- dovecot - dovecot.org

[Dovecot] Locking foolishness
by Ian Marlier 16 Sep '03

16 Sep '03

I'm working on getting Dovecot set up on my school's mailserver, as an IMAP and POP server. Everything is going well, move over to maildir went well, and all that... The catch: When I coverted from mbox to maildir (as part of this whole process), I put the Maildir folders under user home dirs -- and the home dirs are mounted via NFS from a server. This is for reasons of space as well as simply seeming to make sense. Now I get errors in my mail.log which read: imap-login: Sep 16 00:16:24 dovecot:Info: Login: marlier [209.6.159.188] imap(marlier): Sep 16 00:16:28 dovecot:Error: file_wait_lock() failed with index file /Network/Servers/network.uphamscornercs.net/Users/marlier/Maildir/.INBOX/.im ap.index: Invalid argument It looks to me like it's a file locking problem...any thoughts on how to get around it? I've already tried the dotlock mechanism alone...without success... More information available upon request... - Ian

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[Dovecot] Locking foolishness - Better info
by Ian Marlier 16 Sep '03

16 Sep '03

I realized that my last message about locking gave bad information -- or rather, very little information. Here's my setup: - Home directories and user login information are located on an Xserve running Mac OS X 10.2.6. Home directories are split between 2 different directories -- /Users and /Students. Home dirs are exported via NFS to the mail server. User login info is shared via LDAP to the mail server and to Windows machines in classrooms. - The mail server is an old beige G3 running Debian Woody (linux 2.4.20) kernel. It's completely up-to-date. Homedirs are mounted at /Network/Servers/network.uphamscornercs.net/Users and /Network/Servers/network.uphamscornercs.net/Students, in keeping with the OS X Server userdir name scheme. The only user with a shell on the server is root, other than that all user information is pulled from LDAP using PAM. Postfix is setup to deliver mail to maildir:~/Maildir, and dovecot is set to read mail from the same directory. This is working without any problem. - Clients Entourage works fine to access mailboxes -- it reads mail without a problem. However, it pops up an error message intermittently that reads "Mail could not be read: Internal Error [<datestamp>]". This message doesn't seem to interfere with reading mail, it's just an annoyance. Squirrelmail doesn't work to access mailboxes. It logs in fine, but gives the following error message in all windows that require mailbox access: "ERROR : Could not complete request. Query: <imap query string> Reason Given: Internal error [<datestamp>]" In both cases (Entourage and Squirrelmail), the Internal Error is accompanied by the following error message in the /var/log/mail.log file: "imap(marlier): Sep 16 08:40:45 dovecot:Error: /Network/Servers/network.uphamscornercs.net/Users/marlier/Maildir/.subscript ions failed with subscription file file_wait_lock(): Invalid argument" So, it looks to me like something isn't working with locking. I'm not sure whether the problem is with the NFS mount, or with dovecot, or with permissions, or something else, but I'd like to get it fixed. I love the server, and if I can get this licked I think I've got a long-term setup. Relevant sections of /usr/local/etc/dovecot.conf: -------- # Use mmap() instead of read() to read mail files. read() seems to be a bit # faster with my Linux/x86 and it's better with NFS, so that's the default. mail_read_mmaped = no # Copy mail to another folders using hard links. This is much faster than # actually copying the file. This is problematic only if something modifies # the mail in one folder but doesn't want it modified in the others. I don't # know any MUA which would modify mail files directly. IMAP protocol also # requires that the mails don't change, so it would be problematic in any case. # If you care about performance, enable it. maildir_copy_with_hardlinks = no # Check if mails' content has been changed by external programs. This slows # down things as extra stat() needs to be called for each file. If changes are # noticed, the message is treated as a new message, since IMAP protocol # specifies that existing message are immutable. maildir_check_content_changes = yes # Which locking methods to use for locking mbox. There's three available: # dotlock: Create <mailbox>.lock file. This is the oldest and most NFS-safe # solution. If you want to use /var/mail/ like directory, the users # will need write access to that directory. # fcntl : Use this if possible. Works with NFS too if lockd is used. # flock : May not exist in all systems. Doesn't work with NFS. # # You can use both fcntl and flock too; if you do the order they're declared # with is important to avoid deadlocks if other MTAs/MUAs are using both fcntl # and flock. Some operating systems don't allow using both of them # simultaneously, eg. BSDs. If dotlock is used, it's always created first. mbox_locks = dotlock # Should we create dotlock file even when we want only a read-lock? Setting # this to yes hurts the performance when the mailbox is accessed simultaneously # by multiple processes, but it's needed for reliable reading if no other # locking methods are available. mbox_read_dotlock = yes # Maximum time in seconds to wait for lock (all of them) before aborting. mbox_lock_timeout = 300 # If dotlock exists but the mailbox isn't modified in any way, override the # lock file after this many seconds. mbox_dotlock_change_timeout = 30 # umask to use for mail files and directories umask = 0077 # Drop all privileges before exec()ing the mail process. This is mostly # meant for debugging, otherwise you don't get core dumps. Note that setting # this to yes means that log file is opened as the logged in user, which # might not work. It could also be a small security risk if you use single UID # for multiple users, as the users could ptrace() each others processes then. mail_drop_priv_before_exec = no --------- Thanks in advance for any help you can give. - Ian

