Dovecot POP3/IMAP Server Setup Howto for RHEL/CentOS 6

Installing and setting up Dovecot in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 or CentOS 6 is easy. All we have to do is to enable the services we would like to provide and we are good to go.

Configure Dovecot

1. The settings for Dovecot are spread out across several files. Edit the files listed below and update its lines accordingly.

 

/etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf

protocols = pop3 imap lmtp

/etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-mail.conf

mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir

/etc/dovecot/conf.d/20-pop3.conf

pop3_uidl_format = %08Xu%08Xv
pop3_client_workarounds = outlook-no-nuls oe-ns-eoh

2. Start the dovecot service. Learn how to start and stop services here.

Test Dovecot

1. Click Applications, select System Tools, and click Terminal. This will launch the Terminal window.

2. In the Terminal window, type in the highlighted commands below.

Sample dovecot session. Replace johndoe and password with any valid user name and password.

[root@mail ~]# telnet localhost pop3
+OK dovecot ready.
user johndoe
+OK
pass password
+OK Logged in.
list
+OK 1 messages:
1 622
.
retr 1
+OK 622 octets
Return-Path: <johndoe@mail.acme.local>
X-Original-To: johndoe
Delivered-To: johndoe@mail.acme.local
Received: from localhost.localdomain (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1])
        by mail.acme.local (Postfix) with SMTP id 9729067C17
        for <johndoe>; Thu, 22 Feb 2007 09:06:37 -0500 (EST)
Message-Id: <20070222140640.9729067C17@mail.acme.local>
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2007 09:06:37 -0500 (EST)
From: johndoe@mail.acme.local
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
X-IMAPbase: 1172153557 1
Status: O
X-UID: 1
Content-Length: 5
X-Keywords:


test
.
quit
+OK Logging out.
Connection closed by foreign host.
[root@mail ~]#

If you encounter any problems, check the log file at /var/log/maillog.

*********All The Best*********** regards cnuvasan