Running a dovecot IMAPS server

Tim ignored_mailbox at yahoo.com.au
Sun Sep 16 13:44:59 UTC 2007


Jos Vos:
>> Dovecot has both mbox and Maildir format support.

Timothy Murphy:
> I find the statement that dovecot has maildir format support misleading.

Well it does (maildir messages stored as individual files, within a
commonly understood parent/child directory file format).

> What is the "standard" place for mail folders?

I really don't think there is one, it doesn't have to be ~/Mail/, it's
where the application puts it.  In the case of a mail server, it doesn't
matter to the client where the server puts it.  The client goes through
the server, and the server handles those details.

> To clarify my question, suppose one has email organised in server X
> as described above, in directories ~/Maildir/Family/[cur.new.tmp/ , etc.
> And now suppose one wants to access this email from laptop Y.
> How exactly does one have to change the setup on machine X?
> And what does one set mail_location to?

If I use my mail client to create folders, it talks to the mail server,
and the mail server handles that as it sees fit.  My mail client makes a
local cache of mail, which may or may not be a mirror of how the server
did it (this is yet another reason why running a client and a server on
the same box can be a problem).

If I log in with another IMAP mail client, it gets the folders set up on
the server, and (pretty much) duplicates what's there when you first log
in.  There are some little oddities, though, with some servers and
clients (such as where you can and can't make sub-folders).

-- 
[tim at bigblack ~]$ uname -ipr
2.6.22.4-65.fc7 i686 i386

Using FC 4, 5, 6 & 7, plus CentOS 5.  Today, it's FC7.

Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored.
I read messages from the public lists.






More information about the users mailing list