[Dovecot] Home directories

[Romer Ventura]

Typically when using virtual users all you do is store their emails.  
Why not introduce "stores"; Something like virtual_store or vstore  
might work nicely.


Thanks
------
Romer Ventura

On Aug 24, 2010, at 1:43 PM, William Blunn wrote:

> On 24/08/2010 15:57, Timo Sirainen wrote:
>> I've noticed that a lot of people are using e.g.:
>>
>> mail_location = maildir:/var/vmail/%d/%n
>>
>> Then either they don't have home directory set, or their home  
>> directory is the same as the maildir. http://wiki.dovecot.org/ 
>> VirtualUsers/Home explains all the problems of not separate home  
>> and mail directories.
>>
>> Also whenever I try to suggest using a separate home and mail  
>> directory, the answer is way too often: "But I'm using virtual  
>> users. (They don't have home directories.)"
>>
>> So I started wondering. Maybe simply renaming the "home" to  
>> something else would help here at least some. Make all of the  
>> documentation use only the new word, and add alias for userdb so  
>> that the new name and the "home" both work (I guess docs would  
>> need to keep using the "home" as field name for some more years).
>>
>> So far I've only come up with "vhome" as the replacement name.  
>> Other ideas?
>
> Note what follows is more a collection of ideas which jumps around  
> a bit rather than a cogent coherent logical sequence.
>
> Is there a potential problem with the term "virtual home" in as  
> much as for system users it is not virtual but the user's (actual)  
> home directory?
>
> That being the case I'd avoid the word "virtual". It seems we also  
> want to avoid the word "home".
>
> So I see logic in calling it the "user state directory" which could  
> be "userdir" for short.
>
> -=-
>
> Is there a global configuration directive like "mail_location"  
> wherein the two directives could be placed adjacently?
>
> # Note: Fictional example. Does not work.
> mail_location = maildir:/var/vmail/%d/%n/mail
> user_state_directory = /var/vmail/%d/%n
>
> -=-
>
> Could the documentation be re-structured to encourage the  
> configuration of the two parts of the storage
>
> 1. Mail directory
> 2. User state directory
>
> ?
>
> Then to say words to the effect of:
>
> "For virtual user environments, you need to set both of these  
> aspects up. You may want to set up mail as a subdirectory off the  
> user state directory. Alternatively you can put them in separate  
> locations."
>
> "For system user environments, you may want to have the user state  
> directory go directly on to the user's home directory / a  
> subdirectory of the user's home directory."
>
> -=-
>
> Another idea would be to say that, perhaps for Dovecot 2.1 (i.e. a  
> suitably large version bump), that having a configuration which  
> Dovecot could divine leaves things open to filesystem name clashes  
> between the user state directory and the mail directory (or  
> whatever is considered to be a bad outcome of not properly  
> configuring the user state directory) would create a fatal error at  
> daemon start time. Perhaps there could be a configuration directive  
> to override this check, wrapped in suitably comprehensive  
> documentation which means that people who absolutely insist can ice  
> skate uphill, but the path of least resistance would be to  
> configure Dovecot properly.
>
> Bill