- dovecot - dovecot.org

[Dovecot] PAM, NSS, and a new blocking=yes setting
by Timo Sirainen 13 Feb '07

13 Feb '07

I wondered for a while if I should do this before v1.0, but since there seem to be problems with some PAM/NSS users and this was way easier to implement than I realized, here it is: passdb pam and userdb passwd now support blocking=yes setting in their args. For PAM the default has been to fork the dovecot-auth process and talk via a pipe to the main dovecot-auth. I've never really liked this approach, but didn't bother fixing it before. However it is also what has caused the bugs with nss_ldap, and maybe with other NSS backends too. NSS lookups then have been done all in the same dovecot-auth process without any forking. This meant that if it got stuck (or delayed a bit in LDAP queries and such), the whole dovecot-auth got stuck and all authentication attempts got stuck. With blocking=yes the lookups are handled in dovecot-auth worker processes. Earlier these workers have been used only with MySQL. Initially there is only a single worker process, but whenever dovecot-auth notices that there are no free workers while a new auth request comes, a new worker is created. auth_worker_max_count specifies the maximum number of those processes. This blocking=yes will probably work great with NSS. With PAM I'm not so sure. Mostly because the worker never exits, it just does one PAM auth after another. I think usually PAM is used only once in a process, so there might be memory leaks and maybe other bugs.. Then again, maybe not. I'll add some auth_worker_max_requests setting which can be set to 1 if this is a problem. Also for blocking=no case I added code to send KILL signal to PAM child processes which haven't replied for 2 minutes. With blocking=yes this condition can't be checked currently. http://dovecot.org/list/dovecot-cvs/2007-February/007639.html http://dovecot.org/list/dovecot-cvs/2007-February/007642.html http://dovecot.org/list/dovecot-cvs/2007-February/007646.html

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[Dovecot] MD5-CRYPT passwords in a MySQL Database
by David Mills 13 Feb '07

