LMTP "Relative home directory paths not supported"

[Aki Tuomi]

On 20.11.2017 16:12, Jeff Kletsky wrote:
> I'm in the process of moving from LDA to LMTP (Postfix upstream) prior
> to a transition off `nix accounts to virtual accounts and am stumped
> by LMTP reporting
>
>     dovecot: lmtp(10019, jeff at example.com): Error: Relative home
> directory paths not supported: 0
>
> LDA does /not /have any problems with PAM or passwd-file passdb/userdb
> and the ubiquitous definition of
>
>     mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir:LAYOUT=fs
>
> I have yet to be able to get LMTP to deliver mail, nor have I found
> anything on the Dovecot wiki to describe how to represent that the
> mail_location is <whatever/userdb/returned/for/home>/Maildir
>
> I'd prefer to localize the user-to-file-space mapping localized to
> Dovecot (rather than split within Postfix and Dovecot)
>
> I'd definitely appreciate any pointers to web pages or specific
> suggestions as to how to resolve this.
>
> Excerpts of Dovecot local.conf follow, full doveconf -n output on
> request. The/users /file is in the same format as FreeBSD
> /etc/master.passwd with name, password, UID, gid, home_dir, and shell
> meaningfully populated. The configuration below works with LDA
> (end-to-end). With LMTP, it identifies <jeff at example.com> as a valid
> destination, but fails on delivery with the "relative home directory
> paths" error message.
>
> passdb {
>   driver = passwd-file
>   args = /path/to/users
> }
> userdb {
>   driver = passwd-file
>   args = username_format=%n /path/to/users
> }
>
> # See http://wiki2.dovecot.org/MailLocation/Maildir
> # https://wiki.dovecot.org/VirtualUsers/Home
>
> mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir:LAYOUT=fs
> # mail_location = maildir:%h/Maildir:LAYOUT=fs
>
>
>
> Thanks!
>
> Jeff

That seems like lmtp is not doing variable expansion for user settings. 
What version of dovecot are you running?

Aki