- dovecot - dovecot.org

[dovecot] ldap support
by Farkas Levente 06 Mar '03

06 Mar '03

hi, it seem to me that dovecot support only v2 ldap protocol but openldap2.1 support only v3 (or you can enable v2 in the conf file, but it seems they wouldn't like to support it in the future). will dovecot support v3 ldap protocal? thanks. -- Levente "Si vis pacem para bellum!"

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[dovecot] problem with COPY?
by JP 05 Mar '03

05 Mar '03

hi all, I've been trying to use dovecot (from cvs 03.mar.2003, linux 2.2.20, gcc 2.96, openssl 0.9.7a) as an replacement for uw-imap, and it seems to be doing its job, except for one thing: I have my mua (sylpheed-claws from cvs) set up so that it will sort message into certain(imap) directories. so when I check the mail in the INBOX, new mails will be processed automatically and, for example spamcop related emails are moved to their own 'folder'. imap session below. [STARTTLS and LOGIN stuff not included... no errors whatsoever there.] [18:06:39] IMAP4< 5 OK Logged in. [18:06:39] IMAP4> 6 SELECT INBOX [18:06:40] IMAP4< * FLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Deleted \Seen \Draft) [18:06:40] IMAP4< * OK [PERMANENTFLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Deleted \Seen \Draft \*)] Flags permitted. [18:06:40] IMAP4< * 49 EXISTS [18:06:40] IMAP4< * 3 RECENT [18:06:40] IMAP4< * OK [UNSEEN 47] First unseen. [18:06:40] IMAP4< * OK [UIDVALIDITY 1046109663] UIDs valid [18:06:40] IMAP4< * OK [UIDNEXT 64] Predicted next UID [18:06:40] IMAP4< 6 OK [READ-WRITE] Select completed. [18:06:40] IMAP4> 7 UID SEARCH UID 1:* [18:06:40] IMAP4< * SEARCH 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 49 52 55 56 57 58 61 62 63 [18:06:40] IMAP4< 7 OK Search completed. [18:06:40] IMAP4> 8 STATUS INBOX (MESSAGES RECENT UIDNEXT UIDVALIDITY UNSEEN) [18:06:40] IMAP4< * STATUS "INBOX" (MESSAGES 49 RECENT 3 UIDNEXT 64 UIDVALIDITY 1046109663 UNSEEN 3) [18:06:40] IMAP4< 8 OK Status completed. [18:06:40] IMAP4> 9 UID FETCH 61:63 (UID FLAGS RFC822.SIZE BODY.PEEK[HEADER.FIELDS (Date From To Cc Newsgroups Subject Message-Id References In-Reply-To Content-Type Seen Status X-Status From)]) [18:06:40] IMAP4< * 47 FETCH (UID 61 FLAGS (\Recent) RFC822.SIZE 3111 BODY[HEADER.FIELDS (DATE FROM TO CC NEWSGROUPS SUBJECT MESSAGE-ID REFERENCES IN-REPLY-TO CONTENT-TYPE SEEN STATUS X-STATUS FROM)] {322} [18:06:40] IMAP4< * 48 FETCH (UID 62 FLAGS (\Recent) RFC822.SIZE 3111 BODY[HEADER.FIELDS (DATE FROM TO CC NEWSGROUPS SUBJECT MESSAGE-ID REFERENCES IN-REPLY-TO CONTENT-TYPE SEEN STATUS X-STATUS FROM)] {322} [18:06:40] IMAP4< * 49 FETCH (UID 63 FLAGS (\Recent) RFC822.SIZE 3109 BODY[HEADER.FIELDS (DATE FROM TO CC NEWSGROUPS SUBJECT MESSAGE-ID REFERENCES IN-REPLY-TO CONTENT-TYPE SEEN STATUS X-STATUS FROM)] {322} [18:06:40] IMAP4< 9 OK Fetch completed. [18:06:40] IMAP4> 10 STATUS Spamcop (MESSAGES RECENT UIDNEXT UIDVALIDITY UNSEEN) [18:06:40] IMAP4< * STATUS "Spamcop" (MESSAGES 14 RECENT 0 UIDNEXT 51 UIDVALIDITY 1046109859 UNSEEN 0) [18:06:40] IMAP4< 10 OK Status completed. [18:06:40] IMAP4> 11 UID COPY 61 Spamcop now after this, the conenction goes unresponsive and the following appears in the server log: Mar 4 18:06:42 btp212 imap(jp): file index-save.c: line 61 (write_with_lf): assertion failed:(size > 0 && size <= SSIZE_T_MAX) Mar 4 18:06:42 btp212 dovecot: child 6022 (imap) killed with signal 6 any ideas on what might be causing this? dovecot/mua/some else? regards, JP

