Re: [gentoo-user] Setting up fetchmail to feed postfix

[Ralph Seichter]

On 27.11.17 14:44, Peter Humphrey wrote:

> Do I really need to do that on this small, low-volume network? What do
> I lose by letting postfix and fetchmail write files for dovecot to read?

It is very easy to configure Postfix to use an LMTP socket provided
by Dovecot (paths match typical installations, adapt if necessary):

  # /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-master.conf
  service lmtp {
    unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/dovecot-lmtp {
      user = postfix
      group = postfix
      mode = 0660
    }
  }

  # /etc/postfix/main.cf
  mailbox_transport = lmtp:unix:private/dovecot-lmtp

These few lines save you from all the potential hassle that sharing
read/write access to the same files could bring. Dovecot will ensure
that indexes are up to date when mail is delivered, and that alone is
reason enough for me. I think the mail store belongs to the IMAP server,
and neither the MTA nor MUA should access that store directly via the
file system, but use protocols like LMTP and IMAP to communicate with
Dovecot instead. Standard separation of responsibilities, easier to
maintain.

-Ralph