[Dovecot] when the user has no home directory
A user on our server for some reason didn't have a home directory. As a result, the pop3 server was complaining. Apple's Mail app reported that the server said:
The attempt to send data to the server "(null)" failed.
It would be nice if the server would say something to the effect that the connection failed because the user account has no home directory.
Thanks
On 11:59 AM, Dave Yost wrote:
A user on our server for some reason didn't have a home directory. As a result, the pop3 server was complaining. Apple's Mail app reported that the server said:
The attempt to send data to the server "(null)" failed.
Mail is sent via SMTP, not POP3. A client MUA delivers mail to a server via SMTP and presumably it is the MTA on the server, not Dovecot, that issued whatever failure resulted in the above.
It is possible that Dovecot is involved, e.g. in processing SASL authentication, but Apple Mail would have been talking to the MTA on the server.
-- Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
At 10:29 AM -0700 2011-05-10, Mark Sapiro wrote:
On 11:59 AM, Dave Yost wrote:
A user on our server for some reason didn't have a home directory. As a result, the pop3 server was complaining. Apple's Mail app reported that the server said:
The attempt to send data to the server "(null)" failed.
Mail is sent via SMTP, not POP3.
Yes. I know. That error message was reported by Mail as a result of trying to connect to the POP3 server.
A client MUA delivers mail to a server via SMTP and presumably it is the MTA on the server, not Dovecot, that issued whatever failure resulted in the above.
It is possible that Dovecot is involved, e.g. in processing SASL authentication, but Apple Mail would have been talking to the MTA on the server.
-- Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
On 6.5.2011, at 4.25, Dave Yost wrote:
A user on our server for some reason didn't have a home directory. As a result, the pop3 server was complaining. Apple's Mail app reported that the server said:
The attempt to send data to the server "(null)" failed.
It would be nice if the server would say something to the effect that the connection failed because the user account has no home directory.
I'm pretty sure Dovecot said something different. I don't know why Apple Mail would only say (null). Dovecot also should have logged something in its error log.
You could try reproducing it. But instead of connecting with Apple Mail, connect directly with telnet and see what Dovecot really says:
telnet pop3.example.com 110 user foobar pass secret
http://wiki2.dovecot.org/TestPop3Installation has more possibilities
At 11:45 PM +0300 2011-05-10, Timo Sirainen wrote:
On 6.5.2011, at 4.25, Dave Yost wrote:
A user on our server for some reason didn't have a home directory. As a result, the pop3 server was complaining. Apple's Mail app reported that the server said:
The attempt to send data to the server "(null)" failed.
It would be nice if the server would say something to the effect that the connection failed because the user account has no home directory.
I'm pretty sure Dovecot said something different. I don't know why Apple Mail would only say (null). Dovecot also should have logged something in its error log.
You could try reproducing it. But instead of connecting with Apple Mail, connect directly with telnet and see what Dovecot really says:
telnet pop3.example.com 110 user foobar pass secret
http://wiki2.dovecot.org/TestPop3Installation has more possibilities
I tried again just now with a user whose home dir doesn't exist.
Apparently I get no error message back. The connection just closes. Perhaps Apple Mail's "(null)" is the result of the summary closing of the connection.
Wed 0:16:39 0 222 Z% telnet localhost 110 Trying 127.0.0.1... Connected to localhost. Escape character is '^]'. +OK Dovecot ready. user xxxxx +OK pass xxxxx Connection closed by foreign host. Wed 0:17:05 1 223 Z%
/var/log/maillog says
May 11 00:17:05 xx dovecot: pop3-login: Login: user=<xxxxx>, method=PLAIN, rip=127.0.0.1, lip=127.0.0.1, secured May 11 00:17:05 xx dovecot: POP3(xxxxx): mail_location: mbox: mkdir(/home/xxxxx/mail) failed: Permission denied (euid=11111(xxxxx) egid=1111(ootbc) missing +w perm: /home) May 11 00:17:05 xx ovecot: POP3(xxxxx): Fatal: Namespace initialization failed
Thanks
On Wed, 2011-05-11 at 00:26 -0700, Dave Yost wrote:
Apparently I get no error message back. The connection just closes. Perhaps Apple Mail's "(null)" is the result of the summary closing of the connection.
Wed 0:16:39 0 222 Z% telnet localhost 110 Trying 127.0.0.1... Connected to localhost. Escape character is '^]'. +OK Dovecot ready. user xxxxx +OK pass xxxxx Connection closed by foreign host.
participants (3)
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Dave Yost
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Mark Sapiro
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Timo Sirainen