- dovecot - dovecot.org

What replaced mail_home in 2.4.2?
by Steve Litt 20 Feb '26

20 Feb '26

Hi all, In my Dovecot 2.4.2 virtual machine guest I've used mail_home to indicate the value of ~ and presumably of ${home}. However, the only documentation I can find on mail_home is on https://doc.dovecot.org/main/core/summaries/settings.html#mail_home , which is NOT a 2.4.2 document. I find no reference to mail_home on any 2.4.2 documentation. Has something replace mail_home, and if so what's it called and can I put it outside of any {} blocks? Thanks, SteveT Steve Litt http://444domains.com

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[Pigeonhole] extracttext on "message/rfc822" attachment ignores included headers
by quentinduchemin＠tuta.io 20 Feb '26

20 Feb '26

Hi everyone! I'm not sure this is a design decision, a bug, something not implemented or malformed input on my side. My use case is the following: users that forward their mails outside the domain I manage have the option to report spam as attachment so the spam classifier can learn anyway. I prefer attachment over forward because MUAs have their own way to do it and it's difficult to reliably reconstruct some headers/email structure that can be important for the spam classifier. Each input message is processed through a Sieve extensions of RFC 5703 to extract the attachment. I ask user to produce a file with .eml extension through any export-like feature of their MUA. Below is an example EML file produced by Tuta (Thunderbird does a similar thing with a different encoding for the body). I'll use a bunch of = characters as a separator in the rest of this. =============================================== [...bunch of header...] X-MS-Exchange-CrossTenant-rms-persistedconsumerorg: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-0000000000 00 X-MS-Exchange-Transport-CrossTenantHeadersStamped: TYSPR04MB7035 Content-Type: multipart/related; boundary="------------79Bu5A16qPEYcVIZL@tutanota" --------------79Bu5A16qPEYcVIZL@tutanota Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64 DQo8ZGl2IHN0eWxlPSJmb250LWZhbWlseTogQXB0b3MsIEFwdG9zX0VtYmVkZGVkRm9udCwgQXB0b3 NfTVNGb250U2VydmljZSwgQ2FsaWJyaSwgSGVsdmV0aWNhLCBzYW5zLXNlcmlmOyBmb250LXNpemU6 [...base64 encoding of the body...] =============================================== While attached and sent, the received messaged looks like this: =============================================== [...headers of the actual email...] X-Infomaniak-Routing: alpha This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------5jyKrhQ08xXUif7LHhgg648N Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit --------------5jyKrhQ08xXUif7LHhgg648N Content-Type: message/rfc822; name="a.eml" Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="a.eml" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit [...headers of the spam....] Subject: Re: //Re: AI + Ranking /// Thread-Topic: //Re: AI + Ranking /// [....] Content-Type: multipart/related; boundary="------------79Bu5A16qPEYcVIZL@tutanota" --------------79Bu5A16qPEYcVIZL@tutanota Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64 DQo8ZGl2IHN0eWxlPSJmb250LWZhbWlseTogQXB0b3MsIEFwdG9zX0VtYmVkZGVkRm9udCwgQXB0b3 NfTVNGb250U2VydmljZSwgQ2FsaWJyaSwgSGVsdmV0aWNhLCBzYW5zLXNlcmlmOyBmb250LXNpemU6 [...base64 encoding of the spam....] --------------79Bu5A16qPEYcVIZL@tutanota-- --------------5jyKrhQ08xXUif7LHhgg648N-- =============================================== I face two issues: 1. Only the base64 decoded string can be retrived through foreverypart/extracttext; 2. It has a lot of newlines. - 2. is not a big deal. The original spam has a lot of HTML junk, and each line with HTML without an inner text node is stripped, but the newline is kept. I don't know if this is intended. - 1. is more of a big deal. To try to confirm that, I made an over-simplified version of the Sieve script (I skip configuration but plugins are loaded etc, please ask if useful). =============================================== [...require...] foreverypart { extracttext "eml"; debug_log "PART ============================== ${eml}"; } =============================================== mail_debug is activated. In the logs, I can read: =============================================== Info: sieve: DEBUG: PART ============================== Info: sieve: DEBUG: PART ============================== Info: sieve: DEBUG: PART ============================== Info: sieve: DEBUG: PART ============================== Info: sieve: DEBUG: PART ============================== Info: sieve: Info: sieve: Info: sieve: Info: sieve: Info: sieve: Info: sieve: Info: sieve: Hello, Info: sieve: Info: sieve: Hope you're doing well. Info: sieve: Info: sieve: Info: sieve: Info: sieve: Info: sieve: Would you like attract more traffic with our AEO + GEO + SEO services. AI-driven search is here—don’t miss out. =============================================== So multiple parts are analyzed but only the last gives something. The RFC says that "If the transfer encoding or character set is unrecognized by the implementation or recognized but invalid, an empty string will result.". But it's over my knowledge. I activated trace for Sieve with "matching" level, and the file looks like (this is another test but was the same result): =============================================== Sieve trace log for message delivery: Username: REDACTED Session ID: ozNMOEPNl2nlAAAAO14Lzw Sender: REDACTED Final recipient: REDACTED Default mailbox: INBOX ## Started executing script 'move-spam' 33: foreverypart loop begin 33: loop ends at line 36 35: extracttext command 36: assign 'eml' [0] = "" 36: debug_log "PART ============================== " 36: foreverypart loop end 36: switched to next message part 36: looping back to line 35 35: extracttext command 36: assign 'eml' [0] = "" 36: debug_log "PART ============================== " 36: foreverypart loop end 36: switched to next message part 36: looping back to line 35 35: extracttext command 36: assign 'eml' [0] = "" 36: debug_log "PART ============================== " 36: foreverypart loop end 36: switched to next message part 36: looping back to line 35 35: extracttext command 36: assign 'eml' [0] = "" 36: debug_log "PART ============================== " 36: foreverypart loop end 36: switched to next message part 36: looping back to line 35 35: extracttext command 36: assign 'eml' [0] = "Hi, Just checking in to see if you had a chance to review my earlier message. [...body spam....] 36: debug_log "PART ============================== ????????????Hi, ?? ??Just checking in t..." 36: foreverypart loop end 36: no more message parts 36: exiting loops at line 36 ## Finished executing script 'move-spam' =============================================== Hypothesis: A. Could it be because the mail headers are indistinguishable from the part headers? B. Or is it related to Pigeonhole not implementing yet the enclose extension, which do this the other way? I hope this message is not too hard to read with all the code/logs. Please tell me if there is a better way of doing it. And thanks in advance for any help, because I don't really know what to do and trying to take a (superficial) look at the Pigeonhole code didn't helped.

