Re: [gentoo-user] Looking for other Seamonkey users

[Dan Egli]

On 4/7/2021 2:34 AM, Dale wrote:
> Dan Egli wrote:
>> On 4/6/2021 10:41 PM, Dale wrote:
>>> I've done some research.  It seems Dovecot is what I need.  It uses mbox
>>> and has some features I might need one day already where Courier doesn't
>>> but there isn't much difference really.  If anyone is curious, the
>>> comparison is here.
>>>
>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_mail_servers
>>>
>>> The biggest thing, mbox.  If I recall correctly that is what Seamonkey
>>> uses and I should be able to import those easy enough.  It at least
>>> gives me a head start.  Since this is a whole new deal, going to start a
>>> new thread if nobody pops up and says nooooooo to Dovecot.  I found a
>>> guide here:
>>>
>> Seamonkey is a web browser. Therefore, mbox vs maildir is meaningless
>> to it. All it knows it it talks to the imap server and the imap server
>> replies and sends a message.
>>
>> Having said that, AVOID mbox like the plague! It is only a matter of
>> time before mbox mail files get corrupted. Maildir is INFINITELY
>> safer. And in the event of corruption in maildir, you loose ONLY the
>> corrupted messages. Corrupt your mbox file and you're likely to loose
>> the whole folder!
>>
>> As far as moving from one to another, both mbox and maildir are
>> standards. So if imap server X and Y both use Maildir, then swapping
>> between them is easy, and POINTLESS, due to the fact that imap
>> maintains the files on your server. So, if you move to a different
>> mail CLIENT (thunderbird for example) then the new client only needs
>> to take the time to re-download the messages from the server. It's the
>> same way webmail and a client can work together. Neither is doing the
>> actual work with the files. Each is only sending commands to a
>> separate server program to work with the files.
>>
>>> http://www.wikigentoo.ksiezyc.pl/Dovecot.htm
>>>
>>> So far, it is Gentoo based.  I found another one but it is Ubuntu
>>> based.  May work but commands are different.  Trying to go by a Gentoo
>>> based one.  If anyone has a better one, please share links.
>>>
>>> May start new thread in a day or so if no one shouts nooooo.
>> Consider this the shout. I can't stop you from using mbox, but I can
>> shout at the top of my lungs that it's a BAD IDEA. And I can say over
>> and over that changing your imap SERVER will have ZERO impact on what
>> Seamonkey does. The only exception would be if you have a mail server
>> (original or new) that doesn't fully follow the imap protocol. And in
>> that case, who knows what the change will do.
>>
>
> I looked, Dovecot can use either mbox or maildir.  Can Dovecot convert
> those to or must I use a different tool?
>
> To anyone using Dovecot, just what all had to be installed?  This is
> what emerge gives me right now.
>
I use dovecot here. What you see is plenty for the standard install. the 
managesieve flag allows you to write custom scripts in the seieve 
language. But I don't recommend getting into that until you know the 
language. Other than that, the other disabled flags are fairly 
self-explanatory.

As for converting, you would need to have two instances with two 
different configs running to do that. Then you'd use your mail client to 
move messages between accounts. But I __STILL__ say you should NOT use 
mbox format. If you happen to be using it now, then I recommend you 
convert! Converting TO maildir is not hard if you use formail.

> root@fireball / # emerge -av dovecot
>
> These are the packages that would be merged, in order:
>
> Calculating dependencies... done!
> [ebuild  N     ] acct-group/dovecot-0-r1::gentoo  0 KiB
> [ebuild  N     ] acct-group/dovenull-0-r1::gentoo  0 KiB
> [ebuild  N     ] acct-user/dovecot-0-r1::gentoo  0 KiB
> [ebuild  N     ] acct-user/dovenull-0-r1::gentoo  0 KiB
> [ebuild  N     ] net-mail/dovecot-2.3.13-r100::gentoo  USE="bzip2 ipv6
> lzma mysql pam sqlite tcpd zlib -argon2 -caps -doc -kerberos -ldap
> (-libressl) -lua -lucene -lz4 -managesieve -postgres -rpc (-selinux)
> -sieve -solr -static-libs -suid -textcat -unwind -zstd"
> LUA_SINGLE_TARGET="lua5-1 -lua5-2 -lua5-3" 7,282 KiB
>
> Total: 5 packages (5 new), Size of downloads: 7,282 KiB
>
> Would you like to merge these packages? [Yes/No]
>
>
> I suspect I need to install some other packages to make certain things
> work.  Then again, maybe they already installed??  Some may recall that
> cron jobs sent emails so it has to have packages installed for that.
> The guide I linked to elsewhere has USE flags not listed above.  It may
> be out of date.  It does say not to use it for older 1.* versions of
> Dovecot tho.  Just trying to see what I'm getting into here.  I think
> this is a really good idea but want to see how deep the water is before
> jumping in.  I can't swim, well, I do, like a lead rock.  :/
>

My config is more advanced since my dovecot has to talk to both MySQL 
and LDAP databases, and to support compressed messages. So the use flags 
I put on for 2.3.13-r100 are:
bzip2 doc ipv6 ldap lua lz4 lzma managesieve mysql pam rpc selinux sieve 
sqlite zlib ztd