Contents 1. Check that it's running 2. Check that it's listening 3. Check that it's allowing logins 4. Check that it's allowing remote logins 5. Check that it finds INBOX 6. Check that it finds other mailboxes 7. Check out some other IMAP commands 8. Check that real mail clients work 9. Make a graceful exit For testing POP3 installation, see <TestPop3Installation.txt>. Check that it's running ----------------------- First check with 'ps' that 'dovecot' process is actually running. If it's not, you had an error in 'dovecot.conf' and the error message was written to log. Go back to <RunningDovecot.txt> and <Logging.txt> if you can't find it. Check that it's listening ------------------------- Next check that Dovecot is listening for connections: ---%<------------------------------------------------------------------------- # telnet localhost 143 Trying 127.0.0.1... Connected to localhost. Escape character is '^]'. * OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 LITERAL+ SASL-IR LOGIN-REFERRALS ID ENABLE STARTTLS AUTH=PLAIN] Dovecot ready. ---%<------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you got "connection refused", make sure that Dovecot is configured to serve the imap protocol and listening on the expected interfaces/addresses.The simplest way to do that would be using <doveconf(1)> [Tools.Doveconf.txt]: ---%<------------------------------------------------------------------------- # doveconf protocols listen protocols = imap pop3 lmtp sieve listen = *, :: ---%<------------------------------------------------------------------------- If the protocols setting shouldn't contain 'imap' so add it. Also make sure, that relevant '!include' or '!try_include' configuration lines are not commented. Next check that it also works from remote host: ---%<------------------------------------------------------------------------- # telnet imap.example.com 143 Trying 1.2.3.4... Connected to imap.example.com. Escape character is '^]'. * OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 LITERAL+ SASL-IR LOGIN-REFERRALS ID ENABLE STARTTLS AUTH=PLAIN] Dovecot ready. ---%<------------------------------------------------------------------------- If that didn't work, check all possible firewalls in between, and check that 'listen' setting is '*' in 'dovecot.conf'. If you have only imaps enabled, see "remote login" section below for how to test using openssl s_client. Check that it's allowing logins ------------------------------- ---%<------------------------------------------------------------------------- # telnet localhost 143 a login "username" "password" ---%<------------------------------------------------------------------------- Replace the username and password with the ones you added to 'passwd.dovecot' in <BasicConfiguration.txt>. Note that all IMAP commands begin with a tag, which is basically any string you want, but it must be there. So don't leave out the "a" in the above example. If the password contains '"' character, escape it with '\' (e.g.'"foo\"bar"'). You should get an "a OK Logged in." reply. If you get "Authentication failed" error, set 'auth_verbose = yes' and 'auth_debug = yes' in 'dovecot.conf', restart Dovecot and try again. The log file should now show enough information to help you fix the problem. Check that it's allowing remote logins -------------------------------------- You'll need to try this from another computer, since all local IPs are treated as secure: ---%<------------------------------------------------------------------------- # telnet imap.example.com 143 a login "username" "password" ---%<------------------------------------------------------------------------- If the connection is hanging instead of giving '* Dovecot ready', you have a firewall that's preventing the connections. Otherwise, the only difference here compared to step above is that you might get: ---%<------------------------------------------------------------------------- * BAD [ALERT] Plaintext authentication is disabled, but your client sent password in plaintext anyway. If anyone was listening, the password was exposed. a NO Plaintext authentication disabled. ---%<------------------------------------------------------------------------- If this is the case, you didn't set 'disable_plaintext_auth = no'. You could alternatively use OpenSSL to test that the server works with SSL: * Test using imaps port (assuming you haven't disabled imaps port): ---%<---------------------------------------------------------------------- # openssl s_client -connect imap.example.com:993 * OK Dovecot ready. ---%<---------------------------------------------------------------------- * Test using imap port and STARTTLS command (works also with imap port): ---%<---------------------------------------------------------------------- # openssl s_client -connect imap.example.com:143 -starttls imap * OK Dovecot ready. ---%<---------------------------------------------------------------------- Check that it finds INBOX ------------------------- After logging in, check that the INBOX is found: ---%<------------------------------------------------------------------------- b select inbox * FLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Deleted \Seen \Draft) * OK [PERMANENTFLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Deleted \Seen \Draft \*)] Flags permitted. * 1 EXISTS * 1 RECENT * OK [UIDVALIDITY 1106186941] UIDs valid * OK [UIDNEXT 2] Predicted next UID b OK [READ-WRITE] Select completed. ---%<------------------------------------------------------------------------- It should contain the mail that you sent to yourself in <FindMailLocation.txt> step. If anything goes wrong, set 'mail_debug = yes' and try again. The log file should now contain debugging information of where Dovecot is trying to find the mails. Fix 'mail_location' setting and try again. Check that it finds other mailboxes ----------------------------------- If you already have other mailboxes created, you can check that Dovecot finds them: ---%<------------------------------------------------------------------------- c list "" * * LIST (\NoInferiors) "/" "test" * LIST (\NoInferiors) "/" "INBOX" c OK List completed. ---%<------------------------------------------------------------------------- If they weren't found, set 'mail_debug = yes' and look at the debugging information. Fix 'mail_location' setting and try again. Check out some other IMAP commands ---------------------------------- If you already have some emails, you can try reading them: ---%<------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 SELECT INBOX 2 FETCH 1:* (FLAGS INTERNALDATE BODY.PEEK[HEADER.FIELDS (SUBJECT)]) 3 FETCH 1 BODY[TEXT] ---%<------------------------------------------------------------------------- '1:*' means all messages You can also try moving a mail to Trash: ---%<------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 CREATE Trash 5 COPY 1 Trash 6 STORE 1 +FLAGS \Deleted 7 EXPUNGE ---%<------------------------------------------------------------------------- Check that real mail clients work --------------------------------- Since mail clients can be configured in various ways, please check first if the problem is with Dovecot configuration or with the client's configuration. You can rule out it being Dovecot's problem with the "telnet" methods described above. If you can't log in, * Make sure SSL/TLS settings are correct. * Make sure the client uses plaintext authentication method, unless you've specifically configured Dovecot to accept others. If you can see only INBOX, * Clear out any "IMAP namespace prefix" or similar settings from clients. * Check if client is configured to show only "subscribed mailboxes". If so, you'll have to subscribe to the mailboxes you wish to see. You can see a list of subscribed mailboxes with: ---%<---------------------------------------------------------------------- d lsub "" * * LSUB () "/" "INBOX" d OK Lsub completed. ---%<---------------------------------------------------------------------- Most IMAP clients have been tested with Dovecot and they work. Make a graceful exit -------------------- To close the connection to Dovecot issue a logout: ---%<------------------------------------------------------------------------- e logout * BYE Logging out e OK Logout completed. ---%<------------------------------------------------------------------------- (This file was created from the wiki on 2017-05-11 04:42)
