Create Public/Shared Mailbox on OS X Server 10.9.5 with Dovecot 2.2.5

dovecotmac-osx-serverpostfix

how can I create a Public/Shared Mailbox on OS X Server?
This Mailbox should be available to all authenticated Users on my network and should be automatically subscribed into a folder "Public" in the Mailbox folder structure.
The folder structure in the IMAP inbox should look similar to this:

Inbox
  |- User-Folder1
  |- User-Folder2
Send
Deleted
Public
  |- Public-Mailbox-1
  |- Public-Mailbox-2
  |- Public-Mailbox-3

What I have done so far:

I created a User in the LDAP-Directory with an email address "accounts@domain.de" <- Only as workaround to get a mailbox

I modified this file: /Library/Server/Mail/Config/dovecot/conf.d/15-mailboxes.conf and added this lines at the end:

namespace {
    type = public
    separator = .
    prefix = Public.
    location = maildir:/Volumes/Data/Library/Server/Mail/Data/mail/users/accounts/
    subscriptions = yes
    list = yes
    mailbox Public {
            auto = subscribe
    }
}

When I login into my IMAP account on the server via webmail (roundcube) I can see the folder in the IMAP "Manage folders" but I can not subscribe to it.
Has anyone an idea how I can get this?

Is it also possible not to create an LDAP User, to get an Mailbox for some special email addresses (accounts, info)?

Thanks Oliver

Version Numbers:
OS X 10.9.5
Server App 3.2.1 (clean install no update)
Postfix:
postconf -d | grep mail_version
mail_version = 2.9.4
Dovecot:
sudo dovecotd –version
2.2.5

Info:
Also posted here: https://discussions.apple.com/message/26829189

Best Answer

At least with 10.10, the ACL plugin is enabled, so I believe you will have to declare some permissions for the folder.

Inside /Volumes/Data/Library/Server/Mail/Data/mail/users/accounts/, add a file named dovecot-acl and add ACL rules as per http://wiki2.dovecot.org/ACL.

In my case, I wanted all users to have non-admin access, so my file contains this one line:

anyone lrwstipe

Also, I'm not sure you want subscriptions=yes. If that's no, then the subscriptions to that folder are managed by the parent, which is each users' account.

Related Solutions

Create email accounts independently from passwd using Dovecot and Postfix

Postfix calls these types of accounts Virtual Domains. Dovecot calls them Virtual Users. Virtual domains (and users) are not tied to system accounts.

Postfix can store the virtual domain information in local look-up files or LDAP. Dovecot requires an SQL or LDAP database.

LDAP is a common choice for storing virtual user information because of it's level of support among email software and its fast look up times.

Searching for "postfix dovecot ldap" turns up pages and pages of how-to and tutorial links that will get you started.

Dovecot namespace prefix relation to underlying Maildir structure

Shouldn't the INBOX mailbox be an ".INBOX" directory?

Possibly, but customarily the ~/Maildir/[new|cur|tmp] are what make up the INBOX.

As with all things you can configure Dovecot differently to match with how you want e-mail messages to be delivered and stored. ~/Maildir/INBOX/[new|cur|tmp] is completely possble. Beware though that that should match with how your incoming SMTP server (or LDA) is configured to store new e-mail on disk as well....

Folders are an extension to the original Maildir format called Maildir++ as described here. A IMAP folder is implemented as a subdirectory with the naming convention Maildir/.<Folder Name>and Maildir/.<Folder Name>.<Sub Folder>.

IMAP folders are also Maildir directories themselves, in the regard that they also contain the cur, new and tmp subdirectories i.e. Maildir/.<Folder Name>/[cur|new|tmp]/

Depending on your needs you can change that to Maildir/<Folder Name>/<Sub folder> by including the LAYOUT=fs option in the Dovecot mail_location configuration setting. Although I don't really see the need as you shouldn't be managing your mail via the file-system anyway.

If I define an explicit private namespace with inbox=yes, and prefix=FOO, what consequences, if any will this have to the folder structure and to the client mailbox display?

On the folder structure on disk, mostly none, that is configured by the mail_location setting in the namespace and the presence or absence of the layout=FS option.

Creating a namespace with inbox=yes makes that namespace the INBOX. A user can only have a single INBOX. You need to ensure that your incoming mail also get delivered there for that to be useful. An example with two namespace is the classic mbox file being the INBOX and the Maildir holding all IMAP folders in in Maildir format in a users home-directory:

namespace {
  separator = /
  prefix = "#mbox/"
  location = mbox:~/mail:INBOX=/var/spool/mail/%u
  inbox = yes
  hidden = yes
  list = no
}
namespace {
  separator = /
  prefix =
  location = maildir:~/Maildir
}

The prefix is used in the NAMESPACE response from Dovecot and the effect will depend on the IMAP client. See RFC 2342 about the purpose of namespaces.

Essentially I cant figure out what purpose the namespace prefix serves, and if it is used for naming the actual directories in the users Maildir or not.

Dovecot has quite a lot to say about the Namespaces extension to the IMAP protocol as well.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Create email accounts independently from passwd using Dovecot and Postfix

Dovecot namespace prefix relation to underlying Maildir structure

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