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[dovecot] Torture tests
by Ian R. Justman 04 Mar '03

04 Mar '03

Hi, all. I've been so impressed with Dovecot, I'm in the process of moving my mail over to it. In fact, one of my mailboxes got SO huge, it'll likely literally take more than a day to move it all over (in excess of 19,000 mails, about 140 megabytes). So far, the IMAP server shows absolutely no sign of crapping out yet. It should also be noted that I'm moving all this mail out of a Cyrus mailstore into an mbox folder on the same server using Pine. And at work, for my work mail, I recently installed Dovecot 0.99.8, using the POP2 port so I can have test it out while not disturbing my coworkers' ability to retrieve mail. So far, I have yet to see anything bad happen. My IMAP test is taking place under Debian GNU/Linux Woody and my POP3 test under FreeBSD 4.7-STABLE. Though any suggestions in what to keep an eye out for in either case? --Ian.

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[dovecot] pine/dovecot issues
by David E. Storey 04 Mar '03

04 Mar '03

Folks, I'm running into some issues with pine and dovecot. (dovecot is running mbox for now... plan to switch to maildir soon.) At first I thought it was a funky issue with the way I was using pine to access mailboxes. (I use rsh to invoke imap as pre-authenticated so when I switch to maildirs, I don't have to worry about pine being patched to support it.) But after switching over to using authenticated IMAP over port 143, it still had issues. I'm getting messages like: Junk in start of group Not an Address Junk at end of envelope Unknown Message property Thus far, it seems to only occur in pine. (Squirrelmail and evolution appear to be fine) Is it the client? Is it dovecot? is it easily fixable? It feels like some sort of escaping issue or parsing issue or something. I just don't know enough about IMAP to determine exactly what it is. I'm using dovecot v0.99.8, MAIL=mbox:%h/Mail/:INBOX=%h/.mailbox I've just converted off of wu-imap in hopes of someday migrating to maildirs on that box. (anyone know of a good mbox to maildir conversion tool? I used to have on that worked fine, but I've since found a ton that don't work well for me at all. I have about a gig of email to backup and convert) d!

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[dovecot] ldap config
by Stefan Sels 03 Mar '03

03 Mar '03

Hi, how do I setup the config to use an ldap server for authentification ? I tried : auth_userdb = ldap:/usr/local/dovecot/etc/dovecot-ldap.conf auth_userdb = ldap:/usr/local/dovecot/etc/ auth_userdb = usr/local/dovecot/etc/dovecot-ldap.conf however I got an error. What is the correct syntax for the ldap config ? Regards, Stefan Sels

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[dovecot] patch for src/auth/db-ldap.c
by Alex Howansky 01 Mar '03

01 Mar '03

*** src/auth/db-ldap.c.orig Sat Mar 1 00:20:10 2003 --- src/auth/db-ldap.c Sat Mar 1 00:20:31 2003 *************** *** 35,42 **** DEF(SET_STR, pass_attrs), DEF(SET_STR, pass_filter), DEF(SET_STR, default_pass_scheme), ! DEF(SET_STR, user_global_uid), ! DEF(SET_STR, user_global_gid) }; struct ldap_settings default_ldap_settings = { --- 35,42 ---- DEF(SET_STR, pass_attrs), DEF(SET_STR, pass_filter), DEF(SET_STR, default_pass_scheme), ! DEF(SET_INT, user_global_uid), ! DEF(SET_INT, user_global_gid) }; struct ldap_settings default_ldap_settings = { -- Alex Howansky Wankwood Associates http://www.wankwood.com/

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[dovecot] Re: zlib support
by Ian R. Justman 27 Feb '03

27 Feb '03

Timo Sirainen wrote: > Yes, it's been in todo for some time now. mbox support would likely be > read-only, read-write would require recreating the whole .gz file on > updates. Actually, I wouldn't mind seeing something like this so I can compress up my old mail and perhaps store them on CD, for example. I tend to archive mailing list traffic by month (which I store in mbox format), so past months tend to not change much, if at all. :) While not an absolute necessity, it'd be nice to have. --Ian.

