March 2026 - dovecot - dovecot.org

Issues with doveadm sync
by cryintothebluesky＠gmail.com 21 Mar '26

21 Mar '26

Hello, I have two replica IMAP servers both running dovecot-2.4.2: imap1.example.com imap2.example.com I'm observing the following issues when replicating mailboxes with doveadm sync: 1. Permission errors with public and shared mailboxes For this test I delete all mailboxes on imap2.example.com and then use full sync from imap1.example.com to replicate mailboxes: # doveadm sync -f -s "" -N -l 10 -u ${user:?} ${server:?} The first time I run this command, the following error messages are logged: doveadm(XXX(a)example.com)<1363><eZzOJic5vWlTBQAAMBZ7fQ>: Error: brain S: Can't create mailbox Shared/support(a)example.com: Permission denied doveadm(XXX(a)example.com)<1334><ZV88Byg5vWk2BQAAMBZ7fQ>: Error: brain S: Can't create mailbox Public/Test: Permission denied If I wait 10 seconds and run the same sync command again, all mailboxes are replicated correctly. This only happens with public and shared mailboxes. I'm not sure of the exact cause, but it looks as if there is a race condition, where on the target server replicated ACLs are not applied immediately and this results in permission errors. Can anyone confirm the root cause? 2. Mailboxes are not always synchronised correctly For this test I'm using stateful sync. The man page states it performs a two-way sync, hence both server should end up with the same state. 1) I log into imap2.example.com and move some messages from Inbox to Drafts and Junk folders. 2) On imap1.example.com I run: doveadm sync -s "${state}" -N -l 10 -u ${user:?} ${server:?} 3) I log into imap1.example.com and sometimes observe the recently moved messages missing from Drafts and/or Junk folders. 4) The only way to resolve this issue is to either run full sync from imap1.example.com or to run another stateful sync but from imap2.example.com. Can anyone confirm if this is a bug or if stateful sync is required to be run on both IMAP servers against each other?

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Error: ldap: auth_passdb_post settings
by Ruud Baart 21 Mar '26

21 Mar '26

Dovecot 2.4.1 works fine on my Debian Trixie server. I use LDAP as backend for the users. I don't have problems. Authentication works fine. However logging show every time the following line: auth-worker(<user name@domain,::1)<109040><3v5ddOlJvrgAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAB>: request [7]: Error: ldap: auth_passdb_post settings: Failed to parse configuration: Failed to expand passdb_fields/password setting variables: ldap: No such attribute 'userpassword' The LDAP authentication works correct. So I don't understand this message. My correct working LDAP configuration in auth-ldap.conf.ext: passdb ldap { passdb_use_worker = yes passdb_ldap_filter = (&(objectClass=PromptMailUser)(accountStatus=TRUE)(mailDeliveryaddress=%{user})) ldap_bind = yes fields { user = %{ldap:mailDeliveryaddress} password = %{ldap:userPassword} } } userdb ldap { userdb_use_worker = yes userdb_ldap_filter = (&(objectClass=PromptMailUser)(accountStatus=TRUE)(mailDeliveryaddress=%{user})) fields { home = %{ldap:mailBase} mail = %{ldap:mailMessageStore} mail_path = %{ldap:mailMessageStore} quota_storage_size = %{ldap:dovecotQuota} } }

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shared mailbox error
by Marc 19 Mar '26

19 Mar '26

I am getting this error. This file does not exist. Error: t_readlink(/xxxxxx/dbox-alt-root) failed: readlink() failed: Permission denied

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dovecot-2.4.2: doveconf seg fault
by Eray Aslan 16 Mar '26

