- dovecot - dovecot.org

[Dovecot] Dovecot hangs after 2 or 3 days
by Jens Gutzeit 03 May '04

03 May '04

Hi all, We've some problems with our dovecot installation, its the latest stable compiled on a debian woody box. After 2 or 3 days dovecot hangs, no user can login (pop3 and imap), there's nothing in the logs. The client does allways timeout, if I restart dovecot all works well again. It's a box with s.th. around 400 users, we've enough mem free, load is not a problem, it went from 0.9 to 0.1 after migrating from cyrus-imapd, so this doesn't seem to be hardware related. My dovecot conf is online at: http://mail.sunday.de/dovecot.conf best regards/Mit freundlichen Grüßen Jens Gutzeit -- Tel.: +492151 652945 Ein PC besteht sowieso i.d.R. zu 90% aus faulen Kompromissen, zu 7% aus Elektronikschrott und zu 3% aus wirren Ideen. Benedict Mangelsdorff

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[Dovecot] 1.0-test1 released
by Timo Sirainen 03 May '04

03 May '04

http://dovecot.org/test/ I couldn't break this with Evolution with a few minutes of testing, so here's the first tarball release based on the new indexing code. Try if you're interested, but don't try it on any real mailboxes, or at least keep backups :) Also note that dovecot-uidlist file format has changed a bit, Dovecot 0.99.x isn't able to read it anymore. Things to do: - mbox code doesn't even compile, so it's disabled - custom flags aren't implemented - recent flags are broken - cache file handling isn't working now, so it's disabled - maildir syncing code isn't as well optimized as it used to be - NFS-safety to indexes (pretty easy)

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[Dovecot] 1.0-test2 released
by Timo Sirainen 03 May '04

03 May '04

http://dovecot.org/test/ I still haven't done much real world testing, but I've been thinking about all the potential race conditions a lot since last time and fixed a lot of them. There might still be some.. Changes since -test1: - Locking fixes - A lot more difficult to crash it with corrupted index files - Recent flag works, this time exactly as IMAP RFC says - Maildir syncing fixes - fcntl_lock_disable and mmap_disable settings to make it work with NFS.. almost. Not very well tested and there's a few performance issues left. - mmap_no_write setting to disable mixing write/mmap calls. Required for OpenBSD. Uses slightly more memory. If you can break the indexes, I'd like to know about that. I think they should work pretty well now.

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[Dovecot] Timezone of logentries from dovecot
by Lars Skovgaard 29 Apr '04

29 Apr '04

Hi I've been using dovecot for a long time now, and have nothing but praise for it. It's considerably faster than uw-imap, and has been very easy to configure, in spite of my limited knowledge of unix. One thing still botheres me, though, and that's the time of the entries in my logfiles. It seems that dovecot logs it's entries in GMT, while I'm using GMT+1. This is made even worse by the fact that we're now using daylight savings time, which upps the difference to two hours. Here's a couple of lines from my logs to show the difference: Apr 29 14:30:07 misterp mach_kernel: ipfw: 10000 Deny UDP 213.122.19.185:33123 129.142.126.35:137 in via en0 Apr 29 14:30:59 misterp mach_kernel: ipfw: 4000 Accept TCP 80.197.22.210:38518 129.142.126.35:995 in via en0 Apr 29 12:30:59 misterp pop3-login: Login: torben [80.197.22.210] Apr 29 14:32:25 misterp mach_kernel: ipfw: 10000 Deny UDP 195.122.208.191:1066 129.142.126.35:1434 in via en0 I don't know how to fix this, whether it's in dovecot or somewhere in a system-setting. However, all other applications log their entries with the systems current setting, so I suspect it's in dovecot. I would very much appreciate any help on the subject. Btw, I'm using MacOS X 10.2 with dovecot 0.99.10.4. Thanks! /Lars

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[Dovecot] Index abuse
by Rick Jones 28 Apr '04

28 Apr '04

How resilient is Dovecot's indexing mechanism? (seeing as it's been extensively re-vamped I guess this question may have different answers for 0.99 & 1.0). To put it in context, I'm playing with server-side automatic maintenance scripts for things like deleting messages more than x days old from folders a, b, c, etc. (using Maildir layout). So far I'm just zapping files in the cur and new directories and nothing amiss appears to happen from the IMAP client's viewpoint. I just wonder if I'm storing up trouble. Will the index files continue to hold references to non-existent files and get bloated, or do they self-clean? -- Rick Jones

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[Dovecot] Feature request: more log info/stats
by Christian Balzer 27 Apr '04

27 Apr '04

Hello, even though Timo seems to be hibernating (it's not _that_ cold in ole Suomi ;) I'd like to beg for a feature that would be very much appreciated over here. If something like this is already present and eluded my thorough archive and doc searches, feel free to smack me and then point me to the right direction. Feature request: More extensive session information and statistics in the logs. Currently all I can get from dovecot is login information, there's not even a log entry when a session was ended either by the client or a timeout. In addition a short summary would be be very helpful, qpoppers one liner stats come to mind like this: --- Apr 12 05:30:30 test in.qpopper[21266]: Stats: test 6 21868 2 108126 some.do.main IP.AD.DR.ES [pop_updt.c:296] --- Stating that user test downloaded/deleted 6 mails with 21868 bytes total and kept 2 in the inbox. This might be expanded on for IMAP operations like moves or such and raw data about transferred bytes in/out added (in my case I get that info from perdition), but the really important parts are: When did a user log into the server, when did that session end? How many new mails were read and how many mails deleted during that session? The rationale is that with this info at hand the (unfortunately) very common user whining along the lines of "the mail server ate my mails" or "I never saw this mail!" are much easier to refute. Regards and keep up the good work, Christian Balzer -- Christian Balzer Network/Systems Engineer NOC chibi(a)gol.com Global OnLine Japan/Fusion Network Services http://www.gol.com/

