- dovecot - dovecot.org

[Dovecot] Two email accounts writing to one nfs shared home directory
by John McDonald 23 Nov '06

23 Nov '06

I use dovecot as a local imap server on my desktop machine due to the fact that my workplace only support POP3. I use fetchmail to pop, postfix to deliver, and dovecot for client access. At present I have a single email account which is the same as my system login and have postfix and dovecot setup to use ~/Maildir. The home directories on our system are served from a central file system, using nfs, which has full backup/disaster recovery policy implemented. I now need to setup a second separate email account for a specific task. Our sysadmins have setup this account for me on the POP3 server. The problem is that this account does not have a home directory on our system and therefore I can't write to ~/Maildir. What I would like to do is setup the same type of system for this second account without necessitating the creation of a home directory. That is, I would like a second Maildir folder in my own user account to which this second email account's messages are delivered. This way I will have full backup of the messages. What is the most straightforward way of achieving this? (or can it be done at all?) Thanks for the help. Regards, John McDonald.

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[Dovecot] dovecont.conf and "Evolution Mail" configuration
by maria.freixes_graells＠alcatel.es 23 Nov '06

23 Nov '06

Hello people!! First, thanks very much to Ejay Hire and to John Peacock for your quickly answer!! Now, I've dovecot installed, I downloaded the source and I compiled them. It's running ok now. But.....as I am new in all these issues I have some problems with the configuration. I have a user called "webmaster" that have a mail into /var/spool/mail, I want to redirect these mails to the "Evolution Mail" program from my Linux Desktop. I have doubts in two ways: 1.- Is the dovecot.conf file correct? 2.- Are the "Evolution Mail" setting correct? Evolution Account Settings: Name: webmaster(a)bar.ses.alcatel.es Full Name: webmaster Email Address: webmaster(a)bar.ses.alcatel.es Server Type: POP Host: 159.23.98.66 Username: webmaster Server Type: SMTP Server Configuration: 159.23.98.66 ## Dovecot configuration file # If you're in a hurry, see http://wiki.dovecot.org/QuickConfiguration # '#' character and everything after it is treated as comments. Extra spaces # and tabs are ignored. If you want to use either of these explicitly, put the # value inside quotes, eg.: key = "# char and trailing whitespace " # Default values are shown for each setting, it's not required to uncomment # any of the lines. Exception to this are paths, they're just examples with # the real defaults being based on configure options. The paths listed here # are for configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var # --with-ssldir=/etc/ssl # Base directory where to store runtime data. #base_dir = /var/run/dovecot/ # Protocols we want to be serving: imap imaps pop3 pop3s # If you only want to use dovecot-auth, you can set this to "none". protocols = imap imaps pop3 pop3s # IP or host address where to listen in for connections. It's not currently # possible to specify multiple addresses. "*" listens in all IPv4 interfaces. # "[::]" listens in all IPv6 interfaces, but may also listen in all IPv4 # interfaces depending on the operating system. # # If you want to specify ports for each service, you will need to configure # these settings inside the protocol imap/pop3 { ... } section, so you can # specify different ports for IMAP/POP3. For example: # protocol imap { # listen = *:10143 # ssl_listen = *:10943 # .. # } # protocol pop3 { # listen = *:10100 # .. # } #listen = * # Disable LOGIN command and all other plaintext authentications unless # SSL/TLS is used (LOGINDISABLED capability). Note that if the remote IP # matches the local IP (ie. you're connecting from the same computer), the # connection is considered secure and plaintext authentication is allowed. #disable_plaintext_auth = yes # Should all IMAP and POP3 processes be killed when Dovecot master process # shuts down. Setting this to "no" means that Dovecot can be upgraded without # forcing existing client connections to close (although that could also be # a problem if the upgrade is eg. because of a security fix). This however # means that after master process has died, the client processes can't write # to log files anymore. #shutdown_clients = yes ## ## Logging ## # Use this logfile instead of syslog(). /dev/stderr can be used if you want to # use stderr for logging (ONLY /dev/stderr - otherwise it is closed). #log_path = # For informational messages, use this logfile instead of the default #info_log_path = # Prefix for each line written to log file. % codes are in strftime(3) # format. #log_timestamp = "%b %d %H:%M:%S " # Syslog facility to use if you're logging to syslog. Usually if you don't # want to use "mail", you'll use local0..local7. Also other standard # facilities are supported. #syslog_facility = mail ## ## SSL settings ## # IP or host address where to listen in for SSL connections. Defaults # to above if not specified. #ssl_listen = # Disable SSL/TLS support. ssl_disable = yes # PEM encoded X.509 SSL/TLS certificate and private key. They're opened before # dropping root privileges, so keep the key file unreadable by anyone but # root. Included doc/mkcert.sh can be used to easily generate self-signed # certificate, just make sure to update the domains in dovecot-openssl.cnf #ssl_cert_file = /etc/ssl/certs/dovecot.pem #ssl_key_file = /etc/ssl/private/dovecot.pem # If key file is password protected, give the password here. Alternatively # give it when starting dovecot with -p parameter. #ssl_key_password = # File containing trusted SSL certificate authorities. Usually not needed. # The CAfile should contain the CA-certificate(s) followed by the matching # CRL(s). CRL checking is new in dovecot .rc1 #ssl_ca_file = # Request client to send a certificate. #ssl_verify_client_cert = no # How often to regenerate the SSL parameters file. Generation is quite CPU # intensive operation. The value is in hours, 0 disables regeneration # entirely. #ssl_parameters_regenerate = 168 # SSL ciphers to use #ssl_cipher_list = ALL:!LOW # Show protocol level SSL errors. #verbose_ssl = no ## ## Login processes ## # Directory where authentication process places authentication UNIX sockets # which login needs to be able to connect to. The sockets are created when # running as root, so you don't have to worry about permissions. Note that # everything in this directory is deleted when Dovecot is started. #login_dir = /var/run/dovecot/login # chroot login