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[Dovecot] Trouble adding sasl support via dovecot
by Richard Troy 12 Mar '12

12 Mar '12

Hello Folks, I've been the admin of a site that uses Postfix with Dovecot on RedHat since, oh, gosh, maybe 1996? It's been a long time. I've never built it from source, though, just used the rpms (and I wonder if maybe that's my problem now). It just works, is reliable, and lets me be a very-part-time administrator. Repeatedly over the last few years I've been asked to have our mail system "join the modern age" and provide mail sending capabilities for clients that aren't on our internal network - via their smart-phones, from home, etc. OK... Well, way back when the site was set up, smtp servers didn't do any kind of "auth", but along the way to solving this problem (trying to configure pop-before-smtp, someone mentioned that Postfix now has an auth mechanism that uses Dovecot and I should use that instead! Great! ... Except that I've spent between 16 and 20 hours on this with no joy, and while I hate having to ask for help, it's time to ask what things that are obvious to the less ignorant that I must be doing wrong... Certainly, given the solid history of Postfix and Dovecot, I must be the problem! My problem statement is simply, "it should be working", but doesn't, and I don't get any announcement of "auth" when testing connections to Postfix as per directions here: http://www.postfix.org/SASL_README.html#server_test At least I haven't broken the normal functionality! I'm building a new server on the latest Fedora Core (16), but it's lacking in some hardware and won't be ready for a while, so I'm working with FC 14, running Postfix 2.5.6, and Dovecot 1.2.8. It uses the "cram-md5" auth scheme (which works fine and I'd hate to change it if I don't have to). The system has been up and functional on these versions for a couple of years, and quite stable, we just can't send if we're not local. When I do "postconf-a" it indicates cyrus and dovecot, so I take it that means Postfix has been built with sasl support. (I presume this means I don't have to compile it from source.) First Dovecot. Its set up to provide all protocols, but only imaps and pop3s have ports forwarded through the firewall. Plain-text auth is disabled, ssl is set to yes, ssl_listen is not specified, and the cert and key files are in the default locations - and work. No cipher list is used. Dovecot's chrooted. The protocol sections imap and pop3 take ALL the defaults, as does lda (I've ignored sendmail_path = /usr/lib/sendmail) as I don't think it matters. "auth default {" has mechanisms set to cram-md5, digest-md5, plain, and login, with passdb passwd-file pointing to a file in /etc where the cram data goes. It's not using pam, and there's an OLD comment in the config: # Experience says we need an empty passdb - passwd group: which is followed by passdb passwd{}. Later, there's "userdb passwd {}. All of that was configured long ago and has been functional. The changes I've made to add sasl support primarily pertain to the "socket listen section of "auth default". There, the master section remains commented out while the client section has been uncommented, the path set to /var/spool/postfix/private/auth, mode set to 0660, and the user and group have been set to postfix. ...This is all as described here: http://www.postfix.org/SASL_README.html and http://wiki.dovecot.org/HowTo/PostfixAndDovecotSASL That's it for Dovecot. Now, to Postfix itself. >From the working environ, only listening on port 25, I simply added the following (as per directions already cited above): smtpd_sasl_type = dovecot smtpd_sasl_path = private/auth smtpd_sasl_auth_enable = yes broken_sasl_auth_clients = yes smtpd_sasl_security_options = noanonymous, noplaintext smtp_sasl_security_options = noanonymous, noplaintext smtpd_sasl_tls_security_options = noanonymous smtp_sasl_tls_security_options = noanonymous And, of course, permit_sasl_authenticated was added to smtpd_recipient_restrictions. I got the impression from the baove sources that Postfix will then use Dovecot's authentication mechanism via a socket it finds in its private/auth subdirectory. NOT documented in any of those places, someone suggested I must turn on TLS. OK... The documentation found here: http://www.postfix.org/TLS_README.html claims (intimates) that it's not possible to run a site on a self-signed certificate, however, there's ZERO budget for a signed certificate, so unless I can get one for ten bucks somewhere, that could be a deal-breaker here. However, we've been using self-signed certificates for a while now and wonder why an "exception" mechanism wouldn't exist. As that web page talks about "Netscape" I suspect it's very old and may no longer apply. In any event, I tried this, too (after trying without). On the good side, an available Android phone, previously reading fine, but unable to send, no longer complained when the setup was changed to the imap username and password, same server address, TLS security type, and the server port of 25. HOWEVER, no mail has passed through it successfully, it just gives no error whatsoever, so far, while the server's log reports "Relay access denied." Notably, when setting up TLS, Postfix complained when the smtpd_tls_key_file was incorrect, but did not complain when it was provided properly, suggesting it's reading and accepting my self-signed certificate and private key. Ideas, please?! And, by the way, what's port 465 all about? Some clients propose that's what should be used to send... Thanks in advance for your help, Richard

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[Dovecot] mdbox + gzip and rsync
by Jean-Daniel Beaubien 12 Mar '12

