… is from 2013 addressing a similar issue, but despite again different API it translates to more or less what the snippet above shows. Here is the journalctl output from when I tried to login as `user(a)example.net`: > # journalctl -xeu dovecot | tail > Dec 29 11:38:19 example.com auth[4719]: pam_unix(dovecot:auth): check pass; user unknown > Dec 29 11:38:19 example.com auth[4719]: pam_unix(dovecot:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty=dovecot ruser=user(a)example.net rhost=10.0.0.1 > Dec 29 11:38:28 example.com auth[4719]: pam_unix(dovecot:auth): check pass; user unknown > Dec 29 11:38:28 example.com auth[4719]: pam_unix(dovecot:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty=dovecot ruser=user(a)example.net rhost=10.0.0.1 > Dec 29 11:41:19 example.com dovecot[4700]: imap-login: Login aborted: Inactivity (auth failed, 2 attempts in 180 secs) (auth_failed): user=<user(a)example.net>, method=LOGIN, rip=10.0.0.1, lip=10.0.0.2, TLS, session=<z8Tj3hlHkLxJMmuL> The last message referring to "Inactivity" is because at that point fail2ban blocked my IP, but before that it was consistent with results I have been getting. I'm at an absolute loss. I feel like I've trawled every doc I could find, every config file involved in the setup process, all the Stack Exchange answers that seem to exist. Honestly it baffles me to see that even what looks like the same setup as official documentation, it just doesn't... work? Can anybody point to me what is going wrong? Thanks for reading, ~ Ethan Merrill Hello, I hope this is the right mailing list to send questions to. Please direct me where to go if it is not. Thanks. --- I am setting up a postfix/dovecot email server on a Debian 13 VPS. Dovecot is v2.4.1. I have thus far been able to successfully configure the server for smtp and imap support for my primary domain (we'll say `user(a)example.com` who is a linux user with a home folder). I have been even been able to configure postfix to have virtual mailboxes and aliases, and from ssh I can can even see that the mail gets delivered to the correct place. However, I am struggling to set up dovecot to authenticate a virtual mailbox user (we'll say `user(a)example.net` who only has a virtual mailbox). [1]This documentation page describes the process to configure multiple authentication databases. It describes being able to use multiple `passdb` and `userdb` sections in order to authenticate dovecot users. Based upon what it suggested, I tried this configuration: ## Snippet from /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf ## passdb passwd-file { # So [2]example.net => /etc/dovecot/passwd/example.net passwd_file_path = /etc/dovecot/passwd/%{user | domain} } # Fall thru to PAM for unix users passdb pam { } userdb passwd-file { passwd_file_path = /etc/dovecot/passwd/%{user | domain} } # Fall thru to /etc/passwd for unix users userdb passwd { } ## Snippet from /etc/dovecot/passwd/example.net ## [3]support@example.net:$y$j9...hash...:800:800::/var/postfix/virtual/example.net/support:: This is the configuration I landed on that hypothetically checks multiple databases for authentication that allows at least `user(a)example.com` to still login with Thunderbird and do email stuff. However it does not authenticate `user(a)example.net`. The biggest difference between my config and the example is that they use a `sql` database while I am trying the `passwd-file` database. In principle this seems like it should work, unless I am understanding the dovecot docs or have made my passwd file incorrectly. I even tried reversing the order of `userdb` and `passdb` sections to see if it would help to no avail. [4]This thread seems to address a similar issue, and more or less has the same configuration setup suggested as the one in the snippet above. It's also from 2006 so the API looks kinda different from the current docs. [5]This thread is from 2013 addressing a similar issue, but despite again different API it translates to more or less what the snippet above shows. Here is the journalctl output from when I tried to login as `user(a)example.net`: # journalctl -xeu dovecot | tail Dec 29 11:38:19 [6]example.com auth[4719]: pam_unix(dovecot:auth): check pass; user unknown Dec 29 11:38:19 [7]example.com auth[4719]: pam_unix(dovecot:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty=dovecot [8]ruser=user(a)example.net rhost=10.0.0.1 Dec 29 11:38:28 [9]example.com auth[4719]: pam_unix(dovecot:auth): check pass; user unknown Dec 29 11:38:28 [10]example.com auth[4719]: pam_unix(dovecot:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty=dovecot [11]ruser=user(a)example.net rhost=10.0.0.1 Dec 29 11:41:19 [12]example.com dovecot[4700]: imap-login: Login aborted: Inactivity (auth failed, 2 attempts in 180 secs) (auth_failed): user=<[13]user(a)example.net>, method=LOGIN, rip=10.0.0.1, lip=10.0.0.2, TLS, session=<z8Tj3hlHkLxJMmuL> The last message referring to "Inactivity" is because at that point fail2ban blocked my IP, but before that it was consistent with results I have been getting. I'm at an absolute loss. I feel like I've trawled every doc I could find, every config file involved in the setup process, all the Stack Exchange answers that seem to exist. Honestly it baffles me to see that even what looks like the same setup as official documentation, it just doesn't... work? Can anybody point to me what is going wrong? Thanks for reading, ~ Ethan Merrill References Visible links 1. This documentation page https://doc.dovecot.org/2.4.2/core/config/auth/mutltiple.html 2. http://example.net/ 3. mailto:support@example.net 4. This thread https://dovecot.org/mailman3/archives/list/dovecot@dovecot.org/thread/VMXU2… 5. This thread https://dovecot.org/mailman3/archives/list/dovecot@dovecot.org/thread/YO3DF… 6. http://example.com/ 7. http://example.com/ 8. mailto:ruser=user@example.net 9. http://example.com/ 10. http://example.com/ 11. mailto:ruser=user@example.net 12. http://example.com/ 13. mailto:user@example.net