13 Feb '07

First of all, hello to the list. I'm currently migrating from a /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow based configuration to a MySQL based one using dovecot 99.14 on debian sarge. The problem is that the /etc/shadow containes both DES encoded (Crypt) and md5 based passwords. I've set the default system to be Crypt, and have added {MD5-CRYPT} in front of the md5 passwords in place of the $1$ header found in /etc/shadow. But I can only log in on accounts that have DES based passwords. I've included my dovecot configuration, and below are 2 examples of encoded password, one crypt and one MD5: XalGYN3cy1crA {MD5-CRYPT}RL$Bvv.TF2XJkyVI6JOUO8tx/ If anyone has any ideas I'd really appreciate them since 80 odd accounts have this problem, so changing them one by one will be difficult. David -- David Mills Enki Technologies 01 76 00 71 20 *De nouvelles offres d'emploi...* *...pour bien démarrer 2007 !* Consulter la news <http://www.enki.fr/detail_actualite.htm?ACTU=13> - enki.fr <http://www.enki.fr> ## Dovecot 1.0 configuration file # Default values are shown after each value, it's not required to uncomment # any of the lines. Exception to this are paths, they're just examples # with real defaults being based on configure options. The paths listed here # are for configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc/dovecot # --localstatedir=/var --with-ssldir=/etc/ssl # Base directory where to store runtime data. #base_dir = /var/run/dovecot/ # Protocols we want to be serving: # imap imaps pop3 pop3s protocols = imaps pop3 pop3s # IP or host address where to listen in for connections. It's not currently # possible to specify multiple addresses. "*" listens in all IPv4 interfaces. # "[::]" listens in all IPv6 interfaces, but may also listen in all IPv4 # interfaces depending on the operating system. You can specify ports with # "host:port". #imap_listen = * #pop3_listen = * # IP or host address where to listen in for SSL connections. Defaults # to above non-SSL equilevants if not specified. #imaps_listen = #pop3s_listen = # Disable SSL/TLS support. #ssl_disable = no # PEM encoded X.509 SSL/TLS certificate and private key. They're opened before # dropping root privileges, so keep the key file unreadable by anyone but # root. #ssl_cert_file = /etc/ssl/certs/dovecot.pem #ssl_key_file = /etc/ssl/private/dovecot.pem # SSL parameter file. Master process generates this file for login processes. # It contains Diffie Hellman and RSA parameters. #ssl_parameters_file = /var/run/dovecot/ssl-parameters.dat # How often to regenerate the SSL parameters file. Generation is quite CPU # intensive operation. The value is in hours, 0 disables regeneration # entirely. #ssl_parameters_regenerate = 24 # Disable LOGIN command and all other plaintext authentications unless # SSL/TLS is used (LOGINDISABLED capability). Note that 127.*.*.* and # IPv6 ::1 addresses are considered secure, this setting has no effect if # you connect from those addresses. disable_plaintext_auth = no # Use this logfile instead of syslog(). /dev/stderr can be used if you want to # use stderr for logging (ONLY /dev/stderr - otherwise it is closed). #log_path = # For informational messages, use this logfile instead of the default #info_log_path = # Prefix for each line written to log file. % codes are in strftime(3) # format. #log_timestamp = "%b %d %H:%M:%S " ## ## Login processes ## # Directory where authentication process places authentication UNIX sockets # which login needs to be able to connect to. The sockets are created when # running as root, so you don't have to worry about permissions. Note that # everything in this directory is deleted when Dovecot is started. #login_dir = /var/run/dovecot/login # chroot login process to the login_dir. Only reason not to do this is if you # wish to run the whole Dovecot without roots. # http://wiki.dovecot.org/Rootless #login_chroot = yes ## ## IMAP login process ## login = imap # Executable location. #login_executable = /usr/lib/dovecot/imap-login # User to use for the login process. Create a completely new user for this, # and don't use it anywhere else. The user must also belong to a group where # only it has access, it's used to control access for authentication process. # Note that this user is NOT used to access mails. # http://wiki.dovecot.org/UserIds #login_user = dovecot # Set max. process size in megabytes. If you don't use # login_process_per_connection you might need to grow this. #login_process_size = 32 # Should each login be processed in it's own process (yes), or should one # login process be allowed to process multiple connections (no)? Yes is more # secure, espcially with SSL/TLS enabled. No is faster since there's no need # to create processes all the time. #login_process_per_connection = yes # Number of login processes to create. If login_process_per_user is # yes, this is the number of extra processes waiting for users to log in. #login_processes_count = 3 # Maximum number of extra login processes to create. The extra process count # usually stays at login_processes_count, but when multiple users start logging # in at the same time more extra processes are created. To prevent fork-bombing # we check only once in a second if new processes should be created - if all # of them are used at the time, we double their amount until limit set by this # setting is reached. This setting is used only if login_process_per_use is yes. #login_max_processes_count = 128 # Maximum number of connections allowed in login state. When this limit is # reached, the oldest connections are dropped. If login_process_per_user # is no, this is a per-process value, so the absolute maximum number of users # logging in actually login_processes_count * max_logging_users. #login_max_logging_users = 256 ## ## POP3 login process ## # Settings default to same as above, so you don't have to set anything # unless you want to override them. login = pop3 # Exception to above rule being the executable location. #login_executable = /usr/lib/dovecot/pop3-login ## ## Mail processes ## # Maximum number of running mail processes. When this limit is reached, # new users aren't allowed to log in. #max_mail_processes = 1024 # Show more verbose process titles (in ps). Currently shows user name and # IP address. Useful for seeing who are actually using the IMAP processes # (eg. shared mailboxes or if same uid is used for multiple accounts). #verbose_proctitle = no # Show protocol level SSL errors. #verbose_ssl = no # Valid UID range for users, defaults to 500 and above. This is mostly # to make sure that users can't log in as daemons or other system users. # Note that denying root logins is hardcoded to dovecot binary and can't # be done even if first_valid_uid is set to 0. first_valid_uid = 106 #last_valid_uid = 0 # Valid GID range for users, defaults to non-root/wheel. Users having # non-valid GID as primary group ID aren't allowed to log in. If user # belongs to supplementary groups with non-valid GIDs, those groups are # not set. #first_valid_gid = 1 #last_valid_gid = 0 # Grant access to these extra groups for mail processes. Typical use would be # to give "mail" group write access to /var/mail to be able to create dotlocks. mail_extra_groups = mail # ':' separated list of directories under which chrooting is allowed for mail # processes (ie. /var/mail will allow chrooting to /var/mail/foo/bar too). # This setting doesn't affect login_chroot or auth_chroot variables. # WARNING: Never add directories here which local users can modify, that # may lead to root exploit. Usually this should be done only if you don't # allow shell access for users. See # /usr/share/doc/dovecot-common/configuration.txt for more information. #valid_chroot_dirs = # Default chroot directory for mail processes. This can be overridden by # giving /./ in user's home directory (eg. /home/./user chroots into /home). #mail_chroot = # Default MAIL environment to use when it's not set. By leaving this empty # dovecot tries to do some automatic detection as described in # /usr/share/doc/dovecot-common/mail-storages.txt. There's a few special # variables you can use: # # %u - username # %n - user part in user@domain, same as %u if there's no domain # %d - domain part in user@domain, empty if user there's no domain # %h - home directory # # You can also limit a width of string by giving the number of max. characters # after the '%' character. For example %1u gives the first character of # username. Some examples: # # default_mail_env = maildir:/var/mail/%1u/%u/Maildir # default_mail_env = mbox:~/mail/:INBOX=/var/mail/%u # default_mail_env = mbox:/var/mail/%d/%n/:INDEX=/var/indexes/%d/%n # default_mail_env = mbox:~/mail/:INBOX=/var/mail/%u # Space-separated list of fields to cache for all mails. Currently these # fields are allowed followed by a list of commands they speed up: # # Envelope - FETCH ENVELOPE and SEARCH FROM, TO, CC, BCC, SUBJECT, # SENTBEFORE, SENTON, SENTSINCE, HEADER MESSAGE-ID, # HEADER IN-REPLY-TO # Body - FETCH BODY # Bodystructure - FETCH BODY, BODYSTRUCTURE # MessagePart - FETCH BODY[1.2.3] (ie. body parts), RFC822.SIZE, # SEARCH SMALLER, LARGER, also speeds up BODY/BODYSTRUCTURE # generation. This is always set with mbox mailboxes, and # also default with Maildir. # # Different IMAP clients work in different ways, that's why Dovecot by default # only caches MessagePart which speeds up most operations. Whenever client # does something where caching could be used, the field is automatically marked # to be cached later. For example after FETCH BODY the BODY will be cached # for