[Dovecot] dbox - how to awaken the monster

[Daniel L. Miller]

Odhiambo Washington wrote:
> One last question: Can dbox co-exist with Maildir?
>   
Depends on what you mean by "co-exist".  It is possible to define 
per-user mail storage within the userdb.  It is also possible (I 
believe) to have multiple namespaces, and the mailstorage can be 
different for each namespace (I don't understand namespaces myself yet, 
so can't help much there).
> And finally, there was a mention of a script to migrate from Maildir to
> dbox. Where is it?
>   
I'm trying to use the convert plugin myself.  It seemed very simple to 
implement.  My difficulty is I previously had home=mail - which is a Bad 
Thing.  After I've finished splitting those out, I'll try the covert again.

My suggestion, if you want to try it, is:
1.  Setup a test mailbox, and send a couple of mails to it.
2.  Make sure no users are currently connected.
3.  Stop ALL mail services (including your MTA - otherwise delivery will 
mess things up)
4.  Backup your dovecot.conf file.
5.  Re-configure Dovecot to listen on a non-standard port, like 10143, 
to prevent other clients from re-connecting.
6.  Configure the covert plugin and your target mailstorage
7.  Have a mail client - or even telnet - connect to Dovecot on that new 
port, using the test mailbox - NOT YOUR OWN!!  I recommend telnet - less 
likely to have a problem.
8.  Examine the mailbox folder - did the conversion complete successfully?

If it worked, take a deep breath, cross your fingers...and reconfigure 
dovecot to listen on the standard ports again and allow users to connect.
-- 
Daniel