- dovecot - dovecot.org

[Dovecot] cache
by Lucas 05 Nov '05

05 Nov '05

Hi, I just update from 0.99 to 1.alpha4. I combined with squirrel since several years ago and all was like a charm. Now dovecot is like catching mails. I explain: - I sent an email to my account. I login to webmail and I could see the mail. - Then, I check my mail with an email client through pop3 (vpopmail). - After that the mail isnŽt in the server, but in the webmail appears one msg in Inbox folder and the header. When click to see the msg an error ocurred: Query: FETCH 1 (FLAGS BODYSTRUCTURE) I try this in my config file: mail_never_cache_fields = flags date.sent date.received size.virtual size.physical mime.parts imap.body imap.bodystructure But no success :( Thank you in advance, Lucas

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[Dovecot] forcing a default namespace
by Glenn Leavell 04 Nov '05

04 Nov '05

According to the Dovecot documentation, a "default namespace" is defined by simply configuring the namespace with an empty prefix, as in: namespace private { separator = / prefix = inbox = yes hidden = no } But my experience has been that this doesn't provide a true default, and that this namespace will only be selected when the client actually provides an empty ("") prefix. Is there a way to configure a default namespace that will always be chosen no matter what prefix the client provides, as long as there isn't an explicit match? I'd like to be able to have clients find mailboxes in a particular location no matter what they provide as their folder prefix. Thanks very much, -- Glenn Leavell <glenn(a)usg.edu> Office of Information and Instructional Technology Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia

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[Dovecot] Dovecot 1.0a4 + pam + winbind ?
by Stephen Lee 04 Nov '05

04 Nov '05

Hi, I would like dovecot/pop3 to authenticate against a Windows ADS server. I've got authentication working for Samba and ssh using pam_winbind.so. Here's what my /etc/pam.d/dovecot file looks like: #%PAM-1.0 auth sufficient pam_winbind.so #auth required pam_nologin.so auth required pam_stack.so service=system-auth account required pam_stack.so service=system-auth account sufficient pam_winbind.so session required pam_stack.so service=system-auth session sufficient pam_winbind.so and this is what a portion of the dovecot.conf file looks like: auth default { # Space separated list of wanted authentication mechanisms: # plain digest-md5 cram-md5 apop anonymous mechanisms = plain passdb pam { args = dovecot } userdb passwd { } user = root } To get SSH to authenticate against ADS, the user name has to be prefaced with the domain name like "domain\user1". This is what I get when I attempt to login to Dovecot via Outlook/pop3 with the same naming scheme: Nov 3 20:09:45 server2 dovecot: auth(default): client in: AUTH 1 PLAIN service=POP3 lip=192.168.0.3 rip=192.168.0.227 resp=AHZjXGpvYW5uZQBqb2FubmU= Nov 3 20:09:45 server2 dovecot: auth(default): plain(domain\user1,192.168.0.227): Username contains disallowed characters Nov 3 20:09:46 server2 dovecot: auth(default): client out: FAIL 1 user=domain\user1 Nov 3 20:09:46 server2 dovecot: pop3-login: Disconnected: user=<domain\user1>, method=PLAIN, rip=192.168.0.227, lip=192.168.0.3 Dovecot does not like the "\" character and I'm note sure authentication gets past that step to get to the pam phase. Any experiences and suggestions with Dovecot authentication against Windows Active Directory? Thanks, Stephen

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[Dovecot] courier2dovecot migration script
by Arto Bendiken 03 Nov '05

03 Nov '05

Howdy, I've just migrated a couple of servers to Dovecot, and am loving it so far. I thought I'd share the courier2dovecot shell script I whipped together (based on the instructions I found in the wiki.dovecot.org migration how-to), for converting Courier-IMAP maildirs to Dovecot format. It can be downloaded from my home page: http://bendiken.net/scripts/ While the script is rather simple, it can save a fair bit of typing when migrating some hundreds of mail accounts... especially since Courier stores some of its own state files recursively in each folder of the maildir hierarchy, making it a real pain to otherwise manually rename or remove all of them. Here's a plain-English summary of what the script currently does, when given a Courier maildir path as an argument: - check that the given path is indeed a valid Courier maildir, and exit if not - rename the file 'courierimapsubscribed' to 'subscriptions', and strip the 'INBOX.' prefix from its contents - recursively rename all of files of the name 'courierimapuiddb' to 'dovecot-uidlist' - recursively delete all of files of the name 'courierimaphieracl', 'courierimapacl' and 'courierimapkeywords' The script will also verbosely print out each action it does, handy for redirecting the output to a log file for a large migration. I hope people about to jump ship from Courier to Dovecot find this useful. If anyone comes up with improvements to the script, please send them my way :-) Arto

