#gnus #emacs #nnimap #dovecot

An update to @sacha 's gnus local imap pipeline config, due to dovecot 2.3 -> 2.4 breaking changes:

1. Note mail_location option split up. Specify all options like this:

(nnimap-shell-program "/usr/libexec/dovecot/imap -o mail_driver=maildir -o mail_path=$HOME/Maildir -o mail_inbox_path=$HOME/Maildir/INBOX -o mailbox_list_layout=fs")

Alternatively, put everything into system config.

2. System config must have these two lines:

dovecot_config_version = 2.4.1
dovecot_storage_version = 2.4.1

3. Official migration guides:

<https://doc.dovecot.org/2.4.1/installation/upgrade/2.3-to-2.4.html>
<https://doc.dovecot.org/2.4.1/installation/upgrade/2.4-to-2.4.x.html>

P.S.

Offtopic. Helpful resource on the upgrade: <https://willem.com/blog/2025-06-04_breaking-changes/>

Sample configs: <https://source.willem.com/dovecot-2.4-sample-config/>

because running a mail server wasn’t fun enough: the Dovecot 2.3 → 2.4 update has tons of breaking config changes

(h/t to https://willem.com/blog/2025-06-04_breaking-changes/ for the exhaustive breakdown of the changes)

That whole #dovecot breaking update (and from what I've seen the unreasonable pro version, at least for small setups) makes me question self-hosting my mail server…
I'm fine with investing time to setup something the first time - but updates (especially not minor) should never be breaking… - neither should they require quiet some time investment imho…
#SelfHosting #mailserver

So I guess I either try courier-imap server or cyrus-imapd. Not sure of the differences between the two or whether one is better than the other.

Since Dovecot 2.4 is dropping replication, I'll definitely need to rework my mail servers and those for BSDMail. I think I'll be going back to Cyrus, which I last used over 20 years ago. The problem is my memories have long faded, so it'll be like studying it again from scratch. And that makes me happy, because it'll be like learning something totally new!

Special thanks to @h3artbl33d for the heads up!

Sysadmins del fediverso, que score usan para Spamassassin? #spam #spamassassin #sysadmin #correo #email #postfix #dovecot

Considering to migrate off #Google and other US #bigtech dependencies since they seem to get stuck deep in #Trump|s asshole. What is supposed to be the "gold standard" replacement for self hosting a tiny OSS mail server (own domain, 4 accounts, IMAP + mobile + web client) these days? Long years ago I've used #postfix + #dovecot. Is still still the way to go?

Test run successfully completed!

I moved from a classic multi-component mail server setup (based on #postfix, #dovecot,…) to #Stalwart mailserver - entirely written in Rust and it runs and performs great so far after half an year :)

Did you know that Apple iOS doesn't support IMAP IDLE? macOS does, but not iOS. iOS only fetches from your server a few times per hour. I’d periodically open the Mail app to watch it fetch new email. Lame. What if one of those had been important?

Did you also know there’s a plug-in for the Dovecot IMAP server that will send an Apple push notification every time you get a new email, triggering an immediate fetch? Apple uses this to add that Exchange-like magic to iCloud’s IMAP servers, but someone made their own open-source implementation.

I tried setting it all up, but after running into problems with the documentation, I decided it was time to blog about it, so that you can do it, too. https://colincogle.name/push

I've been running my own #email servers for over two decades now, with spurts of enthusiasm and improvement. The last project has been to run the various software parts in immutable containers on #Kubernetes, and I'm quite happy with the result. I do see a decline in requests for hosted accounts on personal domains, as friends and family seem to settle with accounts on major providers like Gmail. I'm not going to throw in the towel though. Self hosted for the win!

For the curious, my stack is #Postfix, #Rspamd, #Dovecot and #Roundcube for those who prefer webmail over a native client like #Thunderbird or #K9mail. #Sieve for automatically organizing mail in the proper folders. Used to run #PostfixAdmin, but was unhappy with it, so I wrote my own API in Go to edit accounts, mailboxes and aliases. Never got around to write a frontend, but it was a Swagger interface, so..

Linux-Admin gesucht!

#Mailserver, #Postfix & #Dovecot sind keine Fremdwörter für Dich?

Wir suchen für das Team unseres E-Mail-Anbieter @mailbox_org einen #Admin mit Begeisterung für Mailserver & freie, sichere Kommunikation.

Unser Kollege Oliver Jubel ist Teil des Admin-Teams & verrät im Interview mehr über mailbox.org & sein Team:

https://www.heinlein-support.de/interview/admin-oliver-jubel-ueber-diabolus-baerte-und-den-blick-aus-dem-fenster

Das klingt nach einem Umfeld, das zu Dir passt?

Zum #Jobangebot:

https://www.heinlein-support.de/jobs/linux-administrator-fuer-mailboxorg

Wir freuen uns auf Dich!

Any #dovecot wizards in here that can explain me why I am seeing *lots* of these errors in dovecot.log since I updated to the latest version?

> Error: open() failed with file /home/user/mail/.imap/dovecot.list.index: Is a directory

I deleted those files and directories, but they are recreated by dovecot itself, and then it starts spamming *lots* of these errors.

I'm confused.

If you (want to) run your own mailserver you should get a copy of "Run Your Own Mail Server: A Book for Independence & Privacy" written by @mwl

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/run-your-own-mail-server

Per 21€ al mes del servidor VPS més el cost anual del domini es pot tenir servidor de correu propi plenament operatiu. Hi ha tutorials que expliquen pas a pas com instal·lar i configurar #Postfix i #Dovecot.
Pots crear-hi adreces de correu per la família, amics etc i evites riscos com ara el famós cas recent de Proton mail, un independentista català detingut, confiat que amb Proton mail no l'enxamparien.

Sharing some technical details about how I'm setting up the hosted email service. It will not be a service of BSD Cafe but tied to my own business. It will run entirely on BSD systems and on bare metal, NOT on "cloud" VPS. It will use FreeBSD jails or OpenBSD or NetBSD VMs (but on bhyve, on a leased server - I do not want user data to be stored on disks managed by others). The services (opensmtpd and rspamd, dovecot, redis, mysql, etc.) will run on separate jails/VMs, so compromising one service will NOT put the others at risk. Emails will be stored on encrypted ZFS datasets - so all emails are encrypted at rest - and only dovecot will have access to the mail datasets. I'm also considering the possibility of encrypting individual emails with the user's login password - but I still have to thoroughly test this. The setup will be fully redundant (double mx for SMTP, a domain for external IMAP access that will be managed through smart DNS - which will distribute the connections on the DNS side and, in case of a server down, will stop resolving its IP, sending all the connections to the other. Obviously, everything will be accessible in both ipv4 and ipv6 and in two different European countries, on two different providers. Synchronization will occur through dovecot's native sync (extremely stable and tested). All technical choices will be clearly explained - the goal of this service is to provide maximum transparency to users on how things will be handled.

Continuing our #EverythingOpen Schedule highlights, we're delighted to present #linux #kernel expert, Dr Peter Chubb, of UNSW Computer Science and Engineering's Trustworthy Systems group, who will cover technologies such as #SMTP and #dovecot - all you need to know to run your own #email server.

Schedule

Registrations now open:
https://2024.everythingopen.au/news/registrations-open/