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[dovecot] zlib support
by seth vidal 27 Feb '03

27 Feb '03

Hi, Silly idea, Ever considered zlib support so the imap server could read through gzipped mbox files or gzipped maildir entries? -sv

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[dovecot] pop3: last, and auth plain
by Mark E. Mallett 27 Feb '03

27 Feb '03

Hi- A couple of comments regarding the POP3 server (I realize the POP3 server is probably low priority though..) One problem is that the "LAST" command is not supported. Some mail clients end up downloading all messages every time because of this (or so I'm told). The biggest source of these remarks is people using the yahoo webmail front end. I wonder if this could be added? Also, under BSD/OS, the "auth plain" mechanism doesn't work. Perusing the mailing list archives, I see that the symptoms appear just like those that were reported earlier for another BSD system. I'm curious as to whether there has been any progress on that front? Yours, -mm-

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[dovecot] 0.99.8 released
by Timo Sirainen 25 Feb '03

25 Feb '03

Hope I didn't forget anything :) v0.99.8 2003-02-25 Timo Sirainen <tss(a)iki.fi> * NOTE: Configuration file has changed a bit: auth_userinfo was replaced by userdb and passdb. *_port were merged into *_listen. Disabling listening in imaps port is now done by changing protocols setting. * Maildir: .customflags location has changed for INBOX. If you have set any custom flags, move Maildir/.INBOX/.customflags into Maildir/.customflags or they will be lost. * mbox: Autodetect /var/mail/%u and /var/spool/mail/%u as INBOXes if they're found and mail_default_env isn't set. * passwd-file: File format changed a bit. If you used realm or mail fields, you'll have to fix the file. See doc/auth.txt for description of the format. + Fully featured POP3 server included. Disabled by default. + Support for LITERAL+, MULTIAPPEND, UNSELECT, IDLE, CHILDREN and LISTEXT extensions. + LDAP authentication support. + Internal API cleanups made Dovecot faster and take less memory + auth_verbose logs now all authentication failures + Support for Solaris 9 sendfilev() + New setting: mail_full_filesystem_access allows clients to access the whole filesystem by simply giving the path before the mailbox name (eg. SELECT ~user/mail/box, LIST "" /tmp/%). While this allows users to share mailboxes, it's not recommended since Dovecot's index files can't be safely shared. + New setting: client_workarounds. + Dynamically loadable authentication modules. Binary package builders should consider using it for at least LDAP. + mbox: Content-Length is saved now to each saved message, so it's now safe to have lines beginning with "From ". + mbox: mail_read_mmaped = no works with it now + Indexes can be kept in memory by adding :INDEX=MEMORY to MAIL environment. There's not much point to do this now though, since the UIDs won't be saved. - COPY now behaves as RFC2060 says: "If the COPY command is unsuccessful for any reason, server implementations MUST restore the destination mailbox to its state before the COPY attempt." - LIST and LSUB rewrite, should fix several bugs in them - maildir_copy_with_hardlinks = yes was broken. - mboxes in subfolders weren't selectable. - STORE didn't accept multiple flags without () around them - PLAIN SASL-authentication was a bit broken. - IMAP dates were parsed a few hours wrong - STATUS command removed \Recent flags from messages - Several bugfixes to SEARCH command, especially related to multiple search conditions - If auth/login process died unexpectedly at startup, the exit status or killing signal wasn't logged. - mbox parsing might have crashed sometimes - mbox: when saving mails, internal headers were allowed in input, sometimes causing problems (eg. duplicate headers) when appending and copying messages - mbox: X-Keywords headers were duplicated - Some small fixes to how messages are saved to Maildir - Next command after STARTTLS was ignored which left the connection stuck sometimes - Dovecot was pretty much broken with FreeBSD

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[dovecot] Re: Configuration file format changes
by Timo Sirainen 25 Feb '03

25 Feb '03

On Tue, 2003-02-25 at 02:56, Brad Figg wrote: > Just my $.02 (and that's probably overcharging). Anytime I need > a config file I use XML and an open source parser. I hate XML config files. Not going to happen. Ever. :) I think they're difficult to read with standard text editor. Even more difficult to modify. And creating read-only parser for just about any config file format doesn't take hardly any time. External XML libraries would also annoy people.

