[Dovecot] Mail files?

[Knute Johnson]

I have a Ubuntu server running dovecot 1.2.9 with mail in mbox.  There 
are mail files in /var/mail/user and there are mail files in 
/home/user/mail that correspond to the IMAP folders.  In the config file 
details below it shows mail_location: mbox:~/mail:INBOX=/var/mail/%u, 
does that put the INBOX in /var/mail?  Is INBOX in /var/mail/user to 
allow local delivery or something?  If I was using POP3 instead would 
all the mail be in the INBOX?

Can I backup these files by just copying and if a file is destroyed, 
copy them back?

# 1.2.9: /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
# OS: Linux 2.6.32-33-generic i686 Ubuntu 10.04.3 LTS
log_timestamp: %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S
protocols: imaps
ssl_cert_file: /etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem
ssl_key_file: /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key
login_dir: /var/run/dovecot/login
login_executable: /usr/lib/dovecot/imap-login
mail_max_userip_connections: 16
mail_privileged_group: mail
mail_location: mbox:~/mail:INBOX=/var/mail/%u
mbox_write_locks: fcntl dotlock
imap_capability: IMAP4rev1 LITERAL+ SASL-IR LOGIN-REFERRALS ID ENABLE 
IDLE SORT SORT=DISPLAY THREAD=REFERENCES THREAD=REFS MULTIAPPEND 
UNSELECT CHILDREN NAMESPACE UIDPLUS LIST-EXTENDED I18NLEVEL=1 ESEARCH 
ESORT SEARCHRES WITHIN CONTEXT=SEARCH LIST-STATUS
auth default:
   passdb:
     driver: pam
   userdb:
     driver: passwd

Thanks,

-- 

Knute Johnson
knute2011 at knutejohnson.com