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mail_utf8_extensions and IMAP Folder Naming
by max.wriedt＠rehost.eu 20 Feb '26

20 Feb '26

i just upgraded my 2.3 installation to 2.4. I like to be bleeding edge and i want to use SMTPUTF8. I came across problems with mailboxes that have german umlauts. when enabling "mail_utf8_extensions=yes" e.g. Microsoft Outlook gives me mUTF-7 encoded folder names. Also the folder names when list via openssl s_client are encoded in mUTF-7. Am i missing something or can i disable utf8 for IMAP (UTF8=ACCEPT) only, but keep for LMTP Transport/SMTPUTF8 from postfix to dovecot? I am using mdbox format as storage, if that matters. My namespace config (shortened): namespace inbox { inbox = yes type = private #mailbox_list_utf8 = yes # also tried this -> when folder didn't exist before it would create a new one with utf8, no matter mail_utf8_extensions is on or off mailbox Drafts { auto = no special_use = \Drafts } mailbox Entw&APw-rfe { special_use = \Drafts } mailbox Entw%26APw-rfe { special_use = \Drafts } mailbox Entw\&APw-rfe { special_use = \Drafts } mailbox Entwürfe { auto = create special_use = \Drafts } mailbox Trash { auto = no special_use = \Trash quota_storage_percentage = 110 } mailbox "Gel&APY-schte Elemente" { special_use = \Trash quota_storage_percentage = 110 } mailbox "Gelöschte Elemente" { auto = subscribe special_use = \Trash quota_storage_percentage = 110 } mailbox Sent { auto = no special_use = \Sent } mailbox Archiv { auto = subscribe special_use = \Archive } mailbox Spam { special_use = \Junk auto = no } }

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2.4.2 breaks user iterations for LDAP
by cpfeiffer＠rev-crew.info 20 Feb '26

