Re: Character not allowed in mailbox name
Hi Lothar,
I haven't yet had the opportunity to go deep into Dovecot engineering /
development, (so please correct me if necessary anyone).
I have experienced this exception where attempting to copy mailbox data
within a client from IMAP account to IMAP account, but I have not had
it cause a mailbox to become inaccessible.
The reason was because Maildir++ format uses the "." separator to
delineate child directories, and therefore the character is illegal in
mailbox names. The issue was addressed by either changing the
filesystem layout to LAYOUT=fs or by changing the mailbox format
altogether to e.g. sdbox.
> location = maildir:%%h:INDEX=%h/shared/%%u
I can see from your configuration that the LAYOUT is not set as fs, so
I would assume is still using Maildir++.
Perhaps this setting was lost during the upgrade?
Regards,
Arnold Opio Oree
Chief Executive Officer
Parallax Digital Technologies
arnoldo...@parallaxdt.com
http://www.parallaxdt.com
tel : +44 (0) 333 577 8587
fax : +44 (0) 20 8711 2477
Parallax Digital Technologies is a trading name of Parallax Global
Limited. U.K. Co. No. 08836288
The contents of this e-mail are confidential. If you are not the
intended recipient you are to delete this e-mail immediately, disregard
its contents and disclose them to no other persons.
-Original Message-
From: Lothar Schilling via dovecot
Reply-To: Lothar Schilling
To: dovecot@dovecot.org
Subject: Character not allowed in mailbox name
Date: Mon, 22 Jul 2019 08:33:45 +0200
Hi everybody,
after an update this morning to dovecot 2.3.7 we cannot connect to our
shared mailboxes anymore. The error message as issued in Thunderbird:
"Character not allowed in mailbox name '.'"
I didn't change anything about the configuration. Output of dovecot -n:
[...]
namespace {
list = children
location = maildir:%%h:INDEX=%h/shared/%%u
prefix = Shared/%%u/
separator = /
subscriptions = yes
type = shared
}
[...]
Any help would be appreciated, thank you very much.
Lothar Schilling
Re: Applying Dovecot for a large / deep folder-hierarchy archive - BUG REPORTS!
Sure Adam, this makes perfect sense. And having properly reviewed the "debian-release" mailing list description, I can see that this is made quite clear: > Coordinating Debian releases > Coordination of Debian releases issues such as testing migrations, > transitions and removals. This list should not be considered a > discussion list; discussions related to releases issues should be > held on more appropriate lists such as debian-devel, debian-legal or > debian-project. Best regards, Arnold Opio Oree Chief Executive Officer Parallax Digital Technologies arnoldo...@parallaxdt.com http://www.parallaxdt.com tel : +44 (0) 333 577 8587 fax : +44 (0) 20 8711 2477 Parallax Digital Technologies is a trading name of Parallax Global Limited. U.K. Co. No. 08836288 The contents of this e-mail are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient you are to delete this e-mail immediately, disregard its contents and disclose them to no other persons. -Original Message- From: Adam D. Barratt via dovecot Reply-To: Adam D. Barratt To: arnoldo...@parallaxict.com Cc: t...@sirainen.com, debian-rele...@lists.debian.org, Dovecot Mailing List Subject: Re: Applying Dovecot for a large / deep folder-hierarchy archive - BUG REPORTS! Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2019 13:43:34 +0100 On Wed, 2019-07-10 at 12:26 +0100, Arnold Opio Oree wrote: > Understood Adam, > > My thinking is that this is a package released with Debian 10. And so > has everything to do with the release. For clarity here - debian-release is neither a support forum nor a discussion list, nor a means of reporting issues in software contained within a Debian release. Debian has support fora and a bug tracking system to handle such reports and issues, as per https://www.debian.org /support . Having a single list that discusses any issue in any piece of software shipped by Debian cannot possibly scale. Rather, this list is the contact point and team alias for the Release Team, who oversee and manage the release process. It is up to individual package maintainers to triage and deal with issues reported against their packages and then to liaise with us if required. Regards, Adam --
Re: Applying Dovecot for a large / deep folder-hierarchy archive - BUG REPORTS!
