Hello,

I spent the afternoon troubleshooting this, and after hours, I still can't see what I'm missing.

On the older version of Dovecot (2.2) it worked fine to create a new user, then Dovecot would create the home folder under the maildir folder as outlined in the documentation, simply by creating a new user in the database, and opening the new user account in the mail client.

# 2.3.7.2 (3c910f64b): /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf # Pigeonhole version 0.5.7.2 (7372921a) # Hostname: triata4 auth_debug = yes auth_debug_passwords = yes auth_mechanisms = plain login auth_verbose = yes auth_verbose_passwords = plain debug_log_path = /var/log/dovecot-debug.log deliver_log_format = msgid=%m: from=%f: %$ hostname = triata.globalchange.media info_log_path = /var/log/dovecot-info.log mail_debug = yes mail_fsync = always mail_home = /vmail/%d/%n/home mail_location = maildir:/vmail/%d/%n managesieve_notify_capability = mailto managesieve_sieve_capability = fileinto reject envelope encoded-character vacation subaddress comparator-i;ascii-numeric relational regex imap4flags copy include variables body enotify environment mailbox date index ihave duplicate mime foreverypart extracttext 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 = / type = private } passdb { args = /etc/dovecot/dovecot-mysql.conf driver = sql } plugin { mail_log_fields = uid box msgid from flags sieve = file:/vmail/%d/%n/home/sieve;active=/vmail/%d/%n/home/.dovecot.sieve sieve_after = /etc/dovecot/sieve/junk-spam.sieve sieve_before = /etc/dovecot/sieve/junk-spam.sieve sieve_dir = /vmail/%d/%n/home/sieve } protocols = imap lmtp sieve service auth { unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/auth { group = postfix mode = 0660 user = postfix } unix_listener auth-master { group = vmail mode = 0660 user = vmail } unix_listener auth-userdb { group = vmail mode = 0666 user = vmail } user = root } service imap-login { inet_listener imap { port = 143 } inet_listener imaps { port = 993 ssl = yes } } service lmtp { unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/dovecot-lmtp { group = postfix mode = 0660 user = postfix } } service managesieve-login { inet_listener sieve { port = 4190 } process_min_avail = 0 service_count = 1 vsz_limit = 64 M } service managesieve { process_limit = 1024 } service stats { unix_listener stats-reader { group = vmail mode = 0660 user = vmail } unix_listener stats-writer { group = vmail mode = 0660 user = vmail } } ssl_cert = </etc/letsencrypt/live/triata.globalchange.media/fullchain.pem ssl_key = # hidden, use -P to show it submission_relay_host = triata.globalchange.media submission_relay_port = 587 submission_relay_ssl = starttls submission_relay_trusted = yes userdb { args = /etc/dovecot/dovecot-mysql.conf driver = sql } protocol lmtp { mail_plugins = " sieve" } protocol lda { mail_plugins = }

On 03/10/2019 17:26, Asai via dovecot wrote:

Mr. Timo,

I would presume you are busy with many responsibilities, but might you have a few minutes to consider this problem?

Or is there any other Dovecot expert who may be able to offer advice on how to get the home directories created?  Thank you for those who have helped offer advice on this already.

Tried your config here and it works. My debug log looks as follows for the first brief IMAP session:

