Thank you Aki.

I have updated as you suggested:

10-mail.conf
namespace virtual {
location = virtual:/etc/dovecot/virtual:INDEX=~/.virtual:CONTROL=~/.virtual:VOLATILEDIR=~/.virtual/
type = private
#prefix = virtual.
separator = .
}

I manually added the directory structure and files:
[dovecot]# ll
total 32
drwxr-xr-x. 5 root root 121 Jan 31 14:41 ./
drwxr-xr-x. 115 root root 8192 Jan 31 11:05 ../
drwxr-xr-x. 3 root root 57 Jan 7 10:27 bak/
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4096 Jan 25 15:05 conf.d/
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 2658 Jan 25 16:52 dovecot.conf
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 4391 Oct 8 2019 dovecot.conf-backup
-rw-r-----. 1 root dovecot 280 Jan 25 10:41 dovecot-sql.conf.ext
drwxr-xr-x. 4 root root 32 Jan 31 14:41 virtual/
[dovecot]# ll virtual/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x. 4 root root 32 Jan 31 14:41 ./
drwxr-xr-x. 5 root root 121 Jan 31 14:41 ../
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 29 Jan 31 14:41 All/
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 29 Jan 31 14:41 Flagged/
[dovecot]# ll virtual/All/
total 4
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 29 Jan 31 14:41 ./
drwxr-xr-x. 4 root root 32 Jan 31 14:41 ../
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 10 Jan 31 14:31 dovecot-virtual
[]# cat virtual/All/dovecot-virtual
*
all

I restarted the dovecot service. When I request to see the emails in the virtual "All" folder (e.g. virtual.All), just like I would do with say the Inbox or Trash folder, the virtual* folder gets created in the user directory, but no emails are "found" or returned.

[Maildir]# pwd
/home/vmail/example.com/user.name/Maildir
[Maildir]# ll
total 80
drwxrwx---. 20 vmail vmail 4096 Jan 31 14:31 ./
drwxrwx---. 4 vmail vmail 37 Jan 31 14:19 ../
drwxrwx---. 5 vmail vmail 135 Jan 25 11:26 .Archive/
drwx------. 2 vmail vmail 4096 Jan 31 14:28 cur/
-rw-rw----. 1 vmail vmail 896 Jan 25 17:10 dovecot.index
-rw-rw----. 1 vmail vmail 22596 Jan 31 14:01 dovecot.index.cache
-rw-rw----. 1 vmail vmail 11160 Jan 31 14:28 dovecot.index.log
-rw-rw----. 1 vmail vmail 1896 Jan 28 17:15 dovecot.list.index
-rw-rw----. 1 vmail vmail 7752 Jan 31 14:36 dovecot.list.index.log
-rw-rw----. 1 vmail vmail 384 Jan 25 15:32 dovecot.mailbox.log
-rw-rw----. 1 vmail vmail 1887 Jan 25 11:35 dovecot-uidlist
-rw-rw----. 1 vmail vmail 8 Jan 31 14:31 dovecot-uidvalidity
-r--r--r--. 1 vmail vmail 0 Jan 24 16:35 dovecot-uidvalidity.61ef29a3
drwxrwx---. 5 vmail vmail 183 Jan 28 17:22 .Drafts/
drwxrwx---. 5 vmail vmail 135 Jan 25 11:24 .Junk/
-rw-rw----. 1 vmail vmail 1130 Jan 28 17:37 maildirsize
drwx------. 2 vmail vmail 6 Jan 25 11:34 new/
drwxrwx---. 5 vmail vmail 135 Jan 31 04:29 .Sent/
drwxrwx---. 5 vmail vmail 135 Jan 25 10:51 '.Sent Messages'/
-rw-rw----. 1 vmail vmail 43 Jan 25 10:50 subscriptions
drwx------. 2 vmail vmail 6 Jan 25 11:35 tmp/
drwxrwx---. 5 vmail vmail 135 Jan 25 13:23 .Trash/
drwxrwx---. 5 vmail vmail 135 Jan 31 14:36 .virtual.All/
drwxrwx---. 5 vmail vmail 135 Jan 31 14:28 .virtual.Flagged/
[Maildir]ll .virtual.All/
total 16
drwxrwx---. 5 vmail vmail 135 Jan 31 14:36 ./
drwxrwx---. 20 vmail vmail 4096 Jan 31 14:31 ../
drwxrwx---. 2 vmail vmail 6 Jan 31 14:31 cur/
-rw-rw----. 1 vmail vmail 868 Jan 31 14:31 dovecot.index.cache
-rw-rw----. 1 vmail vmail 472 Jan 31 14:36 dovecot.index.log
-rw-rw----. 1 vmail vmail 51 Jan 31 14:36 dovecot-uidlist
-rw-rw----. 1 vmail vmail 0 Jan 31 14:31 maildirfolder
drwxrwx---. 2 vmail vmail 6 Jan 31 14:31 new/
drwxrwx---. 2 vmail vmail 6 Jan 31 14:31 tmp/

Any suggestions what I should work on next to troubleshoot? Again, my goal is to be able to "fetch" all emails with the virtual.All, and all "flagged" emails with virtual.Flagged.