Hello Aki, Thank you for your assurance. It is really important to me to see that things are done well in the open source community. As there are many vested interests that would seek to have it otherwise. And there are certain parts of the world, such as the place of my birth, Africa. Where Open Source really does hold the key to freedom from the worst forms of oppression and suffering known to man. Sorry Adam, this will be my last cc on this topic. Just thought it was important to get this point to the Debian Release Management Team. Warmest regards, Arnold Opio Oree Chief Executive Officer Parallax Digital Technologies arnoldo...@parallaxdt.com http://www.parallaxdt.com tel : +44 (0) 333 577 8587 fax : +44 (0) 20 8711 2477 Parallax Digital Technologies is a trading name of Parallax Global Limited. U.K. Co. No. 08836288 The contents of this e-mail are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient you are to delete this e-mail immediately, disregard its contents and disclose them to no other persons. Understood Adam, My thinking is that this is a package released with Debian 10. And so has everything to do with the release. I am new to the community, and have not yet studied the guidelines. Regards, Arnold Opio Oree Chief Executive Officer Parallax Digital Technologies arnoldo...@parallaxdt.com http://www.parallaxdt.com tel : +44 (0) 333 577 8587 fax : +44 (0) 20 8711 2477 Parallax Digital Technologies is a trading name of Parallax Global Limited. U.K. Co. No. 08836288 The contents of this e-mail are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient you are to delete this e-mail immediately, disregard its contents and disclose them to no other persons. -Original Message- From: Adam D. Barratt To: arnoldo...@parallaxict.com Cc: t...@sirainen.com, Dovecot Mailing List , debian-rele...@lists.debian.org Subject: Re: Applying Dovecot for a large / deep folder-hierarchy archive - BUG REPORTS! Date: Wed, 10 Jul 2019 12:24:44 +0100 On 2019-07-10 12:01, Arnold Opio Oree wrote: Please stop CCing this thread to the Debian Release Management mailing list. If there are issues with the Dovecot packages in Debian then they should be reported as bugs against the packages. Thanks. Adam (Debian Release Team member) -Original Message- From: Aki Tuomi To: arnoldo...@parallaxict.com, t...@sirainen.com, Dovecot Mailing List Cc: debian-rele...@lists.debian.org Subject: Re: Applying Dovecot for a large / deep folder-hierarchy archive - BUG REPORTS! Date: Wed, 10 Jul 2019 14:13:53 +0300 Your report is most appreciated, though it lacked quite a lot of detail that could've expedited the investigation why it happened. With the further information we can hopefully figure out why you are experiencing the problems you reported. There is no offense intended. Aki On 10.7.2019 14.01, Arnold Opio Oree via dovecot wrote: > Hello Timo, > > I have scheduled some time to carry through the test requested by > Aki. > > I will add responding to you as part of that process. > > Not sure if I have said or done anything to offend you, as your tone > appears quite abrasive, even where you do not have an actual response > to an observation. > > It is my view that it is a privilege to provide an open source > platform, and therefore a responsibility wherever feasible not only > to properly maintain and support it, but also to properly document > it; both of which from my experience and findings to date, Dovecot > have failed to do. > > Kind regards, > > Arnold Opio Oree > Chief Executive Officer > Parallax Digital Technologies > > arnoldo...@parallaxdt.com > > > http://www.parallaxdt.com > > > tel : +44 (0) 333 577 8587 > fax : +44 (0) 20 8711 2477 > > Parallax Digital Technologies is a trading name of Parallax Global > Limited. U.K. Co. No. 08836288 > > The contents of this e-mail are confidential. If you are not the > intended recipient you are to delete this e-mail immediately, > disregard > its contents and disclose them to no other persons. > > > -Original Message- > From: Timo Sirainen via dovecot < > dovecot@dovecot.org > > > Reply-To: Timo Sirainen < > t...@sirainen.com > > > To: Arnold Opio Oree < > arnold.o...@parallaxict.com > > > Cc: Dovecot Mailing List < > dovecot@dovecot.org > > > Subject: Re: Applying Dovecot for a large / deep folder-hierarchy > archive - BUG REPORTS! > Date: Wed, 10 Jul 2019 11:09:57 +0300 > > On 7 Jul 2019, at 18.12, Arnold Opio Oree via dovecot < > dovecot@dovecot.org > > wrote: > > > Dovecot Team, > > > > > > I'd like to report a number of bugs, that are to my view all > > > critical. > > It would help to get your doveconf -n, example command lines c
Re: Applying Dovecot for a large / deep folder-hierarchy archive - BUG REPORTS!
Understood Adam, My thinking is that this is a package released with Debian 10. And so has everything to do with the release. I am new to the community, and have not yet studied the guidelines. Regards, Arnold Opio Oree Chief Executive Officer Parallax Digital Technologies arnoldo...@parallaxdt.com http://www.parallaxdt.com tel : +44 (0) 333 577 8587 fax : +44 (0) 20 8711 2477 Parallax Digital Technologies is a trading name of Parallax Global Limited. U.K. Co. No. 08836288 The contents of this e-mail are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient you are to delete this e-mail immediately, disregard its contents and disclose them to no other persons. -Original Message- From: Adam D. Barratt To: arnoldo...@parallaxict.com Cc: t...@sirainen.com, Dovecot Mailing List , debian-rele...@lists.debian.org Subject: Re: Applying Dovecot for a large / deep folder-hierarchy archive - BUG REPORTS! Date: Wed, 10 Jul 2019 12:24:44 +0100 On 2019-07-10 12:01, Arnold Opio Oree wrote: Please stop CCing this thread to the Debian Release Management mailing list. If there are issues with the Dovecot packages in Debian then they should be reported as bugs against the packages. Thanks. Adam(Debian Release Team member)
Re: Applying Dovecot for a large / deep folder-hierarchy archive - BUG REPORTS!
