Greetings,

On a server running FreeBSD 8.2, I'm configuring Postfix 2.8.0 and Dovecot 1.2.16, using Dovecot for SASL and LDA. For reasons I won't go into, I don't want to upgrade anything on the server to current versions. I'm configuring for maildir with virtuals. Here's the directory structure I want to use:

 /usr/vmail/domain/username/cur,new,tmp

And here's where Dovecot is delivering mail:

 /usr/vmail/domain/user/Maildir/cur,new,tmp

Oddly, the first time I connected with Thunderbird (configured for IMAP), the following directories were created in /usr/vmail/domain/user/, i.e., below Maildir:

 .INBOX.Drafts
 .INBOX.Sent
 .Junk
 .Trash

Thunderbird can see sent mail in .INBOX.Sent, but it can't see any mail in Maildir. Obviously, something is amiss in my configuration. Here's the dovecot -n output:

# 1.2.16: /usr/local/etc/dovecot.conf # OS: FreeBSD 8.2-RELEASE i386 ufs protocols: imap pop3 ssl: no disable_plaintext_auth: no login_dir: /var/run/dovecot/login login_executable(default): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/imap-login login_executable(imap): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/imap-login login_executable(pop3): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/pop3-login verbose_proctitle: yes first_valid_uid: 1000 first_valid_gid: 1000 mail_privileged_group: mail mail_location: maildir:/home/vmail/%d/%n maildir_very_dirty_syncs: yes mail_executable(default): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/imap mail_executable(imap): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/imap mail_executable(pop3): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/pop3 mail_plugin_dir(default): /usr/local/lib/dovecot/imap mail_plugin_dir(imap): /usr/local/lib/dovecot/imap mail_plugin_dir(pop3): /usr/local/lib/dovecot/pop3 imap_client_workarounds(default): delay-newmail netscape-eoh tb-extra-mailbox-sep imap_client_workarounds(imap): delay-newmail netscape-eoh tb-extra-mailbox-sep imap_client_workarounds(pop3): pop3_client_workarounds(default): pop3_client_workarounds(imap): pop3_client_workarounds(pop3): outlook-no-nuls oe-ns-eoh lda: sendmail_path: /usr/sbin/sendmail auth default: mechanisms: plain login username_format: %Lu passdb: driver: passwd-file args: /etc/dovecot/passwd userdb: driver: static args: uid=1000 gid=1000 home=/home/vmail/%d/%n socket: type: listen client: path: /var/spool/postfix/private/auth mode: 432 user: postfix group: postfix master: path: /var/run/dovecot/auth-master mode: 384 user: postfix group: postfix

Note that I haven't defined mail_location as "maildir:~/Maildir," yet Dovecot is delivering to the Maildir directory (a directory I don't want). I'm not sure about the path in args:

userdb: driver: static args: uid=1000 gid=1000 home=/home/vmail/%d/%n

Here's the LDA config for virtuals in Postfix's master.conf:

dovecot unix - n n - - pipe flags=DRhu user=vmail:vmail argv=/usr/local/libexec/dovecot/dovecot-lda -f ${sender} -d ${recipient}

I'm also unsure about the home_mailbox value in Postfix's main.cf. The docs say this: " Specify "Maildir/" for qmail-style delivery (the / is required)." And there was no alternative listed, so that's what I used:

home_mailbox = Maildir/

However, does it designate a directory named Maildir?

Not sure if they're relevant, but here are some additional config lines from Postfix's main.cf

virtual_mailbox_domains = /etc/postfix/vhosts virtual_mailbox_base = /home/vmail/ virtual_mailbox_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/vmaps virtual_minimum_uid = 1000 virtual_uid_maps = static:1000 virtual_gid_maps = static:1000

smtpd_sasl_type = dovecot # Can be an absolute path, or relative to $queue_directory smtpd_sasl_path = /var/spool/postfix/private/auth # and the common settings to enable SASL: smtpd_sasl_auth_enable = yes smtpd_recipient_restrictions = permit_mynetworks, permit_sasl_authenticated,reject_unauth_destination

Finally, "postconf -a" returns "dovecot," so SASL is copacetic.

That's all I can think of that might be relevant. It sure would be nice if Dovecot would forget about the Maildir directory and deliver directly to the username/ directory so Thunderbird could access it, but other than setting the mail_location var to "maildir:/home/vmail/%d/%n," I'm at a loss.

Thanks for your help.

Doc