[Dovecot] 2nd REPOST: mbox vs maildir
I'm going to assume this is just not possible, or that no one has an answer, which would lead me back to uw-imap since it does work as-is. So I'll post it again, hoping that there is a solution for this setup and that folks have just been too busy to help think about it and/or help come up with a possible solution.
Ignoring my previous message just for a second, I realized that myconfig wasn't correct. First the layout:
~mail/
~mail/Drafts
~mail/Ashley-Feb09
~mail/Others-Feb09
~mail-Archives/
~mail-Archives/2009/
~mail-Archives/2009/Ashley/
~mail-Archives/2009/Ashley/Ashley-Dec09
~mail-Archives/2009/Ashley/Ashley-Nov09
~mail-Archives/2009/Ashley/Ashley-Oct09
So I (now) have this for namespaces:namespace private { separator = / prefix = "mail/" location = mbox:~/mail:INBOX=/var/mail/%u inbox = yes hidden = no list = yes # for v1.1+ }
namespace private { separator = / prefix = "mail-Archives/" location = maildir:~/mail-Archives:LAYOUT=fs inbox = no hidden = no list = yes subscriptions = yes }
But when I'm in Thunderbird and I try to subscribe to anything thatfalls inside of ~/mail-Archives/ it won't work. I can browser all the way down to the folder, but I can't see anything within that folder.
For example, consider the full path to the following 'Ashley-Dec09'mailbox:
~mail-Archives/2009/Ashley/Ashley-Dec09
In Thunderbird, when I hit 'Subscribe' I can browse down to '2009'and I can see 'Ashley', but I can't drill down into it and subscribe to 'Ashley-Jan09'.
What am I missing here?Ashley M. Kirchner put forth on 2/17/2010 9:46 AM:
Hi Ashley, sorry no one had tried to help you yet. I'm not a dovecot expert, just a user, but I'll try to help.
Not to be a jerk, but there is stuff in this folder, yes? What version of T-Bird, on what OS?
Do you have any other IMAP clients working in this scenario, such as Outlook, Eudora, or webmail such as Roundcube or Squirrelmail? Eliminate the client as the source of the problem first, then troubleshoot dovecot. You can't know if it's a dovecot problem if you're only testing with one client.
Test a couple of others clients and see if they suffer this problem. I use TB 3.0.1, but I'm all mbox format here, so I can't duplicate your issue.
Also, these folders already existed, correct? T-Bird did not create them, correct? If you can, within TB, create another folder tree the same number of layers deep, and see if you run into the same or similar problems. Perform this test with two other IMAP clients as well.
-- Stan
On Wed, 2010-02-17 at 08:46 -0700, Ashley M. Kirchner wrote:
Things would probably be simpler if you used prefix="" here.
location = mbox:~/mail:INBOX=/var/mail/%u
So you've mboxes..
Are these really maildirs? Seems like exactly the opposite of what they're good at :) (Maildir is good for active mails, mbox for unchanging archives.)
Timo Sirainen wrote:
/var/mail/%u
where the user's INBOX resides
/home/%u/mail/
where all the *active* mailboxes are, for example things
they pull out of INBOX and put in these boxes for short
term and they refer to them daily
/home/%u/mail-Archives/
this is where long term archives are, this is stuff that
comes OUT of their /home/%u/mail/ and put here, and always
stored in a yearly hierarchy, for example:
/home/%u/mail-Archives/2009/Ashley/Ashley-Dec09
/home/%u/mail-Archives/2009/Ashley/Ashley-Nov09
/home/%u/mail-Archives/2010/Ashley/Ashley-Jan10
etc.
So, am I using the wrong setup for the namespaces? Possibly, I went by what I found online. This is the first time I've ever tried to run Dovecot. Previously we ran uw-imap.
AOn Thu, 2010-02-18 at 09:52 -0700, Ashley M. Kirchner wrote:
I'd think other people would also hate that. I would. :) Anyway, if it's intentional then be sure to set subscriptions=yes for that namespace too (although I think it's default anyway).
mbox and maildir are completely different mailbox formats. In mbox a single file contains all messages, while in maildir each message is in a different file.
So Ahsley-Dec09 is a file? It sounds like you're using mbox, so you should use:
location = mbox:~/Mail-Archives
(the :LAYOUT=fs is unnecessary, because it's the default with mboxes anyway.)
It's probably a good use of namespaces, although it would be simpler if you just put archives under ~/mail/Archives/.
