[Dovecot] Dovecot strange behaviors on Solaris

[Mario Nigrovic-rvvk40]

Folks -

    I've been using Dovecot for some time now, but have only recently upgraded 
to 1.0alpha4.  I'm struggling to get my configuration right and I'm seeing 
some truly bizarre issues.

My Setup: Solaris 2.8 / Thunderbird / Procmail / Dovecot 1.0alpha4

My mail setup is only for me, so Dovecot runs at an odd port and under my 
userID.  All my mail is in my home directory, which is on NFS (NetApp).  The 
main mail receiver is a different machine which mounts my home directory.

Typical entry from .procmailrc:

:0
* ^(From|To|CC):.*@.*\<si2.org
Maildir/.SI2/

Highlights from dovecot.conf:

#default_mail_env = maildir:%h/.mail/Maildir:INDEX=/var/tmp/mario/dovecot
default_mail_env = maildir:%h/.mail/Maildir:INDEX=MEMORY

mmap_disable = yes

#lock_method = flock
lock_method = fcntl
#lock_method = dotlock

protocol imap {
   listen = *:2143
}

auth_worker_max_count = 0

auth default {
   mechanisms = plain
   userdb passwd {
   }
}

When I run as above (INDEX=MEMORY), I have access to all my mail, but I'm 
seeing literally thousands of .nfs files created all throughout my 
.mail/Maildir directories, and Thunderbird periodically locks up.  As the 
filesystem fills with useless .nfs files (I deleted 10000 from ONE mailbox 
directory this morning), everything gets really, really slow, and I suspect 
this contributes to Thunder bird's problem.

But, if I run with the INDEX on a local disk, many mailboxes will not load 
(the most critical ones, of course...), but also some do.  My inbox will list 
messages, but cannot display any.  Others won't even list messages.

I'm at a total loss how to proceed, here.  I've tried everything I can think 
of to debug what's going on, but have gotten nowhere (well, I did discover the 
whole lock_method=fcntl trick).

I've tried enabling rawlog, but am just not familiar enough with IMAP to get 
help from those logs.

Here's what's happening in a typical mailbox:

% pwd
/home/mario/.mail/Maildir/.SI2
% ls -al
total 544
drwx--S---   5 rvvk40   lowv       425984 Dec  2 14:42 ./
drwx--S---  64 rvvk40   lowv        16384 Dec  2 14:43 ../
-rw-------   1 rvvk40   lowv           15 Nov 16 07:16 .customflags
-rw-------   1 rvvk40   lowv           24 Dec  2 14:38 .nfs00986
-rw-------   1 rvvk40   lowv           24 Dec  2 14:40 .nfs08986
-rw-------   1 rvvk40   lowv          312 Dec  2 14:11 .nfs16686
-rw-------   1 rvvk40   lowv           24 Dec  2 14:32 .nfs1A886

-- 40+ deleted here for brevity --

-rw-------   1 rvvk40   lowv           24 Dec  2 14:39 .nfsE3986
-rw-------   1 rvvk40   lowv          312 Dec  2 14:38 .nfsEF886
-rw-------   1 rvvk40   lowv           24 Dec  2 14:26 .nfsF3886
-rw-------   1 rvvk40   lowv          312 Dec  2 14:32 .nfsF9886
-rw-------   1 rvvk40   lowv          312 Dec  2 14:17 .nfsFF686
drwx--S---   2 rvvk40   lowv         4096 Dec  2 07:58 cur/
drwx--S---   2 rvvk40   lowv         4096 Dec  2 07:58 new/
drwx--S---   2 rvvk40   lowv         4096 Dec  2 07:58 tmp/
% pwd
/home/mario/.mail/Maildir/.SI2

				Help!

					Mario