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[dovecot] Configuration file format changes
by Timo Sirainen 25 Feb '03

25 Feb '03

After tomorrow's 0.99.8 release I think it's time for a new config file format. It could be made backwards compatibile with the old format, but there would be new tree-like categories. I was thinking something like this: # global settings protocols = imap # "foo.server.org" is just descriptive name # settings inside server { .. } will override global ones. # groups (namespace, login settings, auth settings) aren't replaced # unless same name is used. server foo.server.org { imap_listen = 1.2.3.4 ssl_cert_file = /etc/ssl/certs/foo.cer # default namespace (no name) namespace { type = private mail = mbox:~/mail } # Have to quote so '#' won't be thought out as comment. # I think quoting should work everywhere actually.. namespace "#maildir" { type = private inbox = yes # this namespace contains INBOX mail = Maildir:~/Maildir } # override global auth default auth default { auth_mechanisms = plain digest-md5 auth_realms = foo.server.org auth_userdb = ldap /etc/dovecot-ldap.conf auth_passdb = ldap /etc/dovecot-ldap.conf } } server bar.server.org { imap_listen = 1.2.3.5 ssl_cert_file = /etc/ssl/certs/bar.cer namespace { type = private #mail = #autodetect } # shared mailboxes between users # eg. user/timo.sirainen/some-shared-folder namespace user { type = user mail = /home/%u/mail/shared } } server baz.server.org { imap_listen = 1.2.3.6 ssl_disable = yes # Only Courier-like INBOX namespace namespace INBOX { type = private } } # common namespace between all instances namespace shared { type = shared mail = mbox:/var/lists:INDEX=~/mail/.shared/ } auth default { auth_mechanisms = plain auth_userdb = passwd auth_passdb = pam }

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[dovecot] Maildir plus mbox?
by wolfgang 25 Feb '03

25 Feb '03

is it possible with dovecot to have the inbox in Maildir format and additional imap folders in mbox format? regards, wolfgang

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[dovecot] Re: Trouble setting up dovecot
by Tim Snider 24 Feb '03

24 Feb '03

Thanks Timo, turns out I'm more of a rookie at sysconfiguring than I thought, so perhaps this helps identify stuff that a rookie wouldn't already know...<G> On Thu, 2003-02-20 at 19:46, Timo Sirainen wrote: > > > I've not configured up LDAP on my server yet, so it's just plain PAM for > > now. I'm able to login fine with all my other apps, so I doubt it's a > > problem with PAM, but not impossible. I haven't done anything with PAM > > on this machine yet as it's live. I've been testing things out on > > another machine(NON-SMP/RH8), which I'll try tomorrow if I get a > > chance.) > > You have to have it configured in /etc/pam.d/imap. For example: > > auth required pam_unix.so nullok > account required pam_unix.so Thanks this makes more sense than the options you provide in doc/auth.txt, so you may wish to change that. On both RH7.3 and a RH8.0 box here, I don't have pwdfile, it's apparently been replaced by other functionality. > > > each imap-login is waiting at a read(7, > > That's the problem then. It really shouldn't be blocking there. Could > you get the backtrace to see where it's hanging? ie. run as root: > > gdb /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/imap-login <pid of the imap-login> > > and "bt" in it. It's hung up in SSL_CTX_use_PrivateKey() in ssl-proxy-openssl.c, which as you correctly surmised below, is due to a password protected key. I've located and used mkcert.sh. As a note the only docs for doc/mkcert.sh are halfway through the NEWS file and rapidly receeding as you add new releases, (congrats on the fast progress by the way!), however you might consider adding a short note about it to the doc/auth.txt or doc/configuration.txt file for those new to dovecot. > > > I do call fflush() after each write to log. Killing with SIGTERM will do > > > clean exit which may log more things, maybe it's just that? Also killing > > > child processes makes master process log their exits. > > > > I usually note the messages log (watched by a tail -f) show up after I > > kill the dovecot master process.(Kill -9) > > Depends on what the messages are I guess. But if you're kill -9ing the > master process, it's quite likely that the child processes will complain > about losing it. After playing a bit, I think that those messages were due to the kill -9, SIGTERM is nicer. I still end up with little in the way of verbose debugging messages, by my standards. Usually all I see is login and logout messages. Otherwise, I get the occasional lockfile message, which is something that I need to sort out with Exim, and completely on my end. > > dovecot: Feb 20 18:11:51 Info: Dovecot starting up > > imap-login: Dec 31 16:00:00 Fatal: Can't load private key file > > /usr/local/ssl/private/cedarintkey.pem: error:0906406D:PEM > > routines:DEF_CALLBACK:problems getting password > > Err, isn't this the reason why your SSL doesn't work? :) Or was that > just an example? If your private key is crypted with some password, > Dovecot can't use it at least currently.. Correct! Doh! I have been able to use imaps, since I built a non-passworded private key. I was using passworded keys that I'd built for Apache, and would eventually like to have one set of keys that I can reference for each virtual domain. Were you planning on something like the Apache startssl option? I can live with the constraint of one 'connection' key for now. Have you considered allowing each virtual domain to have it's own keys? Kind of difficult as the secure pipe to the server is already in place by the time the login name is seen... Kinda makes it tough for a true virtual presence without explicit assigned IP's. Hmmm, any plans for at least a different keys/identity per IP? If I understand the configuration file for now, it seems to be designed for one cert per machine. Thanks for the help, I've just got to sort out the lockfile differences between Exim and Dovecot and I should then be functional. After that I'll start using LDAP. TJ