20 Feb '26

Hello everyone, Due to the fix for CVE-2025-30189, routines like userdb_ldap_preinit() call auth_cache_parse_key_and_fields() unconditionally, with the eventually called auth_cache_parse_key_exclude() erroring if a cache key could not be constructed. It’s also noteworthy that this call happens regardless of whether use_cache is set or not, and as of such failing to construct a cache key would cause an error even if use_cache = no was set for that database. This is however an issue for user iteration with LDAP, as documented here LDAP | Dovecot CE <https://doc.dovecot.org/2.4.2/core/config/auth/databases/ldap.html#user-ite…> . Such a userdb only has iterate_filter fields that would inherently not be containing any user variables. The call to auth_cache_parse_key_and_fields() uses a combination of ldap_base and userdb_ldap_filter anyway (so whatever is in iterate_filter isn’t considered), and for an iteration userdb as described in the documentation, the latter would be empty. Alas, I ended up getting the rather confusing error * auth: Fatal: auth-cache: dc=rev-crew,dc=info: Cache key must contain at least one variable With dc=rev-crew,dc=info being my ldap_base setting for the iteration userdb. I’m not critically dependent on the user iteration, so I’ve commented the userdb out for now, but this would need fixing. Regards, Christian Pfeiffer Hello everyone, Due to the fix for CVE-2025-30189, routines like userdb_ldap_preinit() call auth_cache_parse_key_and_fields() unconditionally, with the eventually called auth_cache_parse_key_exclude() erroring if a cache key could not be constructed. It's also noteworthy that this call happens regardless of whether use_cache is set or not, and as of such failing to construct a cache key would cause an error even if use_cache = no was set for that database. This is however an issue for user iteration with LDAP, as documented here [1]LDAP | Dovecot CE. Such a userdb only has iterate_filter fields that would inherently not be containing any user variables. The call to auth_cache_parse_key_and_fields() uses a combination of ldap_base and userdb_ldap_filter anyway (so whatever is in iterate_filter isn't considered), and for an iteration userdb as described in the documentation, the latter would be empty. Alas, I ended up getting the rather confusing error o auth: Fatal: auth-cache: dc=rev-crew,dc=info: Cache key must contain at least one variable With dc=rev-crew,dc=info being my ldap_base setting for the iteration userdb. I'm not critically dependent on the user iteration, so I've commented the userdb out for now, but this would need fixing. Regards, Christian Pfeiffer References Visible links 1. https://doc.dovecot.org/2.4.2/core/config/auth/databases/ldap.html#user-ite…

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Search for missing To: header?
by Joseph Tam 20 Feb '26

20 Feb '26

Is there a proper way to torture doveadm search query to look for messages with a missing "To:" header? I played around with it and this seems to work: doveadm fetch -A text mailbox {box} NOT TO '' (Looking through a large spam corups: spam often exclude recipients in the headers as it gives the game away their personalized fraud was blasted to hundreds of addresses.) Joseph Tam <jtam.home(a)gmail.com>

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More Dovecot 2.4 woes: LDAP cache bug and virtual autosubscribe
by sev monster 19 Feb '26

