

Mail location
=============



 * For mbox-specific settings, see >>MailLocation/Mbox<< 
 * For Maildir-specific settings, see >>MailLocation/Maildir<< 
There are three different places where the mail location is looked up from: 

 1. 'mail_location' setting in 'dovecot.conf' is used if nothing else overrides it. This setting used to be called 'default_mail_env' in Dovecot versions earlier than v1.0.rc11. 
 2. 'mail' userdb >>extra field<< overrides 'mail_location' setting. 
 3. 'location' setting inside namespaces overrides everything. Usually you want to leave this empty for users' default namespace. 
By default 'mail_location' setting is empty, which means that Dovecot attempts to locate automatically where your mails are. This is done by looking at '~/Maildir', '/var/mail/username', '~/mail' and '~/Mail' in that order. It's usually a good idea to explicitly specify where the mails are, even if the autodetection happens to work. Autodetection commonly fails for new users who don't have the mail directory created yet. 
You can use several variables in the 'mail_location' setting. See >>Variables<< for a full list, but the most commonly used ones are: 

 * '%u': Full username. 
 * '%n': User part in user@domain, same as %u if there's no domain. 
 * '%d': Domain part in user@domain, empty if there's no domain. 
 * '%h': Home directory. ~/ works also. 
Typically with Maildir it would be set to: 

---%<-------------------------------------------------------------------------
mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir ---%<-------------------------------------------------------------------------

or with mbox: 

---%<-------------------------------------------------------------------------
mail_location = mbox:~/mail:INBOX=/var/mail/%u ---%<-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Use only absolute paths. Even if relative paths would appear to work, they might just as well break some day. 
 

Index files
===========


Index files are by default stored under the same directory as mails. With maildir they are stored in the actual maildirs, with mbox they are stored under '.imap/' directory. You may want to change the index file location if you're using >>NFS<< or if you're setting up >>shared mailboxes<<. 
You can change the index file location by adding ':INDEX=<path>' to mail_location. For example: 

---%<-------------------------------------------------------------------------
mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir:INDEX=/var/indexes/%u
---%<-------------------------------------------------------------------------

The index directories are created automatically, but note that it requires that Dovecot has actually access to create the directories. Either make sure that the index root directory ('/var/indexes' in the above example) is writable to the logged in user, or create the user's directory with proper permissions before the user logs in. 
If you really want to, you can also disable the index files completely by appending ':INDEX=MEMORY'. 


Homeless users
==============


Having a home directory for users is highly recommended. Dovecot's >>Sieve plugin<< already requires a home directory to work, and it probably won't be the last feature to require a home. See >>VirtualUsers#homedirs<< for more reasons why it's a good idea, and how to give Dovecot a home directory even if you don't have a "real home directory". 
If you really don't want to set any home directory, you can use something like: 

---%<-------------------------------------------------------------------------
mail_location = maildir:/home/%u/Maildir ---%<-------------------------------------------------------------------------



Per-user mail locations
=======================


It's possible to override the default 'mail_location' for specific users by making the >>user database<< return 'mail' >>extra field<<. See the >>user database<< page for the specific userdb you're using for more information how to do this. Below are however a couple of examples. 
Note that %h doesn't work in the userdb queries or templates. ~/ gets expanded later, so use it instead. 


SQL
===



---%<-------------------------------------------------------------------------
user_query = SELECT home, uid, gid, mail FROM users WHERE user = '%u' ---%<-------------------------------------------------------------------------



LDAP
====



---%<-------------------------------------------------------------------------
user_attrs = homeDirectory=home,uidNumber=uid,gidNumber=gid,mailLocation=mail ---%<-------------------------------------------------------------------------



Passwd-file
===========



---%<-------------------------------------------------------------------------
user:{PLAIN}password:1000:1000::/home/user::userdb_mail=mbox:~/mail:INBOX=/var/mail/%u ---%<-------------------------------------------------------------------------



Mixing mbox and maildir
=======================


It's possible to use both mboxes and maildirs for the same user by configuring multiple namespaces. See >>Namespaces<<. 
Having both mboxes and maildirs mixed within the same namespace isn't currently supported. 


Custom mailbox location detection
=================================


Dovecot by default detects the mailboxes in this order: 

 1. maildir: ~/Maildir 
 2. mbox: ~/mail, and /var/mail/%u if it exists 
 3. mbox: ~/Mail, and /var/mail/%u if it exists 
If you need something else, you can override the 'mail_executable' setting to run a script, which sets the MAIL environment properly. For example: 

---%<-------------------------------------------------------------------------
#/bin/sh

if [ -f $HOME/.maildir ]; then
  export MAIL=maildir:$HOME/.maildir
else
  export MAIL=mbox:$HOME/mail:INBOX=/var/mail/$USER
fi

# Finally execute the imap/pop3. If you use both, you'll need two scripts.
exec /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/imap
---%<-------------------------------------------------------------------------

*NOTE*: If you're using namespaces, the MAIL environment is ignored. You'll need to set NAMESPACE_1 (and maybe _2, _3, etc. for each namespace) instead. 
(This file was created from the wiki on 2007-12-11 04:42)
