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[Dovecot] Re: OS X-centricities? Too many files, temp, indexes, etc...
by Roger Weeks 27 Mar '06

27 Mar '06

We're an ISP with approximately 9000 email customers. Up until early in January our primary mail servers ran on OS X, with exim as the MTA and courier-imap as the pop/imap server. We had continual problems with courier on OS X. The load it generates on the machine is horrible. You'll get absolutely no help from the courier mailing list or developers with OS X issues. When we started evaluating Dovecot, we first attempted it on OS X, however we were unable to get it running in an NFS environement on OS X in any sort of stable manner. I can't recommend highly enough getting off of OS X if you can for mail services. We went to Red Hat machines, and they have been amazingly stable and reliable. I love OS X, and use it for other things, but it makes a bad mail server at least for the volume of mail we process. -- Roger J. Weeks Systems & Network Administrator Mendocino Community Network On Mar 26, 2006, at 12:24 AM, dovecot-request(a)dovecot.org wrote: > Message: 2 > Date: Sat, 25 Mar 2006 09:22:18 -0800 > From: Dean Blackburn <dean.blackburn(a)viz.com> > Subject: Re: [Dovecot] OS X-centricities? Too many files, temp, > indexes, etc... > To: dovecot(a)dovecot.org > Message-ID: <44257C4A.6030801(a)viz.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > Timo Sirainen wrote: >>> 1) Too many files open - no plimit command on OS X, so I can't >>> figure >>> out how to increase the max number of open files... Also, are >>> there any >>> alternative means of CLOSING the files? stopping/restarting dovecot >>> didn't seem to help; >>> >> >> Which process is running out of them? There are multiple Dovecot >> processes, and each could have a different reason of running out >> of file >> handles. >> >> > dovecot: Mar 24 11:35:51 Error: imap(yukimurashige): pipe() failed: > Too > many open files > dovecot: Mar 24 11:35:51 Error: child 21465 (imap) returned error 89 > >>> 2) I was running 1.0beta1 last week, and am now on 1.0beta3, but I'm >>> still not seeing corrupt indexes/other dovecot files rebuilding >>> themselves. I really can't stick with this solution if I'll >>> always have >>> to worry about manually fixing broken caches/indexes. >>> >> >> First of all they shouldn't anymore be corrupting themselves at least >> easily. What exactly are the error messages you're seeing? >> >> > Lots of this: > > dovecot: Mar 24 12:18:45 Error: imap(mikitanaka): Corrupted index file > /Users/mikitanaka/Maildir/dovecot.index: uid_validity = 0, next_uid > = 1366 > > Some of this: > > dovecot: Mar 24 10:55:45 Error: imap(kristinegivas): imap(19936) > malloc: > *** error for object 0x602200: incorrect checksum for freed object - > object was probably modified after being freed, break at > szone_error to > debug > > And occasionally this: > > dovecot: Mar 24 11:00:14 Error: imap(deanblackburn): Maildir > /Users/deanblackburn/Maildir sync: UID inserted in the middle of > mailbox > (1042 > 1041, file = 1143071249.Ve000008I8e7f3b40.mailserv.local:2,Sk) > > That's just yesterday's errors, we've seen some others as well. But > they > all go away if one deletes dovecot* from the affected directory, and > they don't go away on their own. Also, we'll see a huge number of > temp.* > files build up within the maildir once these files "go bad"... > > From the client perspective, you either get a "connection timed out" > error, or on some less robust clients, "connection refused by IMAP > server". >> Also as far as I know they're rebuilding themselves automatically in >> most situations. Only if Dovecot crashes because of the corruption it >> doesn't get rebuilt. If it's not crashing with you, could it be just >> that they keep re-breaking all the time? >> > Definitely possible. ;) How can we tell? > > If we can solve these issues, we'll be very happy with Dovecot... > Courier seems a lot more solid, in retrospect, but required so much > disk > access it was completely unusable by our staff. In contrast, > Dovecot is > fast, light on resources, but will break around 5-10 individuals' > mailboxes every day. So far, we just can't win! > > -deano

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[Dovecot] LDA sieve library
by Luca Corti 27 Mar '06

27 Mar '06

Hello, is the LDA linked against the Cyrus SIEVE library or against the fork at libsieve.sourceforge.net ? It seems Cyrus SIEVE from src/libsieve/README in the lda sources. libsieve seems to be better suited for inclusion in non-cyrus software and should be completely independent from libcyrus. The README for cyrus version of libsieve also states that: "It should compile without libcyrus, but then it does not implement the "address" test." thanks -- Luca Corti PGP Key ID 1F38C091 BOFH excuse of the moment: Interference from the Van Allen Belt.

