Re: What is the correct way to configure the mail_location option for Mailidr format?
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On Wed, 22 Oct 2014, deoren wrote:
On 10/22/2014 2:29 AM, Steffen Kaiser wrote:
On Tue, 21 Oct 2014, deoren wrote:
What is the correct way to configure the mail_location option for
Mailidr format?
mail_location = maildir:path
I've long had it setup this way:
mail_location = maildir:/var/vmail/%d/%n
Is that correct?
any path is OK, as long:
1) it identifies the mail storage uniquely for the user,
2) does not store any other information in it.
Here is an example error message I ran into:
stat(/var/vmail/example.com/username/.dovecot.lda-dupes/tmp)
failed: Not a directory
That's because you use $HOME == Maildir root.
Looking at some other guides/tutorials shows something more like:
mail_location = maildir:/var/vmail/%d/%n/Maildir
Maildir is the default name for Maildir-type mail storeage root. No
more, no less. If Dovecot is automatically detecting the type of
storage, it probes for this directory name in $HOME.
I assume the latter is how it's supposed to be done? If so, that would
No, you are not supposed to do so.
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
it applies to all mail storages.
Thanks for the reply and for answering my questions.
Just to make sure I understand properly, I have a few additional questions
that I am hoping will cement really drive the point home so to speak.
Regarding the guide that I followed, it suggests the following userdb and
mail_location configuration:
userdb {
driver = static
args = uid=vmail gid=vmail home=/var/mail/vhosts/%d/%n
}
mail_location = maildir:/var/mail/vhosts/%d/%n
This results in the $HOME == Maildir root situation which you mentioned
shouldn't be done, correct? Instead mail_location should point to some other
directory,
Yes!
perhaps one of:
* mail_location = /var/mail/vhosts/%d/%n/Maildir
* mail_location = ~/Maildir
for instance, yes.
If I understand properly the mail_location doesn't have to be a subdirectory
within the home directory, it just typically is in common examples? If so,
Yes again. And Maildir is just common and the default, but you could
name the last path component anyway you like, even mbox, sdbox, or
mdbox, but such name probably would confuse any admin, that take the
server over, because the dir name does imply something different than
Maildir.
that guide should probably be updated to use one of the above mail_location
settings. If you will confirm that is the case I'll submit a GitHub pull
request as previously mentioned so it can be corrected.
Apologies if this is rehashing what you've already said, I'm just looking to
make sure I understand this 100%.
So for cases where I have made the mistake like I mentioned above, how would
I (properly) fix the problem?
After stopping Dovecot, I ended up doing this:
#1) service dovecot stop
#2) cd /var/vmail/example.com/username/
#3) mkdir Maildir
#4) mv -i * Maildir/
#5) mv -i .* Maildir/
#6) chown -R vmail:vmail /var/vmail/example.com/username/
#7) service dovecot start
#5 will match .., too.
Better: mv -i * .??* Maildir
That will move the Sieve and LDA files, too, as you found out yourself,
so:
mkdir Maildir ; mv -i * .??* Maildir for file in Maildir/.dovecot.*; do
test -f $file mv $file .
done; mv Maildir/sieve_dir .
The 1st mv moves all files into Maildir, the for loop is to move the
sieve files back, and the 3rd mv moves the sieve folder back - you have to
adjust your name there.
which moved the content into the Maildir subfolder and fixed permissions back
to what is specified in the conf files. I also adjusted mail_location like
so:
mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir
and I made sure that the home setting is configured as /var/vmail/%d/%n
That seems to work fine, but I still got error messages like this when using
doveadm search
Error: Syncing mailbox dovecot.lda-dupes failed: Internal error occurred.
In my testing I found that I could move the file from this location:
/var/vmail/example.com/username/Maildir/.dovecot.ldap-dupes
to this one:
/var/vmail/example.com/username/.dovecot.ldap-dupes
choosing to overwrite the file if it should be there and the error message
would not be generated anymore. This suggests that I shouldn't have moved it
in the first place.
Looking through the mailing list archives I found a message thread titled
Lifetime of redirect info stored by Sieve in .dovecot.lda-dupes which
indicates that the Message-ID and recipient of forwarded messages are stored
in .dovecot.ldap-dupes files. I do forward mail daily from the two accounts
where doveadm search generates the errors, so it sounds like I would probably
be OK to just nuke the file in this location:
Re: What is the correct way to configure the mail_location option for Mailidr format?
