[BlueOnyx:21574] Re: Dovecot mail_location settings

[Michael Stauber]

Hi Larry,

> Setting up a server for a domain we are hoping to host.
> When using imapsync to copy over their mailboxes, I started
> getting "Mailbox doesn't allow inferior mailboxes" errors.
> 
> Some googling shows this is due to the current mail_location
> setting:  mail_location = mbox:~/mail/:INBOX=mbox

That's defined here:

/etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-mail.conf

> and indicates it can be "fixed" by changing it to:
> mail_location = maildir:~Maildir:LAYOUT=fs

"Fixed" is perhaps not the right expression. There are simply two
conflicting mechanisms available:

  - mbox
  - maildir

BlueOnyx traditionally uses mbox, because BlueQuartz and the RaQs before
it used mbox as well.

> My question being, what is this going to "break" and can it
> be done with mail already on the server or best done "clean".

There is a chance that a future Dovecot upgrade might break it and
revert the config back to mbox. Additionally: When you switch from mbox
to maildir and vice versa, then this affects all mailboxes on the
server. If there are already mailboxes present with emails in them, then
you might need to run a converter script that converts all mailboxes
from one format to the other.

-- 
With best regards

Michael Stauber