Creation of a new mail account gives bad maildir structure

[athmane]

Hello folks;


I have a server with cPanel 11.25.0-R42404 - WHM 11.25.0 - X 3.9 with CentOS 5.4 x86_64.

Before adding any account, i have switched to Dovecot, now after the creation of new mail account, i get a bad maildir structure

here the maildir as viewed by IMAP clients (Thunderbird / Squirrelmail):

INBOX
|-- Drafts
|-- Sent
|-- Trash

instead of:

INBOX
Drafts
Sent
Trash

Here is the maildir:

# ls -la
total 68
drwxr-x--- 12 test test 4096 Jan 19 22:23 .
drwxr-x---  3 test test 4096 Jan 19 22:22 ..
drwx------  2 test test 4096 Jan 19 22:22 cur
-rw-------  1 test test  140 Jan 19 22:22 dovecot.index.log
-rw-------  1 test test   17 Jan 19 22:22 dovecot-uidlist
-rw-------  1 test test    8 Jan 19 22:23 dovecot-uidvalidity
-rw-------  1 test test    0 Jan 19 22:22 dovecot-uidvalidity.4b5622ab
drwx------  5 test test 4096 Jan 19 22:23 .Drafts
drwx------  5 test test 4096 Jan 19 22:23 .Junk
-rw-------  1 test test    6 Jan 19 22:22 maildirsize
drwx------  2 test test 4096 Jan 19 22:22 new
drwx------  5 test test 4096 Jan 19 22:23 .Sent
-rw-------  1 test test   65 Jan 19 22:23 subscriptions
drwx------  2 test test 4096 Jan 19 22:22 tmp
drwx------  5 test test 4096 Jan 19 22:23 .Trash

switching back to Courier doesn't fix this issue, so how i can fix this ?

Thanks for advance.

[cPanelDon]

Hello folks;

I have a server with cPanel 11.25.0-R42404 - WHM 11.25.0 - X 3.9 with CentOS 5.4 x86_64.

Before adding any account, i have switched to Dovecot, now after the creation of new mail account, i get a bad maildir structure

here the maildir as viewed by IMAP clients (Thunderbird / Squirrelmail):
INBOX
|-- Drafts
|-- Sent
|-- Trash

instead of:
INBOX
Drafts
Sent
Trash

Here is the maildir:

# ls -la
total 68
drwxr-x--- 12 test test 4096 Jan 19 22:23 .
drwxr-x---  3 test test 4096 Jan 19 22:22 ..
drwx------  2 test test 4096 Jan 19 22:22 cur
-rw-------  1 test test  140 Jan 19 22:22 dovecot.index.log
-rw-------  1 test test   17 Jan 19 22:22 dovecot-uidlist
-rw-------  1 test test    8 Jan 19 22:23 dovecot-uidvalidity
-rw-------  1 test test    0 Jan 19 22:22 dovecot-uidvalidity.4b5622ab
drwx------  5 test test 4096 Jan 19 22:23 .Drafts
drwx------  5 test test 4096 Jan 19 22:23 .Junk
-rw-------  1 test test    6 Jan 19 22:22 maildirsize
drwx------  2 test test 4096 Jan 19 22:22 new
drwx------  5 test test 4096 Jan 19 22:23 .Sent
-rw-------  1 test test   65 Jan 19 22:23 subscriptions
drwx------  2 test test 4096 Jan 19 22:22 tmp
drwx------  5 test test 4096 Jan 19 22:23 .Trash

switching back to Courier doesn't fix this issue, so how i can fix this ?

Thanks for advance.

The described directory structure appears normal. What information or sources are being referenced that indicate it is a "bad" directory structure for maildir versus something different?

Are the two systems being compared both cPanel-based?

Is one of the systems using mbox instead of maildir? If it's a cPanel-based system, the following command may be used to confirm (via root SSH access):

# /scripts/setupmailserver --current

[athmane]

Are the two systems being compared both cPanel-based

it happen only in one *NEW* system with cPanel/WHM

other system with cPanel/WHM work well.

# /scripts/setupmailserver --current
Current mailserver type: dovecot
Current storage format: maildir

description of the problem:

Eg:
When someone login with test@domain.tld in Webmail such Squirrelmail or use his IMAP client eg: thunderbird, he gets all mail folders under INBOX instead of in the same level of the dir tree.

i meant "bad" as viewed by IMAP clients, system maildir are OK.

thanks for reply.

[cPanelDon]

it happen only in one *NEW* system with cPanel/WHM

other system with cPanel/WHM work well.

# /scripts/setupmailserver --current
Current mailserver type: dovecot
Current storage format: maildir

description of the problem:

Eg:
When someone login with test@domain.tld in Webmail such Squirrelmail or use his IMAP client eg: thunderbird, he gets all mail folders under INBOX instead of in the same level of the dir tree.

i meant "bad" as viewed by IMAP clients, system maildir are OK.

thanks for reply.

