Hi Aki,
Again, thanks very much for your response. Your solution of adding the colons worked. Actually, I futzed with it a little bit and it works with as few as 2 added colons.
This is interesting since in the examples section of https://doc.dovecot.org/configuration_manual/authentication/passwd_file/ it explicitly states:
-----------------------
This file can be used as a passdb:
user:{plain}password
user2:{plain}password2
-----------------------
So I took that to mean it could also be used as a userdb (since I couldn’t find anything explicitly defining the minimum allowed userdb) as long as the needed values of UID, GID and HOME were somehow provided (in my case, these were set in global configuration). The examples had default_fields values provided for UID, GID and HOME, so I moved the setting of those fields there and tried again in case that was what was messing things up.
Here is the revised doveconf -n:
# 2.2.36 (1f10bfa63): /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
# OS: Linux 3.10.0-1062.12.1.el7.x86_64 x86_64 CentOS Linux release 7.7.1908 (Core)
# Hostname: imap
first_valid_uid = 1000
listen = 192.168.1.207
mail_location = sdbox:~/mail
mbox_write_locks = fcntl
namespace inbox {
inbox = yes
location =
mailbox Drafts {
special_use = \Drafts
}
mailbox Junk {
special_use = \Junk
}
mailbox Sent {
special_use = \Sent
}
mailbox "Sent Messages" {
special_use = \Sent
}
mailbox Trash {
special_use = \Trash
}
prefix =
separator = /
}
passdb {
args = scheme=PLAIN username_format=%u /etc/dovecot/users
driver = passwd-file
}
protocols = imap lmtp
service lmtp {
group = vmail
unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/dovecot-lmtp {
group = postfix
mode = 0600
user = postfix
}
user = vmail
}
ssl = no
ssl_cert = </etc/pki/dovecot/certs/dovecot.pem
ssl_key = # hidden, use -P to show it
userdb {
args = username_format=%u /etc/dovecot/users
default_fields = uid=vmail gid=vmail home=/var/vmail/%d/%n
driver = passwd-file
}
But when I tried logging in again, I had the same results. It only works with the 2 extra colons at the end of each passwd-file record.
I’m not sure if this makes it a bug, a lapse in documentation or if there was something I missed that explains all this. What do you think?
In the end I now have my fix, so I very much appreciate your assistance.
Thanks,
Scott