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[dovecot] ./autogen.sh
by Jesse Peterson 23 Feb '03

23 Feb '03

CVS update @ Sat Feb 22 15:14:52 PST 2003 When ./autogen.sh is run, I get: src/Makefile.am:5: required directory src/lib-settings does not exist Just thought someone would want to know. - Jesse

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[dovecot] Trouble setting up dovecot
by Tim Snider 21 Feb '03

21 Feb '03

Hi, I'm new to the list but have been trying to get dovecot configured for the past week and a bit. I've gone through the list archives and solved a few of my problems, but most don't seem to be addressed. First off I want to say thanks for starting this project, I've been hoping that someone would start an IMAP/POP server with some flexibility in the way it's configured and provides both packages in one.I've tried setting up Courier once and found it onerous, UW was easier but forces a bunch of assumption that don't suit the way I wanted to configure virtual mail. I'd love to run dovecot, eventually with LDAP and Jamm, and Exim to handle my virtual domains, however I'm running into a fair number of problems and haven't had any luck getting past them. I'm running a RedHat 7.3 SMP server, with iptables for a firewall, so I've got several cards and thus IPs.I started out with dovecot 99.4 but noted that it was missing the LDAP, tried 99.8-test5 and am now working with 99.8-test7, both seem to have the same problems. I'm currently trying to setup a IMAP server on the inside of the firewall, 192.168.2.X. If I use just imap, turn of SSL/TLS I'm fine, and can do plaintext authentication via shadow, but I can't get PAM authentication working. If I turn on SSL(ssl_disable = no), neither the imap or the imaps respond and a netstat -tp shows that no process owns the socket PID/process = '-', often with characters in the Recv-Q. I've tried turning on all the debugging flags for configure on, --with-rawlog --enable-debug --enable-asserts --with-ssl=openssl as well as verbose_proctitle = yes, and auth_verbose = yes, setup logfiles /var/log/dovecot/messages, yet all I get are authorization messages. And I've noted that a number of them only show up after I've killed the dovecot process, so I'm wondering if there needs to be a bit of flushing somewhere? As well I've also tried to run "dovecot -F", with the log files commented out in the .conf file, but get nothing via stderr. I note that when I try the log_timestamp option, the dates sent from imap-login are completely incorrect and don't change, so I don't think the date is being read correctly. Is log_timestamp operational? One thing I'm not clear on is what process to run it under, I've setup a user/group 'dovecot', but does dovecot have to be a member of wheel? I've also noted in earlier versions you had things running via imapd-master, but that now seems to been replaced by "dovecot", is that correct? Is anyone else running dovecot on a SMP system? Any comments or suggestions? I do have development experience, but my Linux/UNIX programming is a bit rusty. I'd love to help make this a rocking product, but need some help getting it dovecot up and running. Any help is appreciated. Thanks, TJ timsn(a)thtree.com http://www.thtree.com/People/TJ/Resume.html

