[Dovecot] Settings for authentication without an extra password file

[Timo Sirainen]

On 23.2.2012, at 19.31, Keith Christian wrote:

> Hello, I'm new to dovecot, and, due to having an older version of an
> OS installed on a test server, I'll be using an older version of
> dovecot (dovecot-1.0-1.2) to provide IMAP services.

I think Dovecot v2.x works mostly on the same OSes as v1.x.

> On this wiki page
> (http://wiki.dovecot.org/BasicConfiguration?highlight=%28passwd.dovecot%29)
> 
> There are instructions for creating a separate dovecot password file:
> 
>    echo "$USER:{PLAIN}password" > passwd.dovecot
>    sudo mv passwd.dovecot /etc
> 
> So, it appears that two password files will be needed, one for dovecot
> and one for regular system logins.

Only if you want to.

> Is there a setting in dovecot.conf which will authenticate IMAP using
> /etc/password and /etc/shadow, without a separate dovecot password
> file?

Use passdb pam + userdb passwd (not passwd-file). See password + user databases under http://wiki.dovecot.org/Authentication