[Dovecot] Dovecot not honoring configuration settings (auth failure)

[Jeffrey Walton]

On Mon, Mar 31, 2014 at 6:29 PM, Joseph Tam <jtam.home at gmail.com> wrote:
> Jeffrey Walton <noloader at gmail.com> writes:
>
>> I specified the following in my dovecot.conf.
>>
>>
>> passdb {
>>  args = /var/mail/%d/users
>>  driver = passwd-file
>> }
>>
>> Attempts to use the configuration result in an authentication failure.
>> Here's an entry from dovecot.log when the failure happens:
>>
>> Mar 31 16:04:12 imap-login: Info: Disconnected (auth failed, 1
>> attempts in 5 secs): user=<jeff at foo.com>, method=PLAIN, rip=127.0.0.1,
>> lip=127.0.1.1, secured, session=<n5/ajez1FgB/AAAB>
>
> Just to confirm, your <user> specified in the passdb corresponds to what
> is being authenticated (i.e. client is authenticating as "jeff at foo.com",
> not "jeff")?  Otherwise, you'll need to add domains to your passdb,
> or configure "username_format=%n"
Yes, I believe so:

$ sudo cat /var/mail/foo.com/users
# Generate passwords with:
#   doveadm pw -s PLAIN -p <password>

# Real users
tad at foo.com:{PLAIN}some-password
jeff at foo.com:{PLAIN}some-password

In case it matters, here are the Postfix settings (but they should not
apply since this is an IMAP exercise):

    $ sudo cat /etc/postfix/mailboxes

    # Real users
    tad at foo.com foo.com/tad/
    jeff at foo.com foo.com/jeff/

Its compiled with `postmap`:

    postmap /etc/postfix/mailboxes

And then specified in `main.cf` with:

    virtual_mailbox_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/mailboxes

And my two domains are handled similarly in `domains`.

Jeff