dovecot - Oct 2006 - Add virtual users to the Dovecot configuration

Dear Dovecot Mail List,

I have used Dovecot for quite a while to service remote users on my SOHO
network. A local not-for-profit asked about getting their own dedicated
domain name for mail.

I followed: http://www.howtoforge.com/linux_postfix_virtual_hosting to
set up a virtual, but the article leaves out system accounts and I have
not been able to access both system and virtual users at the same time.
I have the following lines:

default_mail_env = maildir:/var/spool/vmail/%d/%n/    which, when
commented out, works for system users
default_mail_env = mbox:~/mail/:INBOX=/var/spool/mail/%u     which, when
commented out, which works for virtual users

If both are uncommented, only system users work.

Wiki-ing and Googling, I learned that namespace could be applied to the
problem.

Here is the namespace from the configuration file.

#namespace private {
   # Hierarchy separator to use. You should use the same separator for all
   # namespaces or some clients get confused. '/' is usually a good one.
   # The default however depends on the underlying mail storage format.
   #separator 
   # Prefix required to access this namespace. This needs to be
different for
   # all namespaces. For example "Public/".
   #prefix 
   # Physical location of the mailbox. This is in same format as
   # default_mail_env, which is also the default for it.
   #location 
   # There can be only one INBOX, and this setting defines which namespace
   # has it.
   #inbox = yes

   # If namespace is hidden, it's not advertised to clients via NAMESPACE
   # extension or shown in LIST replies. This is mostly useful when
converting
   # from another server with different namespaces which you want to
deprecate
   # but still keep working. For example you can create hidden
namespaces with
   # prefixes "~/mail/", "~%u/mail/" and "mail/".
   #hidden = yes
#}

How do I specify which users use which namespace. Is there a good
description of namespaces and how to use them?

Thanks
Jens

On Wednesday 04 October 2006 15:54, Jens E. Madsen Jr.
wrote:
> default_mail_env = maildir:/var/spool/vmail/%d/%n/    which, when
> commented out, works for system users
> default_mail_env = mbox:~/mail/:INBOX=/var/spool/mail/%u     which,
> when commented out, which works for virtual users
>
> If both are uncommented, only system users work.
>
> Wiki-ing and Googling, I learned that namespace could be applied to
> the problem.
It's not necessary. Rather than answer your question, I'll tell how I  
do this.

In Postfix, I deliver local(8) users to a home_mailbox maildir, and 
virtual(8) users to a comparable spot:

/etc/postfix/main.cf :
# Unix system accounts
home_mailbox = mail/
# virtual mailbox accounts
virtual_mailbox_base = /home/vmail
virtual_mailbox_domains = example.com
virtual_mailbox_maps = hash:$config_directory/vmailbox

/etc/postfix/vmailbox :
vuser1 at example.com	example.com/vuser1/mail/
vuser2 at example.com	example.com/vuser1/mail/

In Dovecot, collect from there:

/etc/dovecot.conf :
default_mail_env = maildir:~/mail
# and in the auth section
auth default {
  mechanisms = plain
  passdb shadow {
  }
  userdb passwd {
  }
  passdb passwd-file {
    args = /etc/dovecot.virtual
  }
  userdb passwd-file {
    args = /etc/dovecot.virtual
  } ... and so on

And in the Dovecot virtual passdb, you list the virtual $HOME for each 
user:

/etc/dovecot.virtual :
vuser1:{PLAIN}pass:710:710::/home/vmail/example.com/vuser1:/bin/false:
vuser2:{PLAIN}word:710:710::/home/vmail/example.com/vuser2:/bin/false:

If you're using a RDBMS, adjust to taste. It has the same idea 
regardless of your passdb/userdb backends. Tell Postfix to deliver to 
the same place you tell Dovecot to check for mail.
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