Dovecot configuration file in details

Following is the example of Dovecot on Debian. You can see the lines that are added by the control panel. Dovecot 2 saves various configurations in the conf.d directory, if you run Debian, the full path is /etc/dovecot/conf.d/.

conf.d/10-auth.conf

activate the file dovecot-passwd:

 !include auth-passwdfile.conf.ext

enable authorization without encryption:

 disable_plaintext_auth = no

define encryption mechanisms:

 auth_mechanisms = plain login digest-md5 cram-md5

conf.d/auth-passwdfile.conf.ext

activate the file dovecot-passwd:

 passdb {
   driver = passwd-file
   args = scheme=CRYPT username_format=%Lu /etc/dovecot/dovecot.passwd
 }

 userdb {
   ...
   args = username_format=%Lu /etc/dovecot/dovecot.passwd
 }

conf.d/10-mail.conf

use the mechanism in Maildir:

 mail_location = maildir:~/.maildir

enable the quota plug-in:

 mail_plugins = $mail_plugins quota

conf.d/10-ssl.conf

activate TLS:

 ssl = yes

conf.d/20-imap.conf

activate quota plug-ins:

  protocol imap {
   ...
   mail_plugins = $mail_plugins imap_quota
   ...
  }

conf.d/10-master.conf

socket for authorization (for dovecot-lda):

 unix_listener auth-userdb {
   mode = 0666
   ...
 }

if Exim uses authentication through Dovecot:

 #SASL
   unix_listener auth-client {
     mode = 0660
     user = Debian-exim
     group = Debian-exim
   }

if postfix uses authentication through Dovecot:

 #SASL
   unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/auth {
     mode = 0666
   }

conf.d/15-lda.conf

 protocol lda {
    mail_plugins = $mail_plugins quota sieve
 }
  • quota — enable quota counting in dovecot-lda
  • sieve — enable sieve sorter plug-in in dovecot-lda (if sieve is activated in the panel)

conf.d/90-quota.conf

enable quota in Maildir using values from dovecot-passwd

 plugin {
   ...
   quota = maildir:User quota
   ...
 }