dovecot - May 2017 - sieve folders in maildir with imap: not a directory not fixed with maildir_stat_dirs = yes

As my logs fill up with "imap(user at domain.com): Error:
stat(/mail/doman.com/user//.dovecot.sieve/tmp) failed: Not a directory"
errors, I followed the advice at https://wiki2.dovecot.org/VirtualUsers/Home and
https://dovecot.org/list/dovecot/2016-June/104403.html and set in
/usr/local/etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-mail.conf

# By default LIST command returns all entries in maildir beginning with a dot.
# Enabling this option makes Dovecot return only entries which are directories.
# This is done by stat()ing each entry, so it causes more disk I/O.
# (For systems setting struct dirent->d_type, this check is free and it's
# done always regardless of this setting)
maildir_stat_dirs = yes

My mailbox format reads "mail_location =
maildir:~:CONTROL=/var/no-quota/%u:INDEX=MEMORY"

The error is factually correct, but there is not .dovecot.sieve/tmp directory or
file as .dovecot.sieve is a file (the head sieve script that calls the
subordinate scripts out of the /sieve directory.

There is a tmp directory at /sieve/tmp/

drwxr-----    2 vmail  vmail     2B May 31 04:14 tmp


Any hints as to why this isn't working?  It does seem like the right answer.

On 2017-05-31 15:09, David Gessel wrote:
> As my logs fill up with "imap(user at domain.com): Error:
> stat(/mail/doman.com/user//.dovecot.sieve/tmp) failed: Not a
> directory" errors, I followed the advice at
> https://wiki2.dovecot.org/VirtualUsers/Home and
> https://dovecot.org/list/dovecot/2016-June/104403.html and set in
> /usr/local/etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-mail.conf
> 
> # By default LIST command returns all entries in maildir beginning with 
> a dot.
> # Enabling this option makes Dovecot return only entries which are 
> directories.
> # This is done by stat()ing each entry, so it causes more disk I/O.
> # (For systems setting struct dirent->d_type, this check is free and 
> it's
> # done always regardless of this setting)
> maildir_stat_dirs = yes
> 
> My mailbox format reads "mail_location >
maildir:~:CONTROL=/var/no-quota/%u:INDEX=MEMORY"
> 
> The error is factually correct, but there is not .dovecot.sieve/tmp
> directory or file as .dovecot.sieve is a file (the head sieve script
> that calls the subordinate scripts out of the /sieve directory.
> 
> There is a tmp directory at /sieve/tmp/
> 
> drwxr-----    2 vmail  vmail     2B May 31 04:14 tmp
> 
> 
> Any hints as to why this isn't working?  It does seem like the right 
> answer.
The answer is in the wiki page you referred to:
"Home directory shouldn't be the same as mail directory with mbox or 
Maildir formats (but with dbox/obox it's fine)."

You should set mail_home (where for example the sieve script is saved 
to) to a different path than mail_location.

-- 
  Christian Kivalo

Yes, understood.  I was hoping for an easier fix than migration.   In
particular:

Home vs. mail directory

Home directory shouldn't be the same as mail directory with mbox or Maildir
formats (but with dbox/obox it's fine). It's possible to do that, but
you might run into trouble with it sooner or later. Some problems with this are:

    Non-mailbox files may show up as mailboxes.

        If you see this with Maildir, maildir_stat_dirs=yes hides them. 

-> this is the problem I'm having and this directive doesn't seem to
be resolving it.

    Or user just might not be able to create mailbox with wanted name, because
there already exists a conflicting file

        e.g. with Maildir if you have .dovecot.sieve file, user can't create
a mailbox called "dovecot.sieve" (i.e. "dovecot" mailbox
that has a "sieve" child)

-> This makes sense, but the collision probability is relatively small in my
case and were it this alone, i wouldn't migrate.

    And vice versa: If user creates "dovecot.sieve" mailbox, Dovecot
will probably start logging all kinds of errors because the mailbox directory
isn't a valid Sieve script.

-> Again a valid warning, but no collisions yet and they're unlikely, so
I wouldn't migrate for this either.

    If you ever intend to migrate to another mailbox format, it's much
easier to do if you can have both old and new mail directories under the
user's home directory.

-> Quite sensible also, but no rush to fix the problem as I have intention of
migrating.

It'd be very cool if  maildir_stat_dirs=yes worked as I expected, but as it
doesn't I'll pick a slow mail time to reconfigure the directory
structure.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: sieve folders in maildir with imap: not a directory not fixed with
maildir_stat_dirs = yes
From: Christian Kivalo <ml+dovecot at valo.at>
To: dovecot at dovecot.org
Date: Wed May 31 2017 23:11:00 GMT+0300 (AST)
> 
> 
> On 2017-05-31 15:09, David Gessel wrote:
>> As my logs fill up with "imap(user at domain.com): Error:
>> stat(/mail/doman.com/user//.dovecot.sieve/tmp) failed: Not a
>> directory" errors, I followed the advice at
>> https://wiki2.dovecot.org/VirtualUsers/Home and
>> https://dovecot.org/list/dovecot/2016-June/104403.html and set in
>> /usr/local/etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-mail.conf
>>
>> # By default LIST command returns all entries in maildir beginning with
a dot.
>> # Enabling this option makes Dovecot return only entries which are
directories.
>> # This is done by stat()ing each entry, so it causes more disk I/O.
>> # (For systems setting struct dirent->d_type, this check is free and
it's
>> # done always regardless of this setting)
>> maildir_stat_dirs = yes
>>
>> My mailbox format reads "mail_location >>
maildir:~:CONTROL=/var/no-quota/%u:INDEX=MEMORY"
>>
>> The error is factually correct, but there is not .dovecot.sieve/tmp
>> directory or file as .dovecot.sieve is a file (the head sieve script
>> that calls the subordinate scripts out of the /sieve directory.
>>
>> There is a tmp directory at /sieve/tmp/
>>
>> drwxr-----    2 vmail  vmail     2B May 31 04:14 tmp
>>
>>
>> Any hints as to why this isn't working?  It does seem like the
right answer.
> The answer is in the wiki page you referred to:
> "Home directory shouldn't be the same as mail directory with mbox
or Maildir formats (but with dbox/obox it's fine)."
> 
> You should set mail_home (where for example the sieve script is saved to)
to a different path than mail_location.
>