aqw> courier-imap isn't picking up my $MAILDIR env. aqw> i've got it set when I login, but when I imap, it defaults to aqw> ~/.Maildir. not /var/mail/$user, as set by $MAILDIR.

mrsam> ... as set by who?

aqw>as set by ~/.profile, in the users' homedir.

mrsam> Logging in via IMAP does not run any shell that reads mrsam> $HOME/.profile. Just because this is what happens when you mrsam> log in to a shell account, via telnet or ssh, doesn't mean mrsam> that the same thing is going to happen with an IMAP login. In mrsam> fact, most of the time IMAP mail accounts are mail-only mrsam> accounts, and have no corresponding system account, with a mrsam> .profile, to log into.

Yes, this is what I have found. So I know misconfiguration is afoot. I'm writing because the docs have not been clear enough to tell me in which file I need to set MAILDIR, and what syntax it should be so courier-imap knows to use /var/mail/$user, instead of /home/$user/Maildir.

probably repetition I know, but here is the relevant snippet from imapd manpage that I've been referring to, and alas, is not helping me:

[...] The last daisy-chained command is imapd, which is the actual IMAP server, which is started from the logged-in account's home directory. The sole argument to imapd is the pathname to the default IMAP mailbox, which is usually Some authentication modules are capable of specifying a different filename, by setting the MAILDIR environment variable. [...] FILES AND ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES AUTH* imapd examines several environment variables whose names start with AUTH - these environment variables are set by imaplogin and the authentication mod- ules. Their absence tells imapd that it's running from the command line.

MAILDIR MAILDIR - if defined, imapd changes its directory to the one specified by this environment variable. Otherwise imapd changes its directory to the one specified on the command line. [...]

If you know the syntax for changing the setting of $MAILDIR, I would very much like to know.

Thanks in Advance, Andrew