Installing dovecot with vpopmail support on Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS

The problem is that dovecot is not compiled with --with-vpopmail support. Here is step-by-step guide how to make debian package from source.

First you need working vpopmail installed somewhere on the system. Second we need some deb packages installed for the build process:

# apt-get install build-essential dpkg-dev debhelper pkg-config libssl-dev libpam0g-dev libldap2-dev libpq-dev libmysqlclient-dev drac-dev libsasl2-dev libsqlite3-dev libbz2-dev libdb-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev libexpat-dev hardening-wrapper

Now download the source package:

# apt-get source dovecot

This will get the source and unpack it in current directory

root@mail2:/usr/src/tmp# ls -l
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root    4096 Jul 30 10:53 dovecot-2.0.19
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1278258 May 15 17:29 dovecot_2.0.19-0ubuntu2.1.debian.tar.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    3142 May 15 17:29 dovecot_2.0.19-0ubuntu2.1.dsc
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3357056 Apr  8  2012 dovecot_2.0.19.orig.tar.gz

Now enter dovecot directory and edit the file debian/rules. Find the lines:

$(shell dpkg-buildflags --export=configure) sh configure \
                 --with-ldap=plugin \
                 --with-ssl=openssl \
                 --with-sql=plugin \

and add another line like this:

 $(shell dpkg-buildflags --export=configure) sh configure \
                 --with-vpopmail \
                 --with-ldap=plugin \
                 --with-ssl=openssl \
                 --with-sql=plugin \

Alternatively here is a patch:

--- dovecot-2.0.19/debian/rules    2012-06-29 00:33:07.000000000 +0300
+++ ../dovecot-2.0.19/debian/rules    2014-07-30 10:18:00.469643701 +0300
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
     dh_testdir
     # Dovecot
     $(shell dpkg-buildflags --export=configure) sh configure \
+            --with-vpopmail \
                 --with-ldap=plugin \
                 --with-ssl=openssl \
                 --with-sql=plugin \

Now go to unpacked dovecot's directory and build the package:

# dpkg-buildpackage -uc -rfakeroot

You will end up with lot of *.deb files. The one that you need is 'dovecot-core_2.0.19-0ubuntu2.1_i386.deb'. Install it, restart dovecot and use your vpopmail support.

# dpkg -i dovecot-core_2.0.19-0ubuntu2.1_i386.deb
# service dovecot restart

Installing ezmlm on Debian squeeze with existing qmail and vpopmail system.

This is a quick explanation how to install and configure ezmlm-idx on Debian Squeeze on existing qmail/vpopmail installation.

Since ezmlm-idx is not on an official Debian release we need to build our own deb package. First we need to add experimental sources in /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb-src http://ftp.bg.debian.org/debian/ experimental main contrib non-free

Update and get the source:

# apt-get update
# apt-get source ezmlm-idx

Install additional packages needed by ezmlm-idx (if you are planning to use it with mysql/pgsql):

# apt-get install libmysqlclient-dev libpq-dev

There is a Debian specific bug (probably that is why ezmlm-idx is not in the official release) inside this package and it is path to qmail-queue program. The path to qmail-queue is hardcoded in file conf-qmail: "/var/lib/qmail" and ezmlm-manage tries to launch it from there. Solutions are either to edit conf-qmail file and change path to /usr/sbin or to make a link:

# mkdir /var/lib/qmail
# ln -s /usr/sbin /var/lib/qmail/bin

Now build the package:

# cd ezmlm-idx-7.1.1
# dpkg-buildpackage -uc -rfakeroot

If everything is ok there will be three new deb packages.

# ls -la
total 2232
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root    4096 Apr  8 11:58 .
drwxr-xr-x 10 root root    4096 Apr  8 11:50 ..
drwxr-xr-x  5 root root   24576 Apr  8 11:58 ezmlm-idx-7.1.1
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  104602 Apr  8 11:58 ezmlm-idx-mysql_7.1.1-1~exp0_i386.deb
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  105098 Apr  8 11:58 ezmlm-idx-pgsql_7.1.1-1~exp0_i386.deb
-rw-r--r--  1 root root    5508 Apr  8 11:57 ezmlm-idx_7.1.1-1~exp0.diff.gz
-rw-r--r--  1 root root     837 Apr  8 11:57 ezmlm-idx_7.1.1-1~exp0.dsc
-rw-r--r--  1 root root    2447 Apr  8 11:58 ezmlm-idx_7.1.1-1~exp0_i386.changes
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 1284294 Apr  8 11:58 ezmlm-idx_7.1.1-1~exp0_i386.deb
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  718954 Apr 17  2012 ezmlm-idx_7.1.1.orig.tar.gz

Install it:

# dpkg -i ezmlm-idx_7.1.1-1~exp0_i386.deb
Selecting previously deselected package ezmlm-idx.
(Reading database ... 42574 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking ezmlm-idx (from ezmlm-idx_7.1.1-1~exp0_i386.deb) ...
Setting up ezmlm-idx (7.1.1-1~exp0) ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
#

Now we can make our mailing list. If vpopmail is installed in /home/vpopmail here is the command to make new mailing list:

# ezmlm-make /home/vpopmail/domains/lists.example.com/testlist /home/vpopmail/domains/lists.example.com/.qmail-testlist testlist lists.example.com

Change ownership of newly created files and directories.

# chown vpopmail:vchkpw  /home/vpopmail/domains/lists.example.com/* -R
# chown vpopmail:vchkpw  /home/vpopmail/domains/lists.example.com/.* -R

This will make mailing list "testlist" on domain lists.example.com. You can subscribe by sending mail at address testlist-subscribe@lists.example.com. For more information you can see man pages of ezmlm and by sending mail to testlist-help@lists.example.com.