I wanted to follow-up on my own message, because I have devised a usable work-around for the situation I described yesterday.

======= dovecont.conf snippet ========= userdb passwd-file { # Path for passwd-file args = /usr/local/etc/userdb.dovecot }

userdb passwd { }

where the userdb.dovecot file has entries of the form: joeuser:x:61375:20:Joe User:/home/joeuser:/bin/false::maildir:/home/joeuser/Maildir:INBOX=/var/spool/mail/joeuser/

Comments:

• This works, in terms of having "inbox=" properly defined for maildir users.

• I will be placing entries for each maildir user in this userdb.dovecot file (letting mbox users get handled properly by auto-detect of default_mail_env).

• I had to move the "userdb passwd" block _below_ the "userdb passwd-file" block in dovecot.conf to force it find my special entries first.

• I am pleased that I was able to get away with a literal 'x' (a la shadow password files) in this file, due to "passdb" and "userdb" being handled separately. Nice design of dovecot's!

This arrangement gives me the granularity to mix mbox and maildir users, as I desired.

My question: Although this is a functioning work-around, is there something I am not understanding or why is auto-detect not working?

Thanks in advance,

David