process to the login_dir. Only reason not to do this is if you # wish to run the whole Dovecot without roots. # http://wiki.dovecot.org/Rootless #login_chroot = yes # User to use for the login process. Create a completely new user for this, # and don't use it anywhere else. The user must also belong to a group where # only it has access, it's used to control access for authentication process. # Note that this user is NOT used to access mails. # http://wiki.dovecot.org/UserIds login_user = linus # Set max. process size in megabytes. If you don't use # login_process_per_connection you might need to grow this. #login_process_size = 32 # Should each login be processed in it's own process (yes), or should one # login process be allowed to process multiple connections (no)? Yes is more # secure, espcially with SSL/TLS enabled. No is faster since there's no need # to create processes all the time. #login_process_per_connection = yes # Number of login processes to keep for listening new connections. #login_processes_count = 3 # Maximum number of login processes to create. The listening process count # usually stays at login_processes_count, but when multiple users start logging # in at the same time more extra processes are created. To prevent fork-bombing # we check only once in a second if new processes should be created - if all # of them are used at the time, we double their amount until the limit set by # this setting is reached. #login_max_processes_count = 128 # Maximum number of connections allowed per each login process. This setting # is used only if login_process_per_connection=no. Once the limit is reached, # the process notifies master so that it can create a new login process. # You should make sure that the process has at least # 16 + login_max_connections * 2 available file descriptors. #login_max_connections = 256 # Greeting message for clients. #login_greeting = Dovecot ready. # Space-separated list of elements we want to log. The elements which have # a non-empty variable value are joined together to form a comma-separated # string. #login_log_format_elements = user=<%u> method=%m rip=%r lip=%l %c # Login log format. %$ contains login_log_format_elements string, %s contains # the data we want to log. #login_log_format = %$: %s ## ## Mailbox locations and namespaces ## # Location for users' mailboxes. This is the same as the old default_mail_env # setting. The default is empty, which means that Dovecot tries to find the # mailboxes automatically. This won't work if the user doesn't have any mail # yet, so you should explicitly tell Dovecot the full location. # # If you're using mbox, giving a path to the INBOX file (eg. /var/mail/%u) # isn't enough. You'll also need to tell Dovecot where the other mailboxes are # and where Dovecot can place its index files. This is called the "root mail # directory", and it must be the first path given in the mail_location setting. # # There are a few special variables you can use, eg.: # # %u - username # %n - user part in user@domain, same as %u if there's no domain # %d - domain part in user@domain, empty if there's no domain # %h - home directory # # See doc/variables.txt for full list. Some examples: # # mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir # mail_location = mbox:~/mail:INBOX=/var/mail/%u # mail_location = mbox:/var/mail/%d/%1n/%n:INDEX=/var/indexes/%d/%1n/%n # # http://wiki.dovecot.org/MailLocation # mail_location = mbox:~/mail:INBOX=/var/mail/%u:INDEX=/var/indexes/%u # If you need to set multiple mailbox locations or want to change default # namespace settings, you can do it by defining namespace sections: # # You can have private, shared and public namespaces. The only difference # between them is how Dovecot announces them to client via NAMESPACE # extension. Shared namespaces are meant for user-owned mailboxes which are # shared to other users, while public namespaces are for more globally # accessible mailboxes. # # REMEMBER: If you add any namespaces, the default namespace must be added # explicitly, ie. mail_location does nothing unless you have a namespace # without a location setting. Default namespace is simply done by having a # namespace with empty prefix. #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. # The default however depends on the underlying mail storage format. #separator = # Prefix required to access this namespace. This needs to be different for # all namespaces. For example "Public/". #prefix = # Physical location of the mailbox. This is in same format as # mail_location, 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 # prefixes "~/mail/", "~%u/mail/" and "mail/". #hidden = yes #} # Grant access to these extra groups for mail processes. Typical use would be # to give "mail" group write access to /var/mail to be able to create dotlocks. #mail_extra_groups = # Allow full filesystem access to clients. There's no access checks other than # what the operating system does for the active UID/GID. It works with both # maildir and mboxes, allowing you to prefix mailboxes names with eg. /path/ # or ~user/. #mail_full_filesystem_access = no ## ## Mail processes ## # Enable mail process debugging. This can help you figure out why Dovecot # isn't finding your mails. #mail_debug = no # Log prefix for mail processes. See doc/variables.txt for list of possible # variables you can use. #mail_log_prefix = "%Us(%u): " # Use mmap() instead of read() to read mail files. read() seems to be a bit # faster with my Linux/x86 and it's better with NFS, so that's the default. # Note that OpenBSD 3.3 and older don't work right with mail_read_mmaped = yes. #mail_read_mmaped = no # Don't use mmap() at all. This is required if you store indexes to shared # filesystems (NFS or clustered filesystem). #mmap_disable = no # Don't write() to mmaped files. This is required for some operating systems # which use separate caches for them, such as OpenBSD. #mmap_no_write = no # Locking method for index files. Alternatives are fcntl, flock and dotlock. # Dotlocking uses some tricks which may create more disk I/O than other locking # methods. NOTE: If you use NFS, remember to change also mmap_disable setting! #lock_method = fcntl # Drop all privileges before exec()ing the mail process. This is mostly # meant for debugging, otherwise you don't get core dumps. It could be a small # security risk if you use single UID for multiple users, as the users could # ptrace() each others processes then. #mail_drop_priv_before_exec = no # Show more verbose process titles (in ps). Currently shows user name and # IP address. Useful for seeing who are actually using the IMAP processes # (eg. shared mailboxes or if same uid is used for multiple accounts). #verbose_proctitle = no # Valid UID range for users, defaults to 500 and above. This is mostly # to make sure that users can't log in as daemons or other system users. # Note that denying root logins is hardcoded to dovecot binary and can't # be done even if first_valid_uid is set to 0. #first_valid_uid = 500 #last_valid_uid = 0 # Valid GID range for users, defaults to non-root/wheel. Users having # non-valid GID as primary group ID aren't allowed to log in. If user # belongs to supplementary groups with non-valid GIDs, those groups are # not set. #first_valid_gid = 1 #last_valid_gid = 0 # Maximum number of running mail processes. When this limit is reached, # new users aren't allowed to log in. #max_mail_processes = 1024 # Set max. process size in megabytes. Most of the memory goes to mmap()ing # files, so it shouldn't harm much even if this limit is set pretty high. #mail_process_size = 256 # Maximum allowed length for mail keyword name. It's only forced when trying # to create new keywords. #mail_max_keyword_length = 50 # Default umask to use for mail files and directories. #umask = 0077 # ':' separated list of directories under which chrooting is allowed for mail # processes (ie. /var/mail will allow chrooting to /var/mail/foo/bar too). # This setting doesn't affect login_chroot or auth_chroot variables. # WARNING: Never add directories here which local users can modify, that # may lead to root exploit. Usually this should be done only if you don't # allow shell access for users. See doc/configuration.txt for more information. #valid_chroot_dirs = # Default chroot directory for mail processes. This can be overridden for # specific users in user database by giving /./ in user's home directory # (eg. /home/./user chroots into /home). Note that usually there is no real # need to do chrooting, Dovecot doesn't allow users to access files outside # their mail directory anyway. #mail_chroot = ## ## Mailbox handling optimizations ## # Space-separated list of fields to initially save into cache file. Currently # these fields are allowed: # # flags, date.sent, date.received, size.virtual, size.physical # mime.parts, imap.body, imap.bodystructure # # Different IMAP clients work in different ways, so they benefit from # different cached fields. Some do not benefit from them at all. Caching more # than necessary generates useless disk I/O, so you don't want to do that # either. # # Dovecot attempts to automatically figure out what client wants and it keeps # only that. However the first few times a mailbox is opened, Dovecot hasn't # yet figured out what client needs, so it may not perform optimally. If you # know what fields the majority of your clients need, it may be useful to set # these fields by hand. If client doesn't actually use them, Dovecot will # eventually drop them. # # Usually you should just leave this field alone. The potential benefits are # typically unnoticeable. #mail_cache_fields = # Space-separated list of fields that Dovecot should never save to cache file. # Useful if you want to save disk space at the cost of more I/O when the fields # needed. #mail_never_cache_fields = # The minimum number of mails in a mailbox before updates are done to cache # file. This allows optimizing Dovecot's behavior to do less disk writes at # the cost of more disk reads. #mail_cache_min_mail_count = 0 # When IDLE command is running, mailbox is checked once in a while to see if # there are any new mails or other changes. This setting defines the minimum # time to wait between those checks. Dovecot is however able to use dnotify # and inotify with Linux to reply immediately after the change occurs. #mailbox_idle_check_interval = 30 # Save mails with CR+LF instead of plain LF. This makes sending those mails # take less CPU, especially with sendfile() syscall with Linux and FreeBSD. # But it also creates a bit more disk I/O which may just make it slower. # Also note that if other software reads the mboxes/maildirs, they may handle # the extra CRs wrong and cause problems. #mail_save_crlf = no ## ## Maildir-specific settings ## # By default LIST command returns all entries in maildir beginning with dot. # Enabling this option makes Dovecot return only entries which are directories. # This is done by stat()ing each entry, so it causes more disk I/O. # (For systems setting struct dirent->d_type, this check is free and it's # done always regardless of this setting) #maildir_stat_dirs = no # Copy mail to another folders using hard links. This is much faster than # actually copying the file. This is problematic only if something modifies # the mail in one folder but doesn't want it modified in the others. I don't # know any MUA which would modify mail files directly. IMAP protocol also # requires that the mails don't change, so it would be problematic in any case. # If you care about performance, enable it. #maildir_copy_with_hardlinks = no ## ## mbox-specific settings ## # Which locking methods to use for locking mbox. There are four available: # dotlock: Create <mailbox>.lock file. This is the oldest and most NFS-safe # solution. If you want to use /var/mail/ like directory, the users # will need write access to that directory. # fcntl : Use this if possible. Works with NFS too if lockd is used. # flock : May not exist in all systems. Doesn't work with NFS. # lockf : May not exist in all systems. Doesn't work with NFS. # # You can use multiple locking methods; if you do the order they're declared # in is important to avoid deadlocks if other MTAs/MUAs are using multiple # locking methods as well. Some operating systems don't allow using some of # them simultaneously. #mbox_read_locks = fcntl #mbox_write_locks = dotlock fcntl # Maximum time in seconds to wait for lock (all of them) before aborting. #mbox_lock_timeout = 300 # If dotlock exists but the mailbox isn't modified in any way, override the # lock file after this many seconds. #mbox_dotlock_change_timeout = 120 # When mbox changes unexpectedly we have to fully read it to find out what # changed. If the mbox is large this can take a long time. Since the change # is usually just a newly appended mail, it'd be faster to simply read the # new mails. If this setting is enabled, Dovecot does this but still safely # fallbacks to re-reading the whole mbox file whenever something in mbox isn't # how it's expected to be. The only real downside to this setting is that if # some other MUA changes message flags, Dovecot doesn't notice it immediately. # Note that a full sync is done with SELECT, EXAMINE, EXPUNGE and CHECK # commands. #mbox_dirty_syncs = yes # Like mbox_dirty_syncs, but don't do full syncs even with SELECT, EXAMINE, # EXPUNGE or CHECK commands. If this is set, mbox_dirty_syncs is