Understanding virtual mailboxes (examples in 15-mailboxes.conf)

[Daniel Miller]

On 4/30/2019 11:13 PM, MRob via dovecot wrote:
> The examples in 15-mailboxes.conf
> 
> # If you have a virtual "All messages" mailbox:
>    #mailbox virtual/All {
>    #  special_use = \All
>    #  comment = All my messages
>    #}
> 
>    # If you have a virtual "Flagged" mailbox:
>    #mailbox virtual/Flagged {
>    #  special_use = \Flagged
>    #  comment = All my flagged messages
> #}
> 
> They seem to reference some kind of virtual mailbox setup that doesn't 
> compare to the docs for the "virtual" plugin. That plugin says we should 
> create a separate namespace instead, like "namespace virtual" and put 
> files representing the virtual folders into user maildirs. What if we 
> use mdbox? add the files to user/mailboxes director I will guess.
> 
> Is there a way to use the mailbox examples in the inbox namespace in the 
> default config? Does it use some other method different from the virtual 
> plugin? maybe more config hints for those examples would be helpful.
> 
> Thank you.


You will indeed need to setup a virtual namespace. The virtual mailboxes 
will exist in a folder alongside but separate from your primary 
mailstore. If your default namespace is:

namespace inbox {
   type = private
   separator = /
   prefix =
   location = maildir:/var/mail/%d/%n/Maildir
   inbox = yes
   hidden = no
   list = yes
   subscriptions = yes
}

then add

namespace virtual {
   prefix = virtual/
   separator = /
   location = virtual:/var/mail/%d/%n/virtual
   subscriptions = no
   list = children
}

So for user daniel at somedomain.org there will exist:
   /var/mail/somedomain.org/daniel/Maildir
   /var/mail/somedomain.org/daniel/virtual

And then you'll need to create the virtual definition files for each 
user's mailbox as needed.

--
Daniel