Each time a mail message is delivered to a mailbox records like the following appear in /var/log/dovecot.warn:

Jul 29 10:02:05 iris dovecot: lmtp(29320, jax@XXX.com): Error: file dict commit: file_dotlock_open(/var/vmail/XXX.com/jax/home/maildir/dovecot-quota) failed: No such file or directory Jul 29 10:02:05 iris dovecot: lmtp(29320, jax@XXX.com): Error: file dict commit: file_dotlock_open(/var/vmail/XXX.com/jax/home/maildir/dovecot-quota) failed: No such file or directory Jul 29 10:02:05 iris dovecot: lmtp(29320, jax@XXX.com): Error: dict quota: Quota update failed, it's now desynced

This is with Dovecot 2.1.7 installed by Debian Squeeze binary packages, dovecot-core v 1:2.1.7-2~bpo60+1, and friends. The host is running GNU/Linux 3.2.0-0.bpo.2-amd64 and on a xfs filesystem.

Entries in /etc/dovecot/users look like this:

 jax@XXX.com:{plain}password

The output from 'doveconf -n' is in the attachment to this mail message.

I'm a beginner without experience with either IMAP servers or clients.

Can you give me pointers to see what I'm missing that causes the errors logged as above?

The user data base looks like this:

userdb { args = uid=5000 gid=5000 home=/var/vmail/%d/%n/home mail=maildir:/var/vmail/%d/%n driver = static }

Being a beginner, I wonder if is necessary to manually make home directories for each '/var/vmail/%d/%n/home'?

I've tried test accounts with and without empty "home" directories at the indicated locations without seeing any difference in the error indications. Is it necessary to manually populate the "home" directories?

Besides having no clue about the errors logged, I don't understand what it takes to make quotas work nor do I understand what options are available or advisable. The distribution wiki/QuotaMaildir.txt seems clear that the Maildif+++ backend is indicated but beyond that I remain in the dark.

FWIW, I've yet to try a real IMAP client.

Thank you for any pointers you can give me.