Chris,

You're my hero! That worked. Please tell me what section of the Wiki you found that in (I did a search and did not find -- I would expect to see it in the SCENARIOS section - but did not find it there either).

Also, if the Wiki does not show the various formats of the default_mail_env parameter, could you please let me know where I could find more? That is probably the most important parameter I've been working with and I've found virtually nothing about it in the documentation. I've found a few samples in Google, but nothing relevant to my situation. Before I go live with this server, I'd like to know more about that line.

Also, I didn't fine a "userdb" parameter in the dovecot.conf file. The Wiki instructions below state: "Set users' home directory to /tmp in userdb" -- but no example as to how to do that.

Thanks!

Cliff

-----Original Message----- From: dovecot-bounces@dovecot.org [mailto:dovecot-bounces@dovecot.org]On Behalf Of Chris Wakelin Sent: Wednesday, November 02, 2005 10:19 AM To: Cliff Hayes Cc: dovecot@dovecot.org Subject: Re: [Dovecot] New Fedora/Sendmail Install Assistance

You only need a folder directory for each user if you're using IMAP (and want IMAP folders) but Dovecot needs to be told where to store indexes for each user. I'm not sure whether it works with Dovecot 0.99 (which is pretty old now) but with later versions (e.g. 1.0-alpha4) you can store indexes in memory, but you'll lose some of the benefits of Dovecot, especially if your users leave mail on the server.

From the Wiki (http://wiki.dovecot.org/):

Only /var/mail mboxes

If you really want to use Dovecot as a plain POP3 server without index files, you can work around the problem of not having the per-user directory:

• Set users' home directory to /tmp in userdb

• Modify default_mail_env setting so that the mail root directory is also /tmp and append :INDEX=MEMORY to it. For example: default_mail_env = mbox:/tmp:INBOX=/var/mail/%u:INDEX=MEMORY

• Make sure that the users don't have IMAP access, or they can start writing to /tmp and accidentally share mail with others users

Instead of /tmp directory you can use some other non-writable directory which could be safer.

Or, I guess, "mbox:/tmp:INBOX=/var/mail/%u:INDEX=/var/indexes/%u" to have per-user indexes. I think "/dev/null" might work instead of "/tmp"; you could give it a try!

Chris

Cliff Hayes wrote:

Jakob,

I don't want to use IMAP. So, from what you are saying, Dovecot is not for me then. Thanks for the info.

Cliff

-----Original Message----- From: dovecot-bounces@dovecot.org [mailto:dovecot-bounces@dovecot.org]On Behalf Of Jakob Hirsch Sent: Wednesday, November 02, 2005 9:11 AM To: Cliff Hayes Cc: dovecot@dovecot.org Subject: RE: [Dovecot] New Fedora/Sendmail Install Assistance

Please keep list traffic on the list!

Cliff Hayes wrote:

...

We are using Dovecot 0.99.14

Ok. Haven't used this for quite a while, so I don't know if I can really help you.

...

auth_userdb = passwd auth_passdb = shadow

Dovecot uses the homedir that's in your passwd then.

But I wonder how you want to use IMAP. AFAIK, it needs a separate directory for every user anyway. At least the indexes etc. have to be stored somewhere.

You should really read doc/mail-storages.txt: "mbox storage requires an IMAP root directory where to store IMAP folders and some other information..."

I you can't provide a directory for every user, dovecot is probably not the software for you.

-- --+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+- Christopher Wakelin, c.d.wakelin@reading.ac.uk IT Services Centre, The University of Reading, Tel: +44 (0)118 378 8439 Whiteknights, Reading, RG6 2AF, UK Fax: +44 (0)118 975 3094