12 Mar '12

Hi, After reading the following paragraph from the dovecot doc, I've been wondering how it would affect rsync (when combined with gzip): "Expunging a message only decreases the message's refcount. The space is later freed in "purge" step. This is typically done in a nightly cronjob when there's less disk I/O activity. The purging first finds all files that have refcount=0 mails. Then it goes through each file and copies the refcount>0 mails to other mdbox files (to the same files as where newly saved messages would also go), updates the map index and finally deletes the original file. So there is never any overwriting or file truncation." How will the mailbox files (m.X) files be modified when I move or delete emails using mdbox+gzip. Will the resulting gzipped mdbox files be rsync-able or will they need a full re-upload? If I plan on using rsync for backups, am I better off not using the gzip feature (if i can spare the extra storage)??? Thanks, -JD

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[Dovecot] dot named folders
by Micah Anderson 12 Mar '12

12 Mar '12

When a user makes a folder called 'x.y' it actually creates a folder called 'x' with a folder called 'y' inside, rather than a folder called 'x.y'. I'm guessing this has to do with an internal folder separator namespace configuration, but I'm a bit confused by how this works. I'm using 2.0.15 with mdbox and this is what I have configured for my namespaces: namespace { separator = . prefix = inbox = yes } namespace { separator = . prefix = INBOX. inbox = no hidden = yes list = no } I migrated from courier maildirs, so perhaps I no longer need some of these now that the conversion is finished? thanks for any suggestions, I've got my head mixed up on this issue, micah --

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[Dovecot] Extracting mbox format from Dovecot IMAP (mdbox)
by Giles Coochey 12 Mar '12

12 Mar '12

Hi, I'm looking for a quick tool that can connect to my IMAP account grab all the messages in a particular folder and dump them to a mbox format file? Anyone know a quick easy tool to do that? This is a spam folder that I'd like to do some Bayes spam learning on, but since I've migrated to mdbox I don't think I can do this directly on the mailbox. Any thoughts appreciated. -- Best Regards, Giles Coochey NetSecSpec Ltd UK Mobile: +44 7983 877 438 Business Email: giles.coochey(a)netsecspec.co.uk Email/MSN/Live Messenger: giles(a)coochey.net Skype: gilescoochey

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Re: [Dovecot] Question about folder creation/delete and logging
by Maria Arrea 12 Mar '12

12 Mar '12

mail_log plugin is just what we need, thank you for your support. Yes, we are using bacula+doveadm import for this project. If you are interested, we have in production an home-brew message-tracking system for our end-users. We parse qmail / postfix / clamav / spamassassin/ dovecot / sieve logs and insert them in a mysql database, and a logged user in our webapp can see what happened with her mails (sent mails or messages waiting for arrival). Affero GPL software, of course. Some screenshots (Spanish only, sorry) here: https://gestionproyectos.us.es/attachments/download/321/Seguimiento_de_mens… https://gestionproyectos.us.es/attachments/download/145/Captura_de_pantalla… https://gestionproyectos.us.es/attachments/download/156/Seguimiento_de_mens… URL of the project (Seguimiento, spanish word for "tracking"): https://gestionproyectos.us.es/projects/seguimiento Regards Maria ----- Original Message ----- From: Timo Sirainen Sent: 03/12/12 02:04 PM To: Maria Arrea Subject: Re: [Dovecot] Question about folder creation/delete and logging On Mon, 2012-03-12 at 12:56 +0100, Maria Arrea wrote: > > - Is there any way of Dovecot logging to write when a folder is > deleted or created? We do not want to increase too much our "normal" > logging level. We use Dovecot 2.0.18+mdbox+zlib You can configure mail_log plugin to only log mailbox creations and deletions. http://wiki2.dovecot.org/Plugins/MailLog > - Does anybody know of any other project to create an easy-restore > for Dovecot? I guess you're using "doveadm import"? So other than that, haven't heard of any.

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[Dovecot] Question about folder creation/delete and logging
by Maria Arrea 12 Mar '12

12 Mar '12

Hello We are working in a web based restore system for our Dovecot users. In this web form a user must log-in and after successful login can estore a deleted folder from date X. We will release it under the GPL. I have a couple of questions: - Is there any way of Dovecot logging to write when a folder is deleted or created? We do not want to increase too much our "normal" logging level. We use Dovecot 2.0.18+mdbox+zlib - Does anybody know of any other project to create an easy-restore for Dovecot? Regards Maria

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[Dovecot] Dovecot LDA breaking .qmail forwarding?
by Wouter van der Schagt 12 Mar '12

12 Mar '12

Good morning all, I've a problem, I'm using the Dovecot LDA in my .qmail file: |/var/qmail/bin/preline -f /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/deliver -d $EXT@$USER However when I add a forward, such as: |/var/qmail/bin/preline -f /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/deliver -d $EXT@$USER <mailto:&wouter@vdschagt.com> &wouter(a)vdschagt.com The mail isn't forwarded and stays in the queue on the mail server, the same is the case when I reverse the lines. The error in the log file is: @400000004f5de5f7033bc434 delivery 824026: deferral: qmail-inject:_fatal:_qq_trouble_creating_files_in_queue_(#4.3.0)/system_erro r_calling_qmail-inject/ When using another LDA, for example when specifying the Maildir, it works, but then i cannot use Sieve scripts. Any ideas? Am I doing anything wrong? Sincerely, - Wouter van der Schagt