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[Dovecot] Setting "default_mail_env" Why is index->mailbox_path empty?
by Robert McLay 27 Apr '04

27 Apr '04

I now have default_mail_env = mbox:~/mail:INBOX=:/var/spool/mail/%u I now getting: Apr 26 15:55:32 jedrik imap(mclay): open() failed with mbox file : No such file or directory I tracked down where the error message is getting generated and added some more printing: In mbox-index.c I added: int mbox_set_syscall_error(struct mail_index *index, const char *function) { i_assert(function != NULL); i_error("index->mailbox_path: %%%s%%", index->mailbox_path); i_error("index->dir: %%%s%%", index->dir); i_error("index->filepath: %%%s%%", index->filepath); i_error("index->control_dir: %%%s%%", index->control_dir); index_set_error(index, "%s failed with mbox file %s: %m", function, index->mailbox_path); return FALSE; } This generates the following output. It seems clear that the initial reading of mbox is read correctly because index->dir and others have values derived from it but for some reason mailbox_path is empty. This is version 0.99.10.4 built with gcc 3.3.2. Here is the bottom of running ./configure: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Install prefix ...................... : /vol/pkg/dovecot/0.99.10.4 File offsets ........................ : 64bit Building with SSL support ........... : yes (OpenSSL) Building with IPv6 support .......... : yes Building with pop3 server ........... : yes Building with user database modules . : static passwd passwd-file (modules) Building with password lookup modules : passwd passwd-file shadow pam (modules) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Apr 26 17:06:51 jedrik imap(mclay): index->mailbox_path: %% Apr 26 17:06:51 jedrik imap(mclay): index->dir: %/home/mclay/mail/.imap/INBOX% Apr 26 17:06:51 jedrik imap(mclay): index->filepath: %/home/mclay/mail/.imap/INBOX/.imap.index% Apr 26 17:06:51 jedrik imap(mclay): index->control_dir: %/home/mclay/mail/.imap/INBOX% Apr 26 17:06:51 jedrik imap(mclay): open() failed with mbox file : No such file or directory Apr 26 17:06:51 jedrik imap(mclay): index->mailbox_path: %% Apr 26 17:06:51 jedrik imap(mclay): index->dir: %/home/mclay/mail/.imap/INBOX% Apr 26 17:06:51 jedrik imap(mclay): index->filepath: %(in-memory index for )% Apr 26 17:06:51 jedrik imap(mclay): index->control_dir: %/home/mclay/mail/.imap/INBOX% Apr 26 17:06:51 jedrik imap(mclay): stat() failed with mbox file : No such file or directory Any ideas? Thanks

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[Dovecot] Newbie Q: Setting up under linux: Spool directory.
by Robert McLay 26 Apr '04

26 Apr '04

I am trying to set up dovecot under linux. (RH9 if it matters). I'm having trouble having it find the mail that is already delivered. What I would like is that mail is delivered by fetch mail to /var/spool/mail/mclay (that me) then have dovecot find it. I'm sure that I have not set the dovecot.conf file correctly. The documentation is unclear as to what "mbox" is and "INBOX" is. I have tried having default_mail_env unset and with the following: default_mail_env = mbox:/var/spool/mail/%u:INBOX=:/home/%u/Maildir What I get when I talk to it directly is: $ telnet localhost imap Trying 127.0.0.1... Connected to localhost Escape character is '^]'. * OK dovecot ready. A00002 LOGIN mclay "xxxxxx" A00002 OK Logged in. A00003 SELECT INBOX A00003 NO Internal error [2004-04-26 12:56:03] So could a kind sole point me in the right direction? Thanks

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[Dovecot] syslog() logging problems
by James Moser 26 Apr '04

26 Apr '04

was wondering if anyone else has had problems with dovecot logging to syslog? When I start the server it works fine, then after an hour or so it stops.. restarting the server always makes it work again. -- James L Moser james(a)powweb.com PowWeb Hosting http://www.powweb.com /(bb|[^b]{2})/, that is the Question. mysql>SELECT * FROM user WHERE clue > 0; Empty set (0.03 sec) Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die... Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing...

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[Dovecot] shared folders?
by Gareth J. Greenaway 26 Apr '04

26 Apr '04

Greetings, I saw mention in results from a google search that there was some support in dovecot CVS for shared folders, is there some docs on how to use them? Provided there is in fact support for them in CVS. Thanks. -- Gareth J. Greenaway | gareth(a)wiked.org SCLUG - Simi Conejo Linux Users Group http://www.sclug.org

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RE: [Dovecot] triggering multiple actions on pop-3 request
by Julian Melville 26 Apr '04

26 Apr '04

> The reason for this is so that the messages > retrieved by fetchmail can be filtered via an anti spam > service before depositing them into the inbox. How about just running fetchmail in daemon mode, so it's polling for messages instead of running on demand? Then you don't need to worry about any special integration issues. Julian.