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[Dovecot] Ambiguous ..... problem using Dovecot v1.0.alpha4 on OpenBSD 3.8
by snoop＠email.it 03 Nov '05

03 Nov '05

I verified that "default_mail_env" on my dovecot configuration file are "maildir:" correctly prefixed and ... permissions of /var/mail/mydomain and /var/mail/mydomain/myuser are 2755 and owner is root:mail. Dovecot user is member of mail group. I'm sure that isn't an authentication problem. I've tried some days to understand and to find over internet but I've not find a solution and now ... doesn't want to work. Someone can help me? _________________________________ Log output: dovecot: Nov 03 20:20:39 Error: imap(myuser(a)mydomain.com): Ambiguous mail location setting, don't know what to do with it: /var/mail/mydomain.com/myuser (try prefixing it with mbox: or maildir:) dovecot: Nov 03 20:20:39 Error: imap(myuser(a)mydomain.com): Failed to create storage with data: /var/mail/mydomain.com/myuser -- Email.it, the professional e-mail, gratis per te: http://www.email.it/f Sponsor: Registrazione dominio, 500 MB per la posta elettronica, spazio web a partire da 2,92 Euro al mese e in pi� assistenza gratis! clicca qui Clicca qui: http://adv.email.it/cgi-bin/foclick.cgi?mid=4079&d=3-11

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[Dovecot] assertion problems w/ 1.0alpha4
by Jeremy Brown 03 Nov '05

03 Nov '05

Hey list, I have been using 0.99.14 for a while now but recently decided to try to upgrade to 1.0alpha4 to get the latest and greatest. I'm building from source myself on a Slackware 10.0 machine. Slackware ships with UW-IMAP configured to keep your inbox in /var/spool/mail and your other folders in ~/. I've been using the same setup for dovecot so that the migration is smooth...so my default_mail_env is set to: default_mail_env = mbox:~/:INBOX=/var/mail/%u I'm able to connect to both pop and imap servers and authenticate myself, but as soon as I attempt to get a listing of my emails my dovecot setting crashes with the following in the mail logs: Nov 3 10:52:40 shallowhal dovecot: imap(jeremy): file mail-index-sync-ext.c: line 155 (get_ext_header): assertion failed: (memcmp((char *)(ext_hdr + 1), ext->name, strlen(ext->name)) == 0) I can trigger this over POP3 just by logging in, then issuing "USER username", "PASS password", and then "LIST". Anyone experienced anything like this before? Any ideas on what might be going on? I can include more debug information (like my dovecot.conf file) if it would help. Jeremy

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FW: [Dovecot] How to log POP3 events
by Cliff Hayes 03 Nov '05

