dovecot - Jan 2010 - Need simplest method for providing alternate mail location

I am looking to migrate my DC V1.2 from mbox to maildir format....and 
want to do this in stages, user group by user group rather than in one 
horrendous fell swoop....since I'd rather fell things didn't happen.

Since I'm running sendmail/procmail, I can change the ~/.procmailrc to 
change the writing of the INBOX, but the IMAP mail location access info 
is knottier when one wants to do things a bit at a time. 

Setting aside for now the matter of converting existing folders,  I will 
be moving:
= from a mbox setup with the INBOX in /var/spool/mail/<userid> and the 
folders in ~/mail
= to both in ~/Maildir (unless someone has better ideas)
It seems that one could:
1) Change the namespaces in the client...but this is not feasible, 
because it would means going out to all my 4000+ users desktop and 
modifying them.
2) Having some sort of db to tell DC it a mail_userdb extra field and 
override the mail_location in dovecot.conf
3) Perhaps waiting for DC v2.0 which will have this architected in.

A) Is there any sense the v2.0 will be coming Real Soon Now and will 
fulfill #3?
B) What's the simplest way to implement #2?  I would really rather not 
install MySQL on my mail server and have all the overhead of installing 
and managing it when all I need it for is a temporary resource to tell 
DC where things are until the switchover is complete and Maildir is the 
default.  Is it feasible to do this with an additional flat file in the 
/etc/passwd mode with some extra fields tacked on that is *only* used 
for mail location info?  Or some other and simple way?

My apologies if this is a Stupid Question.............

-- 
==== Once upon a time, the Internet was a friendly, 
neighbors-helping-neighbors small town, and no one locked their doors. 
Now it's like an apartment in Bed-Stuy: you need three heavy duty 
pick-proof locks, one of those braces that goes from the lock to the 
floor, and bars on the windows.... ==== Stewart Dean, Unix System Admin, 
Bard College, New York 12504 sdean at bard.edu voice: 845-758-7475, fax: 
845-758-7035

On Wed, 2010-01-20 at 13:18 -0500, Stewart Dean wrote:
> 2) Having some sort of db to tell DC it a mail_userdb extra field and 
> override the mail_location in dovecot.conf
> 3) Perhaps waiting for DC v2.0 which will have this architected in.
> 
> A) Is there any sense the v2.0 will be coming Real Soon Now and will 
> fulfill #3?
There's nothing in v2.0 that makes this easier. Or nothing I can think
of..
> B) What's the simplest way to implement #2?  I would really rather not 
> install MySQL on my mail server and have all the overhead of installing 
> and managing it when all I need it for is a temporary resource to tell 
> DC where things are until the switchover is complete and Maildir is the 
> default.  Is it feasible to do this with an additional flat file in the 
> /etc/passwd mode with some extra fields tacked on that is *only* used 
> for mail location info?  Or some other and simple way?
You could use a userdb passwd-file. If your users are currently
in /etc/passwd, just make a copy of it to dovecot.passwd or something
and add userdb_mail extra fields to it as needed. Once everyone are
migrated, change the default mail_location and move back to userdb
passwd. http://wiki.dovecot.org/AuthDatabase/PasswdFile

Of course if you have to add/delete users often it's going to be more
annoying since you have to modify two files.
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