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Missing dovecot-pigeonhole packages in official CE-2.4 repo for RHEL/Rocky Linux 10
by Mateusz Kiczela 06 Jan '26

06 Jan '26

Hello Dovecot Team, I am attempting to install Dovecot 2.4.2 on Rocky Linux 10 (RHEL 10 compatible) using the official repository found at: http://repo.dovecot.org/ce-2.4-latest/rhel/10/RPMS/x86_64/ The Issue: Although the core Dovecot packages (dovecot, dovecot-imapd, etc.) are present, the Pigeonhole (Sieve/ManageSieve) packages are completely missing from the repository index. I have verified this by browsing the directory listing directly. Missing Packages: - dovecot-pigeonhole - dovecot-sieve - dovecot-managesieved Could you please check the build pipeline for RHEL/CentOS/Rocky Linux 10? It appears the Pigeonhole artifacts are not being published, and the base dependencies might need a rebuild against current EL10 libraries. Thank you for your support! Best regards. Mateusz Kiczela Hello Dovecot Team, I am attempting to install Dovecot 2.4.2 on Rocky Linux 10 (RHEL 10 compatible) using the official repository found at: [1]http://repo.dovecot.org/ce-2.4-latest/rhel/10/RPMS/x86_64/ The Issue: Although the core Dovecot packages (dovecot, dovecot-imapd, etc.) are present, the Pigeonhole (Sieve/ManageSieve) packages are completely missing from the repository index. I have verified this by browsing the directory listing directly. Missing Packages: - dovecot-pigeonhole - dovecot-sieve - dovecot-managesieved Could you please check the build pipeline for RHEL/CentOS/Rocky Linux 10? It appears the Pigeonhole artifacts are not being published, and the base dependencies might need a rebuild against current EL10 libraries. Thank you for your support! Best regards. Mateusz Kiczela References Visible links 1. http://repo.dovecot.org/ce-2.4-latest/rhel/10/RPMS/x86_64/

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Hello, i came here for Your help cant do a proper configuration of dovecot from 2.3.X to 2.4.1
by revolt2＠wp.pl 31 Dec '25

31 Dec '25

I would like to ask if someone could correct the configuration file for Dovecot dovecot.conf for version 2.4.1? Its the old file from 2.3.X but I'm sorry to say it doesn't work ;( https://pastebin.com/BjXuPEvv , and here is an dovecot-sql.conf file : https://pastebin.com/C4dFG2Zi If any further changes are needed, please let me know, I will adapt, I tried to understand the AI documentation but I couldn't, so we have to meet here,, Thank you in advance for your help

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2.4 use a dictionary when receiving authentification requests
by info＠opdepc.nl 31 Dec '25

31 Dec '25

In conf.d/10-auth.conf I do: dict lookuptable { dict_name = lookuptable dict_driver = file dict_file_path = /etc/dovecot/mailtouserid.dict } auth_username_format = %{user | lower | dict:lookuptable/shared/ } But it seems the dictionary doesn't work here... it is skipped. Is this a bug, is it something that will be added lateron or do I do something wrong? My goal is to allow users to logon with their email address as username. Best wishes for 2026 to all! -Huibert.

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quota_mailbox_message_count
by James 31 Dec '25

31 Dec '25

New for 2.4 is quota_mailbox_message_count. I have set limits for: quota_storage_size quota_message_count quota_mailbox_message_count Defaults in dovecot.conf and per user value from userdb sql. These are working proved by the rejection of test messages. 1. To monitor users' quotas one can run: doveadm quota get -A This lists values for Types STORAGE and MESSAGE. Is there a way to list mailbox_message_count values? It is per mailbox so might need a mailbox option on doveadm. doveadm-quota(1) shows -A and -u. 2. How does one send quota warning messages when quota_mailbox_message_count crosses thresholds? The documentation [1] has examples for quota_storage_size and quota_message_count but not quota_mailbox_message_count. I am missing quota_mailbox_message_percentage. Thank you. 1. Quota example: https://doc.dovecot.org/2.4.2/core/plugins/quota.html#example-configuration

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Minor note about what seems like a behavior change with the 'user' field in passdb/userdb overrides
by Andy Baugh 30 Dec '25

30 Dec '25

Just finished fixing a bug with our setup where the "archive" pseudo-user we setup wasn't listing the correct dirs in IMAP yet would show their other mailboxes, folders, etc. just fine via `doveadm mailbox list`. Turns out the issue was that the 'user' field is more important on dovecot 2.4's IMAP implementation than on 2.3, but in ways that the documentation didn't really suggest to me. In both cases it says that it overrides the user, but what that means is different. On 2.3, it's mostly saying "act as if you are this user but with these other params we set in the user/passdb return" On 2.4.x, it is a straight up alias to another userdb/passdb return in IMAP's context, so any other params you override do not in fact get used. You can pretty quickly verify this with `doveadm user`/`doveadm auth lookup` calls; when your "override" user matches another user which has an entry reported back from your userdb/passdb, it just returns their data instead even if your auth source provided other data. What's odd to me is more that `doveadm mailbox list` worked "as expected" here, as everything else was consistent with 'user' being an aliasing trigger. I wound up fixing my bug by just no longer setting the 'user' variable for this archival psuedo-user, and instead relying on the (already set even on 2.3) uid/gid fields to make sure they didn't have permissions errors. Then things worked precisely how they did on 2.3. I only figured this out by accidentally making a new IMAP dir for the original user and then noticing that show up for the pseudo-user (I then scrutinized the userdb/passdb returns more carefully, then noticing the difference). Hopefully my tale helps others avoid the many hours of fruitless debugging I was doing before making that crucial mistake lol. Cheers, -- Thomas "Andy" Baugh | Software Development Engineer IV andy.baugh(a)webpros.com www.webpros.com

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