dovecot - May 2019 - Understanding virtual mailboxes (examples in 15-mailboxes.conf)

The examples in 15-mailboxes.conf

# If you have a virtual "All messages" mailbox:
   #mailbox virtual/All {
   #  special_use = \All
   #  comment = All my messages
   #}

   # If you have a virtual "Flagged" mailbox:
   #mailbox virtual/Flagged {
   #  special_use = \Flagged
   #  comment = All my flagged messages
#}

They seem to reference some kind of virtual mailbox setup that doesn't 
compare to the docs for the "virtual" plugin. That plugin says we
should
create a separate namespace instead, like "namespace virtual" and put 
files representing the virtual folders into user maildirs. What if we 
use mdbox? add the files to user/mailboxes director I will guess.

Is there a way to use the mailbox examples in the inbox namespace in the 
default config? Does it use some other method different from the virtual 
plugin? maybe more config hints for those examples would be helpful.

Thank you.

On 4/30/2019 11:13 PM, MRob via dovecot wrote:
> The examples in 15-mailboxes.conf
> 
> # If you have a virtual "All messages" mailbox:
>  ? #mailbox virtual/All {
>  ? #? special_use = \All
>  ? #? comment = All my messages
>  ? #}
> 
>  ? # If you have a virtual "Flagged" mailbox:
>  ? #mailbox virtual/Flagged {
>  ? #? special_use = \Flagged
>  ? #? comment = All my flagged messages
> #}
> 
> They seem to reference some kind of virtual mailbox setup that doesn't 
> compare to the docs for the "virtual" plugin. That plugin says we
should
> create a separate namespace instead, like "namespace virtual" and
put
> files representing the virtual folders into user maildirs. What if we 
> use mdbox? add the files to user/mailboxes director I will guess.
> 
> Is there a way to use the mailbox examples in the inbox namespace in the 
> default config? Does it use some other method different from the virtual 
> plugin? maybe more config hints for those examples would be helpful.
> 
> Thank you.

You will indeed need to setup a virtual namespace. The virtual mailboxes 
will exist in a folder alongside but separate from your primary 
mailstore. If your default namespace is:

namespace inbox {
   type = private
   separator = /
   prefix    location = maildir:/var/mail/%d/%n/Maildir
   inbox = yes
   hidden = no
   list = yes
   subscriptions = yes
}

then add

namespace virtual {
   prefix = virtual/
   separator = /
   location = virtual:/var/mail/%d/%n/virtual
   subscriptions = no
   list = children
}

So for user daniel at somedomain.org there will exist:
   /var/mail/somedomain.org/daniel/Maildir
   /var/mail/somedomain.org/daniel/virtual

And then you'll need to create the virtual definition files for each 
user's mailbox as needed.

--
Daniel

On 2019-05-01 22:14, Daniel Miller via dovecot wrote:
> On 4/30/2019 11:13 PM, MRob via dovecot wrote:
>> The examples in 15-mailboxes.conf
>> 
>> # If you have a virtual "All messages" mailbox:
>>  ? #mailbox virtual/All {
>>  ? #? special_use = \All
>>  ? #? comment = All my messages
>>  ? #}
>> 
>>  ? # If you have a virtual "Flagged" mailbox:
>>  ? #mailbox virtual/Flagged {
>>  ? #? special_use = \Flagged
>>  ? #? comment = All my flagged messages
>> #}
>> 
>> They seem to reference some kind of virtual mailbox setup that
doesn't
>> compare to the docs for the "virtual" plugin. That plugin
says we
>> should create a separate namespace instead, like "namespace
virtual"
>> and put files representing the virtual folders into user maildirs. 
>> What if we use mdbox? add the files to user/mailboxes director I will 
>> guess.
>> 
>> Is there a way to use the mailbox examples in the inbox namespace in 
>> the default config? Does it use some other method different from the 
>> virtual plugin? maybe more config hints for those examples would be 
>> helpful.
>> 
>> Thank you.
> 
> 
> You will indeed need to setup a virtual namespace. The virtual
> mailboxes will exist in a folder alongside but separate from your
> primary mailstore. If your default namespace is:
Thank you, but question is about the example mailbox settings in 
15-mailboxes.conf
I found I can put those mailbox definitions in the new virtual 
namespace, still not sure if they would work if I kept them in the inbox 
namespace, maybe the documentation in the example file can include 
clarification