19 Feb '26

8 months ago I messaged this list communicating some of the issues I had with 2.4. Before I could even start testing 2.4 properly, 2 bugs had to be fixed—one that caused crashes on startup (https://gitlab.alpinelinux.org/alpine/aports/-/issues/17050) and one that caused passdb to use the same caching key for all connections and as such always have the same user log in. There was another bug, one that prevented me from using LDAP binds for passdb, but it had a workaround that mostly worked without side-eeffects. All of those have since been fixed, hurray! So in my infinite naïveté, I decided to give 2.4 another shake. And it, again, does not work. Surprise! I did manage to massage the configuration to allow me to at least run 2.4 without crashing and with users able to access (most of) their mailboxes, but there are still blockers to full functionality. I face the following issues: 1. Christian Pfeiffer back in November found a bug where auth caching with LDAP did not work, and due to how it's implemented, even turning caching off would still raise an error. I experienced the same issue for both userdb iteration and passdb bind logins. I had to comment out the userdb and use a static one instead (all my users, currently, use the same UID and easily composable path, so this wasn't a big deal) and start using a service account for LDAP binds. 2. Virtual mailbox autosubscribe does not work anymore. It throws an error about trying to create the virtual mailbox. This worked in 2.3. My virtual mailbox config: namespace virtual { type = private prefix = Search Folders. mail_driver = virtual mail_path = /etc/dovecot/virtual mail_index_path = ~/dovecot-virtual.cache mail_control_path = ~/dovecot-virtual.cache mail_volatile_path = ~/dovecot-virtual.cache hidden = yes list = children subscriptions = no mailbox All { auto = subscribe special_use = \All comment = All messages, excluding Junk and Trash } mailbox Unread { auto = subscribe special_use = \Important comment = All unread messages, excluding Junk and Trash } mailbox Flagged { auto = subscribe special_use = \Flagged comment = All flagged messages } } If there is something wrong with this config that might be responsible for my issue, please let me know. Otherwise, I believe this is a regression. I understand autosubscribe is documented to (and in other situations with non-virtual boxes) create mailboxes if missing, so if this is actually a fix to make the feature work as documented, we need a new option that allows for autosubscription without attempting to create the mailbox. Otherwise, my users will not know they even have these mailboxes—no one anymore knows or cares about mailbox (re: folder) subscription and won't know where to look to get them to show up in their client. With autosubscribe enabled, I can see the mailboxes in my mail client without explicitly subscribing, but attempting to open them will throw a server error. Removing the setting will make the mailbox disappear without going into settings and explicitly subscribing. Any ETA on the first bug being fixed, and any help with the second issue (bug or not) would be greatly appreciated. Best regards. P.S.: I wanted to spread this information that wasn't mentioned at all in the documentation. The shadow passdb was removed in the move to 2.4; why exactly is neither here nor there, though I will remark that I still don't know why it was done. I had believed at the time this necessitated enabling PAM for Dovecot, which it is not by default in my distro's package (Alpine), so if I wanted to continue allowing local users to log in, I would have to build Dovecot it myself and install PAM, neither of which I particularly wanted to do. I did play with passwd-file in the past, but there were issues with it that prevented me from using it—I don't remember what they were exactly, but I believe they have since been fixed, since in my testing now it does seem to work properly in the use-cases I tested. Anyway, while going over my config and getting ready to re-install PAM, I had a thought. /etc/shadow uses the same format for the first two fields as /etc/password, and Dovecot still (supposedly) allows for passwords to be used when reading /etc/password, so wouldn't it be possible to point the driver at the shadow file? Turns out, yes, it works! I am now able to authenticate local users from /etc/shadow again. Thanks to this, I no longer need to build with PAM support and don't need to install PAM on a PAM-less system. I hope this isn't considered a bug or something and support for this use-case is removed, because I really don't want to bother once again with adding PAM when I don't have to. :)

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Fedora 43 and Dovecot version 2.4.2
by Bill Steinberg 19 Feb '26

19 Feb '26

Hello, I am running Fedora 43 on a server which is running a dovecot server, version 2.4.1-8. I am not running a cluster, there is only one dovecot server running on the Fedora 43 instance. Redhat has just updated the dovecot version on Fedora 43 to version 2.4.2-5. I would like to upgrade dovecot to version 2.4.2. I assume that the dovecot_config_version should be changed to 2.4.2. Should the dovecot_storage_version be changed to 2.4.2 as well? Are there any steps that should be taken to upgrade the dovecot storage to version 2.4.2? FYI the mail_driver on the dovecot server is mbox: mail_driver = mbox. Best regards, -Bill Hello, I am running Fedora 43 on a server which is running a dovecot server, version 2.4.1-8. I am not running a cluster, there is only one dovecot server running on the Fedora 43 instance. Redhat has just updated the dovecot version on Fedora 43 to version 2.4.2-5. I would like to upgrade dovecot to version 2.4.2. I assume that the dovecot_config_version should be changed to 2.4.2. Should the dovecot_storage_version be changed to 2.4.2 as well? Are there any steps that should be taken to upgrade the dovecot storage to version 2.4.2? FYI the mail_driver on the dovecot server is mbox: mail_driver = mbox. Best regards, -Bill

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deliver fails because of a permission issue with SSL private key file
by Markus Schönhaber 19 Feb '26

