[Dovecot] Telnet access creates new maildir folders

Seasoul seasoul at gmail.com
Thu Dec 30 06:20:03 EET 2010


Hi,

I'm a bit confused now, I though Dovecot was the MDA ?
I'm only using Dovecot and Postfix so I think Dovecot is the MDA here.
Thanks for the reply though, it tells me that something's wrong with either
the email delivery or the email fetching (or both!). I just can't find in
the different *.conf files what to change to fix this..


On Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 11:16 AM, Fabio Catunda
<fcatunda at contactnet.com.br>wrote:

> Mr. Seasoul,
>
> What is your MDA?
>
> Ok, maybe you don't have this answer right now, but it's pretty important.
> MDA is a Mail Delivery Agent, it's responsible for delivery an e-mail to the
> user e-mail folder. I tend to use maildrop, again, just because I like it.
>
> Apparently there is a misunderstood between your MDA and Dovecot. Your MDA
> is delivering e-mail to a folder and Dovecot is trying to take e-mail from
> another folder, that's probably your problem.
>
> There are two ways to fix it, or your MDA starts to deliver e-maiil to the
> correct folder or you reconfigure Dovecot to search for e-mail in the same
> folder that your MDA deliver it.
>
> To know what MDA you are using you have to look in postfix files. And if
> you are using dovecot as your MDA I can't help you a lot since I don't use
> it as MDA. :-( Sorry.
>
> Att,
>
> Fábio Catunda.
>
>
> On 12/30/2010 12:58 AM, Seasoul wrote:
>
>> Hi Fabio,
>>
>> Many thnaks for your prompt reply, I was typing the below :)
>> So my path for mail_location is /var/mail/vmail/%d/%u but apparently
>> that's
>> not what happens..any idea why ?
>>
>> My dovecot.conf:
>>
>> # 1.0.15: /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
>>
>> log_timestamp: %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S
>> protocols: imap imaps pop3 pop3s
>> disable_plaintext_auth: no
>> login_dir: /var/run/dovecot/login
>> login_executable(default): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap-login
>> login_executable(imap): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap-login
>> login_executable(pop3): /usr/lib/dovecot/pop3-login
>> first_valid_gid: 0
>> last_valid_gid: 12000
>> mail_privileged_group: mail
>> mail_location: maildir:/var/mail/vmail/%d/%u
>> mail_executable(default): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap
>> mail_executable(imap): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap
>> mail_executable(pop3): /usr/lib/dovecot/pop3
>> mail_plugin_dir(default): /usr/lib/dovecot/modules/imap
>> mail_plugin_dir(imap): /usr/lib/dovecot/modules/imap
>> mail_plugin_dir(pop3): /usr/lib/dovecot/modules/pop3
>> pop3_uidl_format(default):
>> pop3_uidl_format(imap):
>> pop3_uidl_format(pop3): %08Xu%08Xv
>> auth default:
>>   mechanisms: plain login
>>   passdb:
>>     driver: pam
>>   passdb:
>>     driver: sql
>>     args: /etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf
>>   userdb:
>>     driver: passwd
>>   userdb:
>>     driver: sql
>>     args: /etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf
>>   socket:
>>     type: listen
>>     client:
>>       path: /var/spool/postfix/private/auth
>>       mode: 432
>>       user: postfix
>>       group: postfix
>>
>> My dovecot-sql.conf (although not sure this is relevant for my issue):
>>
>> driver = mysql
>> connect = dbname=postfix user=**** password=**** host=localhost
>> default_pass_scheme = PLAIN-MD5
>> password_query = SELECT password FROM mailox WHERE local_part= '%u'
>> user_query = SELECT home, uid, gid FROM users WHERE userid = '%u'
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 10:52 AM, Fabio Catunda
>> <fcatunda at contactnet.com.br>wrote:
>>
>>  Seasoul,
>>>
>>> Right from dovecot.conf:
>>> # Location for users' mailboxes. This is the same as the old
>>> default_mail_env
>>> # setting. The default is empty, which means that Dovecot tries to find
>>> the
>>> # mailboxes automatically. This won't work if the user doesn't have any
>>> mail
>>> # yet, so you should explicitly tell Dovecot the full location.
>>> #
>>> # If you're using mbox, giving a path to the INBOX file (eg.
>>> /var/mail/%u)
>>> # isn't enough. You'll also need to tell Dovecot where the other
>>> mailboxes
>>> are
>>> # kept. This is called the "root mail directory", and it must be the
>>> first
>>> # path given in the mail_location setting.
>>> #
>>> # There are a few special variables you can use, eg.:
>>> #
>>> #   %u - username
>>> #   %n - user part in user at domain, same as %u if there's no domain
>>> #   %d - domain part in user at domain, empty if there's no domain
>>> #   %h - home directory
>>> #
>>> # See /usr/share/doc/dovecot-common/wiki/Variables.txt for full list.
>>> Some
>>> # examples:
>>> #
>>> #   mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir
>>> #   mail_location = mbox:~/mail:INBOX=/var/mail/%u
>>> #   mail_location = mbox:/var/mail/%d/%1n/%n:INDEX=/var/indexes/%d/%1n/%n
>>> #
>>> #<doc/wiki/MailLocation.txt>
>>>
>>> In my case:
>>> mail_location = maildir:/var/virtual/%Ld/%Ln/Maildir
>>>
>>> Just because I prefer this way.
>>>
>>> In your case I believe that something like this would be good:
>>> mail_location = maildir:/var/mail/vmail/%Ln@%Ld
>>>
>>> The "L" if for lowercase (I think). In e-mail RFC is specified that mail
>>> should be case sensitive, but it might give you some problems where
>>> people
>>> send e-mail to foo at domain.com  and FOO at domain.com, as we are working
>>> with
>>> UNIX like OS, these are different folders and different mailboxes.
>>>
>>> With best regards,
>>>
>>> Fábio Catunda.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 12/30/2010 12:40 AM, Seasoul wrote:
>>>
>>>  Hi,
>>>> I am running Dovecot Version 1.0.15on a Debian server, with postfix and
>>>> postfixadmin.
>>>> My mailbox base is /var/mail/vmail
>>>>
>>>> When I send an email to a user1 at domain.com for the first time, the user
>>>> "mail" creates a set of dovecot folders under /var/mail/vmail/
>>>> user1 at domain.com/ and my new emails are found in /var/mail/vmail/
>>>> user1 at domain.com/new
>>>> When I test my server using telnet (telnet domain.com 110), I can log
>>>> in
>>>> fine as a user1, but when I type "LIST", it tells me there are no
>>>> emails.
>>>> And I realize a new set of dovecot folders were created under
>>>> /var/mail/vmail/user1/ ! The folders are created by the user "user1".
>>>> Obviously the folder "new" under that is empty, since my emails received
>>>> are
>>>> in /var/mail/vmail/user1 at domain.com/new and not
>>>> /var/mail/vmail/user1/new
>>>> .
>>>> Therefore, connecting with an email client via POP also shows an empty
>>>> inbox.
>>>>
>>>> I am lost as to what to do to fix this, and how to let the server know
>>>> that
>>>> pop access should be looking into /var/mail/vmail/
>>>> user1 at domain.com/instead
>>>> of /var/mail/vmail/user1/ .
>>>>
>>>> Hopefully someone on this list will be able to save me from my misery :)
>>>>
>>>> Cheers
>>>> Sea
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>


More information about the dovecot mailing list