Hello Timo, I have scheduled some time to carry through the test requested by Aki. I will add responding to you as part of that process. Not sure if I have said or done anything to offend you, as your tone appears quite abrasive, even where you do not have an actual response to an observation. It is my view that it is a privilege to provide an open source platform, and therefore a responsibility wherever feasible not only to properly maintain and support it, but also to properly document it; both of which from my experience and findings to date, Dovecot have failed to do. Kind regards, Arnold Opio Oree Chief Executive Officer Parallax Digital Technologies arnoldo...@parallaxdt.com http://www.parallaxdt.com tel : +44 (0) 333 577 8587 fax : +44 (0) 20 8711 2477 Parallax Digital Technologies is a trading name of Parallax Global Limited. U.K. Co. No. 08836288 The contents of this e-mail are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient you are to delete this e-mail immediately, disregard its contents and disclose them to no other persons. -Original Message- From: Timo Sirainen via dovecot Reply-To: Timo Sirainen To: Arnold Opio Oree Cc: Dovecot Mailing List Subject: Re: Applying Dovecot for a large / deep folder-hierarchy archive - BUG REPORTS! Date: Wed, 10 Jul 2019 11:09:57 +0300 On 7 Jul 2019, at 18.12, Arnold Opio Oree via dovecot < dovecot@dovecot.org> wrote: > > Dovecot Team, > > > > I'd like to report a number of bugs, that are to my view all > > critical. It would help to get your doveconf -n, example command lines causing the problems and the error messages it outputs or what the wrong behavior looks like in filesystem. It's now rather difficult to guess what exactly you tried and what happened. Also what kind of output does readpst make? I'm not sure why you're using DIRNAMEs here. > > doveadm-sync -1/general > > > > 1) If DIRNAMEs are not different between command line and > > mail_location doveadm sync will fail, saying that the source and > > destination directories are the same This sounds very strange. I'm not sure what exactly you did, and I couldn't reproduce with a small test. > > 2) The -n / -N flags do not work, and a sync will fail strangely if > > location is specified in the namespace definition Again, sounds strange. > > 3) Adds mbox to path name under mailbox directory (where syncing > from > > an mbox source) Probably with different parameters you could avoid it. > > 4) Not having the mailboxes at source named the same as those at > > destination causes errors and partial sync > > > > 5) Not having the target mailboxes formatted to receive the sync > > (//DIRNAME/) will cause sync errors. I don't understand these. Target mailboxes are supposed to be empty initially, and after the initial sync they should be in the expected format. Why would they be different? > > doveadm-sync > > > > 1) With large synchronizations UIDs are corrupted where multiple > > syncs are executed and the program can no longer synchronize What exactly is the error message? > > dovecot > > > > 1) Panics and fails to expand ~ to user home: observed cases are > > where multiple namespaces are being used Panic message and more details would also help. > > With regards to the last error that I requested help on i.e. > > \Noselect. This has been resolved more-or-less by the workarounds > > that I have implemented for the bugs reported above. > > > > I have seen a number of threads whilst researching the \Noselect > > issue where people have been very confused. My finding was that > > \Noselect is a function of the IMAP specification server-side > > implementation RFC3501 ( > > https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3501#section-6.3.6). And for me the > > server was returning directories with \Noselect because the > mailboxes > > were malformed on account of dovadm-sync errors. In order to fix > this > > I formed a bash command to transverse the mailbox hierarchy and > > create the missing folders critical to the sdbox format, namely > > DIRNAME. Nowadays we have also an option to disable creation of \Noselect folders, because they confuse people. Using mail_location = ...:NO- NOSELECT - It won't affect existing folders immediately though. -Original Message- From: Arnold Opio Oree Reply-To: arnoldo...@parallaxict.com To: Aki Tuomi , Dovecot Mailing List < dovecot@dovecot.org> Cc: debian-rele...@lists.debian.org Subject: Re: Applying Dovecot for a large / deep folder-hierarchy archive - BUG REPORTS! Date: Mon, 08 Jul 2019 13:21:51 +0100 Hello Aki, Thanks for looking into these. I will as requested attempt the relevant procedures under Dovecot 2.3.6. To make the test fair, I will need to fork the rel
Re: Applying Dovecot for a large / deep folder-hierarchy archive - BUG REPORTS!
Hello Aki, Thanks for looking into these. I will as requested attempt the relevant procedures under Dovecot 2.3.6. To make the test fair, I will need to fork the relevant production groupware stack (which is now stable and in operation, with our enterprise (email) data successfully migrated from Microsoft Exchange) to a new staging server; given that the current staging server is now of a materially different configuration to the production server (where the most controlled observations of these bugs were made). Kindly give me some time, as I have an urgent internal openstack deployment project to kick-off, that has been delayed by an overrun of this internal groupware stack deployment project. Best regards, Arnold Opio Oree Chief Executive Officer Parallax Digital Technologies arnoldo...@parallaxdt.com http://www.parallaxdt.com tel : +44 (0) 333 577 8587 fax : +44 (0) 20 8711 2477 Parallax Digital Technologies is a trading name of Parallax Global Limited. U.K. Co. No. 08836288 The contents of this e-mail are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient you are to delete this e-mail immediately, disregard its contents and disclose them to no other persons. -Original Message- From: Aki Tuomi via dovecot Reply-To: Aki Tuomi To: arnoldo...@parallaxict.com, Arnold Opio Oree < arnold.o...@parallaxict.com>, Arnold Opio Oree via dovecot < dovecot@dovecot.org> Cc: debian-rele...@lists.debian.org Subject: Re: Applying Dovecot for a large / deep folder-hierarchy archive - BUG REPORTS! Date: Mon, 8 Jul 2019 08:48:08 +0300 (EEST) Hi! Thank you for reporting these. We will look into them. In the mean time, can you see if any of these are fixed in 2.3.6? Aki > On 07/07/2019 18:12 Arnold Opio Oree via dovecot > wrote: > > > Dovecot Team, > > I'd like to report a number of bugs, that are to my view all > critical. > > System: Replicated on multiple Debian 10 (Buster) systems > Dovecot Version(s): 2.3.4.1 > > doveadm-sync -1/general > > 1) If DIRNAMEs are not different between command line and > mail_location doveadm sync will fail, saying that the source and > destination directories are the same > > 2) The -n / -N flags do not work, and a sync will fail strangely if > location is specified in the namespace definition > > 3) Adds mbox to path name under mailbox directory (where syncing from > an mbox source) > > 4) Not having the mailboxes at source named the same as those at > destination causes errors and partial sync > > 5) Not having the target mailboxes formatted to