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[Dovecot] Unable to access the mailbox or folders !!
by nasir nasir 16 Sep '03

16 Sep '03

Hi all, I have installed dovecot on redhat linux with ldap backend. I can login using ldap account in to my webmail (squirrelmail) .But when I login to the webmail , I cant see any inbox or anything . Just some error messages like this , ERROR: ERROR : Connection dropped by imap-server. Query: LIST "" "Sent" ERROR : Could not complete request. Query: SELECT "INBOX" Reason Given: I tried to telnet to port 143. Its also similar case. It allows me to login but when I give "select" command , it gives error(in fact, "NO" and nothing else). Required info, OS - Redhat 8.0 dovecot - dovecot-0.99.10-2.dag.src.rpm ( --with-ldap --with-rawlog additionally) MTA - Exim 4.14 Webmail - Squirrelmail 1.4.1-2 Location of Maildir - /var/spool/mail/USERNAME/Maildir dovecot configuration has the following line, default_mail_env = maildir:/var/spool/mail/%u/Maildir Is there anything I am missing or doing wrong ? I am sorry if this is a silly question. But I am a newbie to dovecot and did a lot of google search for this error or even additional documentation for dovecot without any success. Any suggestion or advice would be highly appreciated. Regards, Nasirudheen __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com

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[Dovecot] child 9436 (pop3) killed with signal 11
by Gunter Ohrner 15 Sep '03

15 Sep '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi! Suddenly since this afternoon the following happens: Sep 14 18:16:55 UnseenUniversity pop3-login: Login: gunter [127.0.0.1] Sep 14 18:16:55 UnseenUniversity pop3(gunter): Corrupted index data file / home/gunter/Mail/.imap/INBOX/.imap.index.data: Field 1 size points outside file (205408 / 205376) for record 4662 Sep 14 18:16:55 UnseenUniversity pop3(gunter): Corrupted index data file / home/gunter/Mail/.imap/INBOX/.imap.index.data: Missing location field for record 4662 Sep 14 18:16:55 UnseenUniversity dovecot: child 9436 (pop3) killed with signal 11 I thought dovecot would delete damaged index files but I get this always when checking mail for the first time, cheking mail for the second time tells me: Sep 14 18:18:43 UnseenUniversity pop3-login: Login: gunter [127.0.0.1] Sep 14 18:18:43 UnseenUniversity pop3(gunter): Corrupted binary tree file / home/gunter/Mail/.imap/INBOX/.imap.index.tree: Invalid used_file_size in header (0) but actually fetches the mail after that. So what can/should I do? Simply delete the offending index file? The dovecot version I'm using here is Debian's ii dovecot-pop3d 0.99.10-7 A secure POP3 server that supports mbox and and only it's pop3 part. Greetings, Gunter - -- +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ + PGP-verschlüsselte Mails bevorzugt! + +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ 3) I don't sign parts of the body, even if they're still attached. -- From Terry's Rules of Book Signing (Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett) +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ http://www.lspace.org +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.3 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQE/ZKEX0ORHvREo8l8RAnKoAJoDpKu3OprNQ0W7ZWXpj5/RcYmZFgCfWU2c s5uLQS9yQpe7LQlVDRbnlvk= =ngZu -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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[Dovecot] Dovecot Wiki
by Timo Sirainen 14 Sep '03

