My sub-folder with Outlook work-around to date - update 201710091046
David.M.Clark
david at davrom.com
Mon Oct 9 07:23:08 EEST 2017
Hi Mike,
I haven't seen your messages come through the feed so something is not
working for your e-mail address there?
No I am not using Sieve - the server has a third party handling spam etc
so the Linux box is very basic SendMail, Dovecot and RoundCube setup
(along with my own procmail based web interface for e-mail forwarding
and away message responses).
I struggle on.
On 09/10/17 12:30, Mike wrote:
>
> Mr. Clark,
>
> I would post this question to the maillist, but for some unknown reason,
> it will not post my messages.
>
> Are you currently using Sieve with your mbox setup?
>
> If so, would you be willing to share your configuration of that?
>
> If not, I guess I'll just convert to maildir like you are doing.
>
> I'd be willing to help in any way you feel needed.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Mike Barsalou
>
> Quoting "David.M.Clark" <david at davrom.com>:
>
>> Hi All,
>>
>> Will start using an "update" tag in my subject just to not cause
>> confusion (mainly for yours truly).
>>
>> Pursuant to my victory in finding Maildir and mbox being used if
>> either exist (and if both still seems to favour Maildir - a mistake my
>> end: "rmdir -f mail" fixed it), I have found one issue with not
>> declaring the mailbox location: it won't import your new e-mail from
>> your Inbox (/var/spool/mail/user in my case). If I run the conversion
>> script mb2md with a '-m', I get duplicate entries in Outlook's Inbox -
>> I understand why, just a shame it doesn't sync with what 'isn't'
>> already there.
>>
>> So yesterday and today I have done additional testing as the customer
>> uses RoundCube and mobile devices - so attacking the same Linux server
>> I have Thunderbird and a couple of Android e-mail clients. Outlook is
>> the only stick in the mud with needing to manually subscribe to
>> folders when I create them on other devices - again could be me as I
>> don't use Outlook. (Thunderbird and other e-mail clients, all good
>> with immediate auto-sync).
>>
>> I looked at the wiki to try and run both mail_location settings with
>> the wiki suggested:
>>
>> ##namespace {
>> ## separator = /
>> ## prefix = "#mbox/"
>> ## location = mbox:~/mail:INBOX=/var/mail/%u
>> ## inbox = yes
>> ## hidden = yes
>> ## list = no
>> ##}
>> ##namespace {
>> ## separator = /
>> ## prefix = "Maildir/"
>> ## location = maildir:~/Maildir
>> ## list = yes
>> ##}
>>
>> in 10-mail.conf but as you can see, I have commented it out now as it
>> introduced some more layers of errors which I have to get back to -
>> "Duplicate namespace prefix" was one issue.
>>
>> The goal is to run the server with the existing mbox users blissfully
>> unaware they are being converted one-by-one so it looks like I 'can'
>> run both formats but just need to get the configs right. Was hoping
>> the mb2md would just sync new stuff so I could cron script the Inbox
>> check for the users that are converted to Maildir until I can throw
>> the switch and be done with the cut-over..... or I could be dangerous
>> and remove and import each time.... but that could lead to more dramas
>> at the user end.
>>
>> Looks like more R&D is needed so will persevere - annoying to get so
>> close though, might see if I can just sync in the Inbox items that are
>> 'new' - that means I am ready to roll on the customer site......
>>
>> On 09/10/17 00:12, David.M.Clark wrote:
>>> Wow excellent feedback Joseph, Philon and Aki,
>>>
>>> You have all pointed me in the right direction. Tonight I have tested
>>> Dovecot with just the minor configs I do for Dovecot setup and I have
>>> commented out the mbox/Maildir lines in 10-mail.conf from my testing:
>>>
>>> #mail_location =
>>> #mail_location = mbox:~/mail:INBOX=/var/spool/mail/%u
>>> #mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir
>>>
>>> I had run up some test files (folders) under mbox using
>>> "/u/home/user/mail_test" and then renamed this to 'mail' (so
>>> /u/home/user/mail).
>>> Ran some tests with sends/receives, created folders - all good.
>>> Created mbox text folders.
>>>
>>> Then had my initial test 'Maildir_test' populated with test folders
>>> which I renamed to /u/home/user/Maildir - and each time I restarted
>>> Outlook it was obeying the folder 'format' based on whether I had
>>> 'mail' or 'Maildir' in place.
>>>
>>> I did see in the posts and docs on-line somewhere that someone
>>> mentioned the later implementations of Dovecot, without hard-setting
>>> either mbox or Maildir in the 10-mail.conf file, Dovecot, based on
>>> the presence of the particular directory in the user's $HOME
>>> directory obeys the rules based on mbox/Maildir respectively.
>>>
>>> I haven't needed to touch the namespace rules as per:
>>>
>>> https://wiki2.dovecot.org/Namespaces
>>>
>>> so the only files that bear any changes from the installed config in
>>> conf.d are:
>>>
>>> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 14531 Oct 8 23:28 10-mail.conf
>>> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2965 Oct 7 08:49 10-master.conf
>>> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1728 Oct 7 08:52 10-ssl.conf
>>>
>>> This will make migration so much easier with converting one user at a
>>> time and then getting them to start Outlook and re-sync things again.