Oct  3 22:28:56 drieka dovecot: imap-login: Login: user=<diederik-jan>, method=PLAIN, rip=::1, lip=::1, mpid=21949, secured, session=<OtQjbweUvpIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAB> Oct  3 22:28:56 drieka dovecot: imap(diederik-jan): Debug: Added userdb setting: plugin/=yes Oct  3 22:28:56 drieka dovecot: imap(diederik-jan): Debug: Effective uid=1001, gid=1001, home=/vmail//diederik-jan/home Oct  3 22:28:56 drieka dovecot: imap(diederik-jan): Debug: Home dir not found: /vmail//diederik-jan/home Oct  3 22:28:56 drieka dovecot: imap(diederik-jan): Debug: Namespace inbox: type=private, prefix=, sep=/, inbox=yes, hidden=no, list=yes, subscriptions=yes location=maildir:/vmail//diederik-jan Oct  3 22:28:56 drieka dovecot: imap(diederik-jan): Debug: maildir++: root=/vmail//diederik-jan, index=, indexpvt=, control=, inbox=/vmail//diederik-jan, alt= Oct  3 22:28:56 drieka dovecot: imap(diederik-jan): Debug: Namespace : /vmail//diederik-jan doesn't exist yet, using default permissions Oct  3 22:28:56 drieka dovecot: imap(diederik-jan): Debug: Namespace : Using permissions from /vmail//diederik-jan: mode=0700 gid=default Oct  3 22:29:02 drieka dovecot: imap(diederik-jan): Debug: INBOX: Mailbox opened because: SELECT Oct  3 22:29:04 drieka dovecot: imap(diederik-jan): Logged out in=31 out=747

Took me a few tries to get this working though. You need to configure the permissions of /vmail correctly. Are you sure you're looking in the correct log file for finding errors?

You can execute the following to find out:

$ sudo doveadm log find Looking for log files from /var/log Debug: /var/log/syslog Debug: /var/log/mail.log Info: /var/log/syslog Info: /var/log/mail.info Info: /var/log/mail.log Warning: /var/log/mail.warn Warning: /var/log/syslog Warning: /var/log/mail.info Warning: /var/log/mail.log Error: /var/log/mail.warn Error: /var/log/syslog Error: /var/log/mail.info Error: /var/log/mail.err Error: /var/log/mail.log Fatal: /var/log/mail.warn Fatal: /var/log/syslog Fatal: /var/log/mail.info Fatal: /var/log/mail.err Fatal: /var/log/mail.log

Regards,

Stephan.

Asai

On 10/2/2019 5:08 PM, Asai via dovecot wrote:

...

Hello,

I spent the afternoon troubleshooting this, and after hours, I still can't see what I'm missing.

On the older version of Dovecot (2.2) it worked fine to create a new user, then Dovecot would create the home folder under the maildir folder as outlined in the documentation, simply by creating a new user in the database, and opening the new user account in the mail client.

# 2.3.7.2 (3c910f64b): /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf # Pigeonhole version 0.5.7.2 (7372921a) # Hostname: triata4 auth_debug = yes auth_debug_passwords = yes auth_mechanisms = plain login auth_verbose = yes auth_verbose_passwords = plain debug_log_path = /var/log/dovecot-debug.log deliver_log_format = msgid=%m: from=%f: %$ hostname = triata.globalchange.media info_log_path = /var/log/dovecot-info.log mail_debug = yes mail_fsync = always mail_home = /vmail/%d/%n/home mail_location = maildir:/vmail/%d/%n managesieve_notify_capability = mailto managesieve_sieve_capability = fileinto reject envelope encoded-character vacation subaddress comparator-i;ascii-numeric relational regex imap4flags copy include variables body enotify environment mailbox date index ihave duplicate mime foreverypart extracttext 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 = / type = private } passdb { args = /etc/dovecot/dovecot-mysql.conf driver = sql } plugin { mail_log_fields = uid box msgid from flags sieve = file:/vmail/%d/%n/home/sieve;active=/vmail/%d/%n/home/.dovecot.sieve sieve_after = /etc/dovecot/sieve/junk-spam.sieve sieve_before = /etc/dovecot/sieve/junk-spam.sieve sieve_dir = /vmail/%d/%n/home/sieve } protocols = imap lmtp sieve service auth { unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/auth { group = postfix mode = 0660 user = postfix } unix_listener auth-master { group = vmail mode = 0660 user = vmail } unix_listener auth-userdb { group = vmail mode = 0666 user = vmail } user = root } service imap-login { inet_listener imap { port = 143 } inet_listener imaps { port = 993 ssl = yes } } service lmtp { unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/dovecot-lmtp { group = postfix mode = 0660 user = postfix } } service managesieve-login { inet_listener sieve { port = 4190 } process_min_avail = 0 service_count = 1 vsz_limit = 64 M } service managesieve { process_limit = 1024 } service stats { unix_listener stats-reader { group = vmail mode = 0660 user = vmail } unix_listener stats-writer { group = vmail mode = 0660 user = vmail } } ssl_cert = </etc/letsencrypt/live/triata.globalchange.media/fullchain.pem ssl_key = # hidden, use -P to show it submission_relay_host = triata.globalchange.media submission_relay_port = 587 submission_relay_ssl = starttls submission_relay_trusted = yes userdb { args = /etc/dovecot/dovecot-mysql.conf driver = sql } protocol lmtp { mail_plugins = " sieve" } protocol lda { mail_plugins = }

