I don't see how that would the obvious way, and that, as you found out, does cause your mails to disappear.
Looking at `man dovecot-lda` you'll find -m mailbox Destination mailbox (default is INBOX). If the mailbox doesn't exist, it will not be created (unless the lda_mailbox_autocreate setting is set to yes). If a message couldn't be saved to the mailbox for any reason, it's delivered to INBOX instead. Aki > On 18/01/2021 04:42 Ron Garret <r...@flownet.com> wrote: > > > I tried the obvious: > > mail_location = maildir:/var/mail/vhosts/%d/%n/mail:INBOX=mail/.Incoming > > and that failed in an even more bizarre way. The Incoming mailbox was > created, it showed up in my mail client as it should have, but mail delivery > still failed. Not only that, but all the messages that were in my Inbox > disappeared from my mail client. I reverted the change and all of the > messages that had previously been in Inbox reappeared. > > WTF? > > On Jan 17, 2021, at 5:00 PM, Ron Garret <r...@flownet.com> wrote: > > > I groveled around in the docs and discovered the INBOX=… option to the > > mail_location config parameter. I tried that, and it didn’t work, but it > > failed in a very strange way. > > > > I currently have: > > > > mail_location = maildir:/var/mail/vhosts/%d/%n/mail > > > > I tried changing that to: > > > > mail_location = maildir:/var/mail/vhosts/%d/%n/mail:INBOX=incoming > > > > That failed with the following log message: > > > > Jan 17 23:41:17 lmtp(s...@rngh.net)<32476><ruDsCB3LBGDcfgAAa/YOzQ>: Error: > > Mailbox INBOX: Failed to autocreate mailbox: Permission denied > > > > But the weird thing is that it DID create a directory called incoming, and > > that directory has the same permissions as the rest of the mailbox > > hierarchy. > > > > There is something else which I was not expecting, and that is that the > > directory is a peer to /var/mail/vhosts/%d/%n/mail. What I want is to > > create a folder *inside* /var/mail/vhosts/%d/%n/mail. > > > > Advice on how to proceed would be much appreciated. (BTW, I’d be happy to > > pay someone a consulting fee for help with this project. If you’re > > interested contact me off-list.) > > > > rg > > > > On Jan 17, 2021, at 12:08 PM, Ron Garret <r...@flownet.com> wrote: > > > >> Is there an easy way (i.e. a built-in configuration setting) to change the > >> name of the mailbox that the dovecot LDA delivers mail into? The default > >> is INBOX but I’d like mail to be delivered to some other mailbox. The > >> reason for this is that I want all incoming mail to be invisible to the > >> user by default until it has been screened for viruses and spam. I know I > >> could do this with Sieve, but that is a PITA. > >> > >> More details in case anyone is interested: > >> > >> The goal of this filter is to make it work with very little training. To > >> bootstrap the process, the filter is given access to outgoing mail (via a > >> milter) which it uses as a reliable training corpus for good messages. It > >> then leverages that information to filter incoming messages. For example, > >> messages from senders which have been the recipients of outgoing messages > >> are presumed to be good. There is also a spam honeypot to provide a > >> reliable spam corpus. > >> > >> One of the heuristics I want to use is to look for the same subject line > >> in multiple messages from unknown users received over a period of an hour > >> or so because those are almost invariably spam. But that requires a time > >> delay between when a message is received and when it is filtered, and that > >> in turn requires a place to store messages for a while before they are > >> processed. While they are in that temporary storage, I don’t want them in > >> the user’s face, but I do want them to be accessible if the user wants to > >> see them (e.g. if they know that an important message is coming in which > >> may be stuck in the temp storage). So I’d like to make something like an > >> INCOMING mailbox where all mail is delivered. The messages in INCOMING > >> are scanned by the filter and moved to Junk or INBOX as appropriate. > >> > >> Thanks, > >> rg > >> > >
