Mail server_Dovecot storage configuration - SomethingWithHorizons/mailserver GitHub Wiki

Configure how dovecot will store the received e-mails.

Procedure

1. Create user, group and a corresponding homedir to have an entity that can write to the file system:

   useradd --create-home --uid 5000 --home-dir /var/vmail vmail
   

2. Edit /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-mail.conf to make Dovecot stop using the default mail storage path and use the path defined in the database instead:

     # See doc/wiki/Variables.txt for full list. Some examples:
     #
     #   mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir
     #   mail_location = mbox:~/mail:INBOX=/var/mail/%u
     #   mail_location = mbox:/var/mail/%d/%1n/%n:INDEX=/var/indexes/%d/%1n/%n
     #
     # <doc/wiki/MailLocation.txt>
     #
   - mail_location = mbox:~/mail:INBOX=/var/mail/%u
   + mail_location = maildir:%h/Maildir
   

   %h placeholder to be filled with SQL data as defined in Dovecot-MySQL config.

3. Edit /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-master.conf to have it create a socket file for the user/group postfix with 660 as its user permissions (so only "postfix" can "talk to" the socket file):

     service lmtp {
   -   unix_listener lmtp {
   -     #mode = 0666
   +  unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/dovecot-lmtp {
   +    mode = 0660
   +    user = postfix
   +    group = postfix
     }
   

4. Tell postfix to use dovecot-lmtp as its Local Mail Transfer Protocol (LMTP) for delivery:

   postconf -e "virtual_transport=lmtp:unix:private/dovecot-lmtp"
   

5. Have your FQDN removed from '/etc/postfix/main.cf' to prevent mails to your FQDN being handled via the system delivery process, and instead use the virtual delivery process:

   postconf -e 'mydestination = localhost, localhost.localdomain, localhost'
   

6. Edit /etc/dovecot/conf.d/15-mailboxes.conf to have clients automatically optionally create, and subsequently subscribe to the standard folders in mailboxes:

   mailbox Drafts {
   + auto = subscribe
     special_use = \Drafts
   }
   
   mailbox Junk {
   +  auto = subscribe
      special_use = \Junk
   }
   mailbox Trash {
   +  auto = subscribe
      special_use = \Trash
   }
   
   # For \Sent mailboxes there are two widely used names. We'll mark both of
   # them as \Sent. User typically deletes one of them if duplicates are created.
   mailbox Sent {
   +  auto = subscribe
      special_use = \Sent
   }
   

7. Reload the configuration files into Dovecot and Postfix to effectuate the changes:

   service dovecot reload
   service postfix reload