How to use dovecot only as POP3 server / prevent it from creating .imap directories?

[Josef 'Jeff' Sipek]

On Tue, Jun 09, 2020 at 12:32:18 +0200, Binarus wrote:
...
> ./mail/inbox
> ./mail/.imap
> ./mail/.imap/dovecot-uidvalidity
> ./mail/.imap/dovecot.list.index.log
> ./mail/.imap/dovecot-uidvalidity.5edce848
> ./mail/.imap/INBOX
> ./mail/.imap/INBOX/dovecot.index.log
> ./mail/.imap/INBOX/dovecot.index
> ./mail/.imap/INBOX/dovecot.index.log.2
> ./mail/.imap/INBOX/dovecot.index.cache
> 
> While there are no .imap subdirectories in other parts of the home
> directories any more (which was the main goal), there are still at least
> three unnecessary files plus one unnecessary directory with four
> unnecessary files left. This is an ugly waste of resources, but it won't
> keep me from going that way.
> 
> Obviously, dovecot is not meant to serve only POP3 any more

The .imap directory isn't really about IMAP.  It is sort of a generic
directory that just happens to have "imap" in the name.  The index files you
see are required for various features inside dovecot to work properly.  Many
of them are related to performance rather than a specific protocol.
Granted, POP3 is such a simple protocol that most of the features don't
apply to a POP3-only server.

If you don't want the index files to live inside the users' home
directories, take a look at the INDEX and CONTROL keys in the mail_location
docs:

https://doc.dovecot.org/configuration_manual/mail_location/#format

While that still creates the files, you can move them off to a location that
the users do not see.

Jeff.