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[Dovecot] RE: Missed config option
by Alex S Moore 26 Apr '04

26 Apr '04

I am trying to sync a set of maildir folders from a dovecot server and a different imap server on a different host. Using a perl tool called imapsync. The tool says the following about the two servers capabilities: >From capability : IMAP4rev1 SORT THREAD=REFERENCES MULTIAPPEND UNSELECT LITERAL+ IDLE CHILDREN LISTEXT LIST-SUBSCRIBED To capability : IMAP4rev1 UIDPLUS CHILDREN NAMESPACE THREAD=ORDEREDSUBJECT THREAD=REFERENCES SORT QUOTA IDLE ACL ACL2=UNION No NAMESPACE capability in imap server sws601.mcsun.local Give the separator character with the --sep1 option The From server sws601.mcsun.local is dovecot. What did I miss that causes the NAMESPACE capability to not be seen from dovecot? What is the separator character? Thanks, Alex --

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[Dovecot] imap errors filtering folders with evolution
by Brent Hills 26 Apr '04

26 Apr '04

Hello, I posted earlier to the Ximian Evolution Users list. It was suggested I follow up in relation to dovecot. They also indicated the timestamp in the error message was coming from dovecot. When filtering a folder on a dovecot (0.99.10) imap server with Evolution version 1.46 I receive: Error while 'Filtering Folder' Imap command failed internal error [YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS] The timestamp seems to be the current time. The filters used are primarily move to folder where the destination folder is another imap folder on the same server. The error can be reproduced reliably if I select a large number of email to filter. There are about 10 filters all moving to different folders based on criteria. If I select smaller number of email the error occurs but less predictably. Eventually, it will filter all the email so its not a particular one that it hangs up on. Is anyone familiar with this issue? Brent Hills.

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[Dovecot] dovecot dies - mabye a clue?
by Steven Stern 26 Apr '04

26 Apr '04

Dovecot died twice today. This was in the maillog: Apr 9 17:50:27 ciscy pop3-login: RAND_bytes() failed: error:24064064:random number generator:SSLEAY_RAND_BYTES:PRNG not seeded Apr 9 17:50:27 ciscy dovecot: Login process died too early - shutting down I think I can cause it to happen reliably and I'm asking for other to test this scenario: Open several terminal windows. In each, type "telnet 127.0.0.1 110". Wait for the dovecot POP prompt and do nothing. After each times out, up-arrow and try again. Sometime in the next hour, dovecot will die. -- Steve

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[Dovecot] file permissions help!
by smk 26 Apr '04

26 Apr '04

Hi all! Ran into a problem and hopefully i can get some help. OK here is my set up: - dovecot-0.99.10.4 + MySQL patch. - Redhat 9 The authentication part works just fine. It gives me the following entry in the log file: imap-login: "Apr 12 22:15:10 "Info: Login: USER(a)DOMAIN.com [127.0.0.1] But there is a problem with dovecot reading the mbox file (I think). In the error file I get this entry: imap(USER(a)DOMAIN.com): "Apr 12 22:15:10 "Fatal: Failed to create storage with data: /export/htdocs/DOMAIN.com/mail/USER dovecot: "Apr 12 22:15:11 "Error: child 18613 (imap) returned error 89 Of course the user and domain info was changed. I am out of ideas but thats not to say its something easy or something I completely looked over. This is how I compiled dovecot: CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/local/mysql/include/mysql -DPASSDB_MYSQL -DUSERDB_MYSQL" \ LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/mysql/lib/mysql/ -lmysqlclient" \ \ ./configure \ --prefix=/usr/local/imapd \ --disable-ipv6 \ --without-pop3d \ --without-ssl \ --with-storages=mbox \ --enable-debug thanks in advance. Scott

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[Dovecot] Problem with flags
by Jeff Hoskinson 26 Apr '04

26 Apr '04

Greetings! I'm having a problem with flags not working correctly. I'm using Mozilla Thunderbird as my mail client, and Dovecot 0.99.10.4 as part of Debian on a Sparc box. The thing that doesn't seem to be working right is Thunderbird's Label feature, which uses custom IMAP flags. I noticed that once I labeled a message, I couldn't un-label it. I recorded this exchange between Thunderbird and Dovecot while using the Label/None command on a message: 5235 uid store 35 -Flags ($Label1 $Label2 $Label3 $Label4 $Label5) * 35 FETCH (FLAGS (\Answered \Seen NonJunk $Label4 $Label5) UID 35) 5235 OK Store completed. Even though Thunderbird is sending the -Flags command for all its custom flags, the message is still retaining two of those flags. Just out of curiousity, I tried changing the flag of that same message to something different, and recorded this exchange: 5259 uid store 35 +Flags ($Label2) * 35 FETCH (FLAGS (\Answered \Seen NonJunk $Label4 $Label2 $Label5) UID 35) 5259 OK Store completed. 5260 uid store 35 -Flags ($Label1 $Label3 $Label4 $Label5) * 35 FETCH (FLAGS (\Answered \Seen NonJunk $Label4 $Label2 $Label5) UID 35) 5260 OK Store completed. So it seems the +Flags command works, but not the -Flags? Or does it have something to do with sending more than one flag at a time? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, -- Jeff

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[Dovecot] [OT] Is there a secure reverse IMAP proxy
by Sven Kirmess 26 Apr '04

26 Apr '04

This question is off topic. I ask this list because the question is related to security and IMAP and I guess the people in this list know a lot about both of that. Is there a secure reverse proxy for the IMAP protocol? Something you can install on a bastion host which checks the IMAP traffic before forwarding it to the internal IMAP server? There are these proxies for WebMail to IMAP connections but as far as I can tell they were not created for security reasons and not with security as primary goal. Sven

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[Dovecot] SSL Ciphers
by John Wentworth 26 Apr '04

26 Apr '04

I have dovecot running as a pop3s server on port 995 it works great with sendmail and I run nessus to check security issues nessus reports this The SSLv2 server offers 3 strong ciphers, but also 0 medium strength and 2 weak "export class" ciphers. The weak/medium ciphers may be chosen by an export-grade or badly configured client software. They only offer a limited protection against a brute force attack Solution: disable those ciphers and upgrade your client software if necessary I have previously disabled weak ciphers in apache but cannot figure out how to disable the weak ciphers in dovecot Any help would be appreciated john

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[Dovecot] problems with squirrelmail and TLS (debian unstable)
by Amelia A Lewis 26 Apr '04