19 Feb '26

Hi, I'm trying to make Postfix hand incoming mail to Dovecot by using Dovecot's deliver. But this fails with a permission error: > Feb 17 15:50:12 debian13-cont postfix/pipe[13133]: 171C17206: to=<recipient(a)dest.examle.org>, relay=dovecot, delay=0.17, delays=0.1/0/0/0.07, dsn=5.3.0, status=bounced (Command died with status 89: "/usr/lib/dovecot/deliver". Command output: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/certs.conf line 3: key_file: open(/etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key) failed: Permission denied ) How can I solve this (short of making the private key file world readable, of course)? Regards mks I have this in Postfix' master.cf: > dovecot unix - n n - - pipe > flags=DROhu user=vmail:vmail argv=/usr/lib/dovecot/deliver -e -f ${sender} -a ${recipient} -d ${user}@${domain} # LANG=C id vmail uid=501(vmail) gid=501(vmail) groups=501(vmail),104(ssl-cert) # LANG=C ls -l /etc/ssl/private/ total 4 -rw-r----- 1 root ssl-cert 1704 Feb 4 17:15 ssl-cert-snakeoil.key # doveconf -n # 2.4.2-2+debian13 (0962ed2104): /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf # Pigeonhole version 2.4.2-2+debian13 (767418c3) # OS: Linux 6.19.0-2-MANJARO x86_64 Debian 13.3 btrfs # Hostname: debian13-cont dovecot_config_version = 2.4.2 dovecot_storage_version = 2.4.2 log_debug = category=sql mail_driver = sdbox mail_gid = vmail mail_home = /var/spool/vmail/home/%{user | domain}/%{user | username} mail_path = /var/spool/vmail/mail/%{user | domain}/%{user | username} mail_plugins { quota = yes } mail_uid = vmail protocols = imap lmtp sieve sql_driver = mysql mysql localhost { dbname = postfixadmin password = # hidden, use -P to show it user = postfixadmin } passdb sql { query = SELECT 'vmail' AS userdb_uid, 'vmail' AS userdb_gid, CONCAT('/var/spool/vmail/home/', maildir) AS userdb_home, CONCAT(quota, 'B') AS userdb_quota_storage_size, username AS user, password FROM mailbox WHERE username = '%{user}' AND active = '1'; } userdb prefetch { } userdb sql { iterate_query = SELECT username AS user FROM mailbox WHERE active = '1'; query = SELECT 'vmail' AS uid, 'vmail' AS gid, CONCAT('/var/spool/vmail/home/', maildir) AS home, CONCAT(quota, 'B') AS quota_storage_size, username AS user, password FROM mailbox WHERE username = '%{user}' AND active = '1'; } namespace inbox { inbox = yes separator = / mailbox Drafts { special_use = "\\Drafts" } mailbox Entwürfe { special_use = "\\Drafts" } mailbox Junk { special_use = "\\Junk" } mailbox Trash { special_use = "\\Trash" } mailbox "Gelöschte Objekte" { special_use = "\\Trash" } mailbox Sent { special_use = "\\Sent" } mailbox "Gesendete Objekte" { special_use = "\\Sent" } } service auth { inet_listener tcp_auth { port = 12345 } unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/auth { group = postfix mode = 0666 user = postfix } } service auth-worker { } ssl_server { cert_file = /etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem key_file = /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key } protocol imap { mail_plugins { imap_quota = yes } } quota "User quota" { } dict_server { dict mysql { driver = sql sql_driver = mysql dict_map priv/quota/messages { sql_table = quota username_field = username dict_map_value_field messages { } } dict_map priv/quota/storage { sql_table = quota username_field = username dict_map_value_field bytes { } } } } quota_clone { dict proxy { name = mysql } }

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dovecot 2.4 changes
by Curtis J Blank 18 Feb '26

