[Dovecot] Can't see existing mail folders
I have installed dovecot version 0.99.11 on my Slackware 10.1 system recently and it basically works as expected. However I can't get it to 'see' existing mbox hierarchies.
I have the following in dovecot.conf:- default_mail_env = mbox:/home/%u/Mail:INBOX=/var/mail/%u
(I also originally tried with %h/Mail)
IMAP MUAs can see the INBOX OK but I can't get them to see any of the mail in $HOME/Mail. There certainly is lots of mail there, 250Mb or so of it, and a local mutt can see it without problems.
Am I missing something obvious or will dovecot only see mail and folders that it's created itself?
-- Chris Green (chris@areti.co.uk)
"Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."On Tue, 2005-06-14 at 08:13 +0100, Chris Green wrote:
I have installed dovecot version 0.99.11 on my Slackware 10.1 system recently and it basically works as expected. However I can't get it to 'see' existing mbox hierarchies.
I have the following in dovecot.conf:- default_mail_env = mbox:/home/%u/Mail:INBOX=/var/mail/%u
Looks ok.
IMAP MUAs can see the INBOX OK but I can't get them to see any of the mail in $HOME/Mail. There certainly is lots of mail there, 250Mb or so of it, and a local mutt can see it without problems.
Am I missing something obvious or will dovecot only see mail and folders that it's created itself?
You didn't have IMAP server installed before Dovecot? Either client has specified a wrong IMAP namespace, or it's simply just that it's showing only subscribed mailboxes and you've not subscribed to any. http://wiki.dovecot.org/moin.cgi/MissingMailboxes may help some more.
On Tue, Jun 14, 2005 at 01:21:37PM +0300, Timo Sirainen wrote:
On Tue, 2005-06-14 at 08:13 +0100, Chris Green wrote:
I have installed dovecot version 0.99.11 on my Slackware 10.1 system recently and it basically works as expected. However I can't get it to 'see' existing mbox hierarchies.
I have the following in dovecot.conf:- default_mail_env = mbox:/home/%u/Mail:INBOX=/var/mail/%u
Looks ok.
IMAP MUAs can see the INBOX OK but I can't get them to see any of the mail in $HOME/Mail. There certainly is lots of mail there, 250Mb or so of it, and a local mutt can see it without problems.
Am I missing something obvious or will dovecot only see mail and folders that it's created itself?
You didn't have IMAP server installed before Dovecot? Either client has specified a wrong IMAP namespace, or it's simply just that it's showing only subscribed mailboxes and you've not subscribed to any. http://wiki.dovecot.org/moin.cgi/MissingMailboxes may help some more.
I haven't specified any namespaces as far as I know. I'm testing with squirrelmail which I haven't used with any IMAP server before and with mutt. Neither of these can see anything.
If I create a folder called 'sqtest' using squirrelmail I get $HOME/Mail/Mail/sqtest created. $HOME/Mail already exists, dovecot seems to be creating both the new Mail subdirectory and sqtest. I.e. I'm getting an extra 'layer' that I don't want.
(I really don't see that subscribing to mailboxes should make any difference, I know this is an MUA issue but as I understand it SUBSCRIBE is *NOT* the same as make visible. Certainly mutt doesn't equate the two. The RFC certainly implies that SUBSCRIBE is for use with newsgroups, not mailboxes.)
-- Chris Green (chris@areti.co.uk)
"Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."On Tue, 2005-06-14 at 11:40 +0100, Chris Green wrote:
I have the following in dovecot.conf:- default_mail_env = mbox:/home/%u/Mail:INBOX=/var/mail/%u I haven't specified any namespaces as far as I know. I'm testing with squirrelmail which I haven't used with any IMAP server before and with mutt. Neither of these can see anything.
Yes, but clients often have set default namespace prefixes since so many other IMAP servers require them. Squirrelmail at least uses "INBOX." as the default prefix.
If I create a folder called 'sqtest' using squirrelmail I get $HOME/Mail/Mail/sqtest created. $HOME/Mail already exists, dovecot seems to be creating both the new Mail subdirectory and sqtest. I.e. I'm getting an extra 'layer' that I don't want.
The extra Mail/ doesn't happen because of INBOX. prefix, but it would happen if prefix was set to Mail/. That's most likely the reason.
(I really don't see that subscribing to mailboxes should make any difference, I know this is an MUA issue but as I understand it SUBSCRIBE is *NOT* the same as make visible. Certainly mutt doesn't equate the two. The RFC certainly implies that SUBSCRIBE is for use with newsgroups, not mailboxes.)
Many clients have a setting to only show subscribed mailboxes, and some clients use it by default.
On Tue, Jun 14, 2005 at 01:57:14PM +0300, Timo Sirainen wrote:
If I create a folder called 'sqtest' using squirrelmail I get $HOME/Mail/Mail/sqtest created. $HOME/Mail already exists, dovecot seems to be creating both the new Mail subdirectory and sqtest. I.e. I'm getting an extra 'layer' that I don't want.
The extra Mail/ doesn't happen because of INBOX. prefix, but it would happen if prefix was set to Mail/. That's most likely the reason.
After a bit of perseverence I've got there. The 'folder path' in squirrelmail seems to default to 'Mail/' and that was (as you say) being added to Dovecot's $HOME/Mail. In addition you can't set the Folder Path in squirrelmail to nothing, it resets it to 'Mail/'. I finally tried setting the folder path to '.' and that allows me to see all my mailboxes.
Now to try getting mutt to see things properly.
Thanks for all your help.
-- Chris Green (chris@areti.co.uk)
"Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."On Tue, Jun 14, 2005 at 01:57:14PM +0300, Timo Sirainen wrote:
(I really don't see that subscribing to mailboxes should make any difference, I know this is an MUA issue but as I understand it SUBSCRIBE is *NOT* the same as make visible. Certainly mutt doesn't equate the two. The RFC certainly implies that SUBSCRIBE is for use with newsgroups, not mailboxes.)
Many clients have a setting to only show subscribed mailboxes, and some clients use it by default.
Which only goes to show that many clients are broken! :-)
-- Chris Green (chris@areti.co.uk)
"Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."
participants (2)
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Chris Green
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Timo Sirainen