dovecot - Jul 2008 - Some help required - dovecot: IMAP(matthew): unlink(/home/matthew/Maildir/cur/new) failed: Operation not permitted

Hi all, I have tried very hard to solve this problem but turn to the  
mailing list as a last resort.

In the log I get, for just one account:

Jul 31 09:06:17 bickertons dovecot: imap-login: Login: user=<matthew>,  
method=PLAIN, rip=78.130.81.201, lip=168.143.5.18, TLS
Jul 31 09:06:17 bickertons dovecot: IMAP(matthew): Effective uid=1003,  
gid=1003, home=/home/matthew
Jul 31 09:06:17 bickertons dovecot: IMAP(matthew): maildir: data=/home/ 
matthew/Maildir
Jul 31 09:06:17 bickertons dovecot: IMAP(matthew): maildir: root=/home/ 
matthew/Maildir, index=/home/matthew/Maildir, control=, inboxJul 31 09:06:17
bickertons dovecot: IMAP(matthew): unlink(/home/
matthew/Maildir/cur/new) failed: Operation not permitted
Jul 31 09:06:18 bickertons last message repeated 3 times

All the other accounts work fine.

I have tried removing the dovecote.index and the dovecote-keywords and  
uidlist  files. This gets it working for a while but soon we are back  
to the same problem.

I would really not like to lose all the mail in this account, its that  
of my boss, (slight note of panic)

Matthew


bickertons# dovecot --version
1.0.13
bickertons# dovecot -n
# 1.0.13: /usr/local/etc/dovecot.conf
protocols: imap imaps pop3 pop3s
disable_plaintext_auth: no
login_dir: /var/run/dovecot/login
login_executable(default): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/imap-login
login_executable(imap): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/imap-login
login_executable(pop3): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/pop3-login
login_max_processes_count: 30
max_mail_processes: 50
verbose_proctitle: yes
first_valid_gid: 0
mail_privileged_group: mail
mail_location: maildir:~/Maildir
mail_debug: yes
mail_executable(default): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/imap
mail_executable(imap): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/imap
mail_executable(pop3): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/pop3
mail_plugin_dir(default): /usr/local/lib/dovecot/imap
mail_plugin_dir(imap): /usr/local/lib/dovecot/imap
mail_plugin_dir(pop3): /usr/local/lib/dovecot/pop3
imap_client_workarounds(default): delay-newmail outlook-idle netscape- 
eoh tb-extra-mailbox-sep
imap_client_workarounds(imap): delay-newmail outlook-idle netscape-eoh  
tb-extra-mailbox-sep
imap_client_workarounds(pop3): outlook-idle
pop3_uidl_format(default):
pop3_uidl_format(imap):
pop3_uidl_format(pop3): %08Xu%08Xv
pop3_client_workarounds(default):
pop3_client_workarounds(imap):
pop3_client_workarounds(pop3): outlook-no-nuls oe-ns-eoh
auth default:
   passdb:
     driver: pam
     args: *
   userdb:
     driver: passwd

On Thu, 31 Jul 2008, matbic at gmail.com wrote:
> Hi all, I have tried very hard to solve this problem but turn to the  
> mailing list as a last resort.
>
> In the log I get, for just one account:
>
> Jul 31 09:06:17 bickertons dovecot: imap-login: Login:
user=<matthew>,
> method=PLAIN, rip=78.130.81.201, lip=168.143.5.18, TLS
> Jul 31 09:06:17 bickertons dovecot: IMAP(matthew): Effective uid=1003,  
> gid=1003, home=/home/matthew
> Jul 31 09:06:17 bickertons dovecot: IMAP(matthew): maildir: data=/home/ 
> matthew/Maildir
> Jul 31 09:06:17 bickertons dovecot: IMAP(matthew): maildir: root=/home/ 
> matthew/Maildir, index=/home/matthew/Maildir, control=, inbox> Jul 31
09:06:17 bickertons dovecot: IMAP(matthew): unlink(/home/
> matthew/Maildir/cur/new) failed: Operation not permitted
> Jul 31 09:06:18 bickertons last message repeated 3 times
>
> All the other accounts work fine.
This pretty much looks like a b0rked Maildir structure, and .../cur/new
being a directory rather than a file - and you cannot unlink() a
directory (rmdir would have to be used, but that's a different story).

The layout should be:

/home/matthew/Maildir/cur
/home/matthew/Maildir/new
/home/matthew/Maildir/tmp

where cur and possibly new should contain some mail files, and folders
being similar to:

/home/matthew/Maildir/.somefolder/{cur,new,tmp,.maildirfolder}

Check how the Maildir looks like and possibly correct it by moving
cur/new or its contents into the right place, and check if the mail
filtering/delivery rules designate the proper places to drop mail off.

-- 
Matthias Andree

Hi

I hope you're not offended by posting a quote to the list...
you sent the mail just to me.

On Thu, 31 Jul 2008, matbic at gmail.com wrote:
> Here here is an excerpt:
>
> ls -l home/matthew/Maildir/cur
>
...
> drwx------  2 matthew  matthew      512 Jul 30 17:48 cur:2,ST
> drwx------  2 matthew  matthew      512 Jul 31 06:55 new
> drwx------  2 matthew  matthew      512 Jul 30 18:21 tmp:2,ST
>
> Is this to be expected or is this my problem?
These (in .../Maildir/cur) are your problem - someone created a Maildir
underneath Maildir/cur, and dovecot or some other software considered
the three directories messages, and goofed up.

Check your delivery recipes so that none deliver to .../Maildir/, if
you find any, adjust them deliver to .../Maildir/ instead.

I'd suggest to:

cd /home/matthew/Maildir/cur
# move potential messages out to the proper new/... directory
# if mv complains about nonexistent .../*, all the better!
mv 'cur:2,ST/'* 'new/'* 'tmp:2,ST/'* ../new/
# get rid of the bogus directories
rmdir '???:2,ST/' new
cd -

and see if that fixes the problem. If rmdir fails because there are
hidden files, see what they are and where to move them, if the
{cur,tmp}:2,ST or new are empty, fine, someone accidentally ran
maildirmake with bogus arguments.

HTH
Matthias