03 Nov '05

Ok, I think I have that figured out. I made the following mods: disable_plaintext_auth = no pop3_uidl_format = %08Xu%08Xv and it seems to work. Now...about those enhanced logging capabilities. As promised, I see the enhanced logging. What does TOP and RETR mean? (I checked the manual first) Cliff -----Original Message----- From: Cliff Hayes [mailto:chayes@afo.net] Sent: Thursday, November 03, 2005 1:05 PM To: Chris Wakelin Subject: RE: [Dovecot] How to log POP3 events Logs say (with enhanced debugging turned on): Nov 3 12:58:38 sendmail dovecot: pop3-login: Login failed: Plaintext authentication disabled -----Original Message----- From: dovecot-bounces(a)dovecot.org [mailto:dovecot-bounces@dovecot.org]On Behalf Of Chris Wakelin Sent: Thursday, November 03, 2005 12:56 PM To: Cliff Hayes Cc: dovecot(a)dovecot.org Subject: Re: [Dovecot] How to log POP3 events Hmm, so what appears in the logs when you fail to authenticate? Have you tried the "debug" POP client :) ? telnet server 110 +OK University of Reading POP3 Server USER chris +OK PASS chrispassword +OK Logged in LIST 1 +OK 1 1234 QUIT +OK Logging out. Chris Cliff Hayes wrote: > Yes, that's what I have. I also found this: > > userdb prefetch { > } > > I must have missed that, so I commented that out and still had the same > problem. > > There is also this > > user = root > > in the auth default section. > > Cliff > > -----Original Message----- > From: dovecot-bounces(a)dovecot.org [mailto:dovecot-bounces@dovecot.org]On > Behalf Of Chris Wakelin > Sent: Thursday, November 03, 2005 11:27 AM > To: Cliff Hayes > Cc: dovecot(a)dovecot.org > Subject: Re: [Dovecot] How to log POP3 events > > > So what do you have for passdb and userdb? > > They should look something like > > auth default { > mechanisms = plain > > passdb shadow { > } > > userdb passwd { > } > > ... > > > (Earlier versions of 1.0, e.g. 1.0-stable, have just > > passdb shadow > userdb passwd > > ) > > Chris -- --+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+- Christopher Wakelin, c.d.wakelin(a)reading.ac.uk IT Services Centre, The University of Reading, Tel: +44 (0)118 378 8439 Whiteknights, Reading, RG6 2AF, UK Fax: +44 (0)118 975 3094

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[Dovecot] How to log POP3 events
by Cliff Hayes 03 Nov '05

03 Nov '05

Hello all, Thanks for your help getting me started. I have Dovecot running now. When I troubleshoot customer email problems, I need to be able to see the number of emails they popped. In /var/log/maillog, Dovecot just tells me that they authenticated, but not what happened after they authenticated. With pop3d, I saw how many emails they popped. Can I set that in Dovecot? I checked the documentation and couldn't find anything. I also turned on the "auth_verbose = yes" and "auth_debug = yes" -- but as the name implies, I only got more authentication info. Nothing about files tranferred. Thanks, Cliff

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[Dovecot] Vpopmail authentication problem
by [Mailclub] Laurent Bauer 03 Nov '05

03 Nov '05

Hello, I have a problem setting dovecot-1.0 / vpopmail authentication with virtual users. Here is my dovecot.conf (the part related to vpopmail) : passdb = vpopmail userdb = vpopmail default_mail_env = maildir:/home/domains/%d/users/%n I recompiled dovecot with "verbose" option and keep getting this error : Nov 3 11:10:58 ***** dovecot: auth(default): vpopmail(lb(a)mm.fr): unknown user (lb(a)mm.fr) whatever user/domain/password I am testing (including the correct one, of course) This is in src/auth/userdb-vpopmail.c line 35 : vpw = vauth_getpw(vpop_user, vpop_domain); According to the makefile, the binary was built with -L/home/vpopmail/lib and -I/home/vpopmail/include options ("standard" qmail/vmailmgr/vpopmail installation) so it should be ok ? I checked the permissions by setting a shell for vpopmail user, then 'su vpopmail' and read/write the password.cdb file. What could be wrong ? Has anybody got a sample config file / dovecot version working with vpopmail and virtual users, or an idea of what could be wrong in my config ? Thanks a lot. Laurent

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[Dovecot] double posts
by Chris L. Franklin 02 Nov '05

02 Nov '05

Is any one else getting double posts from this list ? -- -- Chris L. Franklin -- ________________________________________________________________________ This email was scanned by the server at NomadCF.com, And has been deemed clean of invaild and or dangerous email attachment type and virus'. Although this is by no means a guarantee. ________________________________________________________________________

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RE: [Dovecot] New Fedora/Sendmail Install Assistance
by Jakob Hirsch 02 Nov '05

02 Nov '05

Please keep list traffic on the list! Cliff Hayes wrote: > We are using Dovecot 0.99.14 Ok. Haven't used this for quite a while, so I don't know if I can really help you. > auth_userdb = passwd > auth_passdb = shadow Dovecot uses the homedir that's in your passwd then. But I wonder how you want to use IMAP. AFAIK, it needs a separate directory for every user anyway. At least the indexes etc. have to be stored somewhere. You should really read doc/mail-storages.txt: "mbox storage requires an IMAP root directory where to store IMAP folders and some other information..." I you can't provide a directory for every user, dovecot is probably not the software for you.

