Hello!
I run the following environment: UW imapd pine sendmail procmail mbox format
I migrated from UW imapd to dovecot. It is pretty faster than UW imapd. To ensure a compatible environment I did the following configuration changes in /etc/dovecot.conf:
protocols = imaps
default_mail_env = mbox:~:INBOX=/var/mail/%u
mail_full_filesystem_access = yes
mbox_read_locks = fcntl mbox_write_locks = fcntl
But I don't think that locking works well. In pine I get the following error messages: Unexpected changes to folder (try restarting)
Also when I delete a file in the imap inbox I can't see that immediatly in pine (even when I restart pine the message is still there with a "Deleted" flag.
With UW imapd locking worked perfectly but performance was very bad.
What is the best configuration in a dovecot/pine/sendmail/procmail/mbox format environment.
Thank you for the answer.
Ciao, Gerhard
On Sat, 2006-01-14 at 13:54 +0100, Gerhard Wiesinger wrote:
But I don't think that locking works well. In pine I get the following error messages: Unexpected changes to folder (try restarting)
Why do you let Pine use the mbox files directly instead of going through IMAP? That'll probably give you faster mailbox opening times as well.
UW-IMAP and Pine used their own locking in /tmp also, and whenever one of them tried to access a mailbox the other one was using, the other one is sent a signal which kills it (or closes the mailbox in Pine probably). Dovecot doesn't try to do any of this, so you'll get the error.
Also when I delete a file in the imap inbox I can't see that immediatly in pine (even when I restart pine the message is still there with a "Deleted" flag.
Setting mbox_lazy_writes=no fixes this, but makes the performance somewhat worse.
On Sat, 14 Jan 2006, Timo Sirainen wrote:
On Sat, 2006-01-14 at 13:54 +0100, Gerhard Wiesinger wrote:
But I don't think that locking works well. In pine I get the following error messages: Unexpected changes to folder (try restarting)
Why do you let Pine use the mbox files directly instead of going through IMAP? That'll probably give you faster mailbox opening times as well.
Yes, in theory a good idea. But i don't want to enter a password again when I want to access my mailbox when I'm logged in through ssh.
Is there a secure possibility through imap with pine without entering a password on the local host?
UW-IMAP and Pine used their own locking in /tmp also, and whenever one of them tried to access a mailbox the other one was using, the other one is sent a signal which kills it (or closes the mailbox in Pine probably). Dovecot doesn't try to do any of this, so you'll get the error.
Also when I delete a file in the imap inbox I can't see that immediatly in pine (even when I restart pine the message is still there with a "Deleted" flag.
Setting mbox_lazy_writes=no fixes this, but makes the performance somewhat worse.
Ok, I'll try that.
Thank you for the answer.
Ciao, Gerhard
On Sat, 2006-01-14 at 19:06 +0100, Gerhard Wiesinger wrote:
On Sat, 14 Jan 2006, Timo Sirainen wrote:
On Sat, 2006-01-14 at 13:54 +0100, Gerhard Wiesinger wrote:
But I don't think that locking works well. In pine I get the following error messages: Unexpected changes to folder (try restarting)
Why do you let Pine use the mbox files directly instead of going through IMAP? That'll probably give you faster mailbox opening times as well.
Yes, in theory a good idea. But i don't want to enter a password again when I want to access my mailbox when I'm logged in through ssh.
Is there a secure possibility through imap with pine without entering a password on the local host?
Yes. Pine is able to use "ssh host imap" method to start the imap server. Maybe that's configurable somewhere? So you could replace that with: dovecot --exec-mail imap
If it's not configurable, then make a script to the location it tries to start, and make it execute dovecot.
Hello!
I finally got dovecot to work with pine. I will post some instructions how to configure dovecot, Thunderbird and pine later on.
One thing is left: A telnet to port 143 and /usr/sbin/dovecot --exec-mail imap behaves slightly different and a consistent configuration for subscription folders is not possible (looks like it has a different base directory, in the first case ~/ as configured in /etc/dovecot.conf and in the second case ~/Mail (it is not set in the environment))
/usr/sbin/dovecot --exec-mail imap
- PREAUTH [CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 SORT THREAD=REFERENCES MULTIAPPEND UNSELECT IDLE CHILDREN NAMESPACE LOGIN-REFERRALS] Logged in as userx 1 lsub "" "~/Mail/*" 1 OK Lsub completed.
Mozilla: with or without ssl 3 lsub "" "~/Mail/*"
- LSUB () "/" "~/Mail/Drafts"
- LSUB () "/" "~/Mail/Templates"
- LSUB () "/" "~/Mail/Trash" 3 OK Lsub completed.
Through Port 143: 1 LIST "" % returns list from ~/
Through command /usr/sbin/dovecot --exec-mail imap 1 LIST "" % returns list from ~/Mail
Maybe this comes from this TODO (from file TODO):
- dovecot --exec-mail imap doesn't set MAIL environment?
Can this be fixed easily? Where does ~/Mail come from?
