Re: Dovecot 2.3 to 2.4 invalid Maildir settings

[User via dovecot]

Thanks for getting back to me.

@Andy I have indeed tried placing the params inside the inbox namespace 
as well to no avail. The error hadn't changed.

What did work was switching the userdb query from "maildir" to 
"mail_path" as Aki alluded to in the previous thread I linked:
userdb sql {
    query = SELECT '~/Maildir' AS mail_path, \
    ...
}

However, what's odd is that I did try "mail_path" in a much earlier 
attempt and it didn't work then so I thought Aki was alluding to 
something else entirely and I wrote it off right away. It was almost 
through luck that I decided to give it another try, and for some reason 
it just worked this time around.

On 2025-09-29 15:58, Andy Baugh wrote:
I mean... yes and no? Sure "all settings are global" (in scope) per the 
syntax doc, but some just can't be applied/make no sense outside of 
named filters/namespaces (what I'd consider a "scope" as an 
administrator).

Far as I've dealt with it, those settings only ever apply within the 
scope of a namespace with mailboxes anyways, so it's certainly a better 
place for it. I personally put them there because if I didn't, things 
exploded when doing doveconf -n as config test, though my setup is 
quite a bit more complicated, so other factors may be at play (if 
anything, I'd suspect the quota plugins, as those seem very opinionated 
about where their params are set).

I did think for a second that it might be something that the passdb was 
returning, as that's the other context I've encountered this error in, 
but the query seems to not include that key...

Maybe the authdb also needs to get updated to return "maildir" AS 
`mail_location` too... hard to say without actually understanding what 
data is in that field however. More than likely if this `maildir` is in 
the "old" format from authdb, it'll need to be split out into 4 fields 
on the colon delimiter it used to have.
--
Thomas "Andy" Baugh | Software Development Engineer IV
andy.ba...@webpros.com
http://www.webpros.com/

________________________________________
From: Aki Tuomi <aki.tu...@open-xchange.com>
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2025 10:15 AM
To: Andy Baugh <andy.ba...@webpros.com>; Andy Baugh via dovecot 
<dovecot@dovecot.org>; u...@wdas.io <u...@wdas.io>
Subject: Re: Dovecot 2.3 to 2.4 invalid Maildir settings

[You don't often get email from aki.tu...@open-xchange.com. Learn why 
this is important at https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification ]

Hi!

Actually those settings are valid outside namespace too. Not sure why 
you think they should be inside namespace?

Aki

On 29/09/2025 17:52 EEST Andy Baugh via dovecot <dovecot@dovecot.org> 
wrote:


So, this message is pointing to the problem, it's just not obvious on 
first glance as to why. mail_driver is only a valid configuration 
parameter *in the scope of a namespace*. Both the error messages and 
docs do hint towards this, but it takes a bit of dedication to figure 
out.

In this case it means you need those params within your "namespace 
inbox" config scope/block instead of in the global configuration. EX.

namespace inbox {
   mail_driver = maildir
   mail_path = %{home}/Maildir
   ...
}

This is a bit frustrating, as it does represent a bit of behavior 
change; on 2.3, "defaults" could effectively be set for all namespaces 
you setup due to being able to set them in the global scope. On 2.4, 
this is no longer the case for many parameters, though there are 
exceptions to this, which is part of why it is frustrating to deal 
with.

Cheers,
--
Thomas "Andy" Baugh | Software Development Engineer IV
andy.ba...@webpros.com
http://www.webpros.com/

________________________________________
From: User via dovecot <dovecot@dovecot.org>
Sent: Saturday, September 27, 2025 4:42 PM
To: dovecot@dovecot.org <dovecot@dovecot.org>
Subject: Dovecot 2.3 to 2.4 invalid Maildir settings

Greetings,

I am unable to completely migrate my Dovecot 2.3 config to 2.4.1 as 
I'm
unable to get past the following error:

Error: Namespace inbox: maildir: maildir settings: Failed to parse
configuration: Failed to override configuration from userdb: Invalid
maildir=${domain}/${user}/: Setting is a named filter, use 'maildir {'

I found a similar encounter at
https://www.mail-archive.com/dovecot@dovecot.org/msg90843.html that
points to
https://doc.dovecot.org/2.4.0/core/config/mailbox/mail_location.html#per-user-mail-locations
yet I still can't get my config to work. I've attached my doveconf at
the end, including the ported 2.3 settings that used to work for me
(commented out).