26 Apr '04

Heylas, So, okay, I've had this lovely IMAP server running, and adore the ease of configuration, among other things. Problem, though. I'm trying to set up SquirrelMail, so that some folks with accounts on my box can use it without having to set up a proper imap client (or can check mail when they're at a cafe, or like that). However, I *won't* turn off the disable_plaintext_auth, 'cause I'm damned if I'll set up a box that asks people to send passwords in the clear, and there *are* people using imap. Dovecot cannot, currently, be configured to permit plaintext on localhost while requiring Something Better from the rest of the world. This becomes a problem with SquirrelMail, which can't cope with TLS. It just barfs. Looking at bug reports in debian, this has already been noticed, and the maintainer there (and the maintainers of SquirrelMail) considers this a non-problem, 'cause, they say, you shouldn't be using TLS with webmail. Is there a way to set up, for instance, two instances of dovecot, running on different ports, so that one listens to the external interface and the other listens to localhost? I don't much like the idea, but how would I go about doing this? Two copies of dovecot.conf and a command-line switch? Amy! -- Amelia A. Lewis amyzing {at} talsever.com Yankees are compelled by some mysterious force to imitate Southern accents and they're so damn dumb they don't know the difference beween a Tennessee drawl and a Charleston clip. -- Rita Mae Brown, "Rubyfruit Jungle"

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[Dovecot] error dropping root group priv
by Thomas Abthorpe 24 Apr '04

24 Apr '04

Good morning all, I am new to this list. I have been running FreeBSD 5.1 with dovecot successfully for about a year. Just recently, I built a new machine with 5.2.1-p5 on the Intel platform with dovecot-0.99.10.4_2. When I use the same configuration options on the new machine, I get Apr 24 10:53:59 standrew pop3-login: Login: tabthorpe [172.16.1.100] Apr 24 10:53:59 standrew pop3(tabthorpe): We couldn't drop root group privileges Apr 24 10:53:59 standrew dovecot: child 44134 (pop3) returned error 89 Any suggestion? Thanks in advance. Thomas -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. Postmaster http://www.stthomasanglican.org

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[Dovecot] SSL Ciphers
by John Wentworth 23 Apr '04

23 Apr '04

I have dovecot running as a pop3s server on port 995 it works great with sendmail and I run nessus to check security issues nessus reports this The SSLv2 server offers 3 strong ciphers, but also 0 medium strength and 2 weak "export class" ciphers. The weak/medium ciphers may be chosen by an export-grade or badly configured client software. They only offer a limited protection against a brute force attack Solution: disable those ciphers and upgrade your client software if necessary I have previously disabled weak ciphers in apache but cannot figure out how to disable the weak ciphers in dovecot Any help would be appreciated john

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[Dovecot] SSL Ciphers
by John Wentworth 23 Apr '04

23 Apr '04

I have dovecot running as a pop3s server on port 995 it works great with sendmail and I run nessus to check security issues nessus reports this The SSLv2 server offers 3 strong ciphers, but also 0 medium strength and 2 weak "export class" ciphers. The weak/medium ciphers may be chosen by an export-grade or badly configured client software. They only offer a limited protection against a brute force attack Solution: disable those ciphers and upgrade your client software if necessary I have previously disabled weak ciphers in apache but cannot figure out how to disable the weak ciphers in dovecot Any help would be appreciated john

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[Dovecot] Is dovecot distributed with RHEL 3.0
by Avery 20 Apr '04

20 Apr '04

I can't seem to find out if dovecot is packaged with RHEL 3.0. It seems redhat makes it hard to find what packages you get when you purchase their RHEL. Does anyone know if dovecot is disributed with Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES 3.0? I know dovecot is distribured with redhat 9.0 and fedora. Thanks, -- Avery

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[Dovecot] configuring dovecot for NIS (w/ pam)
by Yedidia Klein 20 Apr '04

20 Apr '04

Hi, I am trying to start using dovecot on a linux machine. I config it to auth w/ my passwd/shadow and it worked perefectly. I'm not getting to config it to work with my SUN NIS (not +) As I understood I must use PAM for this, I tried to config it w/o any success... do someone has a config file/ pam config for this ? thanks --Yedidia

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[Dovecot] RE: dovecot Digest, Vol 12, Issue 21
by Alban Dani 20 Apr '04

20 Apr '04

Hi Adrian, You are right. I had a space after the .1. Now dovecot is listening fine on 127.0.0.1. Thanks a lot. I would have never thought of it. Alban Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2004 08:37:21 +0200 From: Adrian Ulrich <dovecot(a)blinkenlights.ch> Subject: Re: [Dovecot] Can't resolve address 127.0.0.1 To: dovecot(a)dovecot.org Message-ID: <20040420083721.1d1a4323.dovecot(a)blinkenlights.ch> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Hello, > imap_listen = 127.0.0.1 Check if you have a space after .1: 'imap_listen = 127.0.0.1' maybe not the same as 'imap_listen = 127.0.0.1 ' bye

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Re: [Dovecot] Can't resolve address 127.0.0.1
by Alban Dani 20 Apr '04

20 Apr '04

Rick thanks for the message, -I have not done any changes to the default nsswitch.conf. I checked and the entry hosts: files dns is there -127.0.0.1 localhost entry is in the /etc/hosts file. -ifconfig shows that the interface is up and I can successfully ping it by name ( ping localhost ). What else can be wrong. I am totally lost here. Alban Rick Johnson wrote: >Alban Dani wrote: >> Hi , >> >> I recently installed Fedora Core 1. >> >> Installed postfix on it and that is running fine. >> >> I am trying to get dovecot to run and I have changed only the following >> line from the default dovecot.conf : >> >> imap_listen = 127.0.0.1 since I'd like to install squirrelmail later on. >> >> Now when I try to start dovecot I get "Starting Dovecot Imap: Fatal: >> Can't resolve address 127.0.0.1 : Name or service not known" > >Does /etc/hosts still contain an entry for localhost? > >Does /etc/nsswitch.conf still reference files for name resolution? > >Is the interface lo active? (run ifconfig to find out) > >-Rick > >-- >Rick Johnson, RHCE #807302311706007 - rjohnson(a)medata.com >Linux/Network Administrator - Medata, Inc. >PGP Public Key: https://mail.medata.com/pgp/rjohnson.asc >

