Dovecot installation and configuration

Dovecot is an open-source IMAP and POP3 server application which was designed specifically for Linux/Unix Operating Systems. Dovecot retrieves emails from Postfix and delivers them to the relevant mailbox on the server.

You can get your mail through Dovecot using either of the POP3 or IMAP protocols.

Installation

The first thing we will need is to download the Dovecot package. This command will install it:

#yum install dovecot

Configuring Dovecot

The next step is to configure the Dovecot services in the config file at /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf - use whatever editor you like for the task.

#nano /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf

The following lines will need to be uncommented and if necessary changed to reflect your plans for the environment:

protocols = imap pop3

mail_location =  maildir:~/Maildir

Starting Dovecot

Once we have finished the mailbox creation we will need to make sure the Dovecot application will be run with the server upon restart. We'll use the chkconfig command for that purpose.

#chkconfig --level 345 dovecot on

The final step for Dovecot to be completed is to start the service.

#service dovecot start