[exim] Maildir delivery problem / maildirsize / subfolder

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Author: Chris Laif
Date:  
To: exim-users
Subject: [exim] Maildir delivery problem / maildirsize / subfolder
The appendfile transport in maildir-mode can be configured to create
all necessary parent directories. There seems to be a problem with the
delivery process when the creation of maildirsize files is enabled in
exim's config.

Please consider the following situation: All mailboxes are located in
"/var/mail/<user>". Now the very first email for a new user "alice"
has to be delivered to a subfolder "foo" of that (not yet existant
user/mailbox). Exim then creates

dir: /var/mail/alice
dir: /var/mail/alice/.foo
dir: /var/mail/alice/.foo/tmp
dir: /var/mail/alice/.foo/new
dir: /var/mail/alice/.foo/cur
file: /var/mail/alice/.foo/maildirfolder

Having done that, Exim tries to create the maildirsize file. The
"maildirfolder" file makes Exim step up one level to
"/var/mail/alice". At this point Exim is not able to create the
maildirsize file because the "tmp" directory is missing (standard
maildir logic: create
"tmp/tmpfile123" and rename that file to "maildirsize"). As a result
we see in the logs:

defer (2): No such file or directory: while opening or reading
/var/mail/alice/maildirsize

Maybe it is a good idea to have config option similiar to
"maildirfolder_create_regex" which specifies a pattern for all new
directories in which the "tmp/cur/new"-directories should also be
created.

Chris

There has been some discussion about a related issue:
http://www.exim.org/mail-archives/exim-users/Week-of-Mon-20060424/msg00133.html