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[Dovecot] Wiki: virutal user with Sendmail and OpenLDAP
by Zoong Pham 20 Apr '04

20 Apr '04

In the Wiki, section 2, "Virtual user support with OpenLDAP", does the example apply to non Sendmail? If that's the case, can someone post a quick guide about setup virtual user with Sendmail. I use OpenBSD-3.4, BTW. TIA, Zoong

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[Dovecot] Can't resolve address 127.0.0.1
by Alban Dani 20 Apr '04

20 Apr '04

Hi , I recently installed Fedora Core 1. Installed postfix on it and that is running fine. I am trying to get dovecot to run and I have changed only the following line from the default dovecot.conf : imap_listen = 127.0.0.1 since I'd like to install squirrelmail later on. Now when I try to start dovecot I get "Starting Dovecot Imap: Fatal: Can't resolve address 127.0.0.1 : Name or service not known" Can anybody help me? Alban

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[Dovecot] configuration problem.. with passwd
by Kartik Vaidyanathan 19 Apr '04

19 Apr '04

Hi i was trying to configure dovecot. Under the authentication section i have set the auth_passdb=/etc/passwd auth_user=root auth_userdb=/etc/passwd But it gives Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot.conf line 398 :missing value which points to auth_passdb=/etc/passwd in the file. Firstly do i need setup some other parameters I want to follow the most simple authentication process. Please advice. thanks

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[Dovecot] adding new user to dovecot
by Kartik Vaidyanathan 18 Apr '04

18 Apr '04

Hi, Your mail was very insightful. You have stated in you mail as follows .. "But I think they create virtual users in database systems for email, I can't imagine all of the users they have are in one passwd file on one tiny machine." a. What do you mean by virtual users. b. How does one link them to a mailbox. Very frankly i am confused... 1.Well lets say i have a user who wants to create a new group say GROUP1.Lets say i have users who want to create GROUP1(a)pigeonhole.com or GROUP2(a)pigeonhole.com .This group name will be entered in my JSP page, now what do i have to do to create the group. 2.How do i see to that anyone who sends a mail to GROUP2@pigeonhole receives it in it mailbox( Firstly does the group have a mails box in the groups name).Will one create a account(mailbox) for the group or how is it done. 3.Lastly I actually want to create a mailing List manager. Please advice on how to go about it. Regards Kartik On Sun, 18 Apr 2004 Wouter Van Hemel wrote : >On Fri, 16 Apr 2004, Kartik Vaidyanathan wrote: > > > Hi, > > > > I have actually configured dovecot because i required a mail server in > > order to build a mailing list manager.A mail list manager is something > > in the likes of yahoogroups, where each group in my case must have a > > mailbox. > > > >You need a MTA, such as postfix, qmail, sendmail, exim, etc. It's more >important than an imap server for what you want to do. > >Actually, I don't really understand why you need an imap server when >making a mailinglist manager. > > > 1. I am using Debian OS. > > The software that i am creating , which is going developed in JSP, will > > take a new users name and password and create a account for him by > > executing a shell script in my linux machine.I assume yahoo also does > > something similar to this to create new mail boxes for any new > > user.Please correct me if i am wrong. > > > >I don't know, I don't work at yahoo. But I think they create virtual users >in database systems for email, I can't imagine all of the users they have >are in one passwd file on one tiny machine. > > > In fact this very mail that i have received from you is because i have > > subscribed to the dovecott mailing list. How do you think dovecott has > > been able to accomplish this. Is it not because that dovecott has a > > mailbox in the group name "dovecott" in some system, that internally > > does the sending of mails to all those in the groups refering to some > > database. > > > >Dovecot doesn't have anything to do with that. It's mostly the MTA, aided >by the mailing list manager. > >Here's how majordomo (popular mailinglist manager) works: > >Bob wants to subscribe to the pigeonhole mailinglist. He emails or enters >his email address in a web form so it ends up in a database file with all >the other users on that list. The mailinglist manager's job is to take >care of adding (or removing) email addresses to (from) that file; it adds >Bob's address. > >When an email is sent to pigeonhole(a)pigeonhole.org, the mailer daemon >(MTA) receives this email, and instead of delivering it to a local user, >either it (1) delivers it to a pipe - it passes the email to the >mailinglist software, which then just generates an email that replaces the >original destination with the list of email addresses; or (2) the mailer >daemon itself forwards the email by alias expansion to the list of email >addresses the mailinglist software made. > >In the former case, the mailinglist manager reads the original message and >replaces the address with all those in the list's database; in the latter >case, basically the only thing a mailinglist manager does, is taking care >of an error-free database file with email addresses so the MTA can forward >the email to the addresses in this file. > >Because Bob's email address is in this file, his address will be inserted >in the headers of the message, and he will receive the email. > > > 2.Will the mail server support me in anyway by giving me some > > functionality to add users, thereby creating maildir's (imap) for the > > users. > > > >No, adding users is not the job of a mail server daemon. Or of an imap >server. Usually, you don't allow people to add users to your system, for >obvious reasons. > >If you want to add users to a mailing list, you don't need accounts for >those users, only when you also want to provide them with an email address. > >What do you want to do: provide email addresses, or a mailinglist manager? > > > 3.Dont I need to know the admin login and passwd, to create users? > > > >Yes, ofcourse. Unless your users are in a database server, in that case >you need the ability to add records to that database. > >(Shared webhosting accounts usually allow adding virtual users, if that's >the reasoning behind your question.) > > > 3.Lastly i know this is not that prevalent a question -> I was told mail > > man does a similar job as to what my software will do.Do you know how > > mailman works (or even yahoogroups)?. > > > >Not precisely, but pretty much like I said above. You can check out the >documentation and source code of said software. > >Yahoogroups probably uses custom written software, but still based on the >simple approach of a mailinglist manager taking care of a list of >subscribers, and the mailer daemon either itself or by aid of an external >program multiplicating the recipients. > > >A mailinglist manager has nothing to do with Dovecot. Dovecot has nothing >to do with *sending* email, only with retrieving it from a system with >IMAP of POP. It's the end-of-the-line for emails, delivery to final >destination; it does not forward or duplicate. > > > Please enlighten me on the above issues. > > Thanks a lot for you time. > > > >I'll send you the bill later. ;) > > > Regards > > Kartik > > > > > > > > >

