[Dovecot] dovecot is confused about mail_location

[Eric Raymond]

Noel Butler <noel.butler at ausics.net>:
> You have omitted the INBOX keyword, change it to ...
> 
> mbox:~/mail:INBOX=/var/mail/%u

Doesn't fix the problem.  New results:

oot at grelber:/home/esr# tail /var/log/mail.err
Nov 24 18:35:07 grelber dovecot: IMAP(cathy): mail_location not set and autodetection failed: Mail storage autodetection failed with home=/home/cathy
Nov 24 18:35:07 grelber dovecot: IMAP(cathy): Fatal: Namespace initialization failed
root at grelber:/home/esr# ssh cathy at minx
cathy at minx's password: 

cathy at minx:~$ fetchmail -d0 -a -v
fetchmail: 6.3.9-rc2 querying grelber.thyrsus.com (protocol IMAP) at Wed 24 Nov 2010 06:41:24 PM EST: poll started
Trying to connect to 192.168.1.31/143...connected.
fetchmail: IMAP< * OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 LITERAL+ SASL-IR LOGIN-REFERRALS ID ENABLE STARTTLS LOGINDISABLED] Dovecot ready.
fetchmail: IMAP> A0001 CAPABILITY
fetchmail: IMAP< * CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 LITERAL+ SASL-IR LOGIN-REFERRALS ID ENABLE SORT SORT=DISPLAY THREAD=REFERENCES THREAD=REFS MULTIAPPEND UNSELECT IDLE CHILDREN NAMESPACE UIDPLUS LIST-EXTENDED I18NLEVEL=1 CONDSTORE QRESYNC ESEARCH ESORT SEARCHRES WITHIN CONTEXT=SEARCH STARTTLS LOGINDISABLED
fetchmail: IMAP< A0001 OK Capability completed.
fetchmail: IMAP> A0002 STARTTLS
fetchmail: IMAP< A0002 OK Begin TLS negotiation now.
fetchmail: Issuer Organization: Dovecot mail server
fetchmail: Issuer CommonName: hurkle
fetchmail: Server CommonName: hurkle
fetchmail: Server CommonName mismatch: hurkle != grelber.thyrsus.com
fetchmail: grelber.thyrsus.com key fingerprint: 60:C9:15:A3:30:8D:7B:42:10:CF:94:2D:CC:20:BC:14
fetchmail: Server certificate verification error: self signed certificate
fetchmail: IMAP> A0003 CAPABILITY
fetchmail: IMAP< * CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 LITERAL+ SASL-IR LOGIN-REFERRALS ID ENABLE SORT SORT=DISPLAY THREAD=REFERENCES THREAD=REFS MULTIAPPEND UNSELECT IDLE CHILDREN NAMESPACE UIDPLUS LIST-EXTENDED I18NLEVEL=1 CONDSTORE QRESYNC ESEARCH ESORT SEARCHRES WITHIN CONTEXT=SEARCH AUTH=PLAIN
fetchmail: IMAP< A0003 OK Capability completed.
fetchmail: grelber.thyrsus.com: upgrade to TLS succeeded.
fetchmail: IMAP> A0004 LOGIN "cathy" *
fetchmail: IMAP> A0005 *
fetchmail: Unknown login or authentication error on cathy at grelber.thyrsus.com
fetchmail: socket error while fetching from cathy at grelber.thyrsus.com
fetchmail: 6.3.9-rc2 querying grelber.thyrsus.com (protocol IMAP) at Wed 24 Nov 2010 06:41:24 PM EST: poll completed
fetchmail: Query status=2 (SOCKET)
fetchmail: normal termination, status 2
cathy at minx:~$ logout
root at grelber:/home/esr# tail /var/log/mail.err
Nov 24 18:39:19 grelber dovecot: IMAP(cathy): mail_location not set and autodetection failed: Mail storage autodetection failed with home=/home/cathy
Nov 24 18:39:19 grelber dovecot: IMAP(cathy): Fatal: Namespace initialization failed
root at grelber:/home/esr# dovecot -n
# 1.2.9: /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
# OS: Linux 2.6.32-24-generic x86_64 Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS 
log_timestamp: %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S 
login_dir: /var/run/dovecot/login
login_executable: /usr/lib/dovecot/imap-login
mail_privileged_group: mail
mail_location: mbox:~/mail:INBOX=/var/mail/%u
mbox_write_locks: fcntl dotlock
auth default:
  passdb:
    driver: pam
  userdb:
    driver: passwd

Some log lines have been trimmed for clarity. Note the timestamp on the 
second log; there's an identical failure with the variable set as you 
describe.
-- 
		<a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/">Eric S. Raymond</a>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 190 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
Url : http://dovecot.org/pipermail/dovecot/attachments/20101124/6ef03108/attachment.bin