ignored. #mbox_very_dirty_syncs = no # Delay writing mbox headers until doing a full write sync (EXPUNGE and CHECK # commands and when closing the mailbox). This is especially useful for POP3 # where clients often delete all mails. The downside is that our changes # aren't immediately visible to other MUAs. #mbox_lazy_writes = yes # If mbox size is smaller than this (in kilobytes), don't write index files. # If an index file already exists it's still read, just not updated. #mbox_min_index_size = 0 ## ## dbox-specific settings ## # Maximum dbox file size in kilobytes until it's rotated. #dbox_rotate_size = 2048 # Minimum dbox file size in kilobytes before it's rotated # (overrides dbox_rotate_days) #dbox_rotate_min_size = 16 # Maximum dbox file age in days until it's rotated. Day always begins from # midnight, so 1 = today, 2 = yesterday, etc. 0 = check disabled. #dbox_rotate_days = 0 ## ## IMAP specific settings ## protocol imap { # Login executable location. #login_executable = /usr/libexec/dovecot/imap-login # IMAP executable location. Changing this allows you to execute other # binaries before the imap process is executed. # # This would write rawlogs into ~/dovecot.rawlog/ directory: # mail_executable = /usr/libexec/dovecot/rawlog /usr/libexec/dovecot/imap # # This would attach gdb into the imap process and write backtraces into # /tmp/gdbhelper.* files: # mail_executable = /usr/libexec/dovecot/gdbhelper /usr/libexec/dovecot/imap # #mail_executable = /usr/libexec/dovecot/imap # Maximum IMAP command line length in bytes. Some clients generate very long # command lines with huge mailboxes, so you may need to raise this if you get # "Too long argument" or "IMAP command line too large" errors often. #imap_max_line_length = 65536 # Support for dynamically loadable plugins. mail_plugins is a space separated # list of plugins to load. #mail_plugins = #mail_plugin_dir = /usr/lib/dovecot/imap # Send IMAP capabilities in greeting message. This makes it unnecessary for # clients to request it with CAPABILITY command, so it saves one round-trip. # Many clients however don't understand it and ask the CAPABILITY anyway. #login_greeting_capability = no # Override the IMAP CAPABILITY response. #imap_capability = # Workarounds for various client bugs: # delay-newmail: # Send EXISTS/RECENT new mail notifications only when replying to NOOP # and CHECK commands. Some clients ignore them otherwise, for example # OSX Mail. Outlook Express breaks more badly though, without this it # may show user "Message no longer in server" errors. Note that OE6 still # breaks even with this workaround if synchronization is set to # "Headers Only". # outlook-idle: # Outlook and Outlook Express never abort IDLE command, so if no mail # arrives in half a hour, Dovecot closes the connection. This is still # fine, except Outlook doesn't connect back so you don't see if new mail # arrives. # netscape-eoh: # Netscape 4.x breaks if message headers don't end with the empty "end of # headers" line. Normally all messages have this, but setting this # workaround makes sure that Netscape never breaks by adding the line if # it doesn't exist. This is done only for FETCH BODY[HEADER.FIELDS..] # commands. Note that RFC says this shouldn't be done. # tb-extra-mailbox-sep: # With mbox storage a mailbox can contain either mails or submailboxes, # but not both. Thunderbird separates these two by forcing server to # accept '/' suffix in mailbox names in subscriptions list. # The list is space-separated. #imap_client_workarounds = outlook-idle } ## ## POP3 specific settings ## protocol pop3 { # Login executable location. #login_executable = /usr/libexec/dovecot/pop3-login # POP3 executable location. See IMAP's mail_executable above for examples # how this could be changed. #mail_executable = /usr/libexec/dovecot/pop3 # Don't try to set mails non-recent or seen with POP3 sessions. This is # mostly intended to reduce disk I/O. With maildir it doesn't move files # from new/ to cur/, with mbox it doesn't write Status-header. #pop3_no_flag_updates = no # Support LAST command which exists in old POP3 specs, but has been removed # from new ones. Some clients still wish to use this though. Enabling this # makes RSET command clear all \Seen flags from messages. #pop3_enable_last = no # If mail has X-UIDL header, use it as the mail's UIDL. #pop3_reuse_xuidl = no # Keep the mailbox locked for the entire POP3 session. #pop3_lock_session = no # POP3 UIDL format to use. You can use following variables: # # %v - Mailbox UIDVALIDITY # %u - Mail UID # %m - MD5 sum of the mailbox headers in hex (mbox only) # %f - filename (maildir only) # # If you want UIDL compatibility with other POP3 servers, use: # UW's ipop3d : %08Xv%08Xu # Courier version 0 : %f # Courier version 1 : %u # Courier version 2 : %v-%u # Cyrus (<= 2.1.3) : %u # Cyrus (>= 2.1.4) : %v.%u # Older Dovecots : %v.%u # tpop3d : %Mf # # Note that Outlook 2003 seems to have problems with %v.%u format which was # Dovecot's default, so if you're building a new server it would be a good # idea to change this. %08Xu%08Xv should be pretty fail-safe. # # NOTE: Nowadays this is required to be set explicitly, since the old # default was bad but it couldn't be changed without breaking existing # installations. %08Xu%08Xv will be the new default, so use it for new # installations. # #pop3_uidl_format = # POP3 logout format string: # %t - number of TOP commands # %p - number of bytes sent to client as a result of TOP command # %r - number of RETR commands # %b - number of bytes sent to client as a result of RETR command # %d - number of deleted messages # %m - number of messages (before deletion) # %s - mailbox size in bytes (before deletion) #pop3_logout_format = top=%t/%p, retr=%r/%b, del=%d/%m, size=%s # Support for dynamically loadable plugins. mail_plugins is a space separated # list of plugins to load. #mail_plugins = #mail_plugin_dir = /usr/lib/dovecot/pop3 # Workarounds for various client bugs: # outlook-no-nuls: # Outlook and Outlook Express hang if mails contain NUL characters. # This setting replaces them with 0x80 character. # oe-ns-eoh: # Outlook Express and Netscape Mail breaks if end of headers-line is # missing. This option simply sends it if it's missing. # The list is space-separated. #pop3_client_workarounds = } ## ## LDA specific settings ## protocol lda { # Address to use when sending rejection mails. postmaster_address = postmaster(a)example.com # Hostname to use in various parts of sent mails, eg. in Message-Id. # Default is the system's real hostname. #hostname = # Support for dynamically loadable plugins. mail_plugins is a space separated # list of plugins to load. #mail_plugins = #mail_plugin_dir = /usr/lib/dovecot/lda # Binary to use for sending mails. #sendmail_path = /usr/lib/sendmail # UNIX socket path to master authentication server to find users. #auth_socket_path = /var/run/dovecot/auth-master } ## ## Authentication processes ## # Executable location #auth_executable = /usr/libexec/dovecot/dovecot-auth # Set max. process size in megabytes. #auth_process_size = 256 # Authentication cache size in kilobytes. 