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Re: Re: [Dovecot] adding new user to dovecot
by Kartik Vaidyanathan 18 Apr '04

18 Apr '04

Hi, Thanks a lot for the mails.Well one major doubt that was prevailing was that do i need to create a system account for each person in order to send/receive mails, and from both(Sven Kirmess & Johannes Berg ) your mails i gather it is a must. But Is there a workaround to this? I have actually configured dovecot because i required a mail server in order to build a mailing list manager.A mail list manager is something in the likes of yahoogroups, where each group in my case must have a mailbox. 1. I am using Debian OS. The software that i am creating , which is going developed in JSP, will take a new users name and password and create a account for him by executing a shell script in my linux machine.I assume yahoo also does something similar to this to create new mail boxes for any new user.Please correct me if i am wrong. In fact this very mail that i have received from you is because i have subscribed to the dovecott mailing list. How do you think dovecott has been able to accomplish this. Is it not because that dovecott has a mailbox in the group name "dovecott" in some system, that internally does the sending of mails to all those in the groups refering to some database. 2.Will the mail server support me in anyway by giving me some functionality to add users, thereby creating maildir's (imap) for the users. 3.Dont I need to know the admin login and passwd, to create users? 3.Lastly i know this is not that prevalent a question -> I was told mail man does a similar job as to what my software will do.Do you know how mailman works (or even yahoogroups)?. Please enlighten me on the above issues. Thanks a lot for you time. Regards Kartik

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[Dovecot] adding new user to dovecot
by Kartik Vaidyanathan 16 Apr '04

16 Apr '04

Hi, This is from your documentation Creating new users ------------------ Dovecot is interested in only one thing - being able to find the user's mail directory. With maildir you need to do mkdir ~user/Maildir, with mbox mkdir ~user/mail. what does ~ refer to. Pardon my ignorance in unix, i am relatively new to unix. Does not ~ refer to the user account in which you have logged in. So does that mean that maildir folder exist for only user accounts that already exist.My intention for asking the above is that i have a java program running, that will take a new users name and password, so with that can i create a mailbox for that person , or does the admin have to create an user account for that person , so that his maildir folder can be created. Please clarify my understanding of how it workds.. Thanks

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RE: [Dovecot] I added a "SQ and Dovecot FAQ" on the SQ website
by Avery Day 14 Apr '04

14 Apr '04

<quote who="Julian Melville"> >> Maybe someone can verify my setup procedure really quick. > > Looks the same as mine except for saying that the server is like > Courier... I left that bit blank and haven't had any hassles. What does > that change I wonder? > > Cheers, > > Julian. > > Actually I stole alot of the procedure from some website. Im not taking credit for anything I'm just doing the dirty work :) If you do perl conf.pl and change the IMAP server to courier it tells you everything that it changes --------------------------------------------------------- Please select your IMAP server: cyrus = Cyrus IMAP server uw = University of Washington's IMAP server exchange = Microsoft Exchange IMAP server courier = Courier IMAP server macosx = Mac OS X Mailserver quit = Do not change anything Command >> courier imap_server_type = courier default_folder_prefix = INBOX. trash_folder = Trash sent_folder = Sent draft_folder = Drafts show_prefix_option = false default_sub_of_inbox = false show_contain_subfolders_option = false optional_delimiter = . delete_folder = true ---------------------------------------------------------- -- Avery

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RE: [Dovecot] I added a "SQ and Dovecot FAQ" on the SQ website
by Julian Melville 13 Apr '04

13 Apr '04

> Maybe someone can verify my setup procedure really quick. Looks the same as mine except for saying that the server is like Courier... I left that bit blank and haven't had any hassles. What does that change I wonder? Cheers, Julian.

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[Dovecot] Calling gentoo maintainers
by Zach Bagnall 13 Apr '04

13 Apr '04

If anyone knows someone with CVS access can they please take another look at http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=22080. It has been in bugzilla for nearly nine months. Would like to see this in portage - masked is fine - so at least everyone is working off the same file. Cheers Zach.