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 On Tue, 21 Oct 2014, deoren wrote: What is the correct way to configure the mail_location option for Mailidr format? mail_location = maildir:path I've long had it setup this way: mail_location = maildir:/var/vmail/%d/%n Is that correct? any path is OK, as long: 1) it identifies the mail storage uniquely for the user, 2) does not store any other information in it. Here is an example error message I ran into: stat(/var/vmail/example.com/username/.dovecot.lda-dupes/tmp) failed: Not a directory That's because you use $HOME == Maildir root. Looking at some other guides/tutorials shows something more like: mail_location = maildir:/var/vmail/%d/%n/Maildir Maildir is the default name for Maildir-type mail storeage root. No more, no less. If Dovecot is automatically detecting the type of storage, it probes for this directory name in $HOME. I assume the latter is how it's supposed to be done? If so, that would No, you are not supposed to do so. 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 it applies to all mail storages. - -- Steffen Kaiser -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux) iQEVAwUBVEdc13z1H7kL/d9rAQIoSAf/WwdI10EmJbVfDGz+UJgE44kmNjicpiVt DJlkQyYp66s955UmepLMXfvRSZ5KeCAVOXZs1Oe1LYTKqmjzIOyFGBjDcoYGfIIV 6nEABpWUGTHjEuCpGfY/IvFlFE1gYUojKC2zrTFk1P3brvZ3nIBMrZ6hEOjh3bQJ 3m0SsOuu+9ZYvSxNt2EaVa7EkbTZdmLRN1K21JUDDoTXJ+myMsT3z2gJF+Gnr6Cr IppGlYRmVfSQ9E3Kpq7RxoJ4O29uIJa+dWB2fJYsctGxFrR4q6v6yZ//UuZWSrDo 7sdZUaugq2Y7nlimZKhsqsa/ly6AFlSfpto/Cc7AG7JEqpIG2vJKLw== =lNuJ -END PGP SIGNATURE-
Re: What is the correct way to configure the mail_location option for Mailidr format?
On 10/22/2014 2:29 AM, Steffen Kaiser wrote:
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA1
On Tue, 21 Oct 2014, deoren wrote:
What is the correct way to configure the mail_location option for
Mailidr format?
mail_location = maildir:path
I've long had it setup this way:
mail_location = maildir:/var/vmail/%d/%n
Is that correct?
any path is OK, as long:
1) it identifies the mail storage uniquely for the user,
2) does not store any other information in it.
Here is an example error message I ran into:
stat(/var/vmail/example.com/username/.dovecot.lda-dupes/tmp)
failed: Not a directory
That's because you use $HOME == Maildir root.
Looking at some other guides/tutorials shows something more like:
mail_location = maildir:/var/vmail/%d/%n/Maildir
Maildir is the default name for Maildir-type mail storeage root. No
more, no less. If Dovecot is automatically detecting the type of
storage, it probes for this directory name in $HOME.
I assume the latter is how it's supposed to be done? If so, that would
No, you are not supposed to do so.
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
it applies to all mail storages.
- -- Steffen Kaiser
Thanks for the reply and for answering my questions.
Just to make sure I understand properly, I have a few additional
questions that I am hoping will cement really drive the point home so to
speak. Regarding the guide that I followed, it suggests the following
userdb and mail_location configuration:
userdb {
driver = static
args = uid=vmail gid=vmail home=/var/mail/vhosts/%d/%n
}
mail_location = maildir:/var/mail/vhosts/%d/%n
This results in the $HOME == Maildir root situation which you mentioned
shouldn't be done, correct? Instead mail_location should point to some
other directory, perhaps one of:
* mail_location = /var/mail/vhosts/%d/%n/Maildir
* mail_location = ~/Maildir
If I understand properly the mail_location doesn't have to be a
subdirectory within the home directory, it just typically is in common
examples? If so, that guide should probably be updated to use one of the
above mail_location settings. If you will confirm that is the case I'll
submit a GitHub pull request as previously mentioned so it can be
corrected.
Apologies if this is rehashing what you've already said, I'm just
looking to make sure I understand this 100%.
So for cases where I have made the mistake like I mentioned above, how
would I (properly) fix the problem?
After stopping Dovecot, I ended up doing this:
#1) service dovecot stop
#2) cd /var/vmail/example.com/username/
#3) mkdir Maildir
#4) mv -i * Maildir/
#5) mv -i .* Maildir/
#6) chown -R vmail:vmail /var/vmail/example.com/username/
#7) service dovecot start
which moved the content into the Maildir subfolder and fixed permissions
back to what is specified in the conf files. I also adjusted
mail_location like so:
mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir
and I made sure that the home setting is configured as /var/vmail/%d/%n
That seems to work fine, but I still got error messages like this when
using doveadm search
Error: Syncing mailbox dovecot.lda-dupes failed: Internal error
occurred.
