dovecot - Jan 2008 - Please help me resolve why mail isn't being delivered to virtual users

Hi,

I have to admit that I'm not quite sure why no one has responded to me about
this one.  If I'm not providing enough information or incorrect information 
please tell me.  It's quite important that this e-mail system be working.

I do not quite understand what it is that I'm missing now.  I have the need
to
setup and configure various users as virtual users.  To this end, I've 
configured them so that their home directories are
"/virtusers/<userid>" and
their INBOXes are "/var/mail/<userid>."

I have created a system user ID called "vmail" which is referenced in
my
PostgreSQL database for UID/GID stuff.  All virtual user home directories and 
INBOXes are made owner "vmail" and group is "users."

Originally, I had my sendmail "/etc/mail/aliases" file setup to
"map" all mail
sent to these virtual users to the system user "vmail."  However, none
of the
virtual users were getting any mail and vmail was just getting swamped.  
After doing more digging, I found that I just didn't understand the home 
directories and INBOX, mbox and such.  That's what drove me to configuring 
what's in there now.

Now, following directions on this WIKI page: 
http://wiki.dovecot.org/LDA/Sendmail?highlight=%28deliver%29 I'm still
unable
to get the e-mail working for them.  Continually, sendmail bails with errors 
saying it, "Can't create output."  Because I am using *.mc files,
I made a
new *.m4 file as directed in /usr/share/sendmail/cf/mailer.

Dovecot does allow the virtual users to login.  In fact, when I did, the first 
time, there appears a "mail" directory in their home directories after
login.
This would indicate to me that the login was successful.  Further, I 
cut/pasted a message sent to one of the virtual users from the vmail INBOX 
(/var/mail/vmail) into the virtual user's INBOX (/var/mail/jdunkin).  Then, 
logged in as this virtual user and ACTUALLY got the mail.  I know this stuff 
works.  What must be done to make sendmail do its thing for deliver?

What is necessary to fix this situation?

Andy

follow up:

I forgot to mention, that I discovered my system doesn't appear to have 
procmail on it.  So, I'm not sure what must be done for delivery of mail 
concerning that "LDA/Sendmail" dovecot WIKI page.

Andy

On Mon, 7 Jan 2008, Andrew Falanga wrote:
> I have to admit that I'm not quite sure why no one has responded to me
about
> this one.  If I'm not providing enough information or incorrect
information
> please tell me.  It's quite important that this e-mail system be
working.
Well, I can try to help.  In general that's what we'll all do, but we
have
other things to do in our lives, too. (-:

Zeroth question: Why use virtual users rather than regular-old UNIX users? 
The regular way requires much less configuration, after all!
> I have created a system user ID called "vmail" which is
referenced in my
> PostgreSQL database for UID/GID stuff.  All virtual user home directories
and
> INBOXes are made owner "vmail" and group is "users."
First question:

If you do 'su - vmail -s /bin/sh' you will get a shell running as user 
vmail.  Run 'deliver' with the arguments it takes to deliver to a target
user; does mail get delivered?

If not, we better fix that first!
> Originally, I had my sendmail "/etc/mail/aliases" file setup to
"map"
> all mail sent to these virtual users to the system user "vmail." 
> However, none of the virtual users were getting any mail and vmail was 
> just getting swamped. After doing more digging, I found that I just 
> didn't understand the home directories and INBOX, mbox and such. 
> That's what drove me to configuring what's in there now.
> Now, following directions on this WIKI page: 
> http://wiki.dovecot.org/LDA/Sendmail?highlight=%28deliver%29 I'm still 
> unable to get the e-mail working for them.  Continually, sendmail bails 
> with errors saying it, "Can't create output."  Because I am
using *.mc
> files, I made a new *.m4 file as directed in 
> /usr/share/sendmail/cf/mailer.
Can you turn up the verbosity from sendmail?
> Dovecot does allow the virtual users to login.  In fact, when I did, the 
> first time, there appears a "mail" directory in their home
directories
> after login. This would indicate to me that the login was successful. 
> Further, I cut/pasted a message sent to one of the virtual users from 
> the vmail INBOX (/var/mail/vmail) into the virtual user's INBOX 
> (/var/mail/jdunkin).  Then, logged in as this virtual user and ACTUALLY 
> got the mail.  I know this stuff works.  What must be done to make 
> sendmail do its thing for deliver?
So it sounds like Dovecot is fine and this is a sendmail question.

We can try to help, but I don't use Sendmail (I do use Dovecot...), so 
it's not clear that we'll be able to.
> What is necessary to fix this situation?
Reply with answers to 0 and 1 and we'll see where we can go.

-- Asheesh.

-- 
People are going to scream bloody murder about that.
 		-- Seen on linux-kernel

Andrew Falanga, on 1/7/2008 11:18 PM, said the
following:
> What must be done to make sendmail do its thing for deliver?
I don't think its because anyone is snubbing you... ;)

I think one of the reasons is not as many people use sendmail anymore - 
I wouldn't have a clue... sorry...

-- 

Best regards,

Charles