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RE: [Dovecot] I added a "SQ and Dovecot FAQ" on the SQ website
by Zoong Pham 13 Apr '04

13 Apr '04

Is that dovecot in your FAQ serving mbox or mdir format? Thanks, Zoong -----Original Message----- From: Avery Day [mailto:schrock@dayzed.com] Sent: Tuesday, 13 April 2004 12:07 PM To: dovecot(a)dovecot.org Subject: [Dovecot] I added a "SQ and Dovecot FAQ" on the SQ website On the Squirrelmail website I setup in the FAQ a quick install guid on how to get squirrelmail to work with Dovecot. Maybe someone can verify my setup procedure really quick. Maybe someone thinks this is wrong. Also if you have something to add please do so. No one has bothered to do this before so I took it upon my self. Here is the link in the FAQ its about 8 lines down http://www.squirrelmail.org/wiki/en_US/InstallingSquirrelMail Here is where the link takes you http://www.squirrelmail.org/wiki/en_US/SquirrelMailAndDovecotIMAP Thanks -- Avery

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[Dovecot] I added a "SQ and Dovecot FAQ" on the SQ website
by Avery Day 13 Apr '04

13 Apr '04

On the Squirrelmail website I setup in the FAQ a quick install guid on how to get squirrelmail to work with Dovecot. Maybe someone can verify my setup procedure really quick. Maybe someone thinks this is wrong. Also if you have something to add please do so. No one has bothered to do this before so I took it upon my self. Here is the link in the FAQ its about 8 lines down http://www.squirrelmail.org/wiki/en_US/InstallingSquirrelMail Here is where the link takes you http://www.squirrelmail.org/wiki/en_US/SquirrelMailAndDovecotIMAP Thanks -- Avery

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[Dovecot] Dovecot for production environment
by Avery Day 11 Apr '04

11 Apr '04

Sorry if this question has been asked before I looked through some of the archives before posting this. I am considering using dovecot on a small 35 user environment (only around 6 gigs of email) that will be primarly be used with squirrelmail for the MUA. I have been using dovecot for a few weeks now and really like it. It is a big improvement over uw-imap thats for sure. I was wondering how many people in this mailing list are using dovecot for a production email server, and why you chose to use dovecot over cyrus or courier. Or maybe someone feels that dovecot isnt ready for this type of thing just yet. I am all ears so please feel free. Thanks -- Avery -- Avery Day

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[Dovecot] Missing mail file - Internal Error
by James Moser 10 Apr '04

10 Apr '04

I have noticed that if the user does not already have a mail file, for instance in /var/mail, the IMAP server responds with Internal Error, and the pop server imediately terminates the connection. Is this something I have configuered wrong? Are there any work arounds for this... /var/mail is owned by root:mail with permissions 0775... -- James L Moser james(a)powweb.com PowWeb Hosting http://www.powweb.com /(bb|[^b]{2})/, that is the Question. mysql>SELECT * FROM user WHERE clue > 0; Empty set (0.03 sec) Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die... Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing...

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[Dovecot] blank line at the top of mbox
by KB Digital 10 Apr '04

10 Apr '04

Hello, It seems dovecop pop3 server sometimes inserts a blank line at the top of the mbox. It only happens for certain users not all. I'm not sure why it's doing that. Looking back into the mailing list, I saw the same post in Oct 6, 2003 but there was no reply to it. Is there a patch or fix that i can use to get around the blank line? Thank you. Ken

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[Dovecot] (no subject)
by Avery Day 09 Apr '04

09 Apr '04

Sorry if this question has been asked before I looked through some of the archives before posting this. I am considering using dovecot on a small 35 user enviorment (only around 6 gigs of email) that will be primarly be used with squirrelmail for the MUA. I have been using dovecot for a few weeks now and really like it. It is a big improvement over uw-imap thats for sure. I was wondering how many people in this mailing list are using dovecot for a production email server, and why you chose to use dovecot over cyrus or courier. Or maybe someone feels that dovecot isnt ready for this type of thing just yet. I am all ears so please feel free. Thanks -- Avery

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[Dovecot] Re: Dovecot died due to some SSL related error
by rhr-dovecot＠batky-howell.com 09 Apr '04

09 Apr '04

(Sorry, just joined the list, can't reply in the original message from Feb 4.) > Hi, > Dovecot (pre-compiled version of Fedora Core 1, configured for Maildir) > is running fine for me since a few days. It happened now twice to me > that dovecot died with the following error message in /var/log/maillog: > > Feb 4 11:18:27 hundehuette imap-login: RAND_bytes() failed: > error:24064064:random number generator:SSLEAY_RAND_BYTES:PRNG not > seeded > Feb 4 11:18:27 hundehuette dovecot: Login process died too early - > shutting down > > As these previous log messages indicate the login was working before > without any problem: > Feb 4 11:02:37 hundehuette imap-login: Login: andrea [192.168.2.138] > Feb 4 11:05:56 hundehuette last message repeated 30 times > Feb 4 11:09:02 hundehuette last message repeated 15 times > Feb 4 11:12:08 hundehuette last message repeated 15 times > Feb 4 11:15:15 hundehuette last message repeated 15 times > Feb 4 11:18:21 hundehuette last message repeated 15 times > Feb 4 11:18:26 hundehuette last message repeated 12 times > > Dovecot is running as user "dovecot" who does not have a ~/.rnd file > > Any idea? > > Thanks, > Christof Hi, No idea, but I'm getting the same thing, at least once a day, sometimes several times a day. I tried putting a .rnd file in /var/libexec/dovecot, no help. - Fedora Core 1.0 - dovecot-0.99.10-6 - openssl-0.9.7a-23 - About 20 users, using pop, pops, imap, imaps. I had to run a cron job that checks every minute to see if dovecot is running, and restart it if it isn't. I'd love to get this figured out, though. I see another message about this in the list archives, at the end of January. I'll post if I find anything... Rob

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[Dovecot] vmailmgr
by Alejandro Mery 08 Apr '04

08 Apr '04

hi, does dovecot supports vmailmgr authentication? any recomended reading? and, in a vmailmgr context, what are the benefits of dovecot over courier-imap or bincimap? Best regards, Alejandro Mery

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[Dovecot] Dovecot startup at boottime fails
by Bavo De Ridder 08 Apr '04

08 Apr '04

Hi, I am running dovecot 0.99.10.4 on SuSE 9. I installed it using apt-get from the gwdg repository. The dovecot service is configured to start at boottime in run level 3 and 5. However, it dies immediately with this error (/var/log/mail.err): dovecot: Login process died too early - shutting down Starting the service afterwords from a prompt as root with the command: /etc/init.d/dovecot start works without a glitch. Attached you can find my dovecot.conf and the startup script /etc/init.d/dovecot. I hope someone could shed some light on this issue.