0 means it's disabled. # Note that bsdauth, PAM and vpopmail require cache_key to be set for caching # to be used. Also note that currently auth cache doesn't work very well if # you're using multiple passdbs with same usernames in them. #auth_cache_size = 0 # Time to live in seconds for cached data. After this many seconds the cached # record is no longer used, *except* if the main database lookup returns # internal failure. We also try to handle password changes automatically: If # user's previous authentication was successful, but this one wasn't, the # cache isn't used. For now this works only with plaintext authentication. #auth_cache_ttl = 3600 # Space separated list of realms for SASL authentication mechanisms that need # them. You can leave it empty if you don't want to support multiple realms. # Many clients simply use the first one listed here, so keep the default realm # first. #auth_realms = # Default realm/domain to use if none was specified. This is used for both # SASL realms and appending @domain to username in plaintext logins. #auth_default_realm = # List of allowed characters in username. If the user-given username contains # a character not listed in here, the login automatically fails. This is just # an extra check to make sure user can't exploit any potential quote escaping # vulnerabilities with SQL/LDAP databases. If you want to allow all characters, # set this value to empty. #auth_username_chars = abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ01234567890.-_@ # Username character translations before it's looked up from databases. The # value contains series of from -> to characters. For example "#@/@" means # that '#' and '/' characters are translated to '@'. #auth_username_translation = # Username formatting before it's looked up from databases. You can use # the standard variables here, eg. %Lu would lowercase the username, %n would # drop away the domain if it was given, or "%n-AT-%d" would change the '@' into # "-AT-". This translation is done after auth_username_translation changes. #auth_username_format = # If you want to allow master users to log in by specifying the master # username within the normal username string (ie. not using SASL mechanism's # support for it), you can specify the separator character here. The format # is then <username><separator><master username>. UW-IMAP uses "*" as the # separator, so that could be a good choice. #auth_master_user_separator = # Username to use for users logging in with ANONYMOUS SASL mechanism #auth_anonymous_username = anonymous # More verbose logging. Useful for figuring out why authentication isn't # working. #auth_verbose = no # Even more verbose logging for debugging purposes. Shows for example SQL # queries. #auth_debug = no # In case of password mismatches, log the passwords and used scheme so the # problem can be debugged. Requires auth_debug=yes to be set. #auth_debug_passwords = no # Maximum number of dovecot-auth worker processes. They're used to execute # blocking passdb and userdb queries (eg. MySQL and PAM). They're # automatically created and destroyed as needed. #auth_worker_max_count = 30 # Kerberos keytab to use for the GSSAPI mechanism. Will use the system # default (usually /etc/krb5.keytab) if not specified. #auth_krb5_keytab = auth default { # Space separated list of wanted authentication mechanisms: # plain login digest-md5 cram-md5 ntlm rpa apop anonymous gssapi mechanisms = plain # # Password database is used to verify user's password (and nothing more). # You can have multiple passdbs and userdbs. This is useful if you want to # allow both system users (/etc/passwd) and virtual users to login without # duplicating the system users into virtual database. # # http://wiki.dovecot.org/PasswordDatabase # # By adding master=yes setting inside a passdb you make the passdb a list # of "master users", who can log in as anyone else. Unless you're using PAM, # you probably still want the destination user to be looked up from passdb # that it really exists. This can be done by adding pass=yes setting to the # master passdb. # # http://wiki.dovecot.org/MasterPassword # Users can be temporarily disabled by adding a passdb with deny=yes. # If the user is found from that database, authentication will fail. # The deny passdb should always be specified before others, so it gets # checked first. Here's an example: #passdb passwd-file { # File contains a list of usernames, one per line #args = /etc/dovecot.deny #deny = yes #} # PAM authentication. Preferred nowadays by most systems. # Note that PAM can only be used to verify if user's password is correct, # so it can't be used as userdb. If you don't want to use a separate user # database (passwd usually), you can use static userdb. # REMEMBER: You'll need /etc/pam.d/dovecot file created for PAM # authentication to actually work. # http://wiki.dovecot.org/PasswordDatabase/PAM passdb pam { # [session=yes] [setcred=yes] [cache_key=<key>] [<service name>] # # session=yes makes Dovecot open and immediately close PAM session. Some # PAM plugins need this to work, such as pam_mkhomedir. # # setcred=yes makes Dovecot establish PAM credentials if some PAM plugins # need that. They aren't ever deleted though, so this isn't enabled by # default. # # cache_key can be used to enable authentication caching for PAM # (auth_cache_size also needs to be set). It isn't enabled by default # because PAM modules can do all kinds of checks besides checking password, # such as checking IP address. Dovecot can't know about these checks # without some help. cache_key is simply a list of variables (see # doc/variables.txt) which must match for the cached data to be used. # Here are some examples: # %u - Username must match. Probably sufficient for most uses. # %u%r - Username and remote IP address must match. # %u%s - Username and service (ie. IMAP, POP3) must match. # # If service name is "*", it means the authenticating service name # is used, eg. pop3 or imap (/etc/pam.d/pop3, /etc/pam.d/imap). # # Some examples: # args = session=yes * # args = cache_key=%u dovecot #args = dovecot } # /etc/passwd or similar, using getpwnam() # In many systems nowadays this uses Name Service Switch, which is # configured in /etc/nsswitch.conf. # http://wiki.dovecot.org/AuthDatabase/Passwd #passdb passwd { #} # /etc/shadow or similiar, using