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[Dovecot] Still corrupt indexes in 1A4
by Alen Salamun 02 Nov '05

02 Nov '05

Hello All! Well I still have users which almost daily get corrupt dovecot files in their IMAP folders (Maildir style) and are unable to read their mail in this particular folders. When I delete dovecot files in this folder (rm -rf dove*) user can again read all messages. This is regular Linux CentOS 4.2 with SAN storage (boot from SAN) as disks. So this is EXT3 on LVM. BUT it is VERY interesting that than happens only to two users which are connected to the server via slow links (reading via Thunderbird or Squirrelmail). It never happened (now for weeks) to other 10 users which use it localy or at home (on speedy links). It's very hard for me to exactly pinpoint the problem, since it never happens to me. But when it happened to one user again I asked him to send me screenshoot of it. I could see there that SquirrelMail said: "Warning: fgets() [function fgets]: SSL: fatal protocol error in /usr/share/squirrelmail/functions/imap_general.php on line 93." Examining this file this line is in function: --------SQUIRRELMAIL PHP SOURCE------------ /** * Custom fgets function: gets a line from the IMAP server, * no matter how big it may be. * @param stream imap_stream the stream to read from * @return string a line */ function sqimap_fgets($imap_stream) { $read = ''; $buffer = 4096; $results = ''; $offset = 0; while (strpos($results, "\r\n", $offset) === false) { if (!($read = fgets($imap_stream, $buffer))) {<- THIS IS LINE 93 /* this happens in case of an error */ /* reset $results because it's useless */ $results = false; break; } if ( $results != '' ) { $offset = strlen($results) - 1; } $results .= $read; } return $results; } } ------------------------------------------- Looks like dovecot drops connection or something. Well must be related to corrupt dovecot files in particular folder, since deleting them solves the problem. BR, Alen Salamun

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[Dovecot] New Fedora/Sendmail Install Assistance
by Cliff Hayes 02 Nov '05

02 Nov '05

Hello everyone, I've narrowed down my problem, so this should be an easy one for some smart person out there. I am moving from an old sendmail/Fedora 2 box to a new sendmail/Fedora 4 box and want to try Dovecot for pop3. The problem is, I can't get it to work. I have 9000 email accounts I will be moving to the new box. I've already tried and failed once. The problem is, Dovecot wants a home directory for each one. We don't use home directories. So, when I try to pop one of the accounts that was moved over, /var/log/maillog shows: Nov 1 14:33:47 sendmail pop3(chayes): mkdir_parents(/home/chayes/mail/.imap/INBOX) failed: Permission denied Nov 1 14:33:47 sendmail pop3(chayes): Couldn't open INBOX: Internal error occured. Refer to server log for more information. [2005-11-01 14:33:47] -or- Nov 1 14:29:18 sendmail pop3(chayes): mbox: Can't create root IMAP folder /home/chayes/mail: Permission denied Nov 1 14:29:18 sendmail pop3(chayes): Failed to create storage with data: mbox:/var/spool/mail/chayes ******** But if I create folders /home/chayes/ and /home/chayes/mail with user and group set to chayes, then it works. By the way, I've tried about 20 different iterations of the default_mail_env parameter. This is the one I'm using at the moment: default_mail_env = mbox:/var/spool/mail/%u Bottom line is, if Dovecot has to have a home directory, then I guess I'll have to go back to pop3d, which doesn't. Thanks, Cliff

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[Dovecot] 1.0.alpha4 released
by Timo Sirainen 02 Nov '05