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[dovecot] 0.99.8-test7
by Timo Sirainen 20 Feb '03

20 Feb '03

OK, I really should release 0.99.8 final soon, but not just yet :) Mostly just documentation updates left I think. There's a few recent changes that might have some nasty bugs: - problems with copying messages from mbox to another should be fixed now - LIST and subscription handling rewritten. - "mail_read_mmaped = no" used to corrupt mboxes when expunging messages. It now enabled again by default, and it seems to be working. I did update my backups though :) Dovecot's LDAP support currently requires that it can read the userPassword field of every user. I'm not sure if I should support "authentication binds" that seems to be more standard way to do LDAP authentication. That's just slower, works only with plaintext authentication and makes my code more complex.

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[dovecot] Re: IMAP folder problem
by Kevin Lee 18 Feb '03

18 Feb '03

Hi, I've tried other outlook installs and setting. When I try to copy a folder to the imap account I get... "Can't move the items. The move operation could not be completed. It is possible that the destination server is unavailable or does not support subfolders." And when I try to copy mail to the imap folder (with subscribed folders) I get: "Can't move items. This IMAP command could not be sent to the server before the connection was terminated" I get some corresponding errors in dovecots logs: " imap-master: Feb 18 18:31:41 Error: child 60038 (imap) killed with signal 6 imap((null)): Feb 18 18:33:49 Panic: file cmd-append.c: line 25 (validate_args): assertion failed: ((unsigned int) ret == count) imap-master: Feb 18 18:33:49 Error: child 60042 (imap) killed with signal 6 " related? > On Tue, 2003-02-18 at 18:56, Kevin Lee wrote: > > Hi, > > I have tried multiple dovecot versions (0.99 and CVS) and I keep > > getting the same problem. > > > > I connect to the IMAP server fine using outlook xp, but when I try to create > > folders it creates them and then they just disappear. In the Maildir on the > > IMAP server the folder are there but they don't show up using a client. I > > basically can't do anything with folders, including copying outlook folders > > to the server or create/delete folders. > > Just guessing, but maybe you also have to subscribe to the folders > before they show up in Outlook XP? Also make sure you haven't set > anything to root folder path. I know this to be the case with NS7's mail client. --Ian.

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[dovecot] IMAP folder problem
by Kevin Lee 18 Feb '03

18 Feb '03

Hi, I have tried multiple dovecot versions (0.99 and CVS) and I keep getting the same problem. I connect to the IMAP server fine using outlook xp, but when I try to create folders it creates them and then they just disappear. In the Maildir on the IMAP server the folder are there but they don't show up using a client. I basically can't do anything with folders, including copying outlook folders to the server or create/delete folders. And when I move mail to specific folders using procmail it just gets put back into the inbox again... I'm using freebsd 4.7-RELEASE My config file only adds the following lines... auth = plain auth_methods = plain auth_userinfo = password-file /etc/passwd.imap auth_user = root My password file (/etc/passwd.imp) only consists of kev:XXXXXchangedXX[13]:1001:1001::/home/kev:::: I've just created a folder /home/kev/Maildir where dovecot created the MailDir hierarchies. Any help would be appreciated. Cheers Kev

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[dovecot] mbox vs maildir debate (was re: subject concerning binc imap, even though my original message never touched on it or maildir)
by Ian R. Justman 18 Feb '03

