Ok basically (please read the entire post - its techy),

You need the username/password in the database before doing this

Then make sure dovecot config carries

namespace inbox { inbox = yes location = mailbox Drafts { auto = subscribe special_use = \Drafts } mailbox Sent { auto = subscribe special_use = \Sent } mailbox Trash { auto = subscribe special_use = \Trash } prefix = separator = / }

note auto = subscribe above.

When you use (in python as per this example) the imap library calls to create a mailbox dovecot (like cyrus) should create the account etc

In my case I do a

CM (create mailbox) for

/INBOX /Sent /Trash /Drafts

I make all of them by default, some mail clients will make these my default and some do not.

It's overkill but should work.

Also note this needs to be carried out on the actual mail server to get around os system rights etc.

Please note i run a django for my admin system and ended up writing a "Listener" to communicate with the server over tcpip

the listener does use the create mailbox function with dovecot

I dont remember the specifics but feel free to ask if the code below has issues.

Listener sits in the background on a dovecot server waiting to do something.

[15:36:24] mail18.scom.ca [root:0] ~ # psx list Displaying One Conditional ... list

6005 - Is 0:00.19 /usr/local/bin/python2 /sbin/scripts/dovecot.listen (python2.7)

run in unix with the & (background command)

dovecot.listen as follows :

# cat /sbin/scripts/dovecot.listen #!/usr/local/bin/python2

import os,sys import socket import commands import time

from lib import *

a = onlyone ('dovecot.listen') if a.status == 'BAD' : print 'Another Process Is running ....' sys.exit()

TCP_IP = '10.220.0.18' TCP_PORT = 8444 BUFFER_SIZE = 1024 # Normally 1024, but we want fast response

s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM) s.bind((TCP_IP, TCP_PORT)) s.listen(1)

while 1 : #Process received data? conn, addr = s.accept() #Wait for data print 'Connection address:', addr data = conn.recv(BUFFER_SIZE) if not data: break print "received data:", data data = data.split (' ') command = data[0] print command

     #If CM (Create Mailbox)
     if command == 'CM' :
             username = data[1]
             print 'Creating Email Account : %s' % (username)
             #Now create the mail box
             #Now go make the email account
             message = ''
             for n in range (0,100) :
                     command1 = 

commands.getoutput('/usr/local/bin/doveadm mailbox create -s -u %s INBOX' %str(username)) print 'Command1 : %s' %command1 if 'Mailbox already exists' in command1 : message = 'BAD' conn.send( str(message) ) break

                     else :
                             if message == '' :
                                     message = 'OK'
                                     conn.send(message)
                                     message = 'SENT'

                     if "User doesn't exist" in command1 :
                             time.sleep(2)
                             continue
                     else :
                             print 'Command1 : %s' %command1
                             message = 'SENT'
                             break

             if message == 'SENT' : #Create the rest
                     command2 = 

commands.getoutput('/usr/local/bin/doveadm mailbox create -s -u %s Sent' %str(username)) print 'Command2 : %s' %command2 command3 = commands.getoutput('/usr/local/bin/doveadm mailbox create -s -u %s Trash' %str(username)) print 'Command3 : %s' %command3 command4 = commands.getoutput('/usr/local/bin/doveadm mailbox create -s -u %s Drafts' %str(username)) print 'Command4 : %s' %command4

     if command == 'INFO' :
             username = data[1]
             print 'Getting Email Account Info : %s' % ( username )
             command1 = commands.getoutput("/usr/local/bin/doveadm 

mailbox status -t all -u %s '*' " %str(username)) if 'Error' in command1 : message = 'BAD' else : message = 'OK : ' + command1

             print message
             conn.send( str(message) )  # echo


     if command == 'DM' :
             data = data[1]
             data = data.split('@')
             print 'Deleting Email Account : user/%s@%s' % ( 

str(data[0]), str(data[1]) )

             message = 'BAD'

             conn.send(message)  # echo
             print message

conn.close() s.close()

#Go Back Around

the code is not finished but does create the mbox and waits for it to be completed before returning ?

it is accessed with this code (see python sockets)

   imap_test = Dovecot_Command ('INFO',self.username) #do i have 

this account ?

   if 'BAD' in imap_test.answer :
     try : #Try to Create the account, note that the db must be 

updated properly before it will work imap_create = Dovecot_Command ('CM',self.username) if 'OK' in imap_create.answer : send_subject = 'Email Account Created : %s' %(str(self.username) )

     except :
       send_subject = 'Error Account : %s' %(str(self.username) )
       pass

   else :
     send_subject = 'Email Account Updated : %s' %(self.username)

and

class Dovecot_Command : def __init__(self,command,username) : self.command = command self.username = username self.answer = '' import socket TCP_IP = '10.220.0.18' TCP_PORT = 8444 BUFFER_SIZE = 1024 MESSAGE = '%s %s' %(self.command,self.username) s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM) s.connect((TCP_IP, TCP_PORT)) s.send(MESSAGE) self.answer = s.recv(BUFFER_SIZE) s.close()

this is crude code but does get the job done.

I went to this extent to eventually create, get info on the account, delete etc back into my django admin project (like mbox size, last accessed etc)

basically everything you need to handle accounts on the serer side.

I also run replication and i think that is what lead to this being a little more complex. (ie a simple cm imap command was insufficent?)

Happy Thursday !!! Thanks - paul

Paul Kudla

Scom.ca Internet Services http://www.scom.ca 004-1009 Byron Street South Whitby, Ontario - Canada L1N 4S3

Toronto 416.642.7266 Main 1.866.411.7266 Fax 1.888.892.7266 Email paul@scom.ca

On 2023-02-23 12:56 p.m., dovecot-bounces@dovecot.org wrote:

...

is there any way with Dovecot to open an admin imap connection and create a brand new mailbox? With Cyrus imapd I can do this by connecting as the Cyrus admin user and then create a folder "user/newuser@domain.tld".

Wouldn't that be dependent on how Dovecot auth worker verifies a user exist and is valid? Such as for one method, database queries. How would Dovecot know what query to run to add another user to your database? Plus update any other related DB tables needed for your custom setup? I would imagine too many edge cases for Dovecot to worry about for creating accounts.