02 Nov '05

The actual alpha4 release this time. With a few changes since the pre-release. The important changes again: - Default lock_method changed to flock instead of the old fcntl. Solaris users will need to set it back to fcntl. This makes sure that Dovecot's indexes aren't accidentally used with NFS. - IMAP: We might have sent extra EXPUNGE messages when output buffer got full. This could have caused various sorts of very bad behavior. This is the main reason why everyone should upgrade as soon as possible. - POP3: We sent duplicate replies for LIST command when output buffer got full. Probably caused Thunderbird's duplicate deletion bugs? (Although I thought someone checked that Dovecot's reply was correct when the bug occurred?) - pop3_uidl_format setting is now required to be explicitly set in configuration file for pop3 to work at all. I want to get rid of the old default setting which breaks Outlooks, and simply changing the default would break existing setups. - Multiple passdbs and userdbs of same type can now be added with different parameters. Some people asked about this earlier. - Authentication cache works now with other than SQL and LDAP passdbs. Some passdbs such as PAM require some additional settings to work. See example config file. - Some other fixes to authentication cache related to failure handling and non-plaintext authentication. - deny passdb wasn't working for non-plaintext authentication. New changes since alpha4 pre-release: - imap/pop3 proxy feature was broken - fixed an assert-crash in ostream-file.c that was only in the pre-release And some more changes since alpha3 that I didn't mention before: - zlib plugin updated in http://dovecot.org/patches/1.0/zlib-plugin.tar.gz to be much faster than before - Added ssl_username_from_cert setting. Not actually tested yet, does it work? - epoll was broken with 64bit systems - Added deny password databases. - Dovecot can be run from inetd again - Index breakage/crashfix related to adding new keywords

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[Dovecot] Cannot build rpm with mysql support from dovecot.spec
by Erick Perez 02 Nov '05

02 Nov '05

I've been playing for hours with the dovecot.spec file to build --with-mysql. The resulting RPM builds fine but when dovecot runs it does not recognize the passdb mysql statement. I also noted that the spec file has a version of 1.0-stable and rpmbuild complains about an invalid '-' in the version. Being a newbie in rpmbuild, can someone assist me in building for CentOS 4 on i386? standard build options but --with-mysql added. I also tried to install it from sources and it does not work (at least for me). Being a RPM user now I have to clean what the source installation did and i have no clue where the 'make install' placed files. BTW I am trying to build a manual (pdf, html) with the following config and im only stuck with dovecot, the other daemons are ready. Target Server: CentOS 4 with apache, postfix, mysql, dovecot, openwebmail,clamav, clamd, php,zlib,openssh, webmin and samba. All virtual running from mysql where possible, no local users no local storage (all to the mysql db/tables). Not wanted: postgresql, courier,vpopmail,kerberos,sasl,ssl (that might be in manual v2.0 if 1.0 ever sees the light) The system does not have X (no need for fancy graphs) file used: http://www.dovecot.org/nightly/stable/dovecot-stable-20051102.tar.gz RPMs Used: All RPMs that can be located in the CentOS 4 CDs so new users (like me) can do as much as needed without downloading. Devel RPMs: All devel (mysql, pam, openssl) are installed and they are recognized at building time. Your help will be appreciated in this task. Thanks, -- ------------------------------------------- Erick Perez Linux User 376588 http://counter.li.org/ (Get counted!!!) Panama, Republic of Panama

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[Dovecot] failed to start
by Export TheGeek 02 Nov '05

02 Nov '05

greetings, I'm having a bit of trouble running dovecot, I receive the error; "Fatal: Can't create directory /usr/local/var/run/dovecot: No such file or directory" with an unmodified install save for disabling imap and allowing secure imap and pop3, I uncommented the base_dir in the .conf, although that did nothing. Does anybody have any suggestions? Many thanks, -Ex

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[Dovecot] Error: auth(default): Unknown userdb type 'mysql'
by Erick Perez 02 Nov '05

02 Nov '05

Hi there, I have configured dovecot with mysql but when I restart (Redhat enterprise 4) the following error appears: dovecot: Nov 01 18:47:08 Info: Dovecot v1.0-stable starting up dovecot: Nov 01 18:47:09 Error: Auth process died too early - shutting down dovecot: Nov 01 18:47:09 Error: auth(default): Unknown userdb type 'mysql' dovecot: Nov 01 18:47:09 Error: child 30738 (auth) returned error 89 I have all RPMs for mysql installed, as well as mysql-devel. how can I verify that mysql support was correctly compiled in? sugestions? Thanks in advance.