16 Mar '26

Running dovecot -c /dev/null -n results in: # 2.4.2 (0962ed2104): /dev/null # Pigeonhole version 2.4.2 (767418c3) Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault. 0x00007ffff7c0f3a6 in str_to_uint () at ../lib/strnum.c:76 for a user. And the issue seems to be const unsigned char ** vs const char * mismatch: int str_to_uintmax(const char *str, uintmax_t *num_r) { const char *endp = NULL; uintmax_t n; int ret = str_parse_uintmax(str, &n, &endp); if ((ret != 0) || (*endp != '\0')) /* <--- reading via 'const char *' return -1; *num_r = n; return 0; } vs int str_parse_data_uintmax(const unsigned char *data, size_t size, uintmax_t *num_r, const unsigned char **endp_r) { const unsigned char *p = data, *pend = data + size; uintmax_t n = 0; if (p >= pend || *p < '0' || *p > '9') return -1; do { if (n >= ((uintmax_t)-1 / 10)) { if (n > (uintmax_t)-1 / 10) return -1; if ((uintmax_t)(*p - '0') > ((uintmax_t)-1 % 10)) return -1; } n = n * 10 + (*p - '0'); p++; } while (p < pend && *p >= '0' && *p <= '9'); if (endp_r != NULL) *endp_r = p; /* <--- writing via 'const unsigned char *' *num_r = n; return 0; } We don't know enough to choose which one would be preferable so that the interfaces match. It needs an informed decision as it shows up in a bunch of other places as well. More details at: https://bugs.gentoo.org/971191 Thank you -- Eray

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Issues with 2.4.1 & remote postgresql server
by Terry Braun 14 Mar '26

14 Mar '26

Hello, I'm stumped with using a remote postgresql database for authentication. I went through the process once, failed, debugged, failed again. I could successfully use psql to access the remote database from my host machine, so I do not believe the remote access is an issue. I implemented an instance using sqlite3 database and it worked just fine. ``` from auth-sql.conf.ext ``` sql_driver = pgsql pgsql 72.44.55.66 { parameters { sslmode = require user = user password = 123 dbname = db } } I'm using lmtp over sockets to deliver mail to dovecot, in order to isolate any interaction issues. With a postgresql db I get "Mailbox isn't a valid mbox file", but with changes only to auth-sql.conf.ext it fails. I can run the queries from psql and they work. I'm pretty much out of ideas of things to try. - I could not find anything to validate the syntax of the psql data. All the examples had "psql localhots {" - Because of the above, I am wondering if there may be an issue in the postgres driver somehow? - I did look at the documentation for https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/libpq-connect.html#LIBPQ-PARAMKEYWO… but I'm unsure what is needed. Thanks for any ideas, help, hints. If someone has an example that works with 2.4.1-4 (7d8c0e5759) on debian 13 that would be great Terry

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How to declare port 143
by Steve Litt 10 Mar '26

10 Mar '26

Hi all, I have Dovecot 2.4.2 working (plain text only) on my Qemu virtual machine, with Claws-Mail able to work with all its files. However, I want to declare the Dovecot server as running on Port 143, and when I do, I dovecot -F throws the error message shown later in this message. If I comment out the explicit port declaration, it works fine, and I want to know why. To the best of my knowledge, my declaration of port 143 exactly matches your 2.4.2 documentation: The following is my attempt to tell Dovecot to serve *explicitly* at port 143: =============================================== # My Dovecot server will operate on Localhost listen = 127.0.0.1 service imap { inet_listener imap-login { port = 143 } # inet_listener imaps { # port = 993 # ssl = yes # } } =============================================== The following is the result: =============================================== [root@dovecotvoid ~]# dovecot -F doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf: duplicate listener: 143:127.0.0.1 [root@dovecotvoid ~]# =============================================== If I comment out the port = 143, it works. Why is it griping about a duplicate listener? At the bottom of this email is the entire dovecot.conf and the result of dovecot -n, and there are no sub-configuration files in conf.d : =============================================== # Start new configs with the latest Dovecot version numbers here: dovecot_config_version = 2.4.2 # Must be current version dovecot_storage_version = 2.4.2 # Must be current version or earlier # 2.3 is minimum # I only want imap protocols { imap = yes lmtp = no pop3 = no } # My Dovecot server will operate on Localhost listen = 127.0.0.1 service imap { inet_listener imap-login { port = 143 } # inet_listener imaps { # port = 993 # ssl = yes # } } # mail_home is only for virtual users # A virtual user is a user with no system account # I have no virtual users, so I've commented out mail_home. #mail_home = /srv/mail/%{user} # mail_driver is the storage format mail_driver = maildir # mail_path is location of top of storage data # WARNING: For troubleshooting be prepared to switch # to literal location of ~ mail_path = ~/mail/Maildir # In my case # mail_home is the home directory of the user identified as ~ # WARNING: system users have no ~ without it. mail_home = /home/slitt # You need a log you can locate # There might not be a log_path=/var/log/dovecot.log #mail_uid = slitt #mail_gid = slitt mail_uid = vmail mail_gid = vmail # By default first_valid_uid is 500. #If your vmail user's UID is smaller, # you need to modify this: #first_valid_uid = uid-number-of-vmail-user namespace inbox { inbox = yes separator = / } # Authenticate as system users: passdb pam { driver = pam #driver = passwd } userdb passwd { driver = passwd } #ssl_server_cert_file = /etc/dovecot/ssl-cert.pem #ssl_server_key_file = /etc/dovecot/ssl-key.pem =============================================== The following is the output of dovecot -n: =============================================== # 2.4.2 (0962ed2104): /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf # OS: Linux 6.12.71_1 x86_64 # Hostname: dovecotvoid dovecot_config_version = 2.4.2 dovecot_storage_version = 2.4.2 listen = 127.0.0.1 log_path = /var/log/dovecot.log mail_driver = maildir mail_gid = vmail mail_home = /home/slitt mail_path = ~/mail/Maildir mail_uid = vmail protocols { imap = yes lmtp = no pop3 = no } service imap { inet_listener imap-login { port = 143 } } namespace inbox { inbox = yes separator = / } passdb pam { driver = pam } userdb passwd { driver = passwd } ===============================================