all new messages. Normally you should leave this alone, unless you know # what most of your IMAP clients are. Caching more fields than needed makes # the index files larger and generate useless I/O. # # With maildir there's one extra optimization - if nothing is cached, indexing # the maildir becomes much faster since it's not opening any of the mail files. # This could be useful if your IMAP clients access only new mails. #mail_cache_fields = MessagePart # Space-separated list of fields that Dovecot should never set to be cached. # Useful if you want to save disk space at the cost of more I/O when the fields # needed. #mail_never_cache_fields = # Workarounds for various client bugs: # oe6-fetch-no-newmail: # Never send EXISTS/RECENT when replying to FETCH command. Outlook Express # seems to think they are FETCH replies and gives user "Message no longer # in server" error. Note that OE6 still breaks even with this workaround # if synchronization is set to "Headers Only". # outlook-idle: # Outlook and Outlook Express never abort IDLE command, so if no mail # arrives in half a hour, Dovecot closes the connection. This is still # fine, except Outlook doesn't connect back so you don't see if new mail # arrives. # outlook-pop3-no-nuls: # Outlook and Outlook Express hang if mails contain NUL characters. # This setting replaces them with 0x80 character. #client_workarounds = # Dovecot can notify client of new mail in selected mailbox soon after it's # received. This setting specifies the minimum interval in seconds between # new mail notifications to client - internally they may be checked more or # less often. Setting this to 0 disables the checking. # NOTE: Evolution client breaks with this option when it's trying to APPEND. #mailbox_check_interval = 0 # Like mailbox_check_interval, but used for IDLE command. #mailbox_idle_check_interval = 30 # Allow full filesystem access to clients. There's no access checks other than # what the operating system does for the active UID/GID. It works with both # maildir and mboxes, allowing you to prefix mailboxes names with eg. /path/ # or ~user/. #mail_full_filesystem_access = no # Maximum allowed length for custom flag name. It's only forced when trying # to create new flags. #mail_max_flag_length = 50 # Save mails with CR+LF instead of plain LF. This makes sending those mails # take less CPU, especially with sendfile() syscall with Linux and FreeBSD. # But it also creates a bit more disk I/O which may just make it slower. #mail_save_crlf = no # Use mmap() instead of read() to read mail files. read() seems to be a bit # faster with my Linux/x86 and it's better with NFS, so that's the default. #mail_read_mmaped = no # By default LIST command returns all entries in maildir beginning with dot. # Enabling this option makes Dovecot return only entries which are directories. # This is done by stat()ing each entry, so it causes more disk I/O. # (For systems setting struct dirent->d_type, this check is free and it's # done always regardless of this setting) #maildir_stat_dirs = no # Copy mail to another folders using hard links. This is much faster than # actually copying the file. This is problematic only if something modifies # the mail in one folder but doesn't want it modified in the others. I don't # know any MUA which would modify mail files directly. IMAP protocol also # requires that the mails don't change, so it would be problematic in any case. # If you care about performance, enable it. #maildir_copy_with_hardlinks = no # Check if mails' content has been changed by external programs. This slows # down things as extra stat() needs to be called for each file. If changes are # noticed, the message is treated as a new message, since IMAP protocol # specifies that existing messages are immutable. #maildir_check_content_changes = no # Which locking methods to use for locking mbox. There's three available: # dotlock: Create <mailbox>.lock file. This is the oldest and most NFS-safe # solution. If you want to use /var/mail/ like directory, the users # will need write access to that directory. # fcntl : Use this if possible. Works with NFS too if lockd is used. # flock : May not exist in all systems. Doesn't work with NFS. # # You can use both fcntl and flock too; if you do the order they're declared # with is important to avoid deadlocks if other MTAs/MUAs are using both fcntl # and flock. Some operating systems don't allow using both of them # simultaneously, eg. BSDs. If dotlock is used, it's always created first. #mbox_locks = dotlock fcntl # Should we create dotlock file even when we want only a read-lock? Setting # this to yes hurts the performance when the mailbox is accessed simultaneously # by multiple processes, but it's needed for reliable reading if no other # locking methods are