On 03/10/2019 22:43, Asai via dovecot wrote:

...

Tried your config here and it works. My debug log looks as follows for the first brief IMAP session:

Oct  3 22:28:56 drieka dovecot: imap-login: Login: user=<diederik-jan>, method=PLAIN, rip=::1, lip=::1, mpid=21949, secured, session=<OtQjbweUvpIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAB> Oct  3 22:28:56 drieka dovecot: imap(diederik-jan): Debug: Added userdb setting: plugin/=yes Oct  3 22:28:56 drieka dovecot: imap(diederik-jan): Debug: Effective uid=1001, gid=1001, home=/vmail//diederik-jan/home Oct  3 22:28:56 drieka dovecot: imap(diederik-jan): Debug: Home dir not found: /vmail//diederik-jan/home Oct  3 22:28:56 drieka dovecot: imap(diederik-jan): Debug: Namespace inbox: type=private, prefix=, sep=/, inbox=yes, hidden=no, list=yes, subscriptions=yes location=maildir:/vmail//diederik-jan Oct  3 22:28:56 drieka dovecot: imap(diederik-jan): Debug: maildir++: root=/vmail//diederik-jan, index=, indexpvt=, control=, inbox=/vmail//diederik-jan, alt= Oct  3 22:28:56 drieka dovecot: imap(diederik-jan): Debug: Namespace : /vmail//diederik-jan doesn't exist yet, using default permissions Oct  3 22:28:56 drieka dovecot: imap(diederik-jan): Debug: Namespace : Using permissions from /vmail//diederik-jan: mode=0700 gid=default Oct  3 22:29:02 drieka dovecot: imap(diederik-jan): Debug: INBOX: Mailbox opened because: SELECT Oct  3 22:29:04 drieka dovecot: imap(diederik-jan): Logged out in=31 out=747

Took me a few tries to get this working though. You need to configure the permissions of /vmail correctly. Are you sure you're looking in the correct log file for finding errors?

You can execute the following to find out:

$ sudo doveadm log find Looking for log files from /var/log Debug: /var/log/syslog Debug: /var/log/mail.log Info: /var/log/syslog Info: /var/log/mail.info Info: /var/log/mail.log Warning: /var/log/mail.warn Warning: /var/log/syslog Warning: /var/log/mail.info Warning: /var/log/mail.log Error: /var/log/mail.warn Error: /var/log/syslog Error: /var/log/mail.info Error: /var/log/mail.err Error: /var/log/mail.log Fatal: /var/log/mail.warn Fatal: /var/log/syslog Fatal: /var/log/mail.info Fatal: /var/log/mail.err Fatal: /var/log/mail.log

Thank you for your reply, Stephan.

But did it create the home directory in the new account's mail folder? e.g. /vmail/domain/user/home?

Because this debug message is exactly similar to what I'm getting: "Debug: Home dir not found: /vmail//diederik-jan/home"

Ah! I see what you mean now. No, indeed, that home directory is not created. IMAP doesn't really need it, so it doesn't fail. In contrast, ManageSieve does fail on that:

