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
- Dovecot installed and configured on your server
- A Maildir directory created and configured on your server
- A valid email account set up in your Dovecot configuration
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.