available. #mbox_read_dotlock = no # Maximum time in seconds to wait for lock (all of them) before aborting. #mbox_lock_timeout = 300 # If dotlock exists but the mailbox isn't modified in any way, override the # lock file after this many seconds. #mbox_dotlock_change_timeout = 30 # umask to use for mail files and directories #umask = 0077 # Drop all privileges before exec()ing the mail process. This is mostly # meant for debugging, otherwise you don't get core dumps. Note that setting # this to yes means that log file is opened as the logged in user, which # might not work. It could also be a small security risk if you use single UID # for multiple users, as the users could ptrace() each others processes then. #mail_drop_priv_before_exec = no ## ## IMAP process ## # Executable location #imap_executable = /usr/lib/dovecot/imap # Set max. process size in megabytes. Most of the memory goes to mmap()ing # files, so it shouldn't harm much even if this limit is set pretty high. #imap_process_size = 256 # Support for dynamically loadable modules. #imap_use_modules = no #imap_modules = /usr/lib/dovecot/imap ## ## POP3 process ## # Executable location #pop3_executable = /usr/lib/dovecot/pop3 # Set max. process size in megabytes. Most of the memory goes to mmap()ing # files, so it shouldn't harm much even if this limit is set pretty high. #pop3_process_size = 256 # Support for dynamically loadable modules. #pop3_use_modules = no #pop3_modules = /usr/lib/dovecot/pop3 ## ## Authentication processes ## # An Authentication process is a child process used by Dovecot that # handles the authentication steps. The steps cover an authentication # mechanism (auth_mechanisms, how the client authenticates in the IMAP or # POP3 protocol), which password database should be queried (auth_passdb), # and which user database should be queried (auth_userdb, to obtain # UID, GID, and location of the user's mailbox/home directory). # # You can have multiple processes, though a typical configuration will # have only one. Each time "auth = xx" is seen, a new process # definition is started. The point of multiple processes is to be able # to set stricter permissions. (See auth_user below.) # # Just remember that only one Authentication process is asked for the # password, so you can't have different passwords accessible through # different process definitions (unless they have different # auth_mechanisms, and you're ok with having different password for # each mechanisms). # Authentication process name. auth = default # Specifies how the client authenticates in the IMAP protocol. # Space separated list of permitted authentication mechanisms: # anonymous plain digest-md5 cram-md5 # # anonymous - No authentication required. # plain - The password is sent as plain text. All IMAP/POP3 clients # support this, and the password can be encrypted by Dovecot to match # any of the encryption schemes used in password databases. # digest-md5 and cram-md5 - both encrypt the password so it is more # secure in transit, but are not well supported by clients, and # require that the password database use a matching encryption # scheme (or be in plaintext). # # See auth.txt for more details. # # If you are using SSL there is less benefit to digest-md5 and # cram-md5 as the communication is already encrypted. auth_mechanisms = plain # Space separated list of realms for SASL authentication mechanisms that need # them. You can leave it empty if you don't want to support multiple realms. # Many clients simply use the first one listed here, so keep the default realm # first. #auth_realms = # Default realm/domain to use if none was specified. This is used for both # SASL realms and appending @domain to username in plaintext logins. #auth_default_realm = # User database specifies where mails are located and what user/group IDs # own them. For single-UID configuration use "static". # http://wiki.dovecot.org/Authentication # http://wiki.dovecot.org/VirtualUsers # passwd: /etc/passwd or similiar, using getpwnam() # passwd-file <path>: passwd-like file with specified location # static uid=<uid> gid=<gid> home=<dir template>: static settings # vpopmail: vpopmail library # ldap <config path>: LDAP, see /etc/dovecot/dovecot-ldap.conf # mysql <config path>: a MySQL database, see /etc/dovecot/dovecot-mysql.conf # pgsql <config path>: a PostgreSQL database, see # /etc/dovecot/dovecot-pgsql.conf auth_userdb = passwd #auth_userdb = static uid=139 gid=139 home=/home/users/%u/ # Password database specifies only the passwords for users. # http://wiki.dovecot.org/Authentication # passwd: /etc/passwd or similiar, using getpwnam() # shadow: /etc/shadow or similiar, using getspnam() # pam [<service> | *]: PAM authentication # passwd-file <path>: passwd-like file with specified location # vpopmail: vpopmail authentication # ldap <config path>: LDAP, see /etc/dovecot/dovecot-ldap.conf # mysql <config path>: a MySQL database, see /etc/dovecot/dovecot-mysql.conf # pgsql <config path>: a PostgreSQL database, see # /etc/dovecot/dovecot-pgsql.conf #auth_passdb = shadow auth_passdb = mysql /etc/dovecot/dovecot-mysql.conf #auth_executable = /usr/lib/dovecot/dovecot-auth # Set max. process size in megabytes. #auth_process_size = 256 # User to use for the process. This user needs access to only user and # password databases, nothing else. Only shadow and pam authentication # requires roots, so use something else if possible. Note that passwd # authentication with BSDs internally accesses shadow files, which also # requires roots. Note that this user is NOT used to access mails. # That user is specified by auth_userdb above. auth_user = root # Directory where to chroot the process. Most authentication backends don't # work if this is set, and there's no point chrooting if auth_user is root. #auth_chroot = # Number of authentication processes to create #auth_count = 1 # List of allowed characters in username. If the user-given username contains # a character not listed in here, the login automatically fails. This is just # an extra check to make sure user can't exploit any potential quote escaping # vulnerabilities with SQL/LDAP databases. If you want to allow all characters, # set this value to empty. #auth_username_chars = abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ01234567890.-_@ # Username to use for users logging in with ANONYMOUS SASL mechanism #auth_anonymous_username = anonymous # More verbose logging. Useful for figuring out why authentication isn't # working. #auth_verbose = no # Even more verbose logging for debugging purposes. Shows for example SQL # queries. #auth_debug = no # digest-md5 authentication process. It requires special MD5 passwords which # /etc/shadow and PAM doesn't support, so we never need roots to handle it. # Note that the passwd-file is opened before chrooting and dropping root # privileges, so it may be 0600-root owned file. #auth = digest_md5 #auth_mechanisms = digest-md5 #auth_realms = #auth_userdb = passwd-file /etc/passwd.imap #auth_passdb = passwd-file /etc/passwd.imap #auth_user = imapauth #auth_chroot = # if you plan to use only passwd-file, you don't need the two auth processes, # simply set "auth_methods = plain digest-md5" # For the mysql passdb module, you'll need a database with a table that # contains fields for at least the userid and password. If you want to # use the user@domain syntax, you might want to have a separate domain # field as well. # # If your users all have the same uig/gid, and have predictable home # directories, you can use the static userdb module to generate the home # dir based on the userid and domain. In this case, you won't need fields # for home, uid, or gid in the database. # # If you prefer to use the mysql userdb module, you'll want to add fields # for home, uid, and gid. Here is an example table: # # CREATE TABLE users ( # userid VARCHAR(128) NOT NULL, # password VARCHAR(64) NOT NULL, # home VARCHAR(256) NOT NULL, # uid INTEGER NOT NULL, # gid INTEGER NOT NULL, # active CHAR(1) DEFAULT 'Y' NOT NULL # ); db_host = localhost db_port = 3306 db_unix_socket = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock db = mail db_user = dovecot db_passwd = 3eDcVb db_client_flags = 0 # Default password scheme. # # Currently supported schemes include PLAIN, PLAIN-MD5, DIGEST-MD5, and CRYPT. # default_pass_scheme = CRYPT # Query to retrieve the password. # # The query should return one row, one column. If more than one row or column # is returned, authentication will automatically fail. # # Available substitutions: # %u = entire userid # %n = user part of user@domain # %d = domain part of user@domain # # Example: # password_query = SELECT password FROM users WHERE userid = '%n' AND domain = '%d' # password_query = SELECT password FROM users WHERE userid = '%u' AND active = 'Y' # password_query = SELECT password FROM enki_users WHERE username = '%u' # Query to retrieve the user information. # # The query must return only one row. The columns to return are: # home - Home directory # mail - MAIL environment # system_user - System user name (for initgroups()) # uid - System UID # gid - System GID # # Either home or mail is required. uid and gid are required. If more than one # row is returned or there's missing fields, login will automatically fail. # # Examples # user_query = SELECT home, uid, gid FROM users WHERE userid = '%n' AND domain = '%d' # user_query = SELECT dir AS home, user AS uid, group AS gid FROM users where userid = '%u' # user_query = SELECT home, 501 AS uid, 501 AS gid FROM users WHERE userid = '%u' # #user_query = SELECT home, uid, gid FROM users WHERE userid = '%u'