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[Dovecot] FreeBSD 5.4/Dovecot 1.0.b3: lots of error messages
by Martin Jangowski 27 Mar '06

27 Mar '06

Hi! I installed Dovecot from the FreeBSD port. I have about 20 users on this machine and used popper before switching. I get a lot of error messages like: dovecot: Mar 21 10:03:41 Error: pop3(xxx): mbox sync: UID inserted in the middle of mailbox /var/mail/xxx (37326 > 35874, seq=1, idx_msgs=26) dovecot: Mar 21 10:06:17 Error: imap(yyy): mbox sync: UID inserted in the middle of mailbox /var/mail/yyy (37352 > 36945, seq=1, idx_msgs=2) dovecot: Mar 21 10:06:18 Error: imap(yyy): kevent(1) in io_loop_handle_add() failed: Bad file descriptor dovecot: Mar 21 10:06:18 Error: imap(yyy): kevent(1) in io_loop_handle_remove failed: Bad file descriptor dovecot: Mar 21 10:06:22 Error: imap(yyy): mbox sync: UID inserted in the middle of mailbox /var/mail/yyy (37354 > 36945, seq=1, idx_msgs=205) Most of the errors are the mbox sync messages. The users report that they get all mails double, triple and more... I think this is connected to the UID problem. My config file looks like that: protocols = imap imaps pop3 disable_plaintext_auth = no log_path = /var/log/dovecot.err info_log_path = /var/log/dovecot.info log_timestamp = "%b %d %H:%M:%S " login_process_size = 64 verbose_proctitle = yes first_valid_gid = 0 mail_extra_groups = mail default_mail_env = mbox:/var/mail/%u protocol imap { imap_client_workarounds = delay-newmail outlook-idle netscape-eoh tb-extra-mailbox-sep } protocol pop3 { login_executable = /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/pop3-login mail_executable = /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/pop3 pop3_uidl_format = %08Xu%08Xv pop3_client_workarounds = outlook-no-nuls oe-ns-eoh } auth default { mechanisms = plain passdb pam { } userdb passwd { } user = root } plugin { } Any ideas? Grüße aus Hohenlohe, Martin Jangowski | Martin Jangowski E-Mail: Martin(a)Jangowski.de| | Netzwerke und Multimedia | | Voice: +49 7946/940790 Fax: +49 7946/940791 | | Snail Mail: Von-Olnhausen Str. 4 74626 Bretzfeld Germany |

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[Dovecot] Installing Dovecot on CentOS
by James A 27 Mar '06

27 Mar '06

I use CentOS 3.5 and want to install Dovecot, but I got this error : # yum install dovecot Gathering header information file(s) from server(s) Server: Centos-3 - i386/i686 - Addons Server: Centos-3 - i386/i686 - Base Server: Centos-3 - i386/i686 - Extras Server: Centos-3 - i386/i686 - Updates Finding updated packages Downloading needed headers Cannot find a package matching dovecot No actions to take Is it discontinued ? JA __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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[Dovecot] %d empty even though username has @domain
by William Ross 27 Mar '06

27 Mar '06

hello, Sorry to jump straight in with a question, but I've searched the archive[0] and I'm pretty sure the answer's not there. I'm using dovecot to replace courier imap, so authentication is by vpopmail and the Maildirs are stored in the usual domains/domain/user/ Maildir. Everything seems to work very well, and setting it up has been easy, so thank you very much for that. I have only one problem left: %d is empty when interpolated into default_mail_env. I expect there's something obvious I'm doing wrong, but it's hard to tell because the wiki isn't always up to date (i'd be happy to update the vpopmail sections once this is working): Config has this [1]: default_mail_env = maildir:/home/vpopmail/domains/%d/%n/Maildir and i log in over imaps with the account i'm using for testing: username: sysadmin(a)spanner.org password: ... Authentication seems to work perfectly, but then the logs show: dovecot: Dec 05 12:24:59 Info: imap(sysadmin): maildir: root=/home/ vpopmail/domains//sysadmin/Maildir, index=/home/vpopmail/domains// sysadmin/Maildir, control=, inbox= any suggestions, please? thank you, will [0] This has come up before: http://dovecot.org/list/dovecot/2005- June/007530.html [1] the rest of dovecot.conf, less comments: base_dir = /var/run/dovecot protocols = imaps log_path = /var/log/dovecot mail_debug = yes protocol imap { } protocol pop3 { } auth_verbose = yes auth default { mechanisms = plain passdb vpopmail { args = } userdb vpopmail { } userdb prefetch { } user = root } namespace private { separator = . prefix = INBOX. inbox = yes } default_mail_env = maildir:/home/vpopmail/domains/%d/%n/Maildir pop3_uidl_format = %v-%u ssl_cert_file = /usr/local/ssl/certs/dovecot.pem ssl_key_file = /usr/local/ssl/private/dovecot.pem

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Re: [Dovecot] Dovecot 1.0 beta3 and SUBSCRIBE
by Bertrand Leboeuf 27 Mar '06

27 Mar '06

Thanks but for mbox it is ".subscriptions", "subscriptions" is for maildir, but I found the BUG !!! ~/mail/.subscriptions is on an NFS mounted filesystem, it keeps on getting deleted... does not like NFS (the files are renamed .nfsXXXXX when deleted) if I patch the code to get it on a local filesystem, like my indexes (in storage->index_dir instead of storage->dir): /var/indexes/%u/.subscriptions then it stays alive and work. Bertrand >On Tue, 21 Mar 2006 11:40:05 -0500 (EST) >Bertrand Leboeuf <leboeuf(a)emt.inrs.ca> wrote: > >> Any clues > >Rename .subscriptions to subscriptions > >-- > >Brian Morrison >

