How to Enable and Disable the Dovecot Mail Log Plugin

Valid for versions 100 through 102

Version:

100

104

Last modified: December 1, 2022

Overview

This document explains how to enable and disable the Dovecot mail log plugin. The additional entries to the /var/log/maillog log file can help you to diagnose issues with mail delivery.

The plugin will add the following entries to the log file:

Setting and removing the \Deleted flag
Expunging (includes autoexpunge)
Copying mails to another mailbox
Mailbox creations
Mailbox deletions
Mailbox renames
Any flag changes
Saves

Important:

The additional log entries will increase the size of the log files and cause the system to archive them more frequently.

Enable the Dovecot mail log plugin

To enable the Dovecot mail log plugin, perform the following steps:

Log in to your server via SSH as the root user.
Run the following command to determine if a local template file already exists:
```
stat /var/cpanel/templates/dovecot2.3/main.local
```
- If a template file does not exist, run the following command:
```
cp -v /var/cpanel/templates/dovecot2.3/main.{default,local}
```

Create the /root/dovecot.patch file and add the following code to it:

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--- main.default	2022-05-04 18:43:43.231310505 +0000
+++ main.local	2022-08-05 05:00:33.996931597 +0000
@@ -669,7 +669,7 @@
 [%- ELSE %]
   #mail_plugins = acl quota imap_quota
 [%- END %]
-  mail_plugins = $mail_plugins zlib imap_zlib quota_clone virtual [% IF xaps_topic %]imap_xaps[% END %] [% IF fts_support %]fts fts_solr[% END %]
+  mail_plugins = $mail_plugins mail_log notify zlib imap_zlib quota_clone virtual [% IF xaps_topic %]imap_xaps[% END %] [% IF fts_support %]fts fts_solr[% END %]
   #mail_plugin_dir = /usr/lib/dovecot/imap


@@ -1251,10 +1251,10 @@
 # mail_log plugin provides more event logging for mail processes.
 plugin {
   # Events to log. Also available: flag_change append
-  #mail_log_events = delete undelete expunge copy mailbox_delete mailbox_rename
+  mail_log_events = delete undelete expunge copy mailbox_delete mailbox_rename
   # Available fields: uid, box, msgid, from, subject, size, vsize, flags
   # size and vsize are available only for expunge and copy events.
-  #mail_log_fields = uid box msgid size
+  mail_log_fields = uid box msgid size
 }

Run the following commands:

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patch -p1 /var/cpanel/templates/dovecot2.3/main.local < /root/dovecot.patch
/scripts/builddovecotconf && /scripts/restartsrv_dovecot

To view the log file, run the following command:

tail -fn0 /var/log/maillog

Disable the Dovecot mail log plugin

To disable the Dovecot mail log plugin, perform the following steps:

Run the following commands:

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mv -vi /var/cpanel/templates/dovecot2.3/main.local{,.bak}
/scripts/builddovecotconf && /scripts/restartsrv_dovecot