Oct  3 22:58:19 drieka dovecot: managesieve(pieter-joost@example.com): Debug: Effective uid=1001, gid=1001, home=/vmail/example.com/pieter-joost/home Oct  3 22:58:19 drieka dovecot: managesieve(pieter-joost@example.com): Debug: Home dir not found: /vmail/example.com/pieter-joost/home Oct  3 22:58:19 drieka dovecot: managesieve(pieter-joost@example.com): Debug: Namespace inbox: type=private, prefix=, sep=/, inbox=yes, hidden=no, list=yes, subscriptions=yes location=maildir:/vmail/example.com/pieter-joost Oct  3 22:58:19 drieka dovecot: managesieve(pieter-joost@example.com): Debug: maildir++: root=/vmail/example.com/pieter-joost, index=, indexpvt=, control=, inbox=/vmail/example.com/pieter-joost, alt= Oct  3 22:58:19 drieka dovecot: managesieve(pieter-joost@example.com): Debug: sieve: Pigeonhole version 0.4.25.alpha0 (3bbd9e9c) initializing Oct  3 22:58:19 drieka dovecot: managesieve(pieter-joost@example.com): Debug: sieve: include: sieve_global is not set; it is currently not possible to include `:global' scripts. Oct  3 22:58:19 drieka dovecot: managesieve(pieter-joost@example.com): Debug: sieve: file storage: Performing auto-detection Oct  3 22:58:19 drieka dovecot: managesieve(pieter-joost@example.com): Debug: sieve: file storage: access(/vmail/example.com/pieter-joost/home, rwx) failed: No such file or directory Oct  3 22:58:19 drieka dovecot: managesieve(pieter-joost@example.com): Error: sieve: file storage: Could not find storage root directory for write access; path was left unconfigured and autodetection failed Oct  3 22:58:19 drieka dovecot: managesieve(pieter-joost@example.com): Fatal: Failed to open Sieve storage.

Looks like this still old reply from TImo applies: https://dovecot.org/list/dovecot/2013-May/090397.html

The welcome plugin could maybe of help:

https://doc.dovecot.org/plugin-settings/welcome-plugin/

Regards,

Stephan.

One thing Timo mentioned in this post (https://dovecot.org/list/dovecot/2013-May/090397.html) is: "You could also change your new user creation to trigger mkdiring the user's home."

Does anyone know where I can find any documentation on this, or has anyone done this?

Thanks, Asai

On 10/4/2019 12:58 AM, Sami Ketola via dovecot wrote:

It depends heavily on how do you add users to your system. If you are using LDAP to store the user information then you can create the home directory at the same time you add the user to ldap.

Sami

Hello, Sami.

Thanks for your reply.

We're just using a SQL backend to store user info.  How does this get done with LDAP? Perhaps we can do the same with a SQL backend.

Asai

As experiment, you could maybe use mail_lua plugin to create the user directory on demand,

make a lua script with

function mail_user_created(user) -- create directory for user:home end

See https://doc.dovecot.org/plugin-settings/mail-lua-plugin/ and https://wiki.dovecot.org/Design/Lua

Aki

Thanks, Aki.

I've tried it out and it looks promising.  The only issue is debugging, and the documentation isn't entirely clear to me.  I need to figure out how to output some debug data to some kind console or file.

Asai

On 10/4/2019 10:31 PM, Aki Tuomi via dovecot wrote:

...

...

As experiment, you could maybe use mail_lua plugin to create the user directory on demand, make a lua script with function mail_user_created(user) -- create directory for user:home end See https://doc.dovecot.org/plugin-settings/mail-lua-plugin/ and https://wiki.dovecot.org/Design/Lua Aki

Success.

Using the mail_lua plugin, and configuring the lua script location in the dovecot configs I used this script to create the home folder under the user's mail directory.  Hopefully this will help somebody else.

require 'lfs'

function mail_user_created(user) path = "/vmail" domain = user:var_expand("%d") username = user:var_expand("%n")

        lfs.mkdir(path .. domain ) lfs.mkdir(path .. "/" .. domain .. "/" .. username ) lfs.mkdir(path .. "/" .. domain .. "/" .. username .. "/home") lfs.mkdir(path .. "/" .. domain .. "/" .. username .. "/home/sieve")

        --file = io.open("/etc/dovecot/lualog.log", "w") --file:write(path .. "/" .. domain .. "/" .. username .. "/home/sieve",  "\n")

end