dovecot - Dec 2014 - devoid mailbox status for mail reloaded from a tape backup

> On Dec 9, 2014, at 2:34 AM, Steffen Kaiser <skdovecot at
smail.inf.fh-brs.de> wrote:
> 
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> On Mon, 8 Dec 2014, Stephen Lidie wrote:
> 
>> I've only be able to status a mailbox for currently existing users,
is it possible to status a mailbox reloaded from tape to an alternate location? 
The user may or may not exist at this time, but I still need to inspect the
mailbox ... thank you,
> 
> yes
> 
:)

Well, although I am able to issue a mailbox status command regardless, the
implication was that the command displayed an empty string (nothing useful), and
thus a working example using files not in the locations specified by
mail_location would be useful. In my configuration mail_locations is defined as:

	mail_location = mdbox:~/mail:INDEX=/var/dovecot/index/%u

So a command of the form ?doveadm mailbox status -u userName all INBOX? uses
mail_location as defined in dovecot.conf to locate the mail and index files, and
displays appropriate information about the specified user?s INBOX.

If I have mail and index files in an alternate location - restored from a backup
tape for example - how do I obtain data such as unseen, message count, vsize,
etc about mailboxes residing at that alternate location, a location not pointed
to by mail_location?  As I mentioned, ?doveadm import? allows one to provide an
alternate source location, but ?doveadm mailbox status? does not AFAIK, thus, a
sample command would be wonderful.

thx/stv

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On Tue, 9 Dec 2014, Stephen Lidie wrote:
>> On Dec 9, 2014, at 2:34 AM, Steffen Kaiser <skdovecot at
smail.inf.fh-brs.de> wrote:
>> On Mon, 8 Dec 2014, Stephen Lidie wrote:
>>
>>> I've only be able to status a mailbox for currently existing
users, is
>>> it possible to status a mailbox reloaded from tape to an alternate 
>>> location?  The user may or may not exist at this time, but I still
                         ^^^^^^
>>> need to inspect the mailbox ... thank you,
>
> Well, although I am able to issue a mailbox status command regardless, the
implication was that the command displayed an empty string (nothing useful), and
thus a working example using files not in the locations specified by
mail_location would be useful. In my configuration mail_locations is defined as:
>
> 	mail_location = mdbox:~/mail:INDEX=/var/dovecot/index/%u
>
> So a command of the form ?doveadm mailbox status -u userName all INBOX?
uses mail_location as defined in dovecot.conf to locate the mail and index
files, and displays appropriate information about the specified user?s INBOX.
>
> If I have mail and index files in an alternate location - restored from a
backup tape for example - how do I obtain data such as unseen, message count,
vsize, etc about mailboxes residing at that alternate location, a location not
pointed to by mail_location?  As I mentioned, ?doveadm import? allows one to
provide an alternate source location, but ?doveadm mailbox status? does not
AFAIK, thus, a sample command would be wonderful.
if the user does not exist at all, you could create a dummy "restore" 
account, where you restore the data to and can use as any other user.
This would work for any existing user, too.

For me this is working, too:

doveadm -o mail_location=maildir:/home/user2/Maildir mailbox status \
  -u user1 all INBOX

shows the same as

doveadm mailbox status -u user2 all INBOX

but not the same as:

doveadm mailbox status -u user1 all INBOX

So, if you craft a good -o mail_location= and an "-u", which has 
access permissions on filesystem level (e.g. if you are using system 
users), it should work. Maybe, you need to specify "-o home=...", too.

- -- 
Steffen Kaiser
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> On Dec 9, 2014, at 11:00 AM, Steffen Kaiser <skdovecot at
smail.inf.fh-brs.de> wrote:
> 
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> 
> On Tue, 9 Dec 2014, Stephen Lidie wrote:
>>> On Dec 9, 2014, at 2:34 AM, Steffen Kaiser <skdovecot at
smail.inf.fh-brs.de> wrote:
>>> On Mon, 8 Dec 2014, Stephen Lidie wrote:
>>> 
>>>> I've only be able to status a mailbox for currently
existing users, is it possible to status a mailbox reloaded from tape to an
alternate location?  The user may or may not exist at this time, but I still
> 
>                        ^^^^^^
> 
>>>> need to inspect the mailbox ... thank you,
>> 
>> Well, although I am able to issue a mailbox status command regardless,
the implication was that the command displayed an empty string (nothing useful),
and thus a working example using files not in the locations specified by
mail_location would be useful. In my configuration mail_locations is defined as:
>> 
>> 	mail_location = mdbox:~/mail:INDEX=/var/dovecot/index/%u
>> 
>> So a command of the form ?doveadm mailbox status -u userName all INBOX?
uses mail_location as defined in dovecot.conf to locate the mail and index
files, and displays appropriate information about the specified user?s INBOX.
>> 
>> If I have mail and index files in an alternate location - restored from
a backup tape for example - how do I obtain data such as unseen, message count,
vsize, etc about mailboxes residing at that alternate location, a location not
pointed to by mail_location?  As I mentioned, ?doveadm import? allows one to
provide an alternate source location, but ?doveadm mailbox status? does not
AFAIK, thus, a sample command would be wonderful.
> 
> if the user does not exist at all, you could create a dummy
"restore" account, where you restore the data to and can use as any
other user.
> This would work for any existing user, too.
True, that was my last resort, because I'd have to go through
"channels" to get a real dummy username added to the University's
LDAP server, then I'd have to to an actual import, and finally the status.
> 
> For me this is working, too:
> 
> doveadm -o mail_location=maildir:/home/user2/Maildir mailbox status \
> -u user1 all INBOX
Eureka!! The magic incantation snippet I was seeking :) I had tried, variously,
placing this simple string:

	"mail_location=mdbox:/home/RESTORE/homeb/userName/mail:INDEX=/home/RESTORE/var/dovecot/index/userName"

at various points on the doveadm command line, I tried exporting the string as
the environment variables mail_location and MAIL_LOCATION, and I tried to find
some option that would accept an alternate mail_location. I even briefly scanned
the force code but saw immediately that that solution would be slow going :) I
just now tried to find where -o was documented, to no avail:

# man doveadm|egrep -i '\-o'
# man doveadm mailbox|egrep -i '\-o'
# man doveadm help|egrep -i '\-o'

So, where exactly did I fail to find -o documented?

Now I (or an operator) can pre-scan candidate mail files pulled from tape before
actually restoring them for a real user account, to help narrow down the
results. Did I mention that this is the exact solution I was hoping for?!

Many thanks,
Steve
> 
> shows the same as
> 
> doveadm mailbox status -u user2 all INBOX
> 
> but not the same as:
> 
> doveadm mailbox status -u user1 all INBOX
> 
> So, if you craft a good -o mail_location= and an "-u", which has
access permissions on filesystem level (e.g. if you are using system users), it
should work. Maybe, you need to specify "-o home=...", too.
> 
> - -- Steffen Kaiser
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