14 Sep '03

I finally got around to cleaning up the MoinMoin pages out of it and added a link to it from main page. I also got dovecot.fi domain, so Dovecot pages can be accessed from http://www.dovecot.fi/ and Wiki is at http://wiki.dovecot.fi/

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[Dovecot] Setting up a local shared mailbox
by Peter Clark 14 Sep '03

14 Sep '03

One: I have never set up an IMAP server before, so I thought I would ask first before blindly stumbling around. The problem I am want to solve is this: my wife and I have a "joint" email account that we both want to access (we also have our own personal accounts, but that's beside the point.) I posed the question to my local LUG, and several suggested setting up a local IMAP server so that we can both access it through KMail. Would you concur? If so, is there a tutorial or something similar that gives instructions for setting up dovecot locally? As I said, I've never set up an IMAP server before, and I'm not really sure how to go about it. (I'm running Debian Sid, so the packages are already installed, but I don't know what additional steps need to be taken.) Thanks for your help, :Peter

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[Dovecot] Patch for auto-creating home directories
by David S Madole 13 Sep '03

13 Sep '03

I've created a patch that adds a feature that is helpful to my setup. If 'parent_dir_umask' is set in the configuration file, any missing directories in the home directory path are created. The home directory itself is created according to the 'umask' setting, 'parent_dir_umask' is only used for intermediate directories that might need creating. This is useful to me, as I pull user information from a PostgreSQL database. This allows a new account to be created just by populating the database. The directory gets created the first time the user logs in (by Dovecot) or mail is received (by the MTA). As the patch is of modest length, I have included it below. I hope my meager skills are not an insult to the beatiful Dovecot code base! Thanks, David *** ./src/master/mail-process.c.orig Wed Sep 10 10:14:04 2003 --- ./src/master/mail-process.c Wed Sep 10 12:16:06 2003 *************** *** 95,100 **** --- 95,136 ---- return str_c(str); } + static int create_directories(const char *directory, mode_t mask) + { + char *chunk, *slash, *path; + mode_t oldmask; + int result; + + if (mkdir(directory, 0777) == 0 || errno == EEXIST) + return TRUE; + + if (errno != ENOENT) + return FALSE; + + path = t_strdup_noconst(directory); + + oldmask = umask(mask); + + for (chunk = path; (slash = strchr(chunk, '/')); chunk = slash + 1) { + + if (slash > chunk) { + + *slash = '\0'; + result = mkdir(path, 0777); + *slash = '/'; + + if (result != 0 && errno != EEXIST) { + umask(oldmask); + return FALSE; + } + } + } + + umask(oldmask); + + return (mkdir(path, 0777) == 0 || errno == EEXIST); + } + int create_mail_process(int socket, struct ip_addr *ip, const char *executable, const char *module_dir, unsigned int process_size, int process_type, *************** *** 156,164 **** --- 192,205 ---- restrict_process_size(process_size, (unsigned int)-1); + (void)umask(set->umask); + if (*home_dir != '\0') { full_home_dir = *chroot_dir == '\0' ? home_dir : t_strconcat(chroot_dir, "/", home_dir, NULL); + if (set->parent_dir_umask != 0777 && + !create_directories(full_home_dir, set->parent_dir_umask)) + i_fatal("mkdir(%s) failed: %m", full_home_dir); if (chdir(full_home_dir) < 0) i_fatal("chdir(%s) failed: %m", full_home_dir); } *************** *** 188,194 **** env_put("MAILDIR_CHECK_CONTENT_CHANGES=1"); if (set->mail_full_filesystem_access) env_put("FULL_FILESYSTEM_ACCESS=1"); - (void)umask(set->umask); env_put(t_strconcat("MBOX_LOCKS=", set->mbox_locks, NULL)); env_put(t_strdup_printf("MBOX_LOCK_TIMEOUT=%u", --- 229,234 ---- *** ./src/master/master-settings.h.orig Wed Sep 10 12:13:45 2003 --- ./src/master/master-settings.h Wed Sep 10 12:13:47 2003 *************** *** 51,56 **** --- 51,57 ---- int mbox_read_dotlock; unsigned int mbox_lock_timeout; unsigned int mbox_dotlock_change_timeout; + unsigned int parent_dir_umask; unsigned int umask; int mail_drop_priv_before_exec; *** ./src/master/master-settings.c.orig Wed Sep 10 12:13:59 2003 --- ./src/master/master-settings.c Wed Sep 10 12:14:40 2003 *************** *** 67,72 **** --- 67,73 ---- DEF(SET_BOOL, mbox_read_dotlock), DEF(SET_INT, mbox_lock_timeout), DEF(SET_INT, mbox_dotlock_change_timeout), + DEF(SET_INT, parent_dir_umask), DEF(SET_INT, umask), DEF(SET_BOOL, mail_drop_priv_before_exec), *************** *** 180,185 **** --- 181,187 ---- MEMBER(mbox_read_dotlock) FALSE, MEMBER(mbox_lock_timeout) 300, MEMBER(mbox_dotlock_change_timeout) 30, + MEMBER(parent_dir_umask) 0777, MEMBER(umask) 0077, MEMBER(mail_drop_priv_before_exec) FALSE,

