#debian #trixie update went OK yesterday.
Not as smooth as the last one. #dovecot changed the syntax and structure of the config files and #borgbackup required some manual checks to not destroy archives which was a bit stressful.
1/2
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#dovecot
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@menel@snikket.de
Also bei mir war es diesmal etwas aufwändiger, weil man für #dovecot die config komplett umschreiben musste.
Also bei mir war es diesmal etwas aufwändiger, weil man für #dovecot die config komplett umschreiben musste.
Continued thread
OK quick update from my life as a mail server #admin :)
Thanks to the very kind help from @yichalal we figured out that apparently my #Yunohost #Dovecot package is so broken that apt and dpkg fail to upgrade, --configure, even reinstall it.
Really strange and now I'm wondering if I need to rebuild the entire server just because this one single package is broken :(
I'll keep you posted and am open for any ideas ;)
Okay I've used up all other options, so now it's #FollowerPower and #FediMagic :
Would someone here be able to help me fix my broken #Yunohost instance? I've been without email for several weeks now 
All apps and admin interface work without problems, but #Dovecot fails to start with a cryptic #SSL error. I've tried the forum of course but so far without success.
Happy to share logs and all. Thanks a million! 
A gotcha I discovered this morning. I have two servers using #Dovecot on #AlpineLinux … one is my main mail exchanger for my domain, the other is a small server I use for securely storing work emails (full disk encryption enabled).
I decided to update the latter to AlpineLinux 3.22. I knew this potentially wiped out /etc/dovecot, so I took a `tar` back-up of my /etc directory.
The update bumped Dovecot to v2.4.1, and indeed wiped out /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf.
I restore my back-up, I then find Dovecot 2.4.1 does not like a Dovecot 2.3.x config.
https://doc.dovecot.org/2.4.1/installation/upgrade/2.3-to-2.4.html is the Rosetta stone you need to translate between the two.
Not difficult, but care must be taken.
doc.dovecot.org2.3 to 2.4 | Dovecot CEDovecot CE Documentation
I don't understand. Dovecot refuses to issue the correct SSL cert. I've checked and triple checked the file name in /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-ssl.conf. I've restarted the service multiple times and even rebooted.
Apache issues the correct cert. They are using the exact same files.
perplexing.
CLI command to check dovecot:
openssl s_client -connect mail.heerssen.net:465
And Apache
openssl s_client -connect mail.heerssen.net:443
Grr. The SSL certs for my primary email domain expired, so I renewed them.
WHY ISN'T IT WORKING?
Because you didn't restart dovecot, you idiot.
Replied in thread
@marcuwekling Großartige Idee! Ich bin (eh schon) dabei! 
#dutgemacht #ididit
Hier was ich derzeit schon so nutze:
- Eigener Mailserver #postfix #clamav #rspamd #roundcubemail #dovecot
- Notebooks auf #Linux
- #pfsense Firewall
- #thunderbird
Selber gehostete freie Dienste/Software derzeit:
- #Nextcloud
- #PaperlessNGX
- #Peertube
- #HomeAssistant
- #Mastodon
- #Matrix
- #Wordpress
Fremdgehostete freie Dienste:
- #pixelfed
- #bigbluebutton
- #letsencrypt
Leider kann ich meinen Windowsrechner noch nicht loswerden #gamer - aber das kommt bestimmt auch noch irgendwann... 
because running a mail server wasn’t fun enough: the Dovecot 2.3 → 2.4 update has tons of breaking config changes
(h/t to https://willem.com/blog/2025-06-04_breaking-changes/ for the exhaustive breakdown of the changes)
Willem's BlogBreaking Changes - Upgrading Dovecot 2.3 to 2.4 in Debian StableDovecot 2.4 introduces breaking changes, this post discusses how you can migrate your Dovecot 2.3 configuration.
That whole #dovecot breaking update (and from what I've seen the unreasonable pro version, at least for small setups) makes me question self-hosting my mail server…
I'm fine with investing time to setup something the first time - but updates (especially not minor) should never be breaking… - neither should they require quiet some time investment imho…
#SelfHosting #mailserver
So I guess I either try courier-imap server or cyrus-imapd. Not sure of the differences between the two or whether one is better than the other.