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Republish of 2.4.2
by Aki Tuomi 10 Mar '26

10 Mar '26

Hi all! We have republished 2.4.2 packages to fix some packaging issues with Pigeonhole. Please note that for now dovecot-sieve and dovecot-managesieved will get installed together due to dependency issues. Kind regards, Aki Tuomi

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solr-config-9.xml Fails to Load with Solr 9.10.1
by Steven Smith 10 Mar '26

10 Mar '26

I’m trying to use the latest dovecot solr module solr-config-9.xml at with Solr 9.10.1: https://github.com/dovecot/core/blob/956fd0f9a101673be72a7df7d643dd20cf4c40… This dovecot module has been updated to work with version 9.8 and removes the deprecated <lib> directives. However, I observe that it does not load under solr 9.10.1 with the Java exception below. Does anyone have any pointers on how to modify this module for the latest solr versions? var/solr/logs/solr-8983-console.log: > 2026-03-10 01:34:45.983 INFO (main) [] o.a.s.c.CorePropertiesLocator Found 1 core definitions underneath /opt/local/var/solr > 2026-03-10 01:34:45.984 INFO (main) [] o.a.s.c.CorePropertiesLocator Cores are: [dovecot] > 2026-03-10 01:34:46.012 INFO (coreLoadExecutor-13-thread-1) [ x:dovecot] o.a.s.c.SolrConfig Using Lucene MatchVersion: 9.8.0 > 2026-03-10 01:34:46.045 INFO (coreLoadExecutor-13-thread-1) [ x:dovecot] o.a.s.s.ManagedIndexSchemaFactory The schema is configured as managed, but managed schema resource managed-schema.xml not found - loading non-managed schema schema.xml instead > 2026-03-10 01:34:46.064 INFO (coreLoadExecutor-13-thread-1) [ x:dovecot] o.a.s.s.IndexSchema Schema name=dovecot > 2026-03-10 01:34:46.100 ERROR (coreLoadExecutor-13-thread-1) [ x:dovecot] o.a.s.c.CoreContainer SolrCore failed to load on startup =>org.apache.solr.common.SolrException: Unable to create core [dovecot] > at org.apache.solr.core.CoreContainer.createFromDescriptor(CoreContainer.java:1803) I'm trying to use the latest dovecot solr module solr-config-9.xml at with Solr 9.10.1: [1]https://github.com/dovecot/core/blob/956fd0f9a101673be72a7df7d643dd20cf4c… This dovecot module has been updated to work with version 9.8 and removes the deprecated <lib> directives. However, I observe that it does not load under solr 9.10.1 with the Java exception below. Does anyone have any pointers on how to modify this module for the latest solr versions? var/solr/logs/solr-8983-console.log: 2026-03-10 01:34:45.983 INFO (main) [] o.a.s.c.CorePropertiesLocator Found 1 core definitions underneath /opt/local/var/solr 2026-03-10 01:34:45.984 INFO (main) [] o.a.s.c.CorePropertiesLocator Cores are: [dovecot] 2026-03-10 01:34:46.012 INFO (coreLoadExecutor-13-thread-1) [ x:dovecot] o.a.s.c.SolrConfig Using Lucene MatchVersion: 9.8.0 2026-03-10 01:34:46.045 INFO (coreLoadExecutor-13-thread-1) [ x:dovecot] o.a.s.s.ManagedIndexSchemaFactory The schema is configured as managed, but managed schema resource managed-schema.xml not found - loading non-managed schema schema.xml instead 2026-03-10 01:34:46.064 INFO (coreLoadExecutor-13-thread-1) [ x:dovecot] o.a.s.s.IndexSchema Schema name=dovecot 2026-03-10 01:34:46.100 ERROR (coreLoadExecutor-13-thread-1) [ x:dovecot] o.a.s.c.CoreContainer SolrCore failed to load on startup =>org.apache.solr.common.SolrException: Unable to create core [dovecot] at org.apache.solr.core.CoreContainer.createFromDescriptor(CoreContainer.java:1803) References Visible links 1. https://github.com/dovecot/core/blob/956fd0f9a101673be72a7df7d643dd20cf4c40…

