Please excuse the repost - I originally posted this only on Google groups.. which was my mistake. =)

I am setting up Courier-IMAP + Postfix + MySQL, and I'd been having some trouble getting Courier IMAP to talk to MySQL without choking. I noticed a few things, and thought I would share.. =)

1) Yes, those spaces between settings in authmysqlrc do seem to matter. Use one. And only one.

2) You can stuff constant values directly into the various MYSQL values, and you can use some of the nifty tricks demonstrated in MYSQL_SELECT_CLAUSE.

For example, I have a REALLY simplified users table now..

+--------+---------------------+---------+ | Field | Type | Default | +--------+---------------------+---------+ | id | varchar(128) | | | crypt | varchar(128) | | | clear | varchar(128) | | | name | varchar(128) | | | home | varchar(255) binary | admin/ | | ... | | | +--------+---------------------+---------+

A quick aside - I know the default for home is admin/ admin is the virtual mailbox for the postmaster, and I figured any id that didn't have a properly defined home should send stuff to the postmaster so that it can be fixed. <shrug>

I have only one id owning the virtual mailboxes - in postfix's main.cf, that translates to (two fields to remove from the db =):

virtual_uid_maps = static:65534 virtual_gid_maps = static:65534

Postfix has a virtual_mailbox_base parameter, which is constant, and I was not liking the idea of having to maintain home and maildir when they essentially contained the same things, in /etc/postfix/main.cf, I have:

virtual_mailbox_base = /path/to/virtual/boxes/ virtual_mailbox_maps = mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql_virt.cf

In /etc/postfix/mysql_virt.cf, I changed this -> to this:

user = postfix password = xxxxxx dbname = maildb table = users select_field = maildir -> select_field = CONCAT(home,'Maildir/') where_field = id hosts = 127.0.0.1

Which, when combined with the virtual_mailbox_base, gives you the full path to the Maildir without ever having to give a lame home path value like '/'.

/path/to/virtual/boxes/<home/>Maildir/

(Assumes path in home, and path in virtual_mailbox_base both end in /).

I know I have postfix going to mysql through TCP. When my measly server gets enough traffic, I'll worry about how to keep the chroot happy. For now, having it go through tcp means I don't have to worry about how and where to set mysql.sock.

For Courier-IMAP, in authmysqlrc, I can use CONCAT again to build the home directory using the same home field in the database (which contains only a relative directory name):

MYSQL_USER_TABLE users MYSQL_LOGIN_FIELD id MYSQL_CRYPT_PWFIELD crypt MYSQL_CLEAR_PWFIELD clear MYSQL_NAME_FIELD name MYSQL_HOME_FIELD CONCAT('/path/to/virtual/',home)

MYSQL_UID_FIELD 65534 MYSQL_GID_FIELD 65534

I can also pass constant uid/gid values, which is perfect for my case where I only use one pair. Here, I'm using the Courier default to figure out the name of the maildir (Maildir), I could just as easily add MYSQL_MAILDIR_FIELD, which would be appended after home..

Hope this helps somebody. =)

~Sizzle~ "Waste of a good apple" - Samwise Gamgee