dovecot - Apr 2005 - Failed to create storage with data:

Hi, i'm using dovecot-1.0-stable.

All my mail accounts are virtual accounts that come from pam with the 
following configuration in auth_default:
   passdb = pam
   userdb = static uid=5000 gid=5000 home=/var/mail/vhost/example.com/%n 
mail=/var/mail/vhost/example.com/%n

for a user foo, if the directory /var/mail/vhost/example.com/foo already 
exists, then all is ok, but if the directory doesn't exists, it seems 
dovecot is unable to create it "on the fly". I get the following error
message:
   Failed to create storage with data: /var/mail/vhost/example.com/foo

i'm quite sure it is not a permission related problem (i made 
/var/mail/vhost/example.com world writable to be sure).

I'm currently trying to understand the maildir code... But could someone 
tell me if the maildir directory should exist for dovecot to work ?

In the case that the answer is yes, i would say in advance that it's a 
problem for sites hosting a lot of virtual users, since it means that 
these users must receive at least one mail for their mail account to 
work correctly (i use postfix as MTA, and if the user's maildir doesn't 
exist, postfix takes care of creating it). I'm not very fond of 
solutions with scripts taking care of creating users.

Thanks in advance for your answers :)

-- 

    \|||/
    (o o)                              Matthieu Imbert
ooO-(_)-Ooo------------------------------------------
              ?quipe administration r?seau et syst?mes
Ecole normale superieure lettres et sciences humaines
15, Parvis Ren? Descartes BP 7000 69342 LYON cedex 07
t?l 0437376127, secr?tariat 0437376122 fax 0437376123
contact ?quipe r?seau et syst?mes <reseau at ens-lsh.fr>
        contact personnel <matthieu.imbert at ens-lsh.fr>
-----------------------------------------------------

Do you have a default_mail_env set up? Does it work with

default_mail_env = maildir:/var/mail/vhost/example.com/%n

?

It looks to me like it should create the directory if missing; see 
src/lib-storage/index/maildir/maildir-storage.c in maildir_create()

Mind you, I'm not at all familiar with the maildir code yet ...

Best Wishes,
Chris

On Wed, 13 Apr 2005 16:44:43 +0200 Matthieu Imbert 
<matthieu.imbert at ens-lsh.fr> wrote:
> Hi, i'm using dovecot-1.0-stable.
> 
> All my mail accounts are virtual accounts that come from pam with the 
> following configuration in auth_default:
>    passdb = pam
>    userdb = static uid=5000 gid=5000 home=/var/mail/vhost/example.com/%n 
> mail=/var/mail/vhost/example.com/%n
> 
> for a user foo, if the directory /var/mail/vhost/example.com/foo already 
> exists, then all is ok, but if the directory doesn't exists, it seems 
> dovecot is unable to create it "on the fly". I get the following
error
> message:
>    Failed to create storage with data: /var/mail/vhost/example.com/foo
> 
> i'm quite sure it is not a permission related problem (i made 
> /var/mail/vhost/example.com world writable to be sure).
> 
> I'm currently trying to understand the maildir code... But could
someone
> tell me if the maildir directory should exist for dovecot to work ?
> 
> In the case that the answer is yes, i would say in advance that it's a 
> problem for sites hosting a lot of virtual users, since it means that 
> these users must receive at least one mail for their mail account to 
> work correctly (i use postfix as MTA, and if the user's maildir
doesn't
> exist, postfix takes care of creating it). I'm not very fond of 
> solutions with scripts taking care of creating users.
> 
> Thanks in advance for your answers :)
> 
> -- 
> 
>     \|||/
>     (o o)                              Matthieu Imbert
> ooO-(_)-Ooo------------------------------------------
>               ?quipe administration r?seau et syst?mes
> Ecole normale superieure lettres et sciences humaines
> 15, Parvis Ren? Descartes BP 7000 69342 LYON cedex 07
> t?l 0437376127, secr?tariat 0437376122 fax 0437376123
> contact ?quipe r?seau et syst?mes <reseau at ens-lsh.fr>
>         contact personnel <matthieu.imbert at ens-lsh.fr>
> -----------------------------------------------------
> 
--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--
Christopher Wakelin,                                c.d.wakelin at reading.ac.uk
IT Services Centre, The University of Reading,       Tel: +44 (0)118 378 8439
Whiteknights, Reading, RG6 2AF, UK                   Fax: +44 (0)118 975 3094