receive the sync > (//DIRNAME/) will cause sync errors. > > doveadm-sync > > 1) With large synchronizations UIDs are corrupted where multiple > syncs are executed and the program can no longer synchronize > > dovecot > > 1) Panics and fails to expand ~ to user home: observed cases are > where multiple namespaces are being used > > Please let me know if you need me to elaborate or to provide any > further information that you may need to replicate the bugs, or if I > can help in any other way. > > With regards to the last error that I requested help on i.e. > \Noselect. This has been resolved more-or-less by the workarounds > that I have implemented for the bugs reported above. > > I have seen a number of threads whilst researching the \Noselect > issue where people have been very confused. My finding was that > \Noselect is a function of the IMAP specification server-side > implementation RFC3501 ( > https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3501#section-6.3.6). And for me the > server was returning directories with \Noselect because the mailboxes > were malformed on account of dovadm-sync errors. In order to fix this > I formed a bash command to transverse the mailbox hierarchy and > create the missing folders critical to the sdbox format, namely > DIRNAME. > > Kind regards, > > Arnold Opio Oree > Chief Executive Officer > Parallax Digital Technologies > > arnoldo...@parallaxdt.com > > http://www.parallaxdt.com > > tel : +44 (0) 333 577 8587 > fax : +44 (0) 20 8711 2477 > > Parallax Digital Technologies is a trading name of Parallax Global > Limited. U.K. Co. No. 08836288 > > The contents of this e-mail are confidential. If you are not the > intended recipient you are to delete this e-mail immediately, > disregard its contents and disclose them to no other persons. > > -Original Message- > From: Arnold Opio Oree via dovecot < dovecot@dovecot.org> > Reply-To: arnoldo...@parallaxict.com, Arnold Opio Oree < > arnold.o...@parallaxict.com> > To: dovecot@dovecot.org > Cc: r...@sys4.de, aki.tu...@open-xchange.com > Subject: Re: Applying Dovecot for a large / deep folder-hierarchy > archive. > Date: Thu, 04 Jul 2019
Re: Applying Dovecot for a large / deep folder-hierarchy archive - BUG REPORTS!
Dovecot Team, I'd like to report a number of bugs, that are to my view all critical. System: Replicated on multiple Debian 10 (Buster) systems Dovecot Version(s): 2.3.4.1 doveadm-sync -1/general 1) If DIRNAMEs are not different between command line and mail_location doveadm sync will fail, saying that the source and destination directories are the same 2) The -n / -N flags do not work, and a sync will fail strangely if location is specified in the namespace definition 3) Adds mbox to path name under mailbox directory (where syncing from an mbox source) 4) Not having the mailboxes at source named the same as those at destination causes errors and partial sync 5) Not having the target mailboxes formatted to receive the sync (//DIRNAME/) will cause sync errors. doveadm-sync 1) With large synchronizations UIDs are corrupted where multiple syncs are executed and the program can no longer synchronize dovecot 1) Panics and fails to expand ~ to user home: observed cases are where multiple namespaces are being used Please let me know if you need me to elaborate or to provide any further information that you may need to replicate the bugs, or if I can help in any other way. With regards to the last error that I requested help on i.e. \Noselect. This has been resolved more-or-less by the workarounds that I have implemented for the bugs reported above. I have seen a number of threads whilst researching the \Noselect issue where people have been very confused. My finding was that \Noselect is a function of the IMAP specification server-side implementation RFC3501 (https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3501#section-6.3.6). And for me the server was returning directories with \Noselect because the mailboxes were malformed on account of dovadm-sync errors. In order to fix this I formed a bash command to transverse the mailbox hierarchy and create the missing folders critical to the sdbox format, namely DIRNAME. Kind regards, Arnold Opio Oree -Original Message- From: Arnold Opio Oree via dovecot Reply-To: arnoldo...@parallaxict.com, Arnold Opio Oree < arnold.o...@parallaxict.com> To: dovecot@dovecot.org Cc: r...@sys4.de, aki.tu...@open-xchange.com Subject: Re: Applying Dovecot for a large / deep folder-hierarchy archive. Date: Thu, 04 Jul 2019 14:52:28 +0100 Hi all, The guidance provided so far has been really helpful, and has helped a great deal to bringing down wasted energy on finding and executing a viable path. I am now at the final due action to complete our Dovecot application to our use-case, but am stuck on an issue that I cannot find any easily accessible documentation on. Generally this is what has been done: 1. Uploaded the enterprise data PST to the target groupware server. 2. Prepared the server by changing the mailbox format to sdbox and the the Dovecot mail location to mail_location=/var/vmail/domain/user/mail/ 3. Converted the pst (on-server) to a recursive mbox hierarchy using readpst 4. Executed doveadm-sync to convert mbox hierarchy data into sdbox and to copy it into the enterprise archive user's mailboxes 4.i. The biggest issue I faced at this point was doveadm-sync saying that the source and destination pointed to the same location, whereas they clearly did not. 4.i.a. I resolved this by removing the location= setting from the target namespace, and allowing it to default to mail_location = setting, and then using a completely different DIRNAME for the import doveadm-sync execution (which was the desired final DIRNAME); I then once the sync had been successful, changed the mail_location DIRNAME so that it pointed to the imported mail DIRNAME; and hence the imported email data was in the live mailboxes 4.i.b. doveadm-import failed several times, and was throwing quite inexplicable errors, so I moved onto doveadm-sync 4.i.c. I also had to make sure that the source and destination folder names matched, otherwise doveadm-syc threw very many errors and only partially imported the data 4.i.d. An issue which I decided just to live with is that an mbox DIRNAME was added to each mailbox as well as the DIRNAME specified so the path to mail is mbox/dbox-Mails. My thought is that with the data live on an IMAP server it will be possible to do a dysync through TCP to correct this problem. The final issue that I am facing now, is that when readpst finds empty folders in the source pst hierarchy, it does not create an mbox file in the mbox hierarchy folder space. This causes doveadm-sync to not create the target data required for its mailbox structure i.e. DIRNAME sub- folder and index file (with our configuration). At this point either doveadm-sync or the dovecot process makes these empty folders not selectable. The question now is how would I go about making all of these folders selectable, e.g. with an internal or external command line tool to change flags / create necessary sdbox mailbox constituent data? Many thanks, Arnold Opio Oree Chief Executive Officer Parallax D
Re: Applying Dovecot for a large / deep folder-hierarchy archive - BUG REPORTS!