Thank you.

---
[]# doveconf -n
# 2.3.8 (9df20d2db): /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
# OS: Linux 4.18.0-348.2.1.el8_5.x86_64 x86_64 CentOS Linux release 8.5.2111 xfs
# Hostname: example.com
auth_debug = yes
auth_verbose = yes
auth_verbose_passwords = yes
first_valid_uid = 1000
lda_mailbox_autocreate = yes
log_timestamp = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S "
mail_location = maildir:/home/vmail/%d/%n/Maildir
mail_plugins = " quota"
mbox_write_locks = fcntl
namespace inbox {
inbox = yes
location =
mailbox Archive {
auto = subscribe
special_use = \Archive
}
mailbox Drafts {
auto = subscribe
special_use = \Drafts
}
mailbox Junk {
auto = subscribe
special_use = \Junk
}
mailbox Sent {
auto = subscribe
special_use = \Sent
}
mailbox "Sent Messages" {
auto = subscribe
special_use = \Sent
}
mailbox Trash {
auto = subscribe
special_use = \Trash
}
mailbox virtual.All {
auto = subscribe
comment = All my messages
special_use = \All
}
mailbox virtual.Flagged {
auto = subscribe
comment = All my flagged messages
special_use = \Flagged
}
prefix = INBOX.
separator = .
type = private
}
namespace virtual {
location = virtual:/etc/dovecot/virtual:INDEX=~/.virtual:CONTROL=~/.virtual:VOLATILEDIR=~/.virtual/
prefix =
separator = .
type = private
}
passdb {
args = /etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf.ext
driver = sql
}
passdb {
driver = pam
}
plugin {
quota = maildir:User quota
quota_grace = 10%%
quota_max_mail_size = 30M
quota_rule = *:storage=100M
quota_rule2 = INBOX.Trash:storage=+10M
quota_status_nouser = DUNNO
quota_status_overquota = 552 5.2.2 Mailbox is full
quota_status_success = DUNNO
}
protocols = imap pop3
service auth-worker {
user = root
}
service auth {
unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/auth {
group = postfix
mode = 0666
user = postfix
}
unix_listener auth-master {
mode = 0600
user = vmail
}
unix_listener auth-userdb {
mode = 0600
user = vmail
}
user = dovecot
}
service imap-login {
inet_listener imaps {
port = 993
ssl = yes
}
}
service pop3-login {
inet_listener pop3s {
port = 995
ssl = yes
}
}
service quota-status {
client_limit = 1
executable = quota-status -p postfix
inet_listener {
port = 12340
}
}
service stats {
unix_listener stats-reader {
group = vmail
mode = 0660
user = vmail
}
unix_listener stats-writer {
group = vmail
mode = 0660
user = vmail
}
}
ssl = required
ssl_cert = </etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem
ssl_cipher_list = PROFILE=SYSTEM
ssl_key = # hidden, use -P to show it
userdb {
args = uid=5000 gid=5000 home=/home/vmail/%d/%n allow_all_users=yes
driver = static
}
userdb {
driver = passwd
}
protocol lda {
auth_socket_path = /var/run/dovecot/auth-master
log_path = /home/vmail/dovecot-deliver.log
postmaster_address = postmaster@example.com
}
protocol pop3 {
pop3_uidl_format = %08Xu%08Xv
}
protocol imap {
mail_plugins = " quota imap_quota virtual"
}

On Mon, Jan 31, 2022 at 12:30 AM Aki Tuomi <aki.tuomi@open-xchange.com> wrote:

> On 26/01/2022 19:48 A B <alex.bryant@trancos.com> wrote:
>
>
> Hello,
>
> I'm trying to use the virtual "All" and "Flagged" mailboxes as described in 15-mailboxes.conf.
>
> The information here (https://doc.dovecot.org/configuration_manual/virtual_plugin/) doesn't really touch on how to actually interact with the virtual mailboxes.
>
> My presumption is that when I mark an email message in the Inbox as FLAGGED (and I can confirm the \Flagged flag has been set) then I should then be able to either (1) see a copy of that message in the virtual.Flagged folder, or (2) when I use an imap command to get the message nums or whatever from the virtual.Flagged folder/mailbox, it should return the message that is flagged in the inbox as a result.
>
> Additionally, I'm presuming that for each new user that automatically gets added, I would have to create my own script that would add the dovecot-virtual file, dovecot doesn't do that on its own.
>
> When I view the user's directory I see these folders were created:
> ---

<snip/>

You usually use these global virtual folders like this:

namespace virtual {
location = virtual:/etc/dovecot/virtual:INDEX=~/.virtual:CONTROL=~/.virtual:VOLATILEDIR=~/.virtual/
... rest of the settings
}

Then you create the dovecot-virtual files under /etc/dovecot/virtual like

/etc/dovecot/virtual/Flagged/dovecot-virtual

This lets you creat them automatically for all users.

Aki