Timo Sirainen wrote:
namespace private { separator = / prefix = "mail/" location = mbox:~/mail:INBOX=/var/mail/%u inbox = yes hidden = no list = no # for v1.1+ }
namespace private { separator = / prefix = "mail-Archives/" location = mbox:~/mail-Archives inbox = no hidden = no list = yes subscriptions = yes }
Now when I open Outlook, I get nothing except the INBOX. I can't see anything else. When I go into 'IMAP Folders' and hit refresh, I see
the INBOX file, and the tree for 'mail-Archives', but I can't see any
files (mailboxes) within that tree, so I can't subscribe to anything.
The 'mail/' namespace doesn't seem to exist since it doesn't show up at all.
Checking Thunderbird, I can see and subscribe to anything in 'mail/', but like Outlook I can only see the tree in 'mail-Archives' but I can't see the individual files (mailboxes) within the folders to be able to subscribe to them.
-- W | It's not a bug - it's an undocumented feature. +-------------------------------------------------------------------- Ashley M. Kirchner <mailto:ashley@pcraft.com> . 303.442.6410 x130 IT Director / SysAdmin / Websmith . 800.441.3873 x130 Photo Craft Imaging . 2901 55th Street http://www.pcraft.com ..... . . . Boulder, CO 80301, U.S.A.
On Thu, 2010-02-18 at 10:21 -0700, Ashley M. Kirchner wrote:
Those look correct.
Well, clients can become confused a bit too easily. Try talking IMAP protocol directly: http://wiki.dovecot.org/TestInstallation
After logging in, the important commands to try would be:
a LIST "" * b LSUB "" * c SELECT mail-Archive/something-that-actually-exists d SUBSCRIBE mail-Archive/something-that-actually-exists
Where does it fail?
Timo Sirainen wrote:
Ok, we're getting closer. It failed when selecting a mailbox, permission denied. And I figured out why ... for some reason when the user was cloned from the old server to this one, their -x bit didn't stick for that mail-Archives/ folder. Now that that's fixed, I *can* see and *can* subscribe to the individual mailboxes within any of the archived folders.
But, there's a big difference between how Thunderbird sees things and what Outlook sees, and I'm almost certain it's a problem with the client:
Thunderbird will see exactly what I have subscribed to, stuff in mail/ and stuff in mail-Archives/. Outlook will *not* see mail/, at all. And it *will* see *everything* that's in mail-Archives/, whether I'm subscribed to it or not, it shows up. That's ... kind of annoying to say the least.
Timo Sirainen wrote:
-- W | It's not a bug - it's an undocumented feature. +-------------------------------------------------------------------- Ashley M. Kirchner <mailto:ashley@pcraft.com> . 303.442.6410 x130 IT Director / SysAdmin / Websmith . 800.441.3873 x130 Photo Craft Imaging . 2901 55th Street http://www.pcraft.com ..... . . . Boulder, CO 80301, U.S.A.
Ashley M. Kirchner wrote:
a) I had 'list = no' in the 'mail/' namespace. Setting it to 'yes' allows Outlook to now see that namespace correctly. However, b) Every time Outlook gets launched, both the 'mail/' and 'mail-Archives/' show up briefly, then disappear. I have to hit a 'Update Folder List' for them to re-appear.
The last issue I'm not sure is actually a Dovecot problem though. But if anyone else is having this behavior, I would love to hear if there's a solution.
-- W | It's not a bug - it's an undocumented feature. +-------------------------------------------------------------------- Ashley M. Kirchner <mailto:ashley@pcraft.com> . 303.442.6410 x130 IT Director / SysAdmin / Websmith . 800.441.3873 x130 Photo Craft Imaging . 2901 55th Street http://www.pcraft.com ..... . . . Boulder, CO 80301, U.S.A.
Spoke too fast. I can't move mailboxes across namespaces. Is that a limitation? For example, if I have a mailbox in 'mail/' that I want to move into 'mail-Archives/' I get an error saying:
The current command did not succeed. The mail server responded: Can't rename mailbox to another storage type.
This is through Thunderbird. I was able to do this with uw-imap.-- W | It's not a bug - it's an undocumented feature. +-------------------------------------------------------------------- Ashley M. Kirchner <mailto:ashley@pcraft.com> . 303.442.6410 x130 IT Director / SysAdmin / Websmith . 800.441.3873 x130 Photo Craft Imaging . 2901 55th Street http://www.pcraft.com ..... . . . Boulder, CO 80301, U.S.A.
Timo Sirainen wrote:
Yeah, Dovecot v1.2 doesn't like this. v2.0 allows it though.
In that case, Timo you have solved all of my configuration problems today. With Dovecot 2.0 still in beta, I'll just sit back and wait.
Thank you very much for all your help today!
My next task? Figuring out mail quotas ... just my kinda day.
participants (3)
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Ashley M. Kirchner
-
Stan Hoeppner
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Timo Sirainen