Dovecot Team, I'd like to report a number of bugs, that are to my view all critical. System: Replicated on multiple Debian 10 (Buster) systemsDovecot Version(s): 2.3.4.1 doveadm-sync -1/general 1) If DIRNAMEs are not different between command line and mail_location doveadm sync will fail, saying that the source and destination directories are the same 2) The -n / -N flags do not work, and a sync will fail strangely if location is specified in the namespace definition 3) Adds mbox to path name under mailbox directory (where syncing from an mbox source) 4) Not having the mailboxes at source named the same as those at destination causes errors and partial sync 5) Not having the target mailboxes formatted to receive the sync (//DIRNAME/) will cause sync errors. doveadm-sync 1) With large synchronizations UIDs are corrupted where multiple syncs are executed and the program can no longer synchronize dovecot 1) Panics and fails to expand ~ to user home: observed cases are where multiple namespaces are being used Please let me know if you need me to elaborate or to provide any further information that you may need to replicate the bugs, or if I can help in any other way. With regards to the last error that I requested help on i.e. \Noselect. This has been resolved more-or-less by the workarounds that I have implemented for the bugs reported above. I have seen a number of threads whilst researching the \Noselect issue where people have been very confused. My finding was that \Noselect is a function of the IMAP specification server-side implementation RFC3501 (https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3501#section-6.3.6). And for me the server was returning directories with \Noselect because the mailboxes were malformed on account of dovadm-sync errors. In order to fix this I formed a bash command to transverse the mailbox hierarchy and create the missing folders critical to the sdbox format, namely DIRNAME. Kind regards, Arnold Opio Oree -Original Message-From: Arnold Opio Oree via dovecot < dovecot@dovecot.org>Reply-To: arnoldo...@parallaxict.com, Arnold Opio Oree To: dovecot@dovecot.orgCc: r...@sys4.de , aki.tuomi@open-xchange.comSubject: Re: Applying Dovecot for a large / deep folder-hierarchy archive.Date: Thu, 04 Jul 2019 14:52:28 +0100 Hi all, The guidance provided so far has been really helpful, and has helped a great deal to bringing down wasted energy on finding and executing a viable path. I am now at the final due action to complete our Dovecot application to our use-case, but am stuck on an issue that I cannot find any easily accessible documentation on. Generally this is what has been done: 1. Uploaded the enterprise data PST to the target groupware server.2. Prepared the server by changing the mailbox format to sdbox and the the Dovecot mail location to mail_location=/var/vmail/domain/user/mail/3. Converted the pst (on-server) to a recursive mbox hierarchy using readpst4. Executed doveadm-sync to convert mbox hierarchy data into sdbox and to copy it into the enterprise archive user's mailboxes4.i. The biggest issue I faced at this point was doveadm-sync saying that the source and destination pointed to the same location, whereas they clearly did not. 4.i.a. I resolved this by removing the location= setting from the target namespace, and allowing it to default to mail_location = setting, and then using a completely different DIRNAME for the import doveadm-sync execution (which was the desired final DIRNAME); I then once the sync had been successful, changed the mail_location DIRNAME so that it pointed to the imported mail DIRNAME; and hence the imported email data was in the live mailboxes4.i.b. doveadm-import failed several times, and was throwing quite inexplicable errors, so I moved onto doveadm-sync4.i.c. I also had to make sure that the source and destination folder names matched, otherwise doveadm-syc threw very many errors and only partially imported the data4.i.d. An issue which I decided just to live with is that an mbox DIRNAME was added to each mailbox as well as the DIRNAME specified so the path to mail is mbox/dbox-Mails. My thought is that with the data live on an IMAP server it will be possible to do a dysync through TCP to correct this problem. The final issue that I am facing now, is that when readpst finds empty folders in the source pst hierarchy, it does not create an mbox file in the mbox hierarchy folder space. This causes doveadm-sync to not create the target data required for its mailbox structure i.e. DIRNAME sub- folder and index file (with our configuration). At this point either doveadm-sync or the dovecot process makes these empty folders not selectable. The question now is how would I go about making all of these folders selectable, e.g. with an internal or external command line tool to change flags / create necessary sdbox mailbox constituent data? Many thanks, Arnold Opio Oree Chief Executive Officer Parallax Digital Technologies arnoldo...@parallaxdt.com
Re: Applying Dovecot for a large / deep folder-hierarchy archive.