Thank you for the information. Is the provided command-line output the same on all the systems used for comparison?

Do the other systems cPanel/WHM also use Dovecot or do they use Courier? That is, the (other) systems that display folders via IMAP the way you were accustomed to or in the way that was preferred.

[athmane]

Do the other systems cPanel/WHM also use Dovecot or do they use Courier?

It run Courier.

switch back to courier doesn't solve the issue even with new mail accounts.

I think that the problem is IMAP namespace, some mail clients are not compatible with new IMAP extension, because when i logged with Roundcube the mail-folders are viewed correctly ie: all standards folders are viewed in the same level of the tree, however Squirrelmail and Thunderbird display all folders as child of INBOX.

So how i can fix this issue, i have tried to modify the namespace section in /etc/dovecot.conf but without luck ?

Thanks for advance.

[cPanelDon]

It run Courier.

switch back to courier doesn't solve the issue even with new mail accounts.

I think that the problem is IMAP namespace, some mail clients are not compatible with new IMAP extension, because when i logged with Roundcube the mail-folders are viewed correctly ie: all standards folders are viewed in the same level of the tree, however Squirrelmail and Thunderbird display all folders as child of INBOX.

So how i can fix this issue, i have tried to modify the namespace section in /etc/dovecot.conf but without luck ?

Thanks for advance.

When checking Thunderbird I confirmed there is at least one or more settings that will affect the display of the folder hierarchy; I recommend the options and settings be fully checked to determine which option is causing it to display differently. As an example, in Mozilla Thunderbird version 3 there are the following two options that will directly affect the described behavior:
* Thunderbird: View >> Folders >> Smart
* Thunderbird: View >> Folders >> All
When I set the Folder View option to Smart, I see Inbox on the same level as the other folders including Drafts, Outbox, Sent, Templates, and Trash.
When I set the Folder View option to All, I see Inbox as the parent or top-level item in the folder hierarchy.

When testing a system using Dovecot and cPanel 11.25 I am not seeing any difference in how the folder tree is displayed via Webmail using Horde, SquirrelMail, and Roundcube. If possible, please attach a screen shot image of the specific area that is being viewed in Webmail (i.e., in Horde, SquirrelMail, and Roundcube).

What specific modifications were applied to the Dovecot configuration?

So that we may compare your Dovecot configuration with that of a test system, please attach a copy of the Dovecot configuration file (at "/etc/dovecot.conf").

To confirm the version of Dovecot, please let us know the output of the following command (via root SSH access):

# rpm -q dovecot

[athmane]

Here is the portion of /etc/dovecot.conf that i have modified.
I have set "prefix = " where the old value was "prefix = INBOX."
but i have restored it back to the original value set by cPanel.

namespace private {
   # Hierarchy separator to use. You should use the same separator for all
   # namespaces or some clients get confused. '/' is usually a good one.
   # The default however depends on the underlying mail storage format.
   #separator = 

   # Prefix required to access this namespace. This needs to be different for
   # all namespaces. For example "Public/".
   prefix =

   # Physical location of the mailbox. This is in same format as
   # mail_location, which is also the default for it.
   #location = 

   # There can be only one INBOX, and this setting defines which namespace
   # has it.
   inbox = yes

   # If namespace is hidden, it's not advertised to clients via NAMESPACE
   # extension. You'll most likely also want to set list=no. This is mostly
   # useful when converting from another server with different namespaces which
   # you want to deprecate but still keep working. For example you can create
   # hidden namespaces with prefixes "~/mail/", "~%u/mail/" and "mail/".
   #hidden = yes

   # Show the mailboxes under this namespace with LIST command. This makes the
   # namespace visible for clients that don't support NAMESPACE extension.
   list = yes

   # Namespace handles its own subscriptions. If set to "no", the parent
   # namespace handles them (empty prefix should always have this as "yes")
   #subscriptions = yes
   #subscriptions = yes
}

Dovecot package is from cPanel: dovecot-1.1.19-1cp


I'm attaching the screenshots for Roundcube Webmail and Squirrelmail


Thanks for advance.

[cPanelDon]

Here is the portion of /etc/dovecot.conf that i have modified.
I have set "prefix = " where the old value was "prefix = INBOX."
but i have restored it back to the original value set by cPanel.

Dovecot package is from cPanel: dovecot-1.1.19-1cp

I'm attaching the screenshots for Roundcube Webmail and Squirrelmail

Thanks for advance.

When I double checked the test system I used I saw that SquirrelMail displays the same as your screen shot; however, the displayed folder hierarchy is normal. As evidenced by the difference between IMAP clients in Webmail or in Thunderbird, this behavior appears to be simply a variation in how each IMAP mail client displays top-level folders that are still all directly under the Inbox.

When viewing Roundcube it simply does not show a way to collapse the folder hierarchy while SquirrelMail does.