[Dovecot] Help needed: Index filesystem permissions problem after switch to V1.2 and back to V1.1

[Stewart Dean]

After V1.2 had been up for a while, I started seeing tons of syslog 
error messages like this:

Nov  5 09:11:52 mercury mail:err|error dovecot: IMAP(sdean): stat(/var/dcindx/sdean/.imap/DadEstate)
 failed: Permission denied (euid=202(sdean) egid=200(hcrc) missing +x perm: /var/dcindx)

Ownernship and Permissions are:
The index filesystem
2726 root at mercury:/var/dcindx ## ls -ald  
drwx--S--- 3946 dovecot  system       192512 Nov 05 08:59 ./

A user's directory is:

2729 root at mercury:/var/dcindx ## ls -al sdean

total 400
drwx--S---    7 sdean    sys             256 Sep 29 04:43 ./
drwx--S--- 3946 dovecot  system       192512 Nov 05 08:59 ../
drwx--S---  139 sdean    sys            8192 Sep 29 04:43 .imap/

and for the directory with the problem:

2731 root at mercury:/var/dcindx ## ls -al sdean/.imap/DadEstate
total 48
drwx--S---    2 sdean    sys             256 Sep 29 04:43 ./
drwx--S---  139 sdean    sys            8192 Sep 29 04:43 ../
-rw-------    1 sdean    sys             408 Jan 14 2009  dovecot.index
-rw-------    1 sdean    sys           18432 May 05 2009  dovecot.index.cache
-rw-------    1 sdean    sys             828 Jan 14 2009  dovecot.index.log

I switched back to V1.1, but the situation persists

dovecot -n:

# 1.1.15: /usr/local/etc/dovecot.conf
# OS: AIX 3 0001378F4C00  
listen: *:143
ssl_listen: *:993
disable_plaintext_auth: no
verbose_ssl: yes
login_dir: /var/run/dovecot/login
login_executable: /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/imap-login
login_processes_count: 12
login_max_processes_count: 774
max_mail_processes: 1024
verbose_proctitle: yes
first_valid_uid: 200
mail_location: mbox:~/mail:INBOX=/var/spool/mail/%u:INDEX=/var/dcindx/%u
mbox_write_locks: fcntl
mbox_dirty_syncs: no
auth default:
  passdb:
    driver: pam
  userdb:
    driver: passwd


-- 
==== Once upon a time, the Internet was a friendly, 
neighbors-helping-neighbors small town, and no one locked their doors. 
Now it's like an apartment in Bed-Stuy: you need three heavy duty 
pick-proof locks, one of those braces that goes from the lock to the 
floor, and bars on the windows.... ==== Stewart Dean, Unix System Admin, 
Bard College, New York 12504 sdean at bard.edu voice: 845-758-7475, fax: 
845-758-7035