Hi all, The guidance provided so far has been really helpful, and has helped a great deal to bringing down wasted energy on finding and executing a viable path. I am now at the final due action to complete our Dovecot application to our use-case, but am stuck on an issue that I cannot find any easily accessible documentation on. Generally this is what has been done: 1. Uploaded the enterprise data PST to the target groupware server. 2. Prepared the server by changing the mailbox format to sdbox and the the Dovecot mail location to mail_location=/var/vmail/domain/user/mail/ 3. Converted the pst (on-server) to a recursive mbox hierarchy using readpst 4. Executed doveadm-sync to convert mbox hierarchy data into sdbox and to copy it into the enterprise archive user's mailboxes 4.i. The biggest issue I faced at this point was doveadm-sync saying that the source and destination pointed to the same location, whereas they clearly did not. 4.i.a. I resolved this by removing the location= setting from the target namespace, and allowing it to default to mail_location = setting, and then using a completely different DIRNAME for the import doveadm-sync execution (which was the desired final DIRNAME); I then once the sync had been successful, changed the mail_location DIRNAME so that it pointed to the imported mail DIRNAME; and hence the imported email data was in the live mailboxes 4.i.b. doveadm-import failed several times, and was throwing quite inexplicable errors, so I moved onto doveadm-sync 4.i.c. I also had to make sure that the source and destination folder names matched, otherwise doveadm-syc threw very many errors and only partially imported the data 4.i.d. An issue which I decided just to live with is that an mbox DIRNAME was added to each mailbox as well as the DIRNAME specified so the path to mail is mbox/dbox-Mails. My thought is that with the data live on an IMAP server it will be possible to do a dysync through TCP to correct this problem. The final issue that I am facing now, is that when readpst finds empty folders in the source pst hierarchy, it does not create an mbox file in the mbox hierarchy folder space. This causes doveadm-sync to not create the target data required for its mailbox structure i.e. DIRNAME sub- folder and index file (with our configuration). At this point either doveadm-sync or the dovecot process makes these empty folders not selectable. The question now is how would I go about making all of these folders selectable, e.g. with an internal or external command line tool to change flags / create necessary sdbox mailbox constituent data? -Original Message- From: Arnold Opio Oree via dovecot Reply-To: arnoldo...@parallaxict.com, Arnold Opio Oree < arnold.o...@parallaxict.com> To: Robert Schetterer , dovecot@dovecot.org Subject: Re: Applying Dovecot for a large / deep folder-hierarchy archive. Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2019 12:05:35 +0100 > Also you may run into client limits i ve seen this with outlook, > apple mail, thunderbird via imap in the past Thanks for this note Robert, it was not really an aspect that I wasconsidering. We are operating our groupware services user access through bothEvolution Groupware and KDE Kontact / KMail on Debian Linuxworkstations. Hopefully if there is a client issue it should be localto only one groupware client. I will be sure to study / investigate in this - client - area should any issues that are not traceable to the server-side arise. Many thanks, Arnold Opio OreeChief Executive OfficerParallax Digital Technologies arnoldo...@parallaxdt.com http://www.parallaxdt.com tel : +44 (0) 333 577 8587fax : +44 (0) 20 8711 2477 Parallax Digital Technologies is a trading name of Parallax GlobalLimited. U.K. Co. No. 08836288 The contents of this e-mail are confidential. If you are not theintended recipient you are to delete this e-mail immediately, disregardits contents and disclose them to no other persons. -Original Message-From: Robert Schetterer via dovecot < dovecot@dovecot.org>Reply-To: Robert Schetterer To: dovecot@dovecot.org Subject: Re: Applying Dovecot for a large / deep folder- hierarchyarchive.Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2019 12:53:49 +0200 Am 27.06.2019 um 07:35 schrieb Aki Tuomi via dovecot: > On 26.6.2019 22.12, Arnold Opio Oree via dovecot wrote: > > Hello to you all, > > I'd like to ask about my intended application of Dovecot to createa > > folder-hierarchy for storing our enterprise emails, which > > aretreated as live data rather than archives for compliance > > oroccasional / reactive retrieval. > > The data is presently not that large (a few gigabytes), but it > > isexpected to grow rapidly. Up to this stage the data has > > beencontainedin a Microsoft Exchange mailbox (2013), and then in an > > offline PST.The move to the offline PST was by necessity, as the > > large numberoffolders, and depth of hierarchy to my best > >
Re: Applying Dovecot for a large / deep folder-hierarchy archive.
