Dovecot maildir delivery

Dovecot is a popular open-source IMAP and POP3 server that can be used to deliver emails to a Maildir directory. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to configure Dovecot to deliver emails to a Maildir directory:

Prerequisites

Step 1: Configure Dovecot to use Maildir

Edit the Dovecot configuration file (/etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf or ~/.dovecot.conf depending on your system) and add the following lines:

mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir

This tells Dovecot to use the Maildir format for storing emails.

Step 2: Configure the Maildir directory

Create a Maildir directory and its subdirectories if they don't already exist:

mkdir -p ~/Maildir/new ~/Maildir/cur ~/Maildir/tmp

The new directory is where new emails will be stored, cur is where emails will be moved after they're read, and tmp is a temporary directory used by Dovecot.

Step 3: Configure Dovecot to deliver emails to Maildir

Edit the Dovecot configuration file again and add the following lines:

deliver = maildir

This tells Dovecot to use the Maildir format for delivering emails.

Step 4: Restart Dovecot

Restart the Dovecot service to apply the changes:

sudo service dovecot restart

Step 5: Test email delivery

Send an email to your email account using a mail client or a command-line tool like mail or mutt. The email should be delivered to the Maildir directory and stored in the new subdirectory.

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues with email delivery, check the Dovecot logs for errors. You can do this by running:

sudo tail -f /var/log/dovecot.log

This will show you the latest log entries, which may help you identify the problem.

That's it! With these steps, you should be able to configure Dovecot to deliver emails to a Maildir directory.