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[Dovecot] Clash between multiple authentication databases (security problem?)
by dovecot-ri 26 Mar '06

26 Mar '06

Hi all, I just installed dovecot-1.0_beta2 and love it! However, I've run into issues using multiple authentication databases. I use both pam (for users on my system) and sql (for virtual users). I've noticed that if I have system user "userabc" and virtual user "userabc(a)otherdomain.com" (two distinct users) and my "auth default" section contains these passdb/userdb entries in this order (the order in the example config): passdb pam passdb sql userdb pam userdb sql then when userabc(a)otherdomain.com logs in, he'll get the system user userabc's mail instead of his own. It appears that the sql password check succeeds, then Dovecot grabs the home directory from pam, NOT sql. I can work around this by setting up "userdb prefetch" and adding that section *before* "userdb pam". If I put "userdb prefetch" after "userdb pam" or after "userdb sql", then Dovecot doesn't actually do the prefetch (which causes an error since Dovecot issues the default SQL query for "user_query", which my MySQL database doesn't like). Is there a safer way to do this? If not, should there be? Thanks! Richard ====================================================== complete working dovecot.conf: ====================================================== first_valid_uid = 900 mail_debug = yes default_mail_env = maildir:%h/.maildir maildir_copy_with_hardlinks = yes protocol imap { login_greeting_capability = yes } protocol pop3 { } auth_debug = yes auth default { mechanisms = plain passdb pam { args = "*" } passdb sql { args = /etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf } userdb prefetch { } userdb passwd { } userdb sql { args = /etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf } user = root } ====================================================== dovecot-sql.conf: ====================================================== driver = mysql connect = host=/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock user=mail password=** dbname=mail default_pass_scheme = SSHA password_query = <query that returns user, password, userdb_home, userdb_uid, userdb_gid>

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Re: [Dovecot] Dovecot LDA + Fedora destribution = no go?
by Marilyn Davis 26 Mar '06

26 Mar '06

> Jakob Hirsch jh at plonk.de > Sat Mar 25 04:40:29 EET 2006 > Quoting Charlie Davis: > > > Anyone know of a way to get the LDA to work on the fedora distribution > > available on yum? I'm a big fan of the whole yum-auto-updating thing but > > if this isn't possible, I'll go tarball. > > To use the LDA, AFAIK you'll have to go CVS. Going CVS, can we build and install dovecot-lda and keep the dovecot executable the way it is? Or do we have to rebuild the dovecot executable from the CVS tree too? Thank you. Marilyn Davis

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[Dovecot] Some moved or copied messages get stuck in tmp
by Luis Meléndez 26 Mar '06

26 Mar '06

Hello. I have seen in recent posts that there are other people with this problem, and it is very important for me, as it is the only cause for not putting Dovecot in production in all mail servers in my University. When moving/copying messages, some of them get stuck in the tmp directory of the destination folder, effectively lost for the user. I have been tracing the problem, and it looks that it happens with messages that have flags. The others don't have problems. But if I copy/move several flagged messages, one of them is copied, and the others are kept in tmp. In maildir-save.c there is the following comment: /* if we have flags, we'll move it to cur/ directly, because files in new/ directory can't have flags. alternative would be to write it in new/ and set the flags dirty in index file, but in that case external MUAs would see wrong flags. */ that looks like a clue. It happens with CVS versions 20060320 and 20060325 I hace done almost all tests with Thunderbird. Best regards. -- +----------------------------------------------^-----------------------+ | Luis Meléndez Aganzo ^ Email: luism(a)uco.es | | Servicio de Informática ^ Tlf: 34-(9)57-211022 | | Área de Sistemas ^ Fax: 34-(9)57-218116 | | Universidad de Córdoba (SPAIN) ^ http://www.uco.es | +----------------------------------------------^-----------------------+

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[Dovecot] OS X-centricities? Too many files, temp, indexes, etc...
by Dean Blackburn 25 Mar '06

25 Mar '06

I'm just writing to see if anyone else is seeing the following issues, and particularly if they are running OS X (especially 10.4), and/or have compatible solutions (I've been reading the mailing list quite a bit, and every now and then, I find a solution that just "doesn't work" because of the differences in OS: 1) Too many files open - no plimit command on OS X, so I can't figure out how to increase the max number of open files... Also, are there any alternative means of CLOSING the files? stopping/restarting dovecot didn't seem to help; 2) I was running 1.0beta1 last week, and am now on 1.0beta3, but I'm still not seeing corrupt indexes/other dovecot files rebuilding themselves. I really can't stick with this solution if I'll always have to worry about manually fixing broken caches/indexes. 3) Any advice on fcntl/flock on OS X, particularly? They both appear to work, but I'd prefer to use the fastest/least resource intensive options for everything if possible. Thanks! -deano

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