> Also you may run into client limits i ve seen this with outlook, > apple mail, thunderbird via imap in the past Thanks for this note Robert, it was not really an aspect that I was considering. We are operating our groupware services user access through both Evolution Groupware and KDE Kontact / KMail on Debian Linux workstations. Hopefully if there is a client issue it should be local to only one groupware client. I will be sure to study / investigate in this - client - area should any issues that are not traceable to the server-side arise. Many thanks, Arnold Opio Oree Chief Executive Officer Parallax Digital Technologies arnoldo...@parallaxdt.com http://www.parallaxdt.com tel : +44 (0) 333 577 8587 fax : +44 (0) 20 8711 2477 Parallax Digital Technologies is a trading name of Parallax Global Limited. U.K. Co. No. 08836288 The contents of this e-mail are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient you are to delete this e-mail immediately, disregard its contents and disclose them to no other persons. -Original Message- From: Robert Schetterer via dovecot Reply-To: Robert Schetterer To: dovecot@dovecot.org Subject: Re: Applying Dovecot for a large / deep folder-hierarchy archive. Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2019 12:53:49 +0200 Am 27.06.2019 um 07:35 schrieb Aki Tuomi via dovecot: > On 26.6.2019 22.12, Arnold Opio Oree via dovecot wrote: > > Hello to you all, > > > > I'd like to ask about my intended application of Dovecot to create > > a folder-hierarchy for storing our enterprise emails, which are > > treated as live data rather than archives for compliance or > > occasional / reactive retrieval. > > > > The data is presently not that large (a few gigabytes), but it is > > expected to grow rapidly. Up to this stage the data has been > > contained > > in a Microsoft Exchange mailbox (2013), and then in an offline PST. > > The move to the offline PST was by necessity, as the large number > > of > > folders, and depth of hierarchy to my best understanding caused the > > exchange server / outlook / evolution mail clients to begin to > > malfunction. To cope with this the archive was broken up and the > > bulk stored in the offline PST and the most active components > > stored in > > online Exchange mailboxes. > > > > I have some understanding of the fs mbox format, and also the > > mitigations to be made for certain characters / strings. My main > > concern is whether Dovecot is likely to be able to cope well with a > > large number of folders / depth of hierarcy. > > > > I will really appreciate any help / advice you can give. > > > > Best regards, > > > > Arnold Opio Oree > > > > Hi! > > Dovecot 2.2.34/2.3 supports unlimited folder depth, the only limiting > factor is that the total name may not exceed 4096 bytes. Also > individual > folder names may not exceed 255 bytes. > > Prior to that the limit is 255 per folder up to 16 levels. > > I can't recommend using 'mbox' storage format, please consider using > maildir or sdbox instead. > > Aki >
Re: Applying Dovecot for a large / deep folder-hierarchy archive.
> If you change layout to FS you are basically required to migrate > users > to it. You cannot change layout "on the fly". Duly noted. Many thanks, Arnold Opio Oree Chief Executive Officer Parallax Digital Technologies arnoldo...@parallaxdt.com http://www.parallaxdt.com tel : +44 (0) 333 577 8587 fax : +44 (0) 20 8711 2477 Parallax Digital Technologies is a trading name of Parallax Global Limited. U.K. Co. No. 08836288 The contents of this e-mail are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient you are to delete this e-mail immediately, disregard its contents and disclose them to no other persons. From: Aki Tuomi via dovecot Reply-To: Aki Tuomi To: arnoldo...@parallaxict.com, Arnold Opio Oree < arnold.o...@parallaxict.com>, Dovecot Mailing List Subject: Re: Applying Dovecot for a large / deep folder-hierarchy archive. Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2019 13:44:25 +0300 If you change layout to FS you are basically required to migrate users to it. You cannot change layout "on the fly". Aki On 27.6.2019 13.42, Arnold Opio Oree via dovecot wrote: > Hello Aki, > > Thank you greatly for your advice, it is really valuable to know that > the key criteria for our desired application of Dovecot are > supported (our groupware stacks are running Dovecot 2.3.4.1) prior to > commencing operations to configure Dovecot and migrate enterprise > data. > > Thanks for the word of caution with regards to mbox format; that was > a > slip of the tongue on my part, our groupware stacks are using Maildir > format (I will also look into sdbox as I had not been aware of it as > a > viable alternative), although we have yet to change the LAYOUT to fs > - which I think should be better for meeting our deep directory > criteria, and also for managing mailbox data directly in the > filesystem (please do let me know if you think otherwise). > > The only areas of uncertainty for me now are whether Dovecot will be > able to change directory layout to fs where emails are already held > in > user mailboxes with Maildir++ directory layout; and secondly what the > best protocol will be to get the Outlook PST data into the Dovecot > mailbox. I will research these points, if however there is any best > practice that you are aware of, then it will be great to know. > > Very best, > > Arnold Opio Oree > Chief Executive Officer > Parallax Digital Technologies > > arnoldo...@parallaxdt.com > > > http://www.parallaxdt.com > > > tel : +44 (0) 333 577 8587 > fax : +44 (0) 20 8711 2477 > > Parallax Digital Technologies is a trading name of Parallax Global > Limited. U.K. Co. No. 08836288 > > The contents of this e-mail are confidential. If you are not the > intended recipient you are to delete this e-mail immediately, > disregard > its contents and disclose them to no other persons. > > -Original Message- > From: Aki Tuomi via dovecot < > dovecot@dovecot.org > > > Reply-To: Aki Tuomi < > aki.tu...@open-xchange.com > > > To: > arnoldo...@parallaxict.com > , Arnold Opio Oree < > arnold.o...@parallaxict.com > >, Dovecot Mailing List < > dovecot@dovecot.org > > Subject: Re: Applying Dovecot for a large / deep folder-hierarchy > archive. > Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2019 08:35:17 +0300 > > On 26.6.2019 22.12, Arnold Opio Oree via dovecot wrote: > > Hello to you all, > > > > I'd like to ask about my intended application of Dovecot to create > > a > > folder-hierarchy for storing our enterprise emails, which are > > treated > > as live data rather than archives for compliance or occasional / > > reactive retrieval. > > > > The data is presently not that large (a few gigabytes), but it is > > expected to grow rapidly. Up to this stage the data has been > > contained > > in a Microsoft Exchange mailbox (2013), and then in an offline PST. > > The move to the offline PST was by necessity, as the large number > > of > > folders, and depth of hierarchy to my best understanding caused the > > exchange server / outlook / evolution mail clients to begin to > > malfunction. To cope with this the archive was broken up and the > > bulk > > stored in the offline PST and the most active components stored in > > online Exchange mailboxes. > > > > I have some understanding of the fs mbox format, and also the > > mitigations to be made for certain characters / strings. My main > > concern is whether Dovecot is likely to be able to cope well with a > > large number of folders / depth of hierarcy. > > > > I will really appreciate any help / advice you can give. > > > > Best regards, > > > > Arnold Opio Oree > > > > Hi! > > Dovecot 2.2.34/2.3 supports unlimited folder depth, the only limiting > factor is that the total name may not exceed 4096 bytes. Also > individual > folder names may not exceed 255 bytes. > > Prior to that the limit is 255 per folder up to 16 levels. > > I can't recommend using 'mbox' storage format, please consider using > maildir or sdbox instead. > > Aki > >
Re: Applying Dovecot for a large / deep folder-hierarchy archive.