>>>
>>> This will save a massive job from being just that and can be done in
>>> batches of users to suit time constraints.
>>>
>>> I will post here once again to let you all know how I fare but just
>>> proves to me over and over again the power of the Linux e-mail server
>>> with Dovecot for IMAP and being able to keep with the older SendMail
>>> MTA (been working with Sendmail since 1996 so....).
>>>
>>> Thank you all so much for taking time to respond.
>>>
>>> On 08/10/17 20:32, Aki Tuomi wrote:
>>>> You can give mail location and home directory from userdb or passdb.
>>>>
>>>> For userdb, return mail=something:~/something and for home use
>>>> home=/path/to/home
>>>>
>>>> For passdb, you can return userdb_mail and userdb_home
>>>>
>>>> Aki
>>>>
>>>>> On October 8, 2017 at 1:14 PM Philon <bytesplit at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Hi David,
>>>>>
>>>>> I somehow remember that there is a way to get the mail_location
>>>>> from per-user-settings. I had this once when migrating from maildir
>>>>> to mdbox.
>>>>>
>>>>> You might want to use Google and the mailing list archives for the
>>>>> details but in summary it went like this:
>>>>>
>>>>> - set Dovecot to grab the mail_location from user-settings (I think
>>>>> we used MySQL db field - or check docs for auto:)
>>>>> - have login script which converts maildir from setup A to B and
>>>>> update the user setting
>>>>> - kick the user once again to apply the setting (I’m not sure about
>>>>> this)
>>>>>
>>>>> This then automates the conversion process to happen on next user
>>>>> login.
>>>>>
>>>>> Be warned though that today with all the idle phones, probably many
>>>>> users will re-login after you restart the server. Perhaps the
>>>>> scripting could handle a timer which randomizes this a little.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Philon
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> Am 07.10.2017 um 02:22 schrieb David.M.Clark <david at davrom.com>:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi All,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks to MJ for the suggestion as my only hope, and I have tested
>>>>>> this with Outlook 2016 and Thunderbird today - seamless creation
>>>>>> of folders.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Now the mammoth task of converting customers with masses of mbox
>>>>>> folders to MailDir format using the on-line perl script:
>>>>>> mb2md-3.20.pl
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Works nicely and will be what gets us out of trouble. My only
>>>>>> sadness is that Outlook then has to be 're-subscribed' to the
>>>>>> folders again.... which makes sense or maybe I didn't give it long
>>>>>> enough - its IMAP folder syncs are extremely slow compared to
>>>>>> Thunderbird which I also tested in parallel. Thunderbird didn't
>>>>>> need any re-sync, it just found the new subscription setup and was
>>>>>> ready to go. But in all fairness, Outlook is still really only an
>>>>>> Exchange compatible product for the most part.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Would be great to run both mbox and MailDir at the same time so we
>>>>>> can do the slow user-by-user process rather than having them all
>>>>>> down at some point completely - might look at running Dovecot on a
>>>>>> different port maybe with a different ".conf" but thinking this
>>>>>> may not work anyway or cause issues.... back to my server tests to
>>>>>> see :-)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I use additional ports to 143 for external IMAP restrictions
>>>>>> anyway so might be able to do this method somehow.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Anyway, for those interested in where I got to in my testing so
>>>>>> far...
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 1. Download perl script "mb2md-3.20.pl" from:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> http://batleth.sapienti-sat.org/projects/mb2md
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 2. Changed Dovecot /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-mail.conf mbox entry to
>>>>>> MailDir:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> #mail_location = mbox:~/mail:INBOX=/var/spool/mail/%u
>>>>>> mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 3. Restarted Dovecot
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 4. su as user and in their home (/u/home/user on my setup):
>>>>>>
>>>>>> /u/packages/mb2md-3.20.pl -m
>>>>>>
>>>>>> then:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> mv mail mail_old
>>>>>>
>>>>>> then:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> /u/packages/mb2md-3.20.pl -s mail_old -R
>>>>>>
>>>>>> then:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Login with Outlook and subscribe to IMAP folders again.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Not a big fan of gazillions of little eml based text mail files in
>>>>>> directories but hey, if it fixes our issues, maybe I need to stop
>>>>>> wambulancing about it all and do as I am told :-)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Hope this helps - will keep this e-mail updated on findings if
>>>>>> anything else comes to light.
>>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> As always, I remain at your service.
>>
>> Kindest Regards,
>> David.M.Clark (Director - Senior Linux/UNIX Consultant)
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>
>
--
As always, I remain at your service.
Kindest Regards,
David.M.Clark (Director - Senior Linux/UNIX Consultant)
=--------------------------------------------------------------------------=
Davrom Consulting Pty Ltd Mobile: 0418763124
PO Box 1644, Sunnybank Hills, 4109 E-mail (Work): david at davrom.com
ABN: 81 096 990 804 E-mail (Priv): dmc1961 at dmc1961.id.au
Website: http://davrom.com Skype: dmc1961
Podcast: http://ldup.com.au Google: dmc1961 at gmail.com
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Specialising in: Linux (Fedora/RedHat/CentOS), UNIX, SCO, MikroTik,
Networking/Internet, E-mail/Web Technologies
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Please note: Any e-mail communication bearing this signature is for
the exclusive purpose of the sender and is not for publication
without the expressed permission of the sender or respective
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