How to use virtual "All" and "Flagged" mailbox?

26 Jan 2022


      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:
[snippet]
drwxrwx---.  5 vmail vmail   135 Jan 25 17:01  .virtual.All/
drwxrwx---.  5 vmail vmail   158 Jan 25 17:14  .virtual.Flagged/
[.virtual.Flagged]# ll
total 20
drwxrwx---.  5 vmail vmail  158 Jan 25 17:14 ./
drwxrwx---. 20 vmail vmail 4096 Jan 25 17:33 ../
drwxrwx---.  2 vmail vmail    6 Jan 25 16:58 cur/
-rw-rw----.  1 vmail vmail  868 Jan 25 16:58 dovecot.index.cache
-rw-rw----.  1 vmail vmail  384 Jan 25 17:01 dovecot.index.log
-rw-rw----.  1 vmail vmail   51 Jan 25 17:01 dovecot-uidlist
-rw-r--r--.  1 vmail vmail    8 Jan 25 17:14 dovecot-virtual
-rw-rw----.  1 vmail vmail    0 Jan 25 16:58 maildirfolder
drwxrwx---.  2 vmail vmail    6 Jan 25 16:58 new/
drwxrwx---.  2 vmail vmail    6 Jan 25 16:58 tmp
[.virtual.Flagged]# cat dovecot-virtual
*
flagged
Side note: This set-up uses the php-imap library to interact with Dovecot.
Any help, or just concept of how the virtual/All virtual/Flagged
directories work would be really appreciated.
CONFIGURATION:
dovecot -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: [DOMAIN REDACTED]
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 {
location = virtual:/home/vmail/%d/%n/Maildir/virtual:LAYOUT=maildir++
prefix = virtual.
separator = .
type = private
}
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 = create
comment = All my messages
special_use = \All
}
mailbox virtual.Flagged {
auto = create
comment = All my flagged messages
special_use = \Flagged
}
prefix = INBOX.
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/[DOMAIN REDACTED]/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@[DOMAIN REDACTED]
}
protocol pop3 {
pop3_uidl_format = %08Xu%08Xv
}
protocol imap {
mail_plugins = " quota imap_quota virtual"
}

A B

When I view the user's directory I see these folders were created:

Aki Tuomi

When I view the user's directory I see these folders were created:

A B

When I view the user's directory I see these folders were created:

Aki Tuomi

When I view the user's directory I see these folders were created:

A B

When I view the user's directory I see these folders were created:

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