dovecot - Aug 2005 - Multiple mailbox formats, per-user mailbox format support

Hello,

I have a setup where each user has different mailbox
formats (some use only /var/spool/mail/user) mailbox format,
some is stored in mbx format ~/INBOX or ~/mbox and
some is stored in maildir format in ~/Mail/

I currently use UW-IMAP to read /var/spool/mail/... and the mbx format
mailboxes in ~/INBOX and mutt to read ~/Mail/... (the maildirs in ~/Mail/
are created by procmail rules)

Does dovecot make it possible to also read the maildir directories i have
in ~/Mail/ without having to reconfigure the delivery/imap system for all
users?

I know I should migrate to use one consistent mailbox format (thinking
about maildir), but to avoid any migration It would be great if dovecot
just would be able to read multiple inboxes in different formats
differently configured on a per-user basis.

I use postfix for delivery/transfer.

Ragnar Rova wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I have a setup where each user has different mailbox
> formats (some use only /var/spool/mail/user) mailbox format,
> some is stored in mbx format ~/INBOX or ~/mbox and
> some is stored in maildir format in ~/Mail/
> 
> I currently use UW-IMAP to read /var/spool/mail/... and the mbx format
> mailboxes in ~/INBOX and mutt to read ~/Mail/... (the maildirs in ~/Mail/
> are created by procmail rules)
> 
> Does dovecot make it possible to also read the maildir directories i have
> in ~/Mail/ without having to reconfigure the delivery/imap system for all
> users?
> 
Yes, if you use Dovecot-1.0-alpha1 (or 1.0-stable) and namespaces, or
use a userdb format that lets you specify a mail_env for each user (SQL
or passwd-file, I think). Dovecot can't read mbx format mailboxes;
they're pretty UW-specific.

Best Wishes,
Chris

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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