Changed location of index files

Lafiel Elentari via dovecot <[email protected]> Mon, 11 May 2026 14:52:40 +0300
Newsgroups gmane.mail.imap.dovecot
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Hello.

After upgrading to version 2.4, index files were moved to the user's
home directory, and the `mail_path = ~/mail` parameter was no longer
taken into account when processing index files.

In addition, indexes for the `INBOX` folder no longer respect the
`mail_index_path=` parameter and are stored in the
`./INBOX/dovecot.index.*` folder, although they should be stored in the
same folder where the messages are stored, given the current
configuration.

My configuration:
```
mail_home =
mail_inbox_path =
mail_index_path =
mail_path = ~/mail
userdb declarative {
  passwd_file_path = /var/data/mail/dovecot/passdb
  driver = passwd-file
  fields {
    home = /var/data/mail/vmail/%{user | domain}/%{user | username}
    mail_index_path = /var/data/mail/vmail/%{user | domain }/%{user | username}
  }
}
```

Current location of index files:
```
/var/data/mail/vmail/example.com/user
├── INBOX
│   ├── dovecot.index.cache
│   └── dovecot.index.log
├── Sent
│   ├── dovecot.index.cache
│   └── dovecot.index.log
├── Drafts
│   └── dovecot.index.log
├── Junk
│   └── dovecot.index.log
├── Trash
│   ├── dovecot.index.cache
│   └── dovecot.index.log
├── dovecot.list.index
├── dovecot.list.index.log
└─── mail
    ├── cur
    ├── new
    ├── tmp
    ├── Sent
    │   ├── cur
    │   ├── new
    │   ├── tmp
    │   └── dovecot-uidlist
    ├── Drafts
    │   ├── cur
    │   ├── new
    │   ├── tmp
    │   └── dovecot-uidlist
    ├── Junk
    │   ├── cur
    │   ├── new
    │   ├── tmp
    │   └── dovecot-uidlist
    ├── Trash
    │   ├── cur
    │   ├── new
    │   ├── tmp
    │   └── dovecot-uidlist
    ├── subscriptions
    ├── dovecot.mailbox.log
    ├── dovecot-uidlist
    ├── dovecot-uidvalidity
    └── dovecot-uidvalidity.69d94118

```

Expected location of index files according to configuration:
```
/var/data/mail/vmail/example.com/user
└─── mail
    ├── cur
    ├── new
    ├── tmp
    ├── Sent
    │   ├── cur
    │   ├── new
    │   ├── tmp
    │   ├── dovecot.index
    │   ├── dovecot.index.cache
    │   ├── dovecot.index.log
    │   └── dovecot-uidlist
    ├── Drafts
    │   ├── new
    │   ├── tmp
    │   ├── cur
    │   ├── dovecot.index
    │   ├── dovecot.index.cache
    │   ├── dovecot.index.log
    │   └── dovecot-uidlist
    ├── Junk
    │   ├── new
    │   ├── tmp
    │   ├── cur
    │   ├── dovecot.index
    │   ├── dovecot.index.cache
    │   ├── dovecot.index.log
    │   └── dovecot-uidlist
    ├── Trash
    │   ├── cur
    │   ├── new
    │   ├── tmp
    │   ├── dovecot.index
    │   ├── dovecot.index.cache
    │   ├── dovecot.index.log
    │   └── dovecot-uidlist
    ├── dovecot.index
    ├── dovecot.index.cache
    ├── dovecot.index.log
    ├── dovecot.list.index
    ├── dovecot.list.index.log
    ├── dovecot.mailbox.log
    ├── dovecot-uidlist
    ├── dovecot-uidvalidity
    ├── dovecot-uidvalidity.69d94118
    └── subscriptions
```


-- 
Best regards,
Lafiel Elentari
mailto:[email protected]

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