getspnam(). Deprecated by PAM nowadays. # http://wiki.dovecot.org/PasswordDatabase/Shadow #passdb shadow { #} # PAM-like authentication for OpenBSD. # http://wiki.dovecot.org/PasswordDatabase/BSDAuth #passdb bsdauth { # [cache_key=<key>] - See cache_key in PAM for explanation. #args = #} # passwd-like file with specified location # http://wiki.dovecot.org/AuthDatabase/PasswdFile #passdb passwd-file { # Path for passwd-file #args = #} # checkpassword executable authentication # NOTE: You will probably want to use "userdb prefetch" with this. # http://wiki.dovecot.org/PasswordDatabase/CheckPassword #passdb checkpassword { # Path for checkpassword binary #args = #} # SQL database # http://wiki.dovecot.org/AuthDatabase/SQL #passdb sql { # Path for SQL configuration file, see doc/dovecot-sql.conf for example #args = #} # LDAP database # http://wiki.dovecot.org/AuthDatabase/LDAP #passdb ldap { # Path for LDAP configuration file, see doc/dovecot-ldap.conf for example #args = #} # vpopmail authentication # http://wiki.dovecot.org/AuthDatabase/VPopMail #passdb vpopmail { # [cache_key=<key>] - See cache_key in PAM for explanation. #args = #} # # User database specifies where mails are located and what user/group IDs # own them. For single-UID configuration use "static". # # http://wiki.dovecot.org/UserDatabase # # /etc/passwd or similar, using getpwnam() # In many systems nowadays this uses Name Service Switch, which is # configured in /etc/nsswitch.conf. WARNING: nss_ldap is known to be broken # with Dovecot. Don't use it, or users might log in as each others! # http://wiki.dovecot.org/AuthDatabase/Passwd userdb passwd { } # passwd-like file with specified location # http://wiki.dovecot.org/AuthDatabase/PasswdFile #userdb passwd-file { # Path for passwd-file #args = #} # static settings generated from template # http://wiki.dovecot.org/UserDatabase/Static #userdb static { # Template for the fields. Can return anything a userdb could normally # return. For example: # # args = uid=500 gid=500 home=/var/mail/%u # #args = #} # SQL database # http://wiki.dovecot.org/AuthDatabase/SQL #userdb sql { # Path for SQL configuration file, see doc/dovecot-sql.conf for example #args = #} # LDAP database # http://wiki.dovecot.org/AuthDatabase/LDAP #userdb ldap { # Path for LDAP configuration file, see doc/dovecot-ldap.conf for example #args = #} # vpopmail # http://wiki.dovecot.org/AuthDatabase/VPopMail #userdb vpopmail { #} # "prefetch" user database means that the passdb already provided the # needed information and there's no need to do a separate userdb lookup. # This can be made to work with SQL and LDAP databases, see their example # configuration files for more information how to do it. # http://wiki.dovecot.org/UserDatabase/Prefetch #userdb prefetch { #} # User to use for the process. This user needs access to only user and # password databases, nothing else. Only shadow and pam authentication # requires roots, so use something else if possible. Note that passwd # authentication with BSDs internally accesses shadow files, which also # requires roots. Note that this user is NOT used to access mails. # That user is specified by userdb above. user = root # Directory where to chroot the process. Most authentication backends don't # work if this is set, and there's no point chrooting if auth_user is root. # Note that valid_chroot_dirs isn't needed to use this setting. #chroot = # Number of authentication processes to create #count = 1 # Require a valid SSL client certificate or the authentication fails. #ssl_require_client_cert = no # Take the username from client's SSL certificate, using # X509_NAME_get_text_by_NID() which returns the subject's DN's # CommonName. #ssl_username_from_cert = no # It's possible to export the authentication interface to other programs: #socket listen { #master { # Master socket is typically used to give Dovecot's local delivery # agent access to userdb so it can find mailbox locations. It can # however also be used to disturb regular user authentications. # WARNING: Giving untrusted users access to master socket may be a # security risk, don't give too wide permissions to it! #path = /var/run/dovecot/auth-master #mode = 0600 # Default user/group is the one who started dovecot-auth (root) #user = #group = #} #client { # The client socket is generally safe to export to everyone. Typical use # is to export it to your SMTP server so it can do SMTP AUTH lookups # using it. #path = /var/run/dovecot/auth-client #mode = 0660 #} #} } # If you wish to use another authentication server than dovecot-auth, you can # use connect sockets. They assumed to be already running, Dovecot's master # process only tries to connect to them. They don't need any other settings # than the path for the master socket, as the configuration is done elsewhere. # Note that the client sockets must exist in the login_dir. #auth external { # socket connect { # master { # path = /var/run/dovecot/auth-master # } # } #} ## ## Dictionary server settings ## # Dictionary can be used by some plugins to store key=value lists. # Currently this is only used by dict quota backend. The dictionary can be # used either directly or though a dictionary server. The following dict block # maps dictionary names to URIs when the server is used. These can then be # referenced using URIs in format "proxy:<name>". dict { #quota = mysql:/etc/dovecot-dict-quota.conf } ## ## Plugin settings ## plugin { # Here you can give some extra environment variables to mail processes. # This is mostly meant for passing parameters to plugins. %variable # expansion is done for all values. # Quota plugin. Multiple backends are supported: # dirsize: Find and sum all the files found from mail directory # dict: Keep quota stored in dictionary (eg. SQL) # maildir: Maildir++ quota # fs: Read-only support for filesystem quota #quota = maildir # ACL plugin. vfile backend reads ACLs from "dovecot-acl" file from maildir # directory. You can also optionally give a global ACL directory path where # ACLs are applied to all users' mailboxes. The global ACL directory contains # one file for each mailbox, eg. INBOX or sub.mailbox. #acl = vfile:/etc/dovecot-acls # Convert plugin. If set, specifies the source storage path which is # converted to destination storage (mail_location). #convert_mail = mbox:%h/mail # Trash plugin. When saving a message would make user go over quota, this # plugin automatically deletes the oldest mails from configured mailboxes # until the message can be saved within quota limits. The configuration file # is a text file where each line is in format: <priority> <mailbox name> # Mails are first deleted in lowest -> highest priority number order #trash = /etc/dovecot-trash.conf }

