I'm using dovecot 2.3.18 with a fairly recent version of postfix

on my Debian-11 box.

I have a question, and I'm not sure whether it pertains to

dovecot, postfix, or both. I'm asking first here, but I'm glad

to go to a postfix forum if it turns out that my question

doesn't pertain to dovecot.

On my server, account management in both dovecot and

postfix is managed by the same mysql database, and postfix

is configured to use dovecot's authentication mechanism.

I have an email address which I do not want to be seen as

one which can be accessed for imap nor pop3. However, I

want to receive email to that address, and I, myself, still do

want to be able to use imap or pop3 in order to access

email that is sent to that address.

I have something I want to try in order to accomplish this, but

before I do, I want to make sure that no one can see any issues

or "gotchas" with the following approach, or perhaps that there

is an easier, more straightforward way to accomplish what I want

to do:

Assume the email address in question is "myemail@domain.com",

and assume that I own and manage the "domain.com" domain.

(1) Create another email address called "other@domain.com",

and set it up with the same configuration as is currently set up

for "myemail@domain.com"

(2) In all my email clients, set the outgoing mail address and

reply-to address for "other@domain.com" to be "myemail@domain.com".

This way, all outgoing email from "other@domain.com" will look

like it is being sent from "myemail@domain.com".

(3) Change "myemail.com" (in the database used by dovecot

and postfix) from being a bona-fide email address into

becoming simply a forwarding email alias for "other@domain.com".

(4) In all my email clients, change the inbox that I previously used

for "myemail@domain.com" to now be associated with

"other@domain.com".

So ... if anyone sends email to "myemail@domain.com", it will

automatically go to the "other@domain.com" inbox. And when I reply

to those emails, the sender and reply-to addresses will still be

"myemail@domain.com".

And now, dovecot will no longer see "myemail@domain.com" as a

mailbox from which email can be retrieved. And I will still be able to

retrieve that email via imap or pop3 from the "other@domain.com"

account.

Do you folks think this will work? And again, is there perhaps a

simpler way to accomplish this?

Thank you in advance for any thoughts and suggestions.

--
 hippoman@gmail.com
 Take a hippopotamus to lunch today.