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Preventing Plain Auth
by Steve Litt 10 Mar '26

10 Mar '26

Hi all, https://doc.dovecot.org/2.4.2/core/summaries/settings.html , the auth_allow_cleartext section, says "If no, disables the LOGIN command and all other cleartext authentication unless SSL/TLS is used (LOGINDISABLED capability) or the connection is secured (see ssl). See SSL configuration for more detailed explanation of how this setting interacts with the ssl setting. This setting replaces the disable_plaintext_auth setting." I put auth_allow_cleartext = no in my 2.4.2 dovecot.conf, but my Claws-Mail client can still access it, even though there are no key files. I tried putting this setting in several different places: Didn't prevent plain access. I tried switching from 127.0.0.1 to 10.0.2.15, same problem. The following is the output of my dovecot -n command: ========================================= # 2.4.2 (0962ed2104): /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf # OS: Linux 6.12.74_1 x86_64 # Hostname: dovecotvoid dovecot_config_version = 2.4.2 dovecot_storage_version = 2.4.2 listen = 10.0.2.15 log_path = /var/log/dovecot.log mail_driver = maildir mail_gid = vmail mail_home = /home/slitt mail_path = ~/mail/Maildir mail_uid = vmail protocols { imap = yes lmtp = no pop3 = no } service imap { inet_listener imap-login { auth_allow_cleartext = no } } namespace inbox { inbox = yes separator = / } passdb pam { driver = pam } userdb passwd { driver = passwd } ========================================= How do I disable plain text authentication? Thanks, SteveT Steve Litt http://444domains.com

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[BUG?] Dovecot 2.4.2 from Dovecot repo (RHEL 9) does not implement Sieve (properly/fully)
by Patrick S 09 Mar '26

