On 08/21/2026 12:47 PM MDT Pat Suwalski via dovecot <dovecot@dovecot.org> wrote:
I recently upgraded my servers from Debian Bullseye to Trixie (2.3 -> 2.4).
I have a pretty basic config, though I use Maildir instead of Debian's default of mbox.
In the process of getting things working correctly for the new config format, I believe I have stumbled on a bug.
To make the inbox work correctly, I need the mail_inbox_path variable to be unset. This is because the default shipped 10-mail.conf file from Debian has:
mail_driver = mbox mail_home = /home/%{user | username} mail_path = %{home}/mail mail_inbox_path = /var/mail/%{user}
So, I overrode the mail_driver and mail_path in my local.conf. From the documentation, it seems like I should be able to set:
mail_inbox_path =
And that should clear it. Certainly, doveconf shows no mail_inbox_path variable set when that happens. However, no inbox! If I comment out mail_inbox_path from 10-mail.conf, doveconf output is identical, however the inbox works.
My workaround is to make it the same as mail_path:
mail_inbox_path = ~/Maildir
However, I think the variable unsetting is buggy.
See https://doc.dovecot.org/2.4.4/core/summaries/settings.html#mail_inbox_path , specifically the WARNING box.
michael