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[Dovecot] Problems with dual ldap auth
by Stian Jordet 01 Nov '05

01 Nov '05

Hi, I can't seem to figure this out. Is it impossible to use two different ldap auth? It works if I use one ldap and one pam, but I do need to use ldap for both. This is from my config: auth default { mechanisms = plain passdb ldap { args = /etc/dovecot/ldap-virtual.conf } passdb ldap { args = /etc/dovecot/dovecot-ldap.conf } userdb ldap { args = /etc/dovecot/ldap-virtual.conf } userdb ldap { args = /etc/dovecot/dovecot-ldap.conf } user = root #chroot = #count = 1 #ssl_require_client_cert = no } It works well if I only use one of them (so they seem to be correct), but together, only the last (dovecot-ldap) is used. Anyone see a reason for that? Best regards, Stian

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[Dovecot] dovecot-lda - sieve notify support
by Sebastjan Trepca 01 Nov '05

01 Nov '05

Hi, does current implementation of dovecot-lda supports sieve script like this: require ["notify"]; if header :contains "from" "boss(a)example.org" { notify :high "This is probably very important"; } And if it does, what happens in this case ? Is there any configuration for other notification methods? I didn't notice anything in configuration file. Thanks, Sebastjan

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[Dovecot] Usernames and Passwords for Virtual Users Request
by Matt 01 Nov '05

01 Nov '05

A feature I think would be nice. When a single IP hosts email for multiple domains the solution is usually to use the complete email address as the username. I have users that have migrated from Cobalt RAQ's which do not work like that. If a user trys to authenticate with just there username such as "joeb" instead of joeb(a)dirt.com I would like Dovecot to check all the domains it hosts and if it only finds one with the username "joeb" assume thats the one. If multiple domains have the username "joeb" refuse to authenticate without the "@domain" part. Perhaps this is not possible. Sure would be handy though. Oh, it would also be nice to automatically lowercase all usernames before authentication. Matt

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[Dovecot] popa3d migration problem
by Janusz Batko 01 Nov '05

01 Nov '05

Hello, I tried to migrate from popa3d to dovecot but I couldn't manage with 'pop3_reuse_xuidl = yes' option. First of all it turned out that the feature is not supported in dovecot for Fedora Core 4 (dovecot-0.99.14-4.fc4). So I downloaded latest stable release of Dovecot but it didn't have this option included too. Then I compiled the newest alpha version (dovecot 1.0.alpha4) and I tried to login with 'pop3_reuse_xuidl = yes' option enabled and I've got in my logfile the following output: Nov 1 00:58:33 sneogg dovecot: pop3-login: Login: user=<test2>, method=PLAIN, rip=127.0.0.1, lip=127.0.0.1, secured Nov 1 00:58:33 sneogg dovecot: pop3(test2): Set pop3_uidl_format setting in config file Nov 1 00:58:33 sneogg dovecot: child 32067 (pop3) returned error 89 And my session was disconnected immediately each time after sucessful authentication.. I tried to set up pop3_uidl_format to MD5 (%m) but it didn't work... Let me ask if there is a possibility to migrate from popa3d to dovecot (by using a proper patch maybe?)? I'd thankful for any response... Janusz

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[Dovecot] errors after 1.0a3 -> 1.0a4
by Jakob Hirsch 31 Oct '05

31 Oct '05

Hi, somebody else seeing these? Oct 21 09:14:06 ymmv dovecot: imap-login: Login: user=<xxxx>, method=CRAM-MD5, rip=84.162.151.124, lip=85.214.25.134, TLS Oct 21 09:14:07 ymmv dovecot: imap-login: epoll_ctl(): No such file or directory Oct 21 09:14:07 ymmv dovecot: child 11419 (login) returned error 89 mailbox access fails after that. Had this already yesterday, then downgraded to alpha3 and it worked again, upgraded again and it kept working. Strange thing is, access through squirrelmail works perfect, but using Thunderbird gives these errors. I'm using maildir with epoll and inotify, if that matters.