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[Dovecot] pop3 via tls
by jepoy 13 Feb '07

13 Feb '07

hi guys, i want to try pop3 using tls, just like smtp. is it possible ? i want to first create a secure tunnel before donwloading the mails. tnx -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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[Dovecot] Problems with HUP'ing dovecot
by Javier Henderson 13 Feb '07

13 Feb '07

Hi, I'm running dovecot 1.0.rc7 on FreeBSD 6.1, so far with great success. Earlier today I tried to HUP the main process, the following was logged: dovecot: Feb 12 15:10:19 Warning: SIGHUP received - reloading configuration dovecot: Feb 12 15:10:19 Panic: file ioloop-poll.c: line 105 (io_loop_handle_remove): assertion failed: (index >= 0 && (unsigned int) index < ctx->fds_count) Of possible interest: just prior to issuing the HUP I had edited the / etc/resolv.conf file to take out the first entry since that particular DNS server went off line. I noticed that login attempts to the POP and IMAP services were timing out and that's when I sent the HUP to dovecot. Any ideas? Thanks, -jav

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[Dovecot] mail_location and storage type
by Jürgen Herz 13 Feb '07

13 Feb '07

Hi, I was setting up a new system for testing Dovecot 1.0. My old one is using 0.99 and was set up quite a time ago, so I had to consult the documentation. I needed several attempts until it worked and that was because the designated maildir directory /server/mail/jrg/Maildir was completely empty. Upon login the server exited and wrote the following to the log: POP3(jrg): Ambiguous mail location setting, don't know what to do with it: /server/mail/jrg/Maildir (try prefixing it with mbox: or maildir:) POP3(jrg): Failed to create storage with data: /server/mail/jrg/Maildir That thing was the main cause of my confusion since the config wasn't ambiguous at all at already contained a prefix: mail_location = maildir:/server/mail/%u/Maildir The wiki article MailLocation doesn't contain any hint maildirs have to contain at least a cur subdirectory. That information I eventually got from mail-storages.txt - that file must be one for which the wiki isn't an alternative. So what is this mail about? 1. The log message is wrong or at least missleading. Would be fine if it could get improved. 2. Is there any reason at all to have a storage prefix but still require some special format for the directory in order to recognize it? 3. At least if the behaviour will stay, shouldn't the text from mail-storages.txt converted to a wiki article or incorporated into MailLocation? Regards, Juergen

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[Dovecot] Compiler warnings
by Stephen Lee 12 Feb '07

12 Feb '07

Hi, I'm trying to install Dovecot 1.0RC22 on an old Trustix 1.5 box and am getting the compiler warnings: quota-storage.c:275: warning: pointer of type `void *' used in arithmetic convert-storage.c:50: warning: pointer of type `void *' used in arithmetic acl-backend-vfile.c:212: warning: pointer of type `void *' used in arithmetic There are many more of these pointer warnings in the various modules when compiling. Is this a problem? Thanks, Stephen

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[Dovecot] Differences between IDLE when Maildir vs. wel the "mail" folder is used
by Philip Van Hoof 12 Feb '07