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[Dovecot] dovecot vs. cyrus IMAP?
by Jim Norton 08 Apr '04

08 Apr '04

Hello all, I just learned about dovecot. I am currently using Cyrus IMAP/POP3 with Postfix on a Linux system. The one thing I don't like about Cyrus IMAP is that it doesn't support mail users who have accounts on the system. It uses it's own mailbox format and the users can't be regular system users. It would be nice to have an IMAP/POP3 server that can handle mail for users in /etc/passwd as well as the cyrus 'virtual' user type. Does dovecot only provide access to mail for users in /etc/passwd? Or can one setup email accounts for people that don't have accounts on the system ( in /etc/passwd )? Thanks, -- Jim Norton - http://www.jimnorton.org Recursion; n. see 'Recursion'

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[Dovecot] username and password not from /etc/passwd
by Zoong Pham 08 Apr '04

08 Apr '04

Can dovecot use usernames and passwords not from /etc/passwd and be able to read mails of an user whose username and password are in /etc/passwd ? For example: - Joe Bloke has a local Unix account joe on Unix server mail.example.com - Sendmail on mail.example.com accepts mails for joe(a)example.com and put them in /var/mail/joe - can dovecot use other username/password file or database or directory rather than /etc/passwd to authenticate Joe and let him (once logs in successfully) reading mails in /var/mail/joe ? Ideally, the usernames and passwords that dovecot uses are different with the ones in /etc/passwd. Say, username is joe.bloke(a)example.com That way, Joe doesn't need to know the username and password on the Unix server at all. In summary, I want to have IMAP usernames and passwords totally different from the local Unix usernames and passwords. And users use only IMAP usernames and passwords to read their mails. I use OpenBSD-3.4, Sendmail 8.12.9, dovecot-0.99.10p0 (pre-compiled packaged from OpenBSD). Thanks, Zoong Pham

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Re: [Dovecot] Repeating downloads
by Brian T Glenn 08 Apr '04

08 Apr '04

[You have top-posted your message. Please refrain from doing so on technical mailing lists. It ruins the flow of the conversation as well as making archive difficult to read] [You have sent a personal reply to a mailing list message when it was not warranted. Please keep replies on the list so that everyone can benefit.] On Wed, Apr 07, 2004 at 04:27:01PM -0500, Paul Hanson may have written: > On Wednesday, April 07, 2004 1:14 PM Brian T Glenn wrote: > > That sounds about how POP3 works in my experience. How were you > > expecting it to behave differently? > > Well the only problem is that if they receive a new message, not only do you > get the new message but another copy of ALL messages on the server. A > scenario that I have not experienced with any other POP3 server/client > setup. The correct behavior should be to only download the new message. from doing a search on dovecot and uidl, it seems that dovecot supports these functions, which is the standard way for a pop3 server to announce unique checksums of messages. Whether or not your client software supports this is another matter. -- Brian T Glenn delink.net Internet Services

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[Dovecot] Repeating downloads
by Paul Hanson 07 Apr '04

07 Apr '04

Hey- Just wanna say that I'm really happy with Dovecot, it has worked really well for my small operation. I do have a couple problems I'd just like to bring to everyone's attention for future bugfixes and if there is a solution available. I'm using dovecot-0.99.10-6 with a clean fedora core 1 install. I'm using primarily IMAP with OpenSSL, however a few people use POP3 (over SSL) with outlook 2002 clients. The problem is that with each send and receive another copy of all messages in their Inboxes are downloaded. I have tried closing outlook restarting it etc. nothing seems to help unless I tell outlook to remove all messages from the server then outlook responds with "messages that outlook was attempting to download are no longer on the server." And problem solved. Not a huge deal but others with similar setups may be experiencing the same problems. I have postfix for my MTA, every account uses Maildir. Attached is my dovecot.conf. Thanks a lot!!! -Paul

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[Dovecot] Process died to early
by Steven Stern 07 Apr '04

07 Apr '04

Just went through this again today. Has anyone found a solution? ------------------------------------------------------ After several days of operation, POP connections fail to my server. The log message is Mar 27 15:51:46 ciscy dovecot: Login process died too early - shutting down Linux ciscy.sterndata.com 2.4.22-1.2174.nptl #1 Wed Feb 18 16:38:32 EST 2004 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux ]# /usr/sbin/dovecot --version 0.99.10 # /etc/init.d/dovecot status dovecot (pid 6900) is running... Killing the dovecot process, deleting /var/lock/subys/dovecot, and restarting the process gets POP3 and IMAP working again. Suggestions? -- Steve

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[Dovecot] Repeating downloads
by Paul Hanson 07 Apr '04

07 Apr '04

Sorry about the Spam with the dovecot.conf. Here is the intended message. Thanks!! Hey- Just wanna say that Im really happy with Dovecot, it has worked really well for my small operation. I do have a couple problems Id just like to bring to everyones attention for future bugfixes and if there is a solution available. Im using dovecot-0.99.10-6 with a clean fedora core 1 install. Im using primarily IMAP with OpenSSL, however a few people use POP3 (over SSL) with outlook 2002 clients. The problem is that with each send and receive another copy of all messages in their Inboxes are downloaded. I have tried closing outlook restarting it etc nothing seems to help unless I tell outlook to remove all messages from the server then outlook responds with messages that outlook was attempting to download are no longer on the server. And problem solved. Not a huge deal but others with similar setups may be experiencing the same problems. I have postfix for my MTA, every account uses Maildir. Attached is my dovecot.conf. Thanks a lot!!! -Paul

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