09 Mar '26

Hi all Below is report of what I suspect is a bug arising in Dovecot 2.4.x regarding Sieve functionality after Pigeonhole functionality was folded into Dovecot/Dovecot-sieve. ISSUE: ====== I am building a new mail server on Rocky Linux 9.7 with Postfix 3.10 and Dovecot 2.4.2. The base installation & setup of Dovecot was OK with core functionality (Postfix interoperability and mail into virtual mail domain mailboxes no problem). Once I had the base setup done I started with Sieve functionality: 1) Incoming mail marked as SPAM by Rspamd auto moved into /Junk 2) Mail manually moved in/out of /Junk handed to Rspamd for training as SPAM/HAM This consistantly failed - the first issue I found was Dovecot failing to restart and `dovecot -n` reporting fatal errors related to sieve — section not found etc. etc. From my reading previously I knew I needed to install `dovecot-sieve` and it was installed before I started working on Sieve functionality. I also saw `dovecot-pigeonhole` but I seemed to read that (version >= 2.4) the functionality for that had been included in `dovecot-sieve` **and** there was no Pigeonhole included in the Dovecot 2.4.2 repo — also if I tried to install it I got errors of course because of the version mismatch, and it was not in the dovecot-2.4-latest repo. ``` # dnf info dovecot-pigeonhole Last metadata expiration check: 1:21:15 ago on Fri 06 Mar 2026 08:05:08. Available Packages Name : dovecot-pigeonhole Epoch : 1 Version : 2.3.16 Release : 15.el9 Architecture : x86_64 Size : 371 k Source : dovecot-2.3.16-15.el9.src.rpm Repository : appstream Summary : Sieve and managesieve plug-in for dovecot URL : https://www.dovecot.org/ License : MIT and LGPLv2 Description : This package provides sieve and managesieve plug-in for dovecot LDA. ``` I also saw `dovecot-managesieved` but as I was **not** going to implement a client sieve functionality I did not install that. Anyway I could not even get to first base with Sieve, Dovecot simply did not know about it. I went on IRC and chatted with Aki Tuomi who confirmed that "yeah, looks like there is some packaging mistake." because the directory `/usr/lib64/dovecot/settings` was empty. As a workaround he suggested "you need to install dovecot-managesieved as workaround". I did that and as a result the following files appeared: ``` -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 15560 Jan 8 12:13 libmanagesieve_login_settings.so -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 15840 Jan 8 12:13 libmanagesieve_settings.so -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 19656 Jan 8 12:13 libpigeonhole_settings.so ``` The `dovecot -n` errors went away, it recognised the sieve directives, and I continued with the Sieve setup. All — `dovecot.conf`, sieve files source and compiled — installed OK. But the sieve functionality simply refused to work. I got advice and we found the following which essentially points to sieve (even with `dovecot-managesieved` installed) not working. After installing everything — dovecot.conf, sieve files (compiled successfully) and a pipe to a shell script to call `rspamc` nothing seemed to happen. * `journalctl -f -u dovecot | grep -E "sieve|pipe"` -> nothing showed * `rspamc stat` -> 'Messages scanned' & 'Messages learned' no increase When we checked we found the following: 1) `lib90_sieve_settings.so` (which should be in `/etc/lib64/dovecot/settings`) is missing from the system. `find / -name "lib90_sieve_settings.so"` -> not found I believe the file is critical for the running of (Dovecot using) Sieve? 2) The Dovecot build options missing any sieve functionality: ``` #dovecot --build-options Build options: ioloop=epoll notify=inotify openssl io_block_size=8192 SQL driver plugins: mysql postgresql sqlite Passdb: ldap pam passwd passwd-file sql Userdb: ldap(plugin) passwd prefetch passwd-file sql ``` I believe (I was told) that minus the above (even though `dovecot-managesieved` was installed as well as `dovecot-sieve`) Sieve simply will not function. Is this a bug/packaging error? Regards Patrick ENVIRONMENT: ============ Software -------- * Rocky Linux 9.7 (RHEL) * Postfix 3.10 Built from source * Postscreen running in Postfix * Dovecot 2.4 installed from Dovecot repo * Valkey 9.0.3 (Redis replacement) * Rspamd 3.14.3 Setup ----- * Rspamd <-> Valkey communicate via Unix socket * Postfix & Dovecot <-> Rspamd via inet port/milter: smtpd_milters = inet:localhost:11332 non_smtpd_milters = inet:localhost:11332 * 'First line defence' = DNSBL via postscreen * Rspamd SPF checking, DKIM signing and DMARC configured All of the above installed, working and tested. DOVECOT PACKAGES INSTALLED: =========================== ``` Name : dovecot Version : 2.4.2 Architecture : x86_64 Source : dovecot-2.4.2-2.src.rpm From repo : dovecot-2.4-latest Name : dovecot-sieve Version : 2.4.2 Architecture : x86_64 Source : dovecot-sieve-2.4.2-2.src.rpm From repo : dovecot-2.4-latest Name : dovecot-managesieved (see note about this in the email) Version : 2.4.2 Architecture : x86_64 Source : dovecot-sieve-2.4.2-2.src.rpm From repo : dovecot-2.4-latest Name : dovecot-submissiond Version : 2.4.2 Architecture : x86_64 Source : dovecot-2.4.2-2.src.rpm From repo : dovecot-2.4-latest Name : dovecot-imapd Version : 2.4.2 Architecture : x86_64 Source : dovecot-2.4.2-2.src.rpm From repo : dovecot-2.4-latest Name : dovecot-lmtpd Version : 2.4.2 Architecture : x86_64 Source : dovecot-2.4.2-2.src.rpm From repo : dovecot-2.4-latest Name : dovecot-lua Version : 2.4.2 Architecture : x86_64 Source : dovecot-2.4.2-2.src.rpm From repo : dovecot-2.4-latest ``` OUTPUT OF `dovecot -n`: ======================= ``` # dovecot -n # 2.4.2-2 (0962ed2104): /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf # Pigeonhole version 2.4.2-2 (767418c3) # OS: Linux 5.14.0-611.34.1.el9_7.x86_64 x86_64 Rocky Linux release 9.7 (Blue Onyx) # Hostname: srv01.example.com dovecot_config_version = 2.4.2 auth_default_domain = example.com auth_mechanisms = plain auth_username_format = %{user | lower } dovecot_storage_version = 2.4.2 mail_access_groups = vmail mail_control_path = ~/control mail_driver = maildir mail_gid = 5000 mail_home = /var/vmail/%{user | domain }/%{user | username } mail_index_path = ~/indexes mail_path = %{home}/Maildir mail_privileged_group = vmail mail_uid = 5000 mailbox_list_utf8 = yes protocols = imap lmtp sieve_global_extensions { vnd.dovecot.pipe = yes } sieve_pipe_bin_dir = /etc/dovecot/sieve/bin sieve_plugins { sieve_imapsieve = yes sieve_extprograms = yes } sieve_trace_dir = /var/log/dovecot/sieve-trace sieve_trace_level = actions ssl = required syslog_facility = local5 protocol lmtp { mail_plugins { sieve = yes } } ssl_server { cert_file = /etc/ssl/server/server_example_com.crt key_file = /etc/ssl/server/server_example_com.key } passdb passwd-file { auth_username_format = %{user | username} default_password_scheme = SHA512-CRYPT passwd_file_path = /etc/dovecot/passwd } userdb passwd-file { auth_username_format = %{user | username} passwd_file_path = /etc/dovecot/passwd fields { gid:default = 5000 uid:default = 5000 } } service lmtp { unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/dovecot-lmtp { group = postfix mode = 0600 user = postfix } } service auth { unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/auth { group = postfix mode = 0660 user = postfix } } service imap-login { inet_listener imap { port = 0 } inet_listener imaps { port = 993 ssl = yes } } service auth-worker { user = $SET:default_internal_user } service anvil { unix_listener anvil { group = $SET:default_internal_group mode = 0660 } } service doveadm { unix_listener doveadm-server { mode = 0600 user = $SET:default_internal_user } } sieve_script rspamd_to_junk { driver = file path = /etc/dovecot/sieve/rspamd-to-junk.sieve type = before } namespace inbox { mail_plugins { imap_sieve = yes } inbox = yes mailbox Junk { auto = create autoexpunge = 90d special_use = "\\Junk" sieve_script report-spam { cause = copy path = /etc/dovecot/sieve/report-spam.sieve type = before } } imapsieve_from Junk { sieve_script report-ham { cause = copy path = /etc/dovecot/sieve/report-ham.sieve type = before } } mailbox Drafts { auto = subscribe special_use = "\\Drafts" } mailbox Sent { auto = subscribe special_use = "\\Sent" } mailbox Trash { auto = subscribe special_use = "\\Trash" } } ```

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