18 Feb '26

I just did a Tumbleweed upgrade. then I had to fix dovecot. No warning that dovecot was going to break what so ever. Below is all the things I had to fix. And then I could not read my email in Thunderbird because you changed: mail_location = mbox:~/mail:INBOX=/var/spool/mail/%u to mail_driver = mbox mail_path = ~/mail mail_inbox_path = /var/spool/mail/%{user} and the "%u" to "%{user}" was the showstopper. What a crock of BS! I spent 3 hours determining the problem and then fixing dovecot because you decided to make major changes for no good reason. It worked just fine the way it was. You could have automated the changes by providing a utility that would make the changes the first time it started up after the upgrade. I had to try to start dovecot and when it failed to start look in the log and see the error and fix it. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and... Like I said what a bunch of BS! Yes this is a rant. And maybe openSuSE's is too blame also. Jan 24 03:33:35 server dovecot[2223449]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf line 25: The first setting must be dovecot_config_version Jan 24 03:36:45 server dovecot[4626]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf line 25: The first setting must be dovecot_config_version Jan 24 03:46:10 server dovecot[21464]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf line 2: Invalid dovecot_config_version: Currently supported versions are: 2.4.0 2.4.1 2.4.2 Jan 24 03:48:45 server dovecot[22135]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf line 92: dict { } is missing section name Jan 24 03:51:47 server dovecot[28824]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/auth-system.conf.ext line 10: passdb { } is missing section name Jan 24 03:53:22 server dovecot[29258]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/auth-system.conf.ext line 10: passdb { } is missing section name Jan 24 03:55:26 server dovecot[29906]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/auth-system.conf.ext line 49: userdb { } is missing section name Jan 24 03:56:57 server dovecot[30179]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-director.conf line 40: inet_listener { } is missing section name Jan 24 03:58:37 server dovecot[30652]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-logging.conf line 64: Unknown section name: plugin Jan 24 04:01:32 server dovecot[37805]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-mail.conf line 31: mail_location: Unknown setting: mail_location Jan 24 04:05:30 server dovecot[38898]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-mail.conf line 32: mail_location: Unknown setting: mail_location Jan 24 04:06:35 server dovecot[39158]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-ssl.conf line 23: ssl_cert: Unknown setting: ssl_cert Jan 24 04:09:07 server dovecot[39707]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-ssl.conf line 25: ssl_server_cert_file: open(/etc/dovecot/conf.d/-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- Jan 24 04:09:07 server dovecot[39707]: doveconf: Fatal: -----END CERTIFICATE----- Jan 24 04:09:07 server dovecot[39707]: doveconf: Fatal: ) failed: File name too long Jan 24 04:14:52 server dovecot[47156]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-ssl.conf line 27: ssl_server_cert_file: open(/etc/dovecot/conf.d/-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- Jan 24 04:14:52 server dovecot[47156]: doveconf: Fatal: -----END CERTIFICATE----- Jan 24 04:14:52 server dovecot[47156]: doveconf: Fatal: ) failed: File name too long Jan 24 04:17:35 server dovecot[54187]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-ssl.conf line 72: ssl_dh: Unknown setting: ssl_dh Jan 24 04:19:04 server dovecot[54532]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-ssl.conf line 93: ssl_prefer_server_ciphers: Unknown setting: ssl_prefer_server_ciphers Jan 24 04:21:07 server dovecot[60961]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-acl.conf line 11: Unknown section name: plugin Jan 24 04:22:40 server dovecot[61409]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-acl.conf line 17: Unknown section name: plugin Jan 24 04:23:35 server dovecot[61624]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-plugin.conf line 9: Unknown section name: plugin Jan 24 04:24:40 server dovecot[61932]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-quota.conf line 17: Unknown section name: plugin Jan 24 04:25:38 server dovecot[62301]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-quota.conf line 41: Unknown section name: plugin Jan 24 04:26:12 server dovecot[62335]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-quota.conf line 69: Unknown section name: plugin Jan 24 04:26:42 server dovecot[62550]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-quota.conf line 78: Unknown section name: plugin Jan 24 04:27:05 server dovecot[62582]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-sieve-extprograms.conf line 9: Unknown section name: plugin Jan 24 04:28:11 server dovecot[62819]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-sieve.conf line 24: Unknown section name: plugin Jan 24 04:29:02 server dovecot[63099]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-sieve.conf line 39: sieve: Unknown setting: sieve Jan 24 04:36:01 server dovecot[71295]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-sieve.conf line 39: sieve: Unknown setting: sieve Jan 24 04:39:04 server dovecot[72067]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-sieve.conf line 40: sieve: Unknown setting: sieve (sieve_script_sieve or sieve_script_personal_sieve not found either.) Jan 24 04:47:39 server dovecot[86665]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf: ssl_options: unknown flag: 'no_compression' Jan 24 04:50:51 server dovecot[93375]: doveconf: Fatal: dovecot_storage_version setting must be set Jan 24 05:01:51 server dovecot[105836]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-mail.conf line 31: mail_location: Unknown setting: mail_location Jan 24 05:06:18 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107288><SOtYQyBJTOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, dir owned by 0:0 mode=0755) Jan 24 05:06:18 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107288><SOtYQyBJTOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: Failed to autocreate mailbox: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, dir owned by 0:0 mode=0755) Jan 24 05:06:18 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107289><9+pYQyBJTeXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, dir owned by 0:0 mode=0755) Jan 24 05:06:18 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<10Jan 24 05:06:18 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107288><SOtYQyBJTOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, dir owned by 0:0 mode=0755) Jan 24 05:06:18 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107288><SOtYQyBJTOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: Failed to autocreate mailbox: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, dir owned by 0:0 mode=0755) Jan 24 05:06:18 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107289><9+pYQyBJTeXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, dir owned by 0:0 mode=0755) Jan 24 05:06:18 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107289><9+pYQyBJTeXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: Failed to autocreate mailbox: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, dir owned by 0:0 mode=07557289><9+pYQyBJTeXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: Failed to autocreate mailbox: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, dir owned by 0:0 mode=0755) Jan 24 05:08:38 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107806><1/QbSyBJUOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, dir owned by 0:0 mode=0755) Jan 24 05:08:38 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107806><1/QbSyBJUOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: Failed to autocreate mailbox: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, dir owned by 0:0 mode=0755) Jan 24 05:11:10 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107806><1/QbSyBJUOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, dir owned by 0:0 mode=0755) Jan 24 05:11:10 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107806><1/QbSyBJUOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: Failed to autocreate mailbox: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, dir owned by 0:0 mode=0755) Jan 24 05:15:09 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107806><1/QbSyBJUOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, dir owned by 0:473 mode=0755) Jan 24 05:15:09 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107806><1/QbSyBJUOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: Failed to autocreate mailbox: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, dir owned by 0:473 mode=0755) Jan 24 05:18:35 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107806><1/QbSyBJUOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, we're not in group 473(mail), dir owned by 0:473 mode=0775) Jan 24 05:18:35 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107806><1/QbSyBJUOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: Failed to autocreate mailbox: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, we're not in group 473(mail), dir owned by 0:473 mode=0775) Jan 24 05:19:09 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<122933></apLcSBJaKrAqBTq>: Disconnected: Connection closed (SELECT finished 0.138 secs ago) in=102 out=787 deleted=0 expunged=0 trashed=0 hdr_count=0 hdr_bytes=0 body_count=0 body_bytes=0 Jan 24 05:19:58 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107806><1/QbSyBJUOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, we're not in group 473(mail), dir owned by 0:473 mode=0775) Jan 24 05:19:58 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107806><1/QbSyBJUOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: Failed to autocreate mailbox: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, we're not in group 473(mail), dir owned by 0:473 mode=0775) Jan 24 05:20:20 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107806><1/QbSyBJUOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, we're not in group 473(mail), dir owned by 0:473 mode=0775) Jan 24 05:20:20 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107806><1/QbSyBJUOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: Failed to autocreate mailbox: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, we're not in group 473(mail), dir owned by 0:473 mode=0775) Jan 24 05:21:17 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107806><1/QbSyBJUOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, we're not in group 473(mail), dir owned by 0:473 mode=0775) Jan 24 05:21:17 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107806><1/QbSyBJUOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: Failed to autocreate mailbox: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, we're not in group 473(mail), dir owned by 0:473 mode=0775)