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[Dovecot] Which version of dovecat I must use quit mysql 14.12 5.0.24a?
by maria.freixes_graells＠alcatel.es 22 Nov '06

22 Nov '06

Hello everybody!! I'm new on linux machine configuration, and I have a question related to product versions. We've Linux seweb1 2.6.9-5.EL installed, but instead of install the mysql product from "Red Hat Interprise Linux 4" CD what is mysql-0:4.1.7-4.RHEL4.1.i386, we installed: *mysql 14.12 5.0.24a *So, now, when we tried to install dovecot, it needs mysql-0:4.1.7-4.RHEL4.1.i386, perl-DBD-MySQL-0:2.9004-3.1.i386 and postgresql-libs-0:74.6-1.RHEL4.2.i386. I don't want to install these packets from mysql because I'm afraid to crash the mysql that we've now working...... So, my question is, what I need to do in this case? Can I install the mysql CD version without interferring to our actual BD working: *mysql 14.12 5.0.24a? *Or....Which version of dovecot we must install in order to work with *mysql 14.12 5.0.24a. *I would be very gratefully if you could help me, beacause we afraid to crash the BD that is working now, and we don't know how to install dovecot in this case. Best regards, Maria

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[Dovecot] assertion failed: (need_space == (uoff_t)-mails[idx].space)
by David King 21 Nov '06

21 Nov '06

I'm running Dovecot dovecot-1.0.r13 on FreeBSD (FreeBSD 6.1-RELEASE- p10). Mail is stored in mbox format (dovecot.conf after the msg). Procmail delivers mail to subfolders under ~/.mail, locking using dotfiles. One folder in particular for one user has an mbox file ~/.mail/Cron. Quite often, I'll see that procmail processes are stacking up because ~/.mail/Cron.lock exists, and they (rightly) refuse to deliver to a locked mailbox. It seems that dovecot is creating these lock files and then dying. The .lock file's contents refer to a PID that, by the time I see the lockfile, doesn't exist. It appears that dovecot is leaving behind the lock files, after exiting with a signal 6 (sometimes 11) and leaving behind messages in /var/log/maillog (and the end of this message). In dovecot.conf I have mail_drop_priv_before_exec = no, but I can't find the core file that I would expect it to dump, so I can't give you a backtrace. Hopefully the assertion in /var/log/maillog is enough. With ~/.mail/Cron perpetually locked, I'm not able to receive mail in this folder, and with any IMAP client that tries to access that folder having the IMAP server shut down, it keeps me from getting mail. Any ideas? # tail /var/log/maillog Nov 11 23:05:32 melchoir dovecot: imap-login: Login: user=<ketralnis>, method=PLAIN, rip=10.0.1.239, lip=10.0.0.1, TLS Nov 11 23:05:32 melchoir dovecot: IMAP(ketralnis): Disconnected: Logged out Nov 11 23:06:52 melchoir dovecot: IMAP(ketralnis): file mbox-sync- rewrite.c: line 405 (mbox_sync_read_and_move): assertion failed: (need_space == (uoff_t)-mails[idx].space) Nov 11 23:06:52 melchoir dovecot: child 16929 (imap) killed with signal 6 Here is dovecot.conf: # cat /usr/local/etc/dovecot.conf | sed -E 's/^(.*)#.*$/\1/' | grep - Ev '(^#|^[ ]*$' protocols = imap pop3 imaps pop3s ssl_cert_file = /etc/ssl/mail-cert.pem ssl_key_file = /etc/ssl/private/mail-key.pem disable_plaintext_auth = no login_user = dovecot verbose_proctitle = yes first_valid_gid = 0 mail_extra_groups = mail default_mail_env = mbox:%h/.mail:INBOX=/var/mail/%u mmap_disable = no lock_method = fcntl mbox_read_locks = dotlock mbox_write_locks = dotlock fcntl mail_drop_priv_before_exec = no protocol imap { login_greeting_capability = yes imap_client_workarounds = delay-newmail outlook-idle netscape-eoh tb-extra-mailbox-sep } protocol pop3 { pop3_uidl_format = %08Xu%08Xv pop3_client_workarounds = outlook-no-nuls oe-ns-eoh } auth default { mechanisms = plain login passdb pam { } userdb passwd { } userdb prefetch { } user = root }

