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The story: the HDD containing user /home/* directories with Mboxes died. I restored them from a backup to another machine and mounted the whole structure back to the original imap's server /home location over NFS (v3, options client: auto, no_root_squash; server: rw,sync,no_root_squash,no_subtree_check). All file rights and paths match the originals exactly, and there are no ACLs.

The problem: the client connecting to this server (thunderbird, roundcube..) can see and manipulate the INBOX Mbox but can only see but not modify/receive/list any other Mboxes (Sent, Drafts, any_user_created, ...). Not even a newly created "folder" on top of the tree.

Connecting over telnet directly to the IMAP server and listing the folder shows the INBOX only, no other Mboxes. Connecting to the server using a client account does not show any problems as well - I have r/w permissions, and nothing seems to differ from the original state.

The question: Any ideas on what might be the problem with the IMAP not listing these Mboxes? How can I proceed with debugging? I am not much of a sysadmin and, unfortunately, unable to find any clues.

The environment:

  • IMAP4REV1 (shown over telnet)
  • Linux server 2.6.4 #5 SMP Wed May 26 08:19:41 CEST 2010 i686 unknown unknown GNU/Linux (Slackware)
  • Not sure about qmail, probably 1.03

The structure of Mboxes in home directories is:

/home/user/
 .mailboxlist
 INBOX
 Sent
 ...

The user has full privileges on these files, nothing else (that is the original state)

Thank you

David
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  • Perhaps the other mailboxes aren't listed in the `.mailboxlist` that stores the subscriptions? – Esa Jokinen Dec 14 '20 at 16:53
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    2.6.4? Slackware?! This antique should have been _replaced_ in 2010, not left to rot as it appears to have done. For now I'd say you should mount the storage locally, not over NFS, and then work very hard on getting this old beast decommissioned. I would build a new mail server and then transfer the rescued data to it. – Michael Hampton Dec 14 '20 at 18:16
  • @EsaJokinen Thanks for the comment. They are there, at least for a while. That is probably why they are seen in thunderbird, yet just as "read-only." However, I noticed they would eventually disappear from this file. Also, a newly created file over Thunderbird is added to this list. – David Dec 15 '20 at 07:27
  • @MichaelHampton I could not agree more. It is antique, so also configured in the way no one really understands anymore :D. Decommissioning is inevitable, true. I will try your advice with locally mounted FS. Thank you. – David Dec 15 '20 at 07:32
  • @MichaelHampton You were right - the NFS mount caused it. Not sure why. However, using an HDD for the /home solved all the issues. Thank you. So, now the migration :/ – David Dec 15 '20 at 09:06

1 Answers1

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As per @MichaelHampton's suggestion, I tried a physical mount point instead of the NFS, and all issues disappeared. Not sure why it behaved like that. Thanks for all your help.

David
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