[Dovecot] Linking mdbox directories

[Timo Sirainen]

Yeah, that would work. Dovecot doesn't use absolute paths anywhere
internally, except for dbox-alt-root symlink. If the alt root path
changes, it logs a warning once, but other than that nothing breaks.

Alternatively you could do this using dsync still with zero downtime.
Basically treat it the same as user migration or mailbox format change,
and afterwards delete the old user's mails (e.g. doveadm expunge -u
user at domain mailbox '*' all) before rm -rfing the home dirs.
http://wiki2.dovecot.org/Tools/Dsync#example_converting

On Mon, 2013-05-20 at 12:28 +0100, Alex Crow wrote:
> Just realised you can't hardlink directories. Given that (and forgetting 
> the "delete later" thing) would it work with a symlink?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Alex
> ----Original Message----
> *Subject:* [Dovecot] Linking mdbox directories
> *From:* Alex Crow <acrow at integrafin.co.uk>
> *To:* dovecot at dovecot.org{
> *CC:*
> }*Date:* Mon, 20 May 2013 12:00:49 +0100
> 
> > Hi Timo/list,
> >
> > We have a scenario in which some email accounts on dovecot (stored in 
> > mdbox, separate paths for indexes, email, ALT storage and also using 
> > SIS for attachments, LDAP directory) need their names changed. I know 
> > we could just change the mail LDAP attribute (and leave 
> > mailMessageStore alone) so they keep the same directories on disk, but 
> > this would throw a spanner in the works for our backups.
> >
> > Would it be possible to create a hard link of the user's directories 
> > under the new name, and change the LDAP mailMessageStore attribute to 
> > point to these without stopping and starting dovecot? And after a 
> > while unlink the original locations? Or would this mess up dovecot's 
> > internal state?
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > Alex
> >
> 
>