Thank you for the answer.
Ciao, Gerhard
On Sat, 14 Jan 2006, Timo Sirainen wrote:
On Sat, 2006-01-14 at 19:06 +0100, Gerhard Wiesinger wrote:
On Sat, 14 Jan 2006, Timo Sirainen wrote:
On Sat, 2006-01-14 at 13:54 +0100, Gerhard Wiesinger wrote:
But I don't think that locking works well. In pine I get the following error messages: Unexpected changes to folder (try restarting)
Why do you let Pine use the mbox files directly instead of going through IMAP? That'll probably give you faster mailbox opening times as well.
Yes, in theory a good idea. But i don't want to enter a password again when I want to access my mailbox when I'm logged in through ssh.
Is there a secure possibility through imap with pine without entering a password on the local host?
Yes. Pine is able to use "ssh host imap" method to start the imap server. Maybe that's configurable somewhere? So you could replace that with: dovecot --exec-mail imap
If it's not configurable, then make a script to the location it tries to start, and make it execute dovecot.
On Sun, Jan 15, 2006 at 06:01:16PM +0100, Gerhard Wiesinger wrote:
Hello!
I finally got dovecot to work with pine. I will post some instructions how to configure dovecot, Thunderbird and pine later on.
One thing is left: A telnet to port 143 and /usr/sbin/dovecot --exec-mail imap behaves slightly different and a consistent configuration for subscription folders is not possible (looks like it has a different base directory, in the first case ~/ as configured in /etc/dovecot.conf and in the second case ~/Mail (it is not set in the environment))
/usr/sbin/dovecot --exec-mail imap
- PREAUTH [CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 SORT THREAD=REFERENCES MULTIAPPEND UNSELECT IDLE CHILDREN NAMESPACE LOGIN-REFERRALS] Logged in as userx 1 lsub "" "~/Mail/*" 1 OK Lsub completed.
Mozilla: with or without ssl 3 lsub "" "~/Mail/*"
- LSUB () "/" "~/Mail/Drafts"
- LSUB () "/" "~/Mail/Templates"
- LSUB () "/" "~/Mail/Trash" 3 OK Lsub completed.
Through Port 143: 1 LIST "" % returns list from ~/
Through command /usr/sbin/dovecot --exec-mail imap 1 LIST "" % returns list from ~/Mail
Maybe this comes from this TODO (from file TODO):
- dovecot --exec-mail imap doesn't set MAIL environment?
Can this be fixed easily? Where does ~/Mail come from?
Thank you for the answer.
Ciao, Gerhard
Are you sure that the environment variable MAIL isn't set in your shell? The default mail location is typically set with the default_mail_env setting in dovecot.conf. However, dovecot will use the MAIL environment variable if it's set in your shell. If you want to force the environment when calling dovecot from your shell, you could use the env command similar to this:
env MAIL=mbox:%h/:INBOX=/var/mail/%u /usr/sbin/dovecot --exec-mail imap
Glenn
On Sun, 2006-01-15 at 13:50 -0500, Glenn Leavell wrote:
Are you sure that the environment variable MAIL isn't set in your shell? The default mail location is typically set with the default_mail_env setting in dovecot.conf. However, dovecot will use the MAIL environment variable if it's set in your shell. If you want to force the environment when calling dovecot from your shell, you could use the env command similar to this:
env MAIL=mbox:%h/:INBOX=/var/mail/%u /usr/sbin/dovecot --exec-mail imap
Oh, that's it. It shouldn't work like this. :) Fixing..
On Sat, 14 Jan 2006 19:06:51 +0100 (CET) Gerhard Wiesinger lists@wiesinger.com wrote:
On Sat, 14 Jan 2006, Timo Sirainen wrote:
On Sat, 2006-01-14 at 13:54 +0100, Gerhard Wiesinger wrote:
But I don't think that locking works well. In pine I get the following error messages: Unexpected changes to folder (try restarting)
Why do you let Pine use the mbox files directly instead of going through IMAP? That'll probably give you faster mailbox opening times as well.
Yes, in theory a good idea. But i don't want to enter a password again when I want to access my mailbox when I'm logged in through ssh.
Is there a secure possibility through imap with pine without entering a password on the local host?
Pine can have a password file, although AFAIK its functionality isn't included in the default build process. It works fine.
When you have unpacked the source, edit pine-x.xx/pine/osdep/os-lnx.h and add the last line:
#define DEBUGFILE ".pine-debug" #define PASSFILE ".pine.pwd"
... recompile, install and perhaps touch ~/.pine.pwd, if that's still required. When you start Pine, it will first ask the imap password as usually, but then it will save it in that file, protected by weak encryption.
I think you can also specify this option on the build command line instead of a manual edit, but you'll have to check google for that.
[...]
Regards,
Wouter
PS: Make sure to install the most recent version, older versions contain several security bugs.
participants (4)
-
Gerhard Wiesinger
-
Glenn Leavell
-
Timo Sirainen
-
Wouter Van Hemel