Replied to Stefano Marinelli
@stefano would have happily paid a reasonable price for the commercial version of #dovecot, but the pricing is only targeted at large ISPs, so everyone with less than 10k mailboxes isn't interesting at all to them. I asked them a few months back just after the deletions happened in their repo. Didn't even ask about #freebsd support.
Since Dovecot 2.4 is dropping replication, I'll definitely need to rework my mail servers and those for BSDMail. I think I'll be going back to Cyrus, which I last used over 20 years ago. The problem is my memories have long faded, so it'll be like studying it again from scratch. And that makes me happy, because it'll be like learning something totally new!
Special thanks to @h3artbl33d for the heads up!
#eMail #selfHosting gurus: I am looking for the simplest possible way to host myself a mailbox I can add to my email clients (Thunderbird, phone, etc.) as usual, so I can move mails there to free up space on the 3rd party "real" emails, then back them up separately on my server.
I do not want receiving or sending emails to work. Just an IMAP or whatever box I can shove emails in the face by dragging them in Thunderbird or with a script.
Ideally available in 
#NixOS
Hey #fediverse .. is there a way in #dovecot 2.3 to prevent IMAP users from accidentally deleting / moving / renaming certain folders? (Aside from the normal ones like "Inbox", "Deleted", etc...)
Many thanks in advance!
I just found out that Dovecot 2.4 is a crippled version of Dovecot 2.3: no more clustering support, the director function has been removed. If you want to do clustering now, you'll have to buy a Pro license.
https://doc.dovecot.org/2.4.0/installation/upgrade/2.3-to-2.4.html#removed-features
So, although I've used Dovecot for years, both private and for work, it seems like this is the end of the line for me.
At the same time I see what @Stalwart Labs can do. Yes, clustering, for one. And a whole lot more, including bayesian classification, analysis of DMARC reports and even a reputation database.
I'm really impressed by what it can do. Bit hesitant about the fact that it's still only version 0.11.5 though, smells alpha...
Looks like Stalwart is the future for me.
https://stalw.art/docs/cluster/overview
#Dovecot #Stalwart #E-mail #DMARC
https://doc.dovecot.org/2.4.0/installation/upgrade/2.3-to-2.4.html#removed-features
So, although I've used Dovecot for years, both private and for work, it seems like this is the end of the line for me.
At the same time I see what @Stalwart Labs can do. Yes, clustering, for one. And a whole lot more, including bayesian classification, analysis of DMARC reports and even a reputation database.
I'm really impressed by what it can do. Bit hesitant about the fact that it's still only version 0.11.5 though, smells alpha...
Looks like Stalwart is the future for me.
https://stalw.art/docs/cluster/overview
#Dovecot #Stalwart #E-mail #DMARC
doc.dovecot.org2.3 to 2.4 | Dovecot CEDovecot CE Documentation
I've Got Mail https://bonesmoses.org/2025/ive-got-mail/
bonesmoses.org · I've Got MailI’ve finally gotten tired of maintaining my own mail server. I’ve been maintaining it since 1999 in one way or another, and I think it’s just time to take it behind the shed and put it out of my misery.
As to how I reached this decision and what I intend to do about it, well… that’s a story.
#fedihelp , please: I'm #selfhosting #dovecot and #postfix and running out of disk space with my mails reaching back into last century. I'd like to remove the oldest ones and keep an archive of any kind on a different host. What would be the easiest way to achieve that?
Maybe just imap-sync to some special maildir?
Edit:typo
Considering to migrate off #Google and other US #bigtech dependencies since they seem to get stuck deep in #Trump|s asshole. What is supposed to be the "gold standard" replacement for self hosting a tiny OSS mail server (own domain, 4 accounts, IMAP + mobile + web client) these days? Long years ago I've used #postfix + #dovecot. Is still still the way to go?