Short version:
What is the correct way to configure the mail_location option for
Mailidr format?
I've long had it setup this way:
mail_location = maildir:/var/vmail/%d/%n
based on this guide:
https://www.linode.com/docs/email/postfix/email-with-postfix-dovecot-and-mysql
Is that correct?
Longer version:
After upgrading from Dovecot v2.0.x to v2.2.x yesterday I'm coming to
the conclusion that I've got it configured wrong. This is probably
compounded by my bright idea of explicitly setting the path separator
prior to the upgrade like so:
separator = .
Because we're using Maildir I thought it would be useful to explicitly
set the separator value to what the default is for Maildir. I figured
this would be a good way to remind myself what the separator is by
default. I also figured while I was merging the conf changes between
v2.0 and v2.2 I could roll that additional change in also. Looks like
that was a bad idea to include unnecessary changes until things had
stabilized. I should know better; I was too optimistic for my own good.
Here is an example error message I ran into:
stat(/var/vmail/example.com/username/.dovecot.lda-dupes/tmp) failed:
Not a directory
which is nearly identical (other than leading path) to what is shown
here:
http://www.dovecot.org/list/dovecot/2010-April/048227.html
Steffen Kaiser responded with, "You should not (must not) have home ==
maildir root." That is when I double-checked the guide that I mentioned
above and found that I had followed their directions exactly for that
conf setting. Looking at some other guides/tutorials shows something
more like:
mail_location = maildir:/var/vmail/%d/%n/Maildir
I assume the latter is how it's supposed to be done? If so, that would
explain the problems I've had with Sieve scripts in the past until I
explicitly set 'sieve_dir' like so:
sieve_dir = /var/vmail/sieve/%d/%n/sieve_dir
I did review the official docs here:
http://wiki2.dovecot.org/MailLocation/Maildir
but I didn't find where it explicitly warns against setting home ==
maildir root. It should probably be apparent, but it wasn't to me when I
first configured that setting.
Thanks in advance for your help. If it turns out that the linode.com
guide is wrong I'll create a Pull request to have that guide updated.
