[Dovecot] /var/dovecot /var/spool/mail permissions, setup help (w/ config info)

[Mark Nienberg]

Jeff Kowalczyk wrote:

>  dovecot: Jul 05 18:36:10 Info: IMAP(namefirst.namelast): mbox:
> data=/var/spool/mail/namefirst.namelast:INDEX=/var/dovecot/namefirst.namelast

>  dovecot: Jul 05 18:36:10 Info: IMAP(namefirst.namelast): mbox: INBOX defaulted
> to /var/spool/mail/namefirst.namelast/inbox

That isn't what you want.  Dovecot guessed that your inboxes are 
/var/spool/mail/namefirst.namelast/inbox
but they are really
/var/spool/mail/namefirst.namelast


>  default_mail_env = mbox:/var/spool/mail/%u:INDEX=/var/dovecot/%u

Ah, here is the problem. You  have confused the mail directory with the inbox 
location.  For standard mbox arrangement this would typically be

default_mail_env = mbox:%h/mail:INBOX=/var/mail/%u


Also, either give users permissions to write in the /var/dovecot directory or just 
let dovecot put indexes in the user's home directories.

See http://wiki.dovecot.org/MailLocation

Mark