Hi guys, this is my first message in list. i've installed dovecot 1 RC 7 from sources and set it up with postfix as a pop3 mail server: all worked perfectly.

Now i would like to set up a local web mail interface; most web mails (eg horde,squirrelMail) use imap to get mail; so i've to set up dovecot imap server.

I've set up imap settings in config file and added imap to protocols (i don't use ssl encription):

protocols = pop3 imap

But when i run dovecot, i get "USER environment missing", what does it mean? :

root@mailer:~# for i in /var/log/mail.*; do echo > $i ; done root@mailer:~# echo $USER root root@mailer:~# root@mailer:~# /usr/sbin/dovecot root@mailer:~# cat /var/log/mail.info

Aug 30 15:58:42 mailer dovecot: Dovecot v1.0.rc7 starting up Aug 30 15:58:43 mailer dovecot: imap-login: USER environment missing Aug 30 15:58:43 mailer dovecot: Login process died too early - shutting down Aug 30 15:58:43 mailer dovecot: child 3929 (login) returned error 89

As you seen, $USER environment variable was set; authentication process user id (in config file) was set to root. Mail users are virtual users and their account informations are stored to a passwd-like file.

I searched in the source code the error string and found this

dovecot-1.0.rc7/src/imap/main.c:

   user = getenv("USER");
   if (user == NULL) {
           if (IS_STANDALONE())
                   user = getlogin();
           if (user == NULL)
                   i_fatal("USER environment

missing");

   }

This is the only occurrence of the error. This code is simple, Why getenv("USER") returns NULL ? variable was set when i run dovecot....

mmm..Any suggestion? Is this a bug of a process cloning /forking system in dovecot? I looked in mailinglist archives for a solution but nothing found.

Anyway can you suggest me any web mail with simple configuration with postfix+dovecot virtual accounts? What about oMail-webmail? is there a way to integrate it in dovecot authentication ?

Any help appreciated!

Valerio