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[Dovecot] Dovecot on Solaris
by Steven F Siirila 21 Nov '06

21 Nov '06

For those running Dovecot on Solaris, what are your positive/negative experiences with building the software with CC vs. GCC? We are currently letting ./configure find our gcc and build with it, but wondered if anyone has any experience with Sun CC (does it even compile, for example). -- Steven F. Siirila Office: Lind Hall, Room 130B Internet Services E-mail: sfs(a)umn.edu Office of Information Technology Voice: (612) 626-0244 University of Minnesota Fax: (612) 626-7593

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[Dovecot] RAID benchmarks
by Ethan Sommer 21 Nov '06

21 Nov '06

We (a small college with about 3000 active accounts) are currently in the process of moving from UW IMAP running on linux to dovecot running on a cluster of 3 or 4 new faster Linux machines. (Initially using perdition to split the load.) As we are building and designing the system, I'm attempting to take (or find) benchmarks everywhere I can in order to make informed decisions and so that when we need something faster we have something to compare it to. I've looked all over the Internet and I haven't seen very many good benchmarks running on recent hardware for things like this. Even simple things like how different raid levels perform with fast CPUs and really fast disks. We recently got the first of the cluster machines (which has the following specs: (from penguin computing) 2x 1.6ghz woodcrest (so 4 cores total) 2g ram (we may upgrade to more, depending on what we seem to need) 6x 15k SAS 73G hard drives. I've always read that RAID 10 is the RAID of choice for mail, because the checksums take time and whatnot, but on a system that fast I'm sure that's not an issue (which I could see from the cpu usage during benchmarks.) We were also wondering whether RAID6 would be a good option since it would give more redundancy. (raid6 allows 2 drive failures) All tests were run on ext3 with all 6 disks in the raid. Everything is using Linux software raid. I used bonnie++ to run the benchmarks, and here are the initial results we got: Output Input RAID "Per Chr" "Block" "Per Chr" "Block" RAID6 34628, 97983, 23316, 39077 RAID5 39559, 32715, 32036, 52231 RAID10 38816, 229062, 40645, 267418 I assume that mail running maildir (as we intend to do) is somewhere between writing one char at a time and writing huge blocks to fill 4g files. Since the Per Chr values seemed to have maxed out the CPU and we'll have 4 cores available, I tried the same thing running 4 copies of bonnie at once and adding the results. (I worked backwards and didn't bother with raid 6 for obvious reasons) Output Input RAID "Per Chr" "Block" "Per Chr" "Block" RAID5 37465, 37095, 102828, 174263 RAID10 111239, 128287, 93400, 230320 So, if our system is ever running full out, basically disk bound, it should be able to handle about 4X as many writes and at least as many reads using RAID10 than raid 5, and since raid 6 was pretty similar to raid 5 in the first tests, I assume it will be here too. I have the full bonnie results if anyone's interested. I also plan to come up with some basic benchmarks as we start to actually have dovecot working as we want it to. (Possibly using the macs in our labs and XGrid as a "client".. finally a use for that thing :) ) Do people have suggestions as to what to test for a primarily IMAP (+ a little POP) server? I was thinking of doing something similar to http://www.courier-mta.org/mbox-vs-maildir/ which selects a mail box, deletes and expunges a message, fetches a few messages, and then does some searches. Also, while I have the opportunity, are there any other benchmarks I should run? I suppose I could compare dovecot with mbox vs maildir, with indexing and without. Dovecot with indexing but the indexes deleted, etc. I could compare dovecot to uw imap. Anything else? I probably can't justify the time to get cyrus up and running. (I did that a few months ago when deciding which server to use...) Ethan Sommer -- -- Ethan Sommer Systems Administrator Gustavus Adolphus College 507-933-7042 sommere(a)gac.edu

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[Dovecot] rc14 and rc15 performance issues
by Jeff A. Earickson 21 Nov '06

21 Nov '06

Hi, I am stuck at rc13 because rc14 and rc15 have both failed to keep up with imap connections on my (slow old) system. I have the problem where if a lot of people check their email at once (like at the top of the hour) then my load goes way up and things slow to a crawl. My setup: Solaris 10 on an E220R, mbox format, imap and imaps only. I also use "login_process_per_connection = no". Any suggestions? Jeff Earickson Colby College

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[Dovecot] how to configure dovecot
by Hein Celliers 21 Nov '06

21 Nov '06

Hi all! I need some help....changing passwords....... Dovecot server, appears to cache the old credentials. It only discovers the change upon a restart. I need to know how to configure dovecot (dovecot-1.0-0.beta2.7) as not to cache the passwords. (Using fedora core 5) Thanks Hein Celliers

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Re: [Dovecot] Dovecot on Solaris
by Joseph Tam 21 Nov '06

21 Nov '06

> For those running Dovecot on Solaris, what are your positive/negative > experiences with building the software with CC vs. GCC? We are currently > letting ./configure find our gcc and build with it, but wondered if anyone > has any experience with Sun CC (does it even compile, for example). I once used StudioCC to compile dovecot to see if the problem I had was a compiler bug, but in general, I use gcc since a lot of software is tested against it. I don't use Studio unless performance is critical. >From what I know, IMAP performance is basically disk-memory bounded, so it might not be worth sweating over: use whatever gives you the least grief. Joseph Tam <tam(a)math.ubc.ca>

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[Dovecot] manageSIEVE implementation
by Brian G. Peterson 20 Nov '06

20 Nov '06

I found a thread from last year that suggested that a manageSIEVE (port 2000) implementation for dovecot-sieve doesn't exist yet. I assume that this is still true. Could somebody please provide a status on this? Thanks, - Brian

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