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[Dovecot] login_user & first_valid_uid
by Alexander Shikoff 30 Oct '05

30 Oct '05

Hi all, I have next settings in .conf file ... # # Login user for SQL-based virtual users # login_user = dovecot first_valid_uid = 100 first_valid_gid = 100 ... System user dovecot has UID/GID = 101/101. But every time when user logins I see in log file Oct 29 15:51:25 orion dovecot: Logins with login process UID 101 (user elnino) not permitted (see login_user in config file). Oct 29 15:51:25 orion dovecot: auth(default): Growing pool 'plain_auth_request' with: 1024 Why dovecot generate these warnings and how I can get rid of them? Thanks in advance, Alexander -- Kind Regards, Alexander Shikoff minotaur(a)crete.org.ua

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[Dovecot] [info] Spamcop listing
by /dev/rob0 30 Oct '05

30 Oct '05

Smtp1.song.fi and smtp2.song.fi, our list servers, seem to have gotten listed in the bl.spamcop.net RBL. Spamcop listings are temporary and will time out, and because of occasional major false positives (or perhaps collateral damage?) like this I don't use it to reject mail. Anyone who IS using Spamcop to reject mail has missed much of today's list traffic. -- mail to this address is discarded unless "/dev/rob0" or "not-spam" is in Subject: header

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[Dovecot] Dovecot Alpha 4
by Marcus Don 30 Oct '05

30 Oct '05

Hi We've been using Dovecot as our primary IMAP and POP3 server for around 70,000 users for a couple of months now. On the whole, we've been very pleased with the performance of Dovecot - and are extremely grateful to the developers! However, we have had a few issues, some of which we have yet to resolve. We chose Dovecot because it was the only IMAP/POP3 server we could find that supported direct mysql authentication and both mboxes and maildirs. With exim as our main SMTP server, we were able to convert the inboxes and imap folders for all 70,000 users from mboxes to maildirs without any downtime whatsoever! For those who are interested, we have a cluster of 5 web/imap servers (running our own webmail software) and a further 5 pop servers all placed behind 2 Zeus load balancers and running RHEL 4 (actually CentOS 4.1). Storage is provided by an EMC Clariion device, which is mounted via NFS onto all servers in the cluster over gigabit ethernet. 1. index files The main problem has always been the index files becoming corrupted. This seems to have improved with the Alpha 4 release, but still happens for several users each day. Perhaps it would be possible for Dovecot to just delete index files and re-create them when they are corrupted, rather than just erroring? Also, how do you turn off index files altogether? Even when mail_never_cache_fields is set for all available fields, they still get created. Another issue relating to the index files is that, if a user is deleted and then another user created with the same name, dovecot doesn't have permissions to re-write the index files, because it has a different uid. So, whenever a user is deleted, we have to delete the index files from every machine in the cluster. We could store index files on the NFS device, but this would affect performance (and might cause locking problems). A better solution would be to make the uid one of the variables available in default_mail_env. By naming index files by uid rather than username, this wouldn't be an issue. 2. initgroups() We use an nss-mysql to store all non-administrative system users in a mysql database. We often encounter problems with applications that use the initgroups() function, since this returns all users and groups - which in our case returns masses of data from mysql. When using mysql (or ldap etc) for authentication, it would be useful if there were an option to prevent additional system lookups. At present, we have to comment out the following in /src/lib/restrict-access.c, or the server load goes through the roof: if (initgroups(env, gid) != 0) { i_fatal("initgroups(%s, %s) failed: %m", env, dec2str(gid)); } 3. base_dir permissions bug Since the alpha 4 release, it seems that the permissions dovecot automatically sets for the base_dir are not sufficient to allow the authentication user to access sockets, unless this user belongs to the same group as the login user - which is contrary to the instructions in the documentation. I'm pretty sure this is a bug, but perhaps someone could confirm. 4. authentication caching Also since the alpha 4 release, we have found that, once the authentication cache is full, all subsequent login attempts for users that haven't been cached return "password mismatch". I though this might be a conflict with nscd, but it happens whether nscd is running or not. So, for the time being, we have had to disable the authentication cache. I'd be very keen to hear from anyone who has any feedback on any of the points above. Thanks Marcus -- Marcus Don Applications Development Manager Namesco Limited Main Line: +44 (0)870 120 8888 Main Fax: +44 (0)870 120 8008 Tech Support: +44 (0)870 162 4950 Email: mdon(a)names.co.uk Website: http://www.names.co.uk Address: Acton House, Perdiswell Park, Worcester, WR3 7GD This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the sender immediately. If you are not the intended recipient you are notified that disclosing, copying, distributing or taking any action in reliance on the contents of this information is strictly prohibited. Please note that any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the company. 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