documentation.txt

The documentation in wiki/ directory has been imported from
http://wiki2.dovecot.org/. The actual Wiki may contain more up-to-date
information, so unless this is an old Dovecot release, you may want to use
the Wiki directly.

 * <QuickConfiguration.txt> for people in hurry
 * <WhyDoesItNotWork.txt> - Why doesn't Dovecot work?

Generic information about mail servers
======================================

 * Mail protocols: IMAP [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imap], POP3
   [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop3] and SMTP
   [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smtp]
 * <Mail delivery agents and Sieve> [MDA.txt]
 * <Mailbox formats> [MailboxFormat.txt]
    * <Dovecot's index files> [IndexFiles.txt]
 * <User authentication> [Authentication.txt]
    * <SASL> [Sasl.txt]

Dovecot installation
====================

It's a good idea to start with a simple Dovecot installation to see that
everything works. After that you can start changing things one at a time, so if
you run into trouble you know immediately where the problem is.

If you're in a hurry and you already know enough about mail servers,
<QuickConfiguration.txt> may be more helpful to you instead.

 1. Installing
     * <Compiling from sources> [CompilingSource.txt]
     * <Installing prebuilt binaries> [PrebuiltBinaries.txt]
 2. <Checking where mail is delivered to> [FindMailLocation.txt]
 3. <Configuring Dovecot> [BasicConfiguration.txt]
 4. <Running Dovecot> [RunningDovecot.txt]
 5. <Logging.txt>
 6. <Testing that everything works> [TestInstallation.txt]
     * <Testing POP3 installation> [TestPop3Installation.txt]
 7. <Finishing the test installation> [FinishBasicConfiguration.txt]

Dovecot configuration
=====================

 * Starting guidelines
    * <System users> [SystemUsers.txt]
    * <Virtual users> [VirtualUsers.txt]
    * <UNIX User IDs used by Dovecot> [UserIds.txt]
 * <Authentication configuration> [Authentication.txt]
    * <Password databases> [PasswordDatabase.txt]
    * <User databases> [UserDatabase.txt]
    * <Multiple authentication databases>
      [Authentication.MultipleDatabases.txt]
    * <Kerberos> [Authentication.Kerberos.txt]
    * <Restricting users' access> [Authentication.RestrictAccess.txt]
    * <Special authentication features> [PasswordDatabase.ExtraFields.txt]
    * <Master users> [Authentication.MasterUsers.txt]
    * <Caching> [Authentication.Caching.txt]
 * <Mailbox location configuration> [MailLocation.txt]
    * <Mails stored in local disk> [MailLocation.LocalDisk.txt]
    * <Mails stored in shared filesystem> [MailLocation.SharedDisk.txt]
      (<NFS.txt>, clustered FS)
        * <Director.txt> for easily proxying same user to same server to
	  avoid caching problems. 
    * <Maildir configuration> [MailLocation.Maildir.txt]
    * <Mbox configuration> [MailLocation.Mbox.txt]
    * <Namespaces.txt>
    * <Shared mailboxes> [SharedMailboxes.txt]
 * <Login processes and their settings> [LoginProcess.txt]
 * <SSL.txt> settings and certificate creation
 * <Plugins.txt>
    * <Quota.txt>
    * <Access Control Lists> [ACL.txt] (ACLs)
 * <Dovecot as a POP3 server> [POP3Server.txt]
 * <Dovecot's local delivery agent> [LDA.txt]
 * <Sieve.txt> and <ManageSieve.txt>
 * <Post-login scripting> [PostLoginScripting.txt]

HOWTOs, examples and tutorials
==============================

Some HOWTOs haven't been included in wiki/. Use http://wiki2.dovecot.org/
instead.

 * <HOWTOs, examples and tutorials> [HowTo.txt] for different installations
 * Existing Dovecot installations
   [http://wiki2.dovecot.org/DovecotServerInstallations]

Migration from existing systems
===============================

 * <From other IMAP/POP3 servers> [Migration.txt]
    * <My mailboxes are lost after migrating to Dovecot!>
      [MissingMailboxes.txt]
 * <Upgrading Dovecot to a new version> [Upgrading.txt]
 * <Converting between mailbox formats> [Migration.MailFormat.txt] (mbox <->
   Maildir, etc.)

Troubleshooting
===============

 * <Why doesn't Dovecot work?> [WhyDoesItNotWork.txt]
 * <Finding the error message from logs> [Logging.txt]
 * <Debugging authentication> [Debugging.Authentication.txt]
 * <Process tracing> [Debugging.ProcessTracing.txt] is useful when Dovecot
   seems slow or hangs completely
 * Rawlog [Debugging.Rawlog.txt] can be used to log post-login IMAP/POP3
   traffic 
 * <mbox errors and crashes> [MboxProblems.txt]
 * <Client issues and configuration> [Clients.txt]
    * <Negative UIDs / message sets> [Clients.NegativeUIDs.txt]
    * <Debugging using Thunderbird's logging> [Debugging.Thunderbird.txt]
 * <"Time moved backwards" error> [TimeMovedBackwards.txt]
 * <%d expands to empty string> [DomainLost.txt]
 * <pre-authenticated sessions> [PreAuth.txt]
 * Sending bug reports [http://dovecot.org/bugreport.html], debugging crashes
   and sniffing network traffic

Tuning
======

 * <Performance tuning> [PerformanceTuning.txt]
 * <Security tuning> [SecurityTuning.txt]
    * <Chrooting.txt>

Reference
=========

 * <Dovecot's design> [Design.txt]
 * <Client issues and configuration> [Clients.txt]