12 Feb '07

Are there any differences with how both IDLE and "UID FETCH n:n+x (FLAGS UID...)" are handled when Dovecot is using a "mail" vs. a "Maildir" user? I have recently implemented support for IDLE (Push E-mail) in a client infrastructure that I'm building. I haven't in depth checked out what the problem might be, but when Dovecot was using the "mail" dir in $HOME something about the implementation wasn't working. When I switched to "Maildir" everything worked. I only tested to the point of seeing the "* EXISTS n" response during the idle. I saw this response. It's for example possible that the n is wrong or that a bit later the "UID FETCH ..." ain't returning the right information. It's also possible that my implementation is wrong (of course) and I haven't yet had the time to really figure out what goes wrong. I did so far, however, test with Cyrus, Exchange, Courier and Isode's M-Box. All these tests where successful. SO if it indeed is a discrepancy in my implementation .. it's going to be something very specialised or specific I fear :-) I also setup testing infrastructure http://tinymail.org/trac/tinymail/wiki/TestImapServers Also take a careful look at this manual test. "tnytest" is a user on imap2.tinymail.org that uses Maildir. The "tnytest2" user doesn't have a Maildir configured. By that I mean that "Dovecot" has created the folder for E-mail using whatever it uses by default. Dovecot's IDLE (the EXISTS) responses also take a lot longer on tnytest2 than on tnytest. Another question. Why not simply "always" use the Maildir solution if that one works better? ;-) (really, honest question. Hehe). Take a look at the "UID FETCH" response: It's incorrect on tnytest2. The first attempt I asked for 1:1 and I got none. The second I asked for 1:4 and I got 3 of them, while IDLE clearly stated that there where 4 messages available. In reality 4 where indeed available (or copied in total). Well, I'm not saying something is or isn't wrong, just wondering and testing a little bit and seeing some strange results... Feel free to use imap2.tinymail.org for testing. And if you need root on that virtual machine, so that you can install a new version, go ahead. On http://imap2.tinymail.org you van find things like version information (it's a CVS snapshot). pvanhoof@lort:~$ telnet imap2.tinymail.org Trying 86.39.154.77... telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection refused pvanhoof@lort:~$ telnet imap2.tinymail.org 143 Trying 86.39.154.77... Connected to imap2.tinymail.org. Escape character is '^]'. * OK Dovecot ready. ao1 login tnytest tnytest ao1 OK Logged in. a01 select INBOX * FLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Deleted \Seen \Draft) * OK [PERMANENTFLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Deleted \Seen \Draft \*)] Flags permitted. * 1 EXISTS * 0 RECENT * OK [UIDVALIDITY 1171049606] UIDs valid * OK [UIDNEXT 2] Predicted next UID a01 OK [READ-WRITE] Select completed. a04 IDLE + idling * 2 EXISTS DONE a04 OK Idle completed. UID FETCH 1:2 (FLAGS UID) * 1 FETCH (FLAGS (\Seen) UID 1) * 2 FETCH (FLAGS (\Seen) UID 2) UID OK Fetch completed. ^] telnet> quit Connection closed. pvanhoof@lort:~$ telnet imap2.tinymail.org 143 Trying 86.39.154.77... Connected to imap2.tinymail.org. Escape character is '^]'. * OK Dovecot ready. a01 login tnytest2 tnytest a01 OK Logged in. a01 select INBOX * FLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Deleted \Seen \Draft) * OK [PERMANENTFLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Deleted \Seen \Draft \*)] Flags permitted. * 0 EXISTS * 0 RECENT * OK [UIDVALIDITY 1171107413] UIDs valid * OK [UIDNEXT 1] Predicted next UID a01 OK [READ-WRITE] Select completed. a04 IDLE + idling * 1 EXISTS DONE a04 OK Idle completed. a05 UID FETCH 1:1 (FLAGS UID) a05 OK Fetch completed. a04 IDLE + idling * 4 EXISTS DONE a04 OK Idle completed. a06 UID FETCH 1:4 (FLAGS UID) * 1 FETCH (FLAGS (\Seen) UID 2) * 2 FETCH (FLAGS (\Seen) UID 3) * 3 FETCH (FLAGS (\Seen) UID 4) a06 OK Fetch completed. -- Philip Van Hoof, software developer home: me at pvanhoof dot be gnome: pvanhoof at gnome dot org http://www.pvanhoof.be/blog

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[Dovecot] PLAIN-MD5 password scheme with salt?
by Steffen Weber 12 Feb '07

12 Feb '07

Hello! I'm storing passwords as MD5 hashes in a MySQL database and have specified "default_pass_scheme = PLAIN-MD5" in dovecot-sql.conf. Can Dovecot append or prepend a salt to a password before hashing them? Because without salt the plaintext passwords can be restored from the MD5 hashes using rainbow tables. Greetings Steffen Weber

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[Dovecot] mbox and dual-use folders?
by John Robinson 12 Feb '07

12 Feb '07

Feature request: please can we have support for messages stored in mbox files, but folders containing both messages and folders. I think this could be done for a folder called e.g. dovecot-list by having an mbox file called dovecot-list and a directory called dovecot-list.folder (or whatever, says he handwaving away name clashes which can be worked around like they are in maildirs). This may be a subset or variant of http://wiki.dovecot.org/FeatMboxMaildir Cheers, John.

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[Dovecot] IMAP/POP3 server with proxy feature
by Jasper Bryant-Greene 12 Feb '07

12 Feb '07

We are currently evaluating the migration from a proprietary, legacy mail server onto Dovecot for 20,000+ virtual domains. This is a big job and we intend to do it by initially proxying connections through to the legacy server, and moving customers over in batches by turning off the proxy feature for them. In the manual it states "This model is still a bit unfinished in current code" [1]. What is needed to get this production-quality? I'm happy to help out with any work required. [1] http://wiki.dovecot.org/ImapProxy -- Jasper Bryant-Greene Director Album Limited jasper(a)albumltd.co.nz +64 21 708 334 / 0800 425 286 http://www.albumltd.co.nz/

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