Transitioning away from mail_location = maildir:~

[Chris Stankevitz]

Hi,

I have been using this setup for years:
mail_home = /var/mail/vhosts/%d/%n
mail_location = maildir:~

I have since learned that mail_home and mail_location should be 
different.  I plan to use this:

mail_home = /var/mail/vhosts/%d/%n
mail_location = maildir:~/mail

I would like the transition to be transparent for my email clients.  I 
don't want mail/directories/sieve_scripts to disappear.

1. Should I manually create the maildir:~/mail directories?

2. Should I move files from /var/mail/vhosts/%d/%n into maildir:~/mail? 
Which files?  (In other words: which files are "home directory" files 
and which files are "mail files"?)

Thank you,

Chris

Example home directory:

drwx------      .
drwxr-xr-x      ..
drwx------      .Archives
drwx------      .Archives.2016
drwx------      .Archives.2017
drwx------      .Drafts
drwx------      .Junk
drwx------      .Notes
drwx------      .Sent
drwx------      .Sent
drwx------      .Trash
drwx------      .work
drwx------      .home
drwx------      .todo
lrwx------      .dovecot.sieve
-rw-------      .dovecot.sieve.log
-rw-------      .dovecot.sieve.log.0
-rw-------      .dovecot.svbin
drwx------      cur
-rw-------      dovecot-keywords
-rw-------      dovecot-uidlist
-rw-------      dovecot-uidvalidity
-r--r--r--      dovecot-uidvalidity.55411048
-rw-------      dovecot.index
-rw-------      dovecot.index.cache
-rw-------      dovecot.index.log
-rw-------      dovecot.mailbox.log
drwx------      new
drwx------      sieve
-rw-------      subscriptions
drwx------      tmp

$ dovecot -n
# 2.2.27 (c0f36b0): /usr/local/etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
# Pigeonhole version 0.4.16 (fed8554)
# OS: FreeBSD 10.3-RELEASE-p11 amd64
lmtp_save_to_detail_mailbox = yes
mail_gid = 1002
mail_home = /var/mail/vhosts/%d/%n
mail_location = maildir:~
mail_privileged_group = vpostfix
mail_uid = 1002
managesieve_notify_capability = mailto
managesieve_sieve_capability = fileinto reject envelope 
encoded-character vacation subaddress comparator-i;ascii-numeric 
relational regex imap4flags copy include variables body enotify 
environment mailbox date index ihave duplicate mime foreverypart extracttext
namespace inbox {
  inbox = yes
  location =
  mailbox Drafts {
    special_use = \Drafts
  }
  mailbox Junk {
    special_use = \Junk
  }
  mailbox Sent {
    special_use = \Sent
  }
  mailbox "Sent Messages" {
    special_use = \Sent
  }
  mailbox Trash {
    special_use = \Trash
  }
  prefix =
}
passdb {
  args = scheme=CRYPT username_format=%u /usr/local/etc/dovecot/users
  driver = passwd-file
}
plugin {
  recipient_delimiter = -
  sieve = file:~/sieve;active=~/.dovecot.sieve
}
protocols = imap pop3 lmtp sieve
recipient_delimiter = -
service auth {
  unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/auth {
    group = postfix
    mode = 0666
    user = postfix
  }
  unix_listener auth-userdb {
    group = postfix
    mode = 0600
    user = postfix
  }
}
service lmtp {
  unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/dovecot-lmtp {
    group = postfix
    mode = 0666
    user = postfix
  }
}
service managesieve-login {
  inet_listener sieve {
    port = 4190
  }
}
ssl_cert = xxx
ssl_key =  xxx
userdb {
  args = username_format=%u /usr/local/etc/dovecot/users
  driver = passwd-file
}
protocol lmtp {
  mail_plugins = " sieve"
  postmaster_address = xxx
}
protocol lda {
  mail_plugins = " sieve"
}