dovecot - Jan 2006 - default_mail_env auto-detect woes for maildir users

Hello--

I am a fairly new dovecot user and have run into a problem.
I am running dovecot 1.0alpha5 (built from source) on a Fedora Core 1 machine.
The system has about 400 users with over 80 IMAP users, and we have
just transitioned from UW-IMAP. Thus all users are currently still mbox
users.

I would like to transition them to maildir users (this was the main point for
me switching servers), and I chose dovecot because it could simultaneously
support both formats.

My dovecot.conf uses auto_detect (no default_mail_env defined, by choice).


Auto-detect is working fine for mbox users,  as shown by this (edited) log
snippet:

dovecot: imap(janeuser): maildir: couldn't find root dir
dovecot: imap(janeuser): mbox: root exists (/Home/janeuser/mail)
dovecot: imap(janeuser): mbox: INBOX exists (/var/mail/janeuser)
dovecot: imap(janeuser): mbox: root=/Home/janeuser/mail,
index=/Home/janeuser/mail, inbox=/var/mail/janeuser

However, for another user who already has ~/Maildir and a proper
maildir-format spool location ( /var/mail/joeuser/{cur|new|tmp} ) the log
shows:

dovecot: imap(joeuser): maildir: root exists (/Home/joeuser/Maildir)
dovecot: imap(joeuser): maildir: root=/Home/joeuser/Maildir,
index=/Home/joeuser/Maildir, control=, inbox
(Mail clients show no messages, but one can see them from the UNIX shell
and with mutt on the server.)

If I set 
	default_mail_env = maildir:~/Maildir:INBOX=/var/spool/mail/%u
then everything works fine for 'joeuser'. However, I need auto-detect 
during this transition phase.

My questions, please:
* How do I get INBOX ("inbox=") to be properly defined/detected?
* Must I do this with namespaces, and how does that affect the fact that
  there will be a transition period where some users use mbox and others use
  maildir?
* Other advice?

I have been unable to track this down so far, between reading the Dovecot
documentation and Googling the dovecot mailing list archives.

Thanks in advance,

	David

I wanted to follow-up on my own message, because I have devised a usable
work-around for the situation I described yesterday.

======= dovecont.conf snippet ========  userdb passwd-file {
    # Path for passwd-file
    args = /usr/local/etc/userdb.dovecot
  }

  userdb passwd {
  }
========================================= 

where the userdb.dovecot file has entries of the form:
joeuser:x:61375:20:Joe
User:/home/joeuser:/bin/false::maildir:/home/joeuser/Maildir:INBOX=/var/spool/mail/joeuser/

Comments:
* This works, in terms of having "inbox=" properly defined for maildir
users.

* I will be placing entries for each maildir user in this userdb.dovecot
  file (letting mbox users get handled properly by auto-detect of
  default_mail_env).

* I had to move the "userdb passwd" block _below_ the "userdb
passwd-file"
  block in dovecot.conf to force it find my special entries first.

* I am pleased that I was able to get away with a literal 'x' (a la
shadow
  password files) in this file, due to "passdb" and "userdb"
being handled
  separately. Nice design of dovecot's!

This arrangement gives me the granularity to mix mbox and maildir users,
as I desired.

My question: Although this is a functioning work-around, is there
something I am not understanding or why is auto-detect not working?

Thanks in advance,

	David