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[Dovecot] Dovecot on Linux 2.6.0-test1-ac1
by Kyler Laird 12 Sep '03

12 Sep '03

I've been using Dovecot on 2.6.0-test1 for quite awhile but today I jumped ahead to test5 and it broke in the way you described. http://dovecot.procontrol.fi/list/dovecot/2003-July/001943.html I used your workaround and now everyone is back in business. Thank you for the help! (I was sweating there for a bit.) --kyler

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[Dovecot] Web administration tool
by Timo Sirainen 10 Sep '03

10 Sep '03

Any suggestions for a small web based tool to manage virtual domains/users? I tried to look but didn't really find anything that didn't seem to be tightly integrated with Courier or Cyrus, and I'd rather not spend time writing yet another one of those. I would be using Postfix and Squirrelmail with LDAP or PostgreSQL. On a somewhat related thought, I've been thinking about writing some kind of performance and statistics tool which would at least show the users who are logged in and how much CPU, memory and disk I/O they're eating so that you could see what's happening when load is too high. From Dovecot side that'd be done using a plugin. I'm not sure what the client side would be.. HTML might not be enough. Java maybe. Would Flash be too evil? :)

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[Dovecot] Problem with mbox files.
by David Röhr 09 Sep '03

09 Sep '03

I have trouble to get my INBOX-mbox to work properly. I have set the default_mail_env, to this.. "default_mail_env = mbox:~/mail/:INBOX=/var/mail/%u" Since my users are using thier home-dirs to store folders and old mails, and recieving them in /var/mail/username. But when logging in i get this.. Sep 9 12:25:23 angelica imap-login: Login: username [217.151.192.103] Sep 9 12:25:23 angelica imap(username): stat() failed with mbox file /var/mail/username : No such file or directory Just like the file wasn't there?! But checking.. .~ > ls -l /var/mail/username 1200 -rw-rw---- 1 username mail 1222055 Sep 9 12:16 /var/mail/username I can see that it is there, and containing mails.. It's not corrupt or anything like that. And its not a link of any kind. Why am I getting this error? And how do I solve it? I've tested to disable chroots, but get the same error... /d -- ... david röhr | o_ .. unix systems consultant | o/ /\ Solaris, AIX, HP-UX . qbranch system management | /|_, \\ and GNU/Linux Certified. www.qbranch.se / `

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