December 2025 - dovecot

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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Error I can't fix
by John Hill 27 Dec '25

27 Dec '25

Hello, I’m encountering a reproducible parsing issue in Dovecot 2.4 on Debian 13 (Trixie). Even when /etc/dovecot/conf.d/auth-sql.conf.ext contains a valid passdb block, Dovecot reports that the block is empty. Environment: - Debian 13 (Trixie) - Dovecot 2.4 (from Debian repository) - Clean install, no custom patches Error: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/auth-sql.conf.ext line 1: passdb { } is missing section name Steps to reproduce: 1. Remove the file: rm -f /etc/dovecot/conf.d/auth-sql.conf.ext 2. Recreate it cleanly: cat > /etc/dovecot/conf.d/auth-sql.conf.ext <<'EOF' passdb { driver = sql args = /etc/dovecot/sql.conf.ext } userdb { driver = sql args = /etc/dovecot/sql.conf.ext } EOF 3. Verify the file contents: sed -n '1,20p' /etc/dovecot/conf.d/auth-sql.conf.ext | cat -A Output: passdb {$ driver = sql$ args = /etc/dovecot/sql.conf.ext$ }$ $ userdb {$ driver = sql$ args = /etc/dovecot/sql.conf.ext$ }$ 4. Run: doveconf Actual result: Dovecot still reports that the passdb block is empty, even though the file is valid. Expected result: Dovecot should accept the passdb block and load SQL authentication normally. Additional notes: - No BOM (ef bb bf) present. - No CRLF (^M) present. - No stray characters. - File is not a symlink. - No duplicate auth-sql.conf.ext files exist. - The include line in 10-auth.conf is correct. - The error persists even after full deletion and recreation of the file. This appears to be a parser or include-path issue in Dovecot 2.4. Any guidance or confirmation would be appreciated.

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dovecot-optimize FTS Xapian Failed to open glass revision file for reading
by Torge Riedel 27 Dec '25

27 Dec '25

Dears, from time to time (no regular frequency) I get the following error: /etc/cron.daily/dovecot-optimize: doveadm(account(a)domain.de): Error: FTS Xapian: Optimize (6) /var/vmail/mailboxes/domain.de/account/index/xapian-indexes/db_<longhex>/iamglass: Failed to open glass revision file for reading The reason is the file "iamglass" is owned by "root", when I change this back to "vmail" the error disappears for a while. I do not find the cause why this sometimes changes. And it is only this file, where the ownership changes. The content of /etc/cron.daily/dovecot-optimize is: #!/bin/sh doveadm fts optimize -A I welcome any help / hint, thanks and kind regards Torge

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mysql: SSL support not compiled in (remove ssl_client_ca_file and ssl_client_ca_dir settings)
by Klaus Tachtler 26 Dec '25

26 Dec '25

Hello everyone, Problem info: An error occurs, while trying to establish a TLS/SSL secured connection to a database (mariadb), which has the ability to accept TLS/SSL connections. Analysis from Archlinux Gitlab Issue, which could be found under following link by - Toolybird: https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/packaging/packages/dovecot/-/issues/… > Thanks for reporting. It would appear to be some kind of (upstream?) > bug in the autofoo. The error message can be traced back to > HAVE_MYSQL_SSL being undefined when it should be defined. This is > reflected in log: https://reproducible.archlinux.org/api/v0/builds/946041/log > It took quite some debugging, but adding the following hack before the > autoreconf call appears to make it work: > checking for mysql_ssl_set in -llibmariadb... no > sed -i 's/mysql_driver="libmariadb"/mysql_driver="mariadb"/' m4/ > want_mysql.m4 > After that it now shows: > checking for mysql_ssl_set in -lmariadb... yes Steps to reproduce: 1. Configure dovecot 2.4.2-4 as described below 2. Restart dovecot 2.4.2-4 3. Try send an email (echo "Test-E-Mail" | /usr/sbin/sendmail root) 4. Determine error messages inside dovecot 2.4.2-4-Log 01 Dec 22 04:57:38 server dovecot[842]: auth: Error: mysql(db.idmz.tachtler.net): mysql: SSL support not compiled in (remove ssl_client_ca_file and ssl_client_ca_dir settings) 02 Dec 22 04:57:38 server dovecot[842]: auth-worker: Error: mysql(db.idmz.tachtler.net): mysql: SSL support not compiled in (remove ssl_client_ca_file and ssl_client_ca_dir settings) Additional info: OS version: Archlinux package version(s): dovecot 2.4.2-4 necessary config file part: 45 sql_driver = mysql 46 47 mysql db.idmz.tachtler.net { 48 host = db.idmz.tachtler.net 49 port = 3306 50 user = postfixuser 51 password = geheim 52 dbname = postfix 53 ssl = yes 54 ssl_client_ca_file = /etc/dovecot/ssl/certs/CAcert.pem 55 ssl_client_cert_file = /etc/dovecot/ssl/certs/client.idmz.tachtler.net.pem 56 ssl_client_key_file = /etc/dovecot/ssl/private/client.idmz.tachtler.net.key.pem 57 ssl_cipher_list = DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA 58 } WITHOUT the following line, a database connections is possible and works as expected: 53 ssl = yes 54 ssl_client_ca_file = /etc/dovecot/ssl/certs/CAcert.pem 55 ssl_client_cert_file = /etc/dovecot/ssl/certs/client.idmz.tachtler.net.pem 56 ssl_client_key_file = /etc/dovecot/ssl/private/client.idmz.tachtler.net.key.pem 57 ssl_cipher_list = DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA Thanky you in advance for your help! Klaus Tachtler. -- --------------------------------------- e-Mail : klaus(a)tachtler.net Homepage: https://www.tachtler.net DokuWiki: https://dokuwiki.tachtler.net ---------------------------------------

