OK, I am running (for many years now) an existing courier_imap maildir ++ setup with exim as the MTA. Has been fine. I have my own custom
ldap schema for user account definition and authorization.

I installed dovecot 1.0 beta 7 as a test and have it listening on a
different port. I would like, if possible, to set things up so that
a user could use either dovecot or courier. Having to re-subscribe
to folders is OK when moving to dovecot. (It would be nice to be
able to make a symbolic link from courier's subscription file to the
dovecot one though)

(My client for testing is the Mac OS X (10.4.6) Mail client Mail.app
-- it seems to do an auto subscribe to folders)

I set up a namespace for dovecot, using the wiki as a guide, so:

namespace private { # Hierarchy separator to use. You should use the same separator
for all # namespaces or some clients get confused. '/' is usually a good
one. separator = .

# Prefix required to access this namespace. This needs to be  

different for # all namespaces. For example "Public/". prefix = INBOX.

# Physical location of the mailbox. This is in same format as
# default_mail_env, which is also the default for it.
location = .

# There can be only one INBOX, and this setting defines which  

namespace # has it. inbox = yes

# If namespace is hidden, it's not advertised to clients via  

NAMESPACE # extension or shown in LIST replies. This is mostly useful when
converting # from another server with different namespaces which you want to
depricate # but still keep working. For example you can create hidden
namespaces with hidden=no }

(location has to be . or something similar since my ldap schema is
purely virtual users and returns the actual root of the maildir)

I am able to get the root mailbox (INBOX) to work. I can see new
mail and look at mail messages etc.

I create a new account in Mail.app that logs in to an existing
account (to make sure there is no client cached info involved). It
logs in and is able to see the imap folders that exist for this account.

However, clicking on the folder does not show any messages at all.
dovecot is not creating a subscription file inside the maildir
(Mail.app does not allow you to subscribe to folders -- it subscribes
to all existing folders for you)

And if I try and create a new folder inside the account I get a
"CREATE" command failed, server error: unknown namespace

How can I get the folders to work with dovecot using my existing
maildir++ setup?

Thanks Chad

Chad Leigh -- Shire.Net LLC Your Web App and Email hosting provider chad at shire.net