In my testing I found that I could move the file from this location:
/var/vmail/example.com/username/Maildir/.dovecot.ldap-dupes
to this one:
/var/vmail/example.com/username/.dovecot.ldap-dupes
choosing to overwrite the file if it should be there and the error
message would not be generated anymore. This suggests that I shouldn't
have moved it in the first place.
Looking through the mailing list archives I found a message thread
titled Lifetime of redirect info stored by Sieve in .dovecot.lda-dupes
which indicates that the Message-ID and recipient of forwarded messages
are stored in .dovecot.ldap-dupes files. I do forward mail daily from
the two accounts where doveadm search generates the errors, so it sounds
like I would probably be OK to just nuke the file in this location:
/var/vmail/example.com/username/Maildir/.dovecot.ldap-dupes
and let it be auto-generated in the proper location the next time mail
is forwarded. Can you confirm whether that is the case?
I appreciate your help.
Re: What is the correct way to configure the mail_location option for Mailidr format?
On October 21, 2014 6:18:07 PM deoren dovecot-mailing-l...@whyaskwhy.org wrote: mail_location = maildir:/var/vmail/%d/%n/Maildir sieve_dir = /var/vmail/sieve/%d/%n/sieve_dir mail_location = maildir:/var/vmail/%d/%n/.maildir sieve_dir = /var/vmail/%d/%n/.sieve More simple, and more easy to tarball backup
Re: What is the correct way to configure the mail_location option for Mailidr format?
On 10/21/2014 11:44 AM, Benny Pedersen wrote: On October 21, 2014 6:18:07 PM deoren dovecot-mailing-l...@whyaskwhy.org wrote: mail_location = maildir:/var/vmail/%d/%n/Maildir sieve_dir = /var/vmail/sieve/%d/%n/sieve_dir mail_location = maildir:/var/vmail/%d/%n/.maildir sieve_dir = /var/vmail/%d/%n/.sieve More simple, and more easy to tarball backup Thank you for the advice. Can you comment re these two approaches for configuring the 'mail_location' option? I assume the first is simply wrong? mail_location = maildir:/var/vmail/%d/%n mail_location = maildir:/var/vmail/%d/%n/.maildir Also, why do you use the '.maildir' folder name instead of 'Maildir'? Is that so it doesn't appear in the ls output by default? Some other reason perhaps? I agree that having the sieve scripts in a different location than the mail content is less than ideal. When the sieve scripts were originally stored in the /var/vmail/%d/%n directory they showed up within Thunderbird as folders, so to get things working again quickly I made sure to move the sieve scripts completely outside of where the mail content was stored. The cause was likely the 'mail_location' option being misconfigured (assuming that it really is, I'm still trying to nail that down), so once that is resolved I'm planning on moving them back. Thanks for the reply. I'm hoping rearranging the mail content will be just as easy to do.
Re: What is the correct way to configure the mail_location option for Mailidr format?
On October 21, 2014 7:04:38 PM deoren dovecot-mailing-l...@whyaskwhy.org wrote: On 10/21/2014 11:44 AM, Benny Pedersen wrote: On October 21, 2014 6:18:07 PM deoren dovecot-mailing-l...@whyaskwhy.org wrote: mail_location = maildir:/var/vmail/%d/%n/Maildir sieve_dir = /var/vmail/sieve/%d/%n/sieve_dir mail_location = maildir:/var/vmail/%d/%n/.maildir sieve_dir = /var/vmail/%d/%n/.sieve More simple, and more easy to tarball backup Thank you for the advice. Can you comment re these two approaches for configuring the 'mail_location' option? I assume the first is simply wrong? mail_location = maildir:/var/vmail/%d/%n mail_location = maildir:/var/vmail/%d/%n/.maildir Also, why do you use the '.maildir' folder name instead of 'Maildir'? Is that so it doesn't appear in the ls output by default? Some other reason perhaps? I agree that having the sieve scripts in a different location than the mail content is less than ideal. When the sieve scripts were originally stored in the /var/vmail/%d/%n directory they showed up within Thunderbird as folders, so to get things working again quickly I made sure to move the sieve scripts completely outside of where the mail content was stored. The cause was likely the 'mail_location' option being misconfigured (assuming that it really is, I'm still trying to nail that down), so once that is resolved I'm planning on moving them back. Thanks for the reply. I'm hoping rearranging the mail content will be just as easy to do. I just remember to use $HOME or ~ fetched here from mysql or static args, thus all none existing temp dirs will not be a problem, and it fits with maildrop and procmail, still running dovecot 1.2.17 with gentoo So $HOME/.maildir $HOME/.sieve Yes it will hide dirs in ls, but you can list hidded dirs with a option