I would appreciate any advise.

# /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
dovecot_config_version = 2.4.1
dovecot_storage_version = 2.4.1

sql_driver = mysql
mysql /run/mysqld/mysqld.sock {
     user = mail
     password = mail
     dbname = mail
}
passdb sql {
     query = SELECT username AS user, \
       password FROM mailbox WHERE username = '%{user}' AND active='1'
     default_password_scheme = ARGON2I
}
userdb sql {
     query = SELECT maildir, \
       600 AS uid, \
       600 AS gid \
       FROM mailbox WHERE username = '%{user}' AND active='1'
     iterate_query = SELECT username AS user FROM mailbox
}
# previously:
# passdb {
#   driver = sql
#   args = /etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf.ext
# }
# userdb {
#   driver = sql
#   args = /etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf.ext
# }

# disable_plaintext_auth = yes
auth_username_format = %{user | lower} # previously:
"auth_username_format = %Lu"
auth_mechanisms = plain login
auth_default_domain = mail.com # previously: "auth_default_realm =
mail.com"
auth_debug = yes
auth_debug_passwords = yes

mail_privileged_group = mail
# previously: "mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir"
mail_driver = maildir
mail_path = %{home}/Maildir
mail_home = /var/vmail/%{user | domain}/%{user | username} # 
previously:
"mail_home = /var/vmail/%d/%n/"

service lmtp {
   unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/dovecot-lmtp {
      mode = 0600
      user = postfix
      group = postfix
   }
}
service auth {
   unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/auth {
     mode = 0660
     user = postfix
     group = postfix
   }
}
service stats {
     unix_listener stats-reader {
     user = nginx
     group = nginx
     mode = 0660
}
unix_listener stats-writer {
     user = nginx
     group = nginx
     mode = 0660
   }
}

ssl = required
ssl_min_protocol = TLSv1.2
ssl_server_prefer_ciphers = server # previously:
"ssl_prefer_server_ciphers = yes"
ssl_server {
     dh_file   = /etc/ssl/dovecot/dh.pem
     cert_file = /etc/ssl/dovecot/tls.pem
     key_file  = /etc/ssl/dovecot/tls.key
}
# previously:
# ssl_dh   = </etc/ssl/dovecot/dh.pem
# ssl_cert = </etc/ssl/dovecot/tls.pem
# ssl_key  = </etc/ssl/dovecot/tls.key

namespace inbox {
   inbox = yes
   mailbox Archive {
     auto = subscribe
     special_use = \Archive
   }
   mailbox Drafts {
     auto = subscribe
     special_use = \Drafts
   }
   mailbox Junk {
     auto = subscribe
     special_use = \Junk
   }
   mailbox Trash {
     auto = subscribe
     special_use = \Trash
   }
   mailbox Sent {
     auto = subscribe
     special_use = \Sent
   }
   mailbox "Sent Messages" {
     special_use = \Sent
   }
}

protocols = imap lmtp

# previously: /etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf.ext
driver = mysql
connect = host=localhost dbname=mail user=mail password=mail
default_pass_scheme = ARGON2I
password_query = SELECT username AS user,password FROM mailbox WHERE
username = '%u' AND active='1'
user_query = SELECT maildir, 600 AS uid, 600 AS gid FROM mailbox WHERE
username = '%u' AND active='1'
iterate_query = SELECT username AS user FROM mailbox
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