18 Feb '03

Tried sending this message with the original topic On Mon, 17 Feb 2003, Andreas Aardal Hanssen wrote: > Hi, Ian. Cross-posting discussions like this is usually not appreciated > by those who subscribe to both foras, so I'll limit it to the Dovecot > list. Mea culpa. That was an inadvertent mess-up on my part; I did not see the headers, usually going by the list's reply-to headers which are usually there, but not this time. I only "cross-posted" it because the first time, it went to the wrong list (the dovecot list was a CC line). I then remailed it to the correct list. I will be more careful in future. > >Basically, if you open via IMAP using a server with a diffent locking > >Additionally, the number of mbox POP3 servers which Do Not Suck(R) is > >rather low right now. Timo finally introduced an mbox IMAP server which > > This I don't agree with. Most existing POP3 servers are quite ok, and > one POP3 Maildir server that is excellent and bug free since 1998, > qmail-pop3d, is quite a piece of art. You are missing my point. I am not talking about POP3 servers in general. See below. > >Not to mention, quite frankly, most mbox POP3 implementations suck > >pretty badly anyway. :P > > This I do agree with. Don't confuse POP3 servers in general with mbox > POP3 servers. The root, the source of the evil is the storage format > mbox. <Rest of argument re mbox vs. maildir removed> I am specifcally targeting mbox POP3 servers, of which there are several implementations; Qpopper, GNU POP3 Server, Cucipop, ipop3d to name a few. I am NOT speaking to maildir, nor to Cyrus, nor to SQL-enabled products. Solely to mbox. In fact, I even said that stuff that talks to maildir, in addition to Cyrus, offered the one thing for IMAP you could not get with mbox until Dovecot came along; something resembling robust dealing with multiple clients to the same mbox store. Nor am I particularly insterested in debating the merits of any format over mbox, a format I have stated I -KNOW- has annoying technical limitations and issues. While I would imagine other formats may have advantages over mbox, I continue to use mbox simply because of the sheer amount of stored mail I have accumulated on all my machines for the past seven years. My point is that Dovecot seems to be the most robust IMAP server I have come across at coping with mbox stores, especially if I am trying to access the same mailbox with two different clients, whether intentionally or inadvertnetly. My hope is that Dovecot's POP3 server will prove just as robust at dealing with mailboxes that may also be open by an IMAP client. Whether Dovecot, BINC IMAP, or even Courier IMAP (or whichever POP3 server for that matter) are better for maildir or anything else, I will leave that debate to those who actually use them. In the end, I have made a choice. Not necessarily the best one, but I made the choice with the full understanding of what that choice would entail. However, you never know. I may change my mind later. ;) --Ian.

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[dovecot] Re: [bincimap] Re: Re: bincimap
by Ian R. Justman 18 Feb '03

18 Feb '03

On Mon, 17 Feb 2003, Andreas Aardal Hanssen wrote: > >> It even recently included a POP server. What's the reasoning there? > >Someone wanted it so it'd be easy to run both POP3 and IMAP servers > >without having to configure them twice. I don't see any harm in it > >anyway, it took only few hours to write, it's optional and doesn't take > >much space in sources. > > Here's where I would say - there are hundreds of working POP3 servers > around, both in closed and open source, so adding a POP3 server to the > Dovecot project just introduces more lines of code where bugs may appear > ;). Here is what -I- would say: I use mbox on all my servers which I have absolutely no intention of changing despite the issues concerning file locking inherent in the whole mbox format. So please, --NO-- attempts to convince me to go to maildir. My take is that if I am going to use an IMAP server, it would be VERY nice if a POP3 server also came bundled with it. Dovecot's having both IMAP and POP3 servers is great because they will likely use the same file-locking schemes (in fact, probably even share the same locking settings). That way if I inadvertently start up a POP3 session while I am connected via IMAP, if they use identical locking mechanisms, I don't screw up my mailboxes should I inadvertently tell my system that I want to delete the messages from my mailbox. Basically, if you open via IMAP using a server with a diffent locking scheme while your hung POP3 session is still running AND you modify your mailbox, you are screwed. Especially if that mailstore is NFS-shared, which is always a dicey proposition. Additionally, the number of mbox POP3 servers which Do Not Suck(R) is rather low right now. Timo finally introduced an mbox IMAP server which definitely Does Not Suck, notably it allows for multiple clients accessing the same mbox mailstore, something previously only offered by Cyrus and perhaps maildir ("perhaps" only because I do not use maildir). Not to mention, quite frankly, most mbox POP3 implementations suck pretty badly anyway. :P --Ian.