Hello Aki, Thank you greatly for your advice, it is really valuable to know that the key criteria for our desired application of Dovecot are supported (our groupware stacks are running Dovecot 2.3.4.1) prior to commencing operations to configure Dovecot and migrate enterprise data. Thanks for the word of caution with regards to mbox format; that was a slip of the tongue on my part, our groupware stacks are using Maildir format (I will also look into sdbox as I had not been aware of it as a viable alternative), although we have yet to change the LAYOUT to fs - which I think should be better for meeting our deep directory criteria, and also for managing mailbox data directly in the filesystem (please do let me know if you think otherwise). The only areas of uncertainty for me now are whether Dovecot will be able to change directory layout to fs where emails are already held in user mailboxes with Maildir++ directory layout; and secondly what the best protocol will be to get the Outlook PST data into the Dovecot mailbox. I will research these points, if however there is any best practice that you are aware of, then it will be great to know. Very best, Arnold Opio Oree Chief Executive Officer Parallax Digital Technologies arnoldo...@parallaxdt.com http://www.parallaxdt.com tel : +44 (0) 333 577 8587 fax : +44 (0) 20 8711 2477 Parallax Digital Technologies is a trading name of Parallax Global Limited. U.K. Co. No. 08836288 The contents of this e-mail are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient you are to delete this e-mail immediately, disregard its contents and disclose them to no other persons. -Original Message- From: Aki Tuomi via dovecot Reply-To: Aki Tuomi To: arnoldo...@parallaxict.com, Arnold Opio Oree < arnold.o...@parallaxict.com>, Dovecot Mailing List Subject: Re: Applying Dovecot for a large / deep folder-hierarchy archive. Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2019 08:35:17 +0300 On 26.6.2019 22.12, Arnold Opio Oree via dovecot wrote: > Hello to you all, > > I'd like to ask about my intended application of Dovecot to create a > folder-hierarchy for storing our enterprise emails, which are treated > as live data rather than archives for compliance or occasional / > reactive retrieval. > > The data is presently not that large (a few gigabytes), but it is > expected to grow rapidly. Up to this stage the data has been > contained > in a Microsoft Exchange mailbox (2013), and then in an offline PST. > The move to the offline PST was by necessity, as the large number of > folders, and depth of hierarchy to my best understanding caused the > exchange server / outlook / evolution mail clients to begin to > malfunction. To cope with this the archive was broken up and the bulk > stored in the offline PST and the most active components stored in > online Exchange mailboxes. > > I have some understanding of the fs mbox format, and also the > mitigations to be made for certain characters / strings. My main > concern is whether Dovecot is likely to be able to cope well with a > large number of folders / depth of hierarcy. > > I will really appreciate any help / advice you can give. > > Best regards, > > Arnold Opio Oree > Hi! Dovecot 2.2.34/2.3 supports unlimited folder depth, the only limiting factor is that the total name may not exceed 4096 bytes. Also individual folder names may not exceed 255 bytes. Prior to that the limit is 255 per folder up to 16 levels. I can't recommend using 'mbox' storage format, please consider using maildir or sdbox instead. Aki
Applying Dovecot for a large / deep folder-hierarchy archive.
Hello to you all, I'd like to ask about my intended application of Dovecot to create a folder-hierarchy for storing our enterprise emails, which are treated as live data rather than archives for compliance or occasional / reactive retrieval. The data is presently not that large (a few gigabytes), but it is expected to grow rapidly. Up to this stage the data has been containedin a Microsoft Exchange mailbox (2013), and then in an offline PST. The move to the offline PST was by necessity, as the large number offolders, and depth of hierarchy to my best understanding caused the exchange server / outlook / evolution mail clients to begin tomalfunction. To cope with this the archive was broken up and the bulk stored in the offline PST and the most active components stored inonline Exchange mailboxes. I have some understanding of the fs mbox format, and also the mitigations to be made for certain characters / strings. My main concern is whether Dovecot is likely to be able to cope well with a large number of folders / depth of hierarcy. I will really appreciate any help / advice you can give. Best regards, Arnold Opio OreeChief Executive OfficerParallax Digital Technologies arnoldo...@parallaxdt.com http://www.parallaxdt.com tel : +44 (0) 333 577 8587fax : +44 (0) 20 8711 2477 Parallax Digital Technologies78A Hatfeild MeadLondonSM4 5PF Parallax Digital Technologies is a trading name of Parallax GlobalLimited. U.K. Co. No. 08836288 The contents of this e-mail are confidential. If you are not theintended recipient you are to delete this e-mail immediately, disregardits contents and disclose them to no other persons.