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Rootless docker image missing /usr/bin/sleep causing health check to not work
by saturos+dove＠gmail.com 23 Dec '25

23 Dec '25

Hello! I was attempting to set up health checking as in the Health Checking document [1]. But it seems that the rootless image is missing the sleep command, which prints the error: dovecot[16633]: Dec 22 22:05:04 health-check: Error: /dovecot/libexec/dovecot/health-check.sh: 31: sed: not found Reproduction: $ podman run --rm -it index.docker.io/dovecot/dovecot:latest-dev which sleep /usr/bin/sleep $ podman run --rm -it index.docker.io/dovecot/dovecot:latest-root which sleep /usr/bin/sleep $ podman run --rm -it index.docker.io/dovecot/dovecot:latest which sleep $ Set up healthchecking on 5001. With latest: $ echo -e "PING\n" | nc -v localhost 5001 Connection to localhost (::1) 5001 port [tcp/*] succeeded! $ With latest-dev: $ echo -e "PING\n" | nc -v localhost 5001 Connection to localhost (::1) 5001 port [tcp/*] succeeded! PONG and the error log above is generated. Version: $ podman run --rm -it index.docker.io/dovecot/dovecot:latest dovecot --version 2.4.2 (0962ed2104) [1] https://doc.dovecot.org/2.4.2/core/config/health_check.html

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quota_mail_size question
by Marcel Menzel 22 Dec '25