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[dovecot] Re: [bincimap] bincimap
by Timo Sirainen 17 Feb '03

17 Feb '03

On Mon, 2003-02-17 at 11:33, Andreas Aardal Hanssen wrote: > Binc IMAP's approaches are to use a secure programming language with > secure well-known contructs, and with an as-simple-as-possible design, > making it very easy for everyone to grasp how the server works. This will > also help the community find and fix bugs. I kind of agree, but not at the expense of security. I have tried to keep my code clean and ugly-optimization-free anyway. > Here's where I would say - there are hundreds of working POP3 servers > around, both in closed and open source, so adding a POP3 server to the > Dovecot project just introduces more lines of code where bugs may appear > ;). Yes, and I wouldn't have done it if it hadn't been so easy. I don't really encourage people to use it anyway, it's even disabled by default. If it has bugs, it doesn't affect the IMAP side. If people really need to run both IMAP and POP3 servers, it is simpler to use the same configuration for both, especially if the configuration isn't "standard" (eg. LDAP or SQL authentication, mailboxes in special locations, etc). All other major IMAP servers provide their own POP3 servers as well, if you haven't noticed :) > Donald Knuth said in a seminar that I attended that the best way to keep a > program free from bugs it to complete it. Finish off the project, work on > fixing bugs. That's Binc IMAP's philosophy. That's the ideal situation, and even possible if you keep the original goals. But there are IMAP extensions which may require large changes, new mail storage formats and ways to deliver mail into them, clustering, etc.

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[dovecot] Re: bincimap
by Timo Sirainen 17 Feb '03

17 Feb '03

On Tue, Feb 04, 2003 at 02:54:47PM +0100, Andreas Aardal Hanssen wrote: > I can change the words in the FAQ if you feel offended by it, but you'll > have to address points individually. I never made remarks about your > personal code conventions, and I never claimed that my server "focuses on > security" in the extent that Dovecot does. > > If you want to discuss our different designs, please do it seriously, > point for point, and don't just troll around like this. Sorry, I just got a bit disappointed after reading the the web page first. Your lines of code comparisions just seemed to imply that your server does everything that others would but with only a fraction of code. There was also something about Dovecot's design being too complex, so I thought you might have solved those problems more elegantly. When you write something from scratch, I think it's a good idea to design it so that it's superior to existing implementations in at least some ways, not just make a clone with slightly different coding style. If all you wanted was a clone with some changes (and better maintainer), forking the project would be much smaller job. Well, here's some design thoughts: Maildir implementation could be hidden behind a class to access it. That would keep the ugly details hidden from the rest of the code, as well as allow easily implementing other mail storages. Restricting yourself to only plaintext authentication doesn't sound very good plan. Separating the pre-login process from post-login process would probably be a good idea to keep their functionality completely separated. It would also be easier to audit the pre-login code if you knew exactly what there is. After logging in, you could just exec() the post-login process. Don't use sprintf(). > Actually I don't get why you guys CC'd me personally on this. If you have > anything in particular you want to discuss you can post it to the mailing > list. I just thought you'd rather want to see it now than months later in google. I know I would. I didn't think it was really relevant to your mailing list, but if you say so..

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[dovecot] Re: [bincimap] Re: Re: bincimap
by Timo Sirainen 17 Feb '03

17 Feb '03

On Mon, 2003-02-17 at 08:28, Andreas Aardal Hanssen wrote: > I wonder what the motives for the author of Dovecot IMAP was when he > started his project. Lack of securely written code in other servers, although Courier did prove to be quite secure after all. > I wouldn't want to comment on Dovecot's design, since I'm no fan of > trolling. I don't think commenting is trolling, as long as there's truth in it, or at least honest opinions. > The project clearly has different goals than Binc. Dovecot wants > excellent features, indexing and an advanced security promoting design. Implementation security as well. I'm not sure about features. It's more about trying to be fast and light. Indexes make Dovecot comparable to Cyrus in speed, but updating them isn't required so it's still drop-in replacement for UW imapd and Courier. Index files themselves aren't really required either, but there's no option currently to disable them. > It even recently included a POP server. What's the reasoning there? Someone wanted it so it'd be easy to run both POP3 and IMAP servers without having to configure them twice. I don't see any harm in it anyway, it took only few hours to write, it's optional and doesn't take much space in sources.

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[dovecot] Brain bubbles
by Mark Lancaster 17 Feb '03

17 Feb '03

Hi Bit of a newbie to imap servers re: the article on webmonkey! http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/03/04/index3a_page4.html?tw=backend Been trying to set up SSL support with the latest ver. of dovecote I'm guessing that the following line from STDOUT is the problem. How to fix it is beyond my grasp currently. checking for SSL_read in -lssl... (cached) no Any ideas. ttfn Mark

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