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"Synchronization corrupted index header" with mdbox: thousands of deleted e-mails reappeared in INBOX
by Ákos Szőts 17 Feb '26

17 Feb '26

Hi everyone, Suddenly, the following messages appeared in my Dovecot error log: master: Warning: Killed with signal 15 (by pid=0 uid=0 code=kill) Error: Mailbox Trash: Synchronization corrupted index header [...]/Trash/dbox-Mails/dovecot.index: uidvalidity=0, but next_uid=73 Warning: Mailbox Trash: fscking index file [...]/Trash/dbox-Mails/dovecot.index Warning: mdbox([...]/mail/storage): rebuilding indexes: Mailbox Trash index was fsck'd Warning: mdbox([...]/mail/storage): fscking index file [...]/index/inbox/storage/dovecot.map.index Error: Mailbox INBOX: [...]/INBOX/dbox-Mails/dovecot.index reset, view is now inconsistent The first message is because I restarted the container. Since then, Thunderbird shows thousands of previously deleted e-mails again in INBOX where all my messages are marked as unread. - Do you know what can cause it and how can I avoid to happen again? - Is the used mdbox storage engine that fragile? Is the fault tolerance of other engines better? I have a backup from some days ago. Is it possible to somehow revert back to it and sync the new e-mails on top of those? Version: 2.4.2. Thank you, Ákos

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