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[Dovecot] nfs error fcntl(read-lock) locking failed for file
by Rajesh M 10 Mar '12

10 Mar '12

hi i am using qmailtoaster with dovecot version 2 mailbox format is maildir i have a domain with around 5000 users which are distributed over 2 servers webmail (squirrelmail) runs using dovecot v2 is being used from server number one server number 2 had all the data stored in it and also has pop and smtp running from it. i am not using dovecot for pop as yet on the server with dovecot i get such errors in the log file access to data on server number 2 is via nfs on server number 1 i get errors as such Error: fcntl(read-lock) locking failed for file Input/output error squirrelmail gives error imap connection closed and i am not able to login so i set the parameters as such in the dovecot conf file and the error stopped mmap_disable=yes dotlock_use_excl = yes lock_method = dotlock can somebody please advise me if the above is correct ? or is it preferred to use fcntl with lockd (note that my mailbox is maildir format) thanks very much for your help rajesh

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[Dovecot] Lock down Shared Mail Accounts?
by Charles Marcus 10 Mar '12

10 Mar '12

On 3/5/2012 1:30 PM, Steve Campbell wrote: > I've been looking at some documentation on shared mail accounts. > But I'm getting mixed thoughts on how this can or should be done. This brings up a question I have been meaning to ask. One thing I want to do on my new converted system is to implement shared mail. There will be two different scenarios - users sharing 'folders', which looks to be fairly simple using virtual ACL files - but for the other scenario, I'm not sure about a specific requirement we will have... I want to give multiple people shared access to some actual accounts with all of the special use folders, with the following requirements: 1. They can all read/reply to new messages as they come in, 2. They use shared \seen, \replied and \forwarded flags, so once someone else has read/dealt with a message, the others see that, 3. When they reply to/forward a message, the Sent message gets saved to that accounts 'Sent' folder, 4. They can *move* messages to other folders in that account (ie, 'file' them), and last (this is the tricky part) 5. No one other than a designated user or users (Master User(s)? Users in a specified Group?) can delete any messages in this account, in any of the folders. These emails deal with financial transactions (AP and AR issues) and Faxes, thus the requirement to not be able to delete them. Can this be accomplished with the current state of things? Or would this require some coding? If the latter, could it be done as a plug-in, or would it require changes to the core code? Thanks, -- Best regards, Charles

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Re: [Dovecot] dovecot Digest, Vol 107, Issue 20 Fscking warnings
by Stephen Davies 10 Mar '12

10 Mar '12

Yes that is the google thread that I saw. I don't see the relevance of your reference to dsync. As I read the man pages for dsync it is used to sync separate servers, to make backups or to convert mailbox formats. When I upgraded from 1.2.15 to 2.1.1 I saw nothing in the doco to suggest that dsync was relevant to my scenario. In a previous thread here (Log sync errors), Timo suggested that the migration fix was to delete all .imap directories. My understanding was that this should fix any differences between 1.2.15 files and 2.1.1. If that were the case, mentioning the migration again would seem irrelevant. However, it seems that deleting the .imap files did not fix the log sync errors or the fscking warnings. Both are still happening continuously. Cheers, Stephen On Thu, 8 Mar 2012 08:26:55 PM dovecot-request(a)dovecot.org wrote: > Date: Wed, 07 Mar 2012 15:03:35 -0600 > From: Stan Hoeppner <stan(a)hardwarefreak.com> > To: dovecot(a)dovecot.org > Subject: Re: [Dovecot] Fscking warnings > Message-ID: <4F57CD27.3000207(a)hardwarefreak.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > On 3/6/2012 5:07 PM, Stephen Davies wrote: > > Google tells me that these "should go away" but they don't. > > > > > > > > Seems to happen continuously while a user is viewing email. > > Is this thread what "Google tells you"? > > http://dovecot.org/list/dovecot/2010-October/053909.html > > Timo is the creator of Dovecot, if you didn't know. So you can take his > words for gospel. Also note his last statement in that thread: > > "The next time you could do it with dsync to avoid these kind of > problems." > > It would seem you omitted a very important detail from your problem > report, which is that you recently performed a migration. Please don't > omit such critical details in future requests for help. Provide as much > relevant detail as possible. This speeds the process up for everyone, > and avoids guesswork on our part. > > -- > Stan > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 10 > Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2012 00:26:55 +0100 > From: "Marc" <M.Roos(a)roosit.eu> > To: <dovecot(a)dovecot.org> > Subject: [Dovecot] FW: Centos 6 + dovecot 2 + mail.app + imap -- ============================================================================= Stephen Davies Consulting P/L Voice: 08-8177 1595 Adelaide, South Australia. Fax : 08-8177 0133 Records & Collections Management. Mobile:040 304 0583

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