22 Dec '25

Hello List, I've enabled the quota_mail_size parameter to match what I've set in Postfix, but it seems to me that this parameter has no effect. Currently set to quota_mail_size = 104857600B (with or without the suffix does not matter in my case as both won't work), but connecting to the LMTP socket does not seem to advertise SIZE: # socat /run/dovecot/lmtp readline 220 mail-fra01 Hello there LHLO test 250-mail-fra01 250-8BITMIME 250-CHUNKING 250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES 250-PIPELINING 250-SMTPUTF8 250 STARTTLS quit 221 2.0.0 Bye Also looking at IMAP logs on clients, APPENDLIMIT also does not seem to get advertised there. Quota itself seems to work fine via userdb, also via the IMAP quota extension as my clients report the usage. Thanks, Marcel doveconf -n: # 2.4.2 (0962ed2104): /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf # Pigeonhole version 2.4.2 (767418c3) # OS: Linux 6.17.11-hardened1-1-hardened x86_64 # Hostname: mail-fra01 dovecot_config_version = 2.4.2 auth_verbose = yes dovecot_storage_version = 2.4.2 first_valid_uid = 8 fts_autoindex = yes hostname = mail-fra01 imap4rev2_enable = yes last_valid_uid = 8 lmtp_rcpt_check_quota = yes login_greeting = Hello there mail_driver = maildir mail_gid = mail mail_home = /var/vmail/%{user | domain}/%{user | username} mail_path = ~/ mail_plugins { quota = yes quota_clone = yes notify = yes virtual = yes fts = yes fts_xapian = yes } mail_server_admin = mailto:marcel@menzel.de mail_server_comment = hi mail_uid = mail mail_utf8_extensions = yes mailbox_list_storage_escape_char = \ mailbox_list_utf8 = yes passdb_default_password_scheme = SHA256-CRYPT protocols { imap = yes pop3 = yes sieve = yes lmtp = yes } quota_mail_size = 104857600B quota_status_nouser = DUNNO sieve_global_extensions { vnd.dovecot.pipe = yes vnd.dovecot.environment = yes } sieve_pipe_bin_dir = /usr/lib/dovecot/sieve-pipe sieve_plugins { sieve_imapsieve = yes sieve_extprograms = yes } sieve_redirect_envelope_from = recipient sql_driver = pgsql ssl = required ssl_cipher_list = ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305 ssl_curve_list = X448:X25519:P-256 ssl_options = no_ticket submission_host = 127.0.0.1:25 verbose_proctitle = yes protocol imap { imap_hibernate_timeout = 10 secs imap_idle_notify_interval = 29 mins imap_metadata = yes mail_max_userip_connections = 50 mail_plugins { imap_quota = yes imap_sieve = yes last_login = yes } } protocol pop3 { mail_plugins { last_login = yes } } protocol sieve { mail_plugins { last_login = yes } } protocol lmtp { mail_plugins { sieve = yes push_notification = yes } postmaster_address = postmaster@%{user | domain} } service lmtp { user = mail unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/dovecot-lmtp { group = postfix mode = 0660 user = postfix } } service auth-worker { user = $SET:default_internal_user } service auth { unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/auth { group = postfix mode = 0660 user = postfix } unix_listener auth-userdb { group = dovecot mode = 0660 user = mail } } service quota-status { client_limit = 1 executable = quota-status -p postfix unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/quota-status { group = postfix mode = 0660 user = postfix } } service indexer-worker { vsz_limit = 8 G } maildir { very_dirty_syncs = yes } mail_attribute { dict file { path = %{home}/dovecot-attributes } } fts xapian { } language en { default = yes } language de { } namespace inbox { inbox = yes separator = / mailbox Archive { auto = subscribe special_use = "\\Archive" } mailbox Drafts { auto = subscribe special_use = "\\Drafts" } mailbox Junk { fts_autoindex = no auto = subscribe autoexpunge = 30 days special_use = "\\Junk" } mailbox Sent { special_use = "\\Sent" } mailbox Trash { fts_autoindex = no auto = subscribe autoexpunge = 120 days special_use = "\\Trash" quota_storage_extra = 100M } } pgsql mcl { parameters { dbname = mail host = 10.10.3.2 password = <redacted> port = 6432 sslmode = disable user = mail } } userdb sql { iterate_query = SELECT username AS user FROM mailbox; query = SELECT CONCAT(quota, 'B') AS quota_storage_size FROM mailbox WHERE username = '%{user | lower}' LIMIT 1; } passdb sql { query = SELECT username AS user, password, allow_nets FROM mailbox WHERE username = '%{user | lower}' AND active = true LIMIT 1; } ssl_server { cert_file = /etc/ssl/private/dovecot.crt.pem key_file = /etc/ssl/private/dovecot.pk.pem prefer_ciphers = server } ssl_client { ca_dir = /etc/ssl/certs } sieve_script default { name = default path = /var/vmail/global.sieve type = default } sieve_script personal { active_path = /var/vmail/%{user | domain}/%{user | username}/dovecot.sieve path = /var/vmail/%{user | domain}/%{user | username}/sieve type = personal } mailbox Spam { sieve_script spam { cause = copy append path = /usr/lib/dovecot/sieve-pipe/report-spam.sieve type = before } } imapsieve_from Spam { sieve_script ham { cause = copy append path = /usr/lib/dovecot/sieve-pipe/report-ham.sieve type = before } } quota "User quota" { } quota_clone { dict proxy { name = quota_clone_sql } } dict_server { dict quota_clone_sql { driver = sql sql_driver = pgsql dict_map priv/quota/messages { sql_table = quota2 username_field = username dict_map_value_field messages { } } dict_map priv/quota/storage { sql_table = quota2 username_field = username dict_map_value_field bytes { } } } }

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2.4.2 post login core dump when trash plugin is enabled
by Aragon Gouveia 22 Dec '25

22 Dec '25

Hi, docker run --rm --name dovecot -e USER_PASSWORD=test123 -v dovecot_mail:/srv/vmail -v ~aragon/dovetest/local.conf:/etc/dovecot/conf.d/local.conf -p 110:31110 -p 143:31143 --ulimit core=-1 dovecot/dovecot:latest-dev Dec 16 00:49:57 master: Info: Dovecot v2.4.2 (0962ed2104) starting up for imap, pop3, lmtp, sieve Dec 16 00:50:08 pop3-login: Info: Logged in: user=<test>, method=PLAIN, rip=172.17.0.1, lip=172.17.0.2, mpid=16, secured, session=<m5/SGwdGHNKsEQAB> Dec 16 00:50:08 pop3(test)<16><m5/SGwdGHNKsEQAB>: Fatal: master: service(pop3): child 16 killed with signal 11 (core dumped) Contents of ~aragon/dovetest/local.conf: mail_plugins { quota = yes trash = yes } protocols = imap pop3 lmtp sieve login_trusted_networks = 172.16.0.0/15 # telnet localhost 110 Trying ::1... Connected to localhost. Escape character is '^]'. +OK [XCLIENT] Dovecot ready. user test +OK pass test123 +OK Logged in. Connection closed by foreign host. dovecot-sysreport uploaded to https://limewire.com/d/PLgit#mrIN2Wx73J Is this sufficient info? Regrettably no debug symbols in the Docker builds, unless I missed something. Thank you in advance. Regards, Aragon

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