On a dovecot IMAP setup,we need to share the root of the other user's mailbox; i.e. Inbox bu also Sent, Trash, etc.

Here we could only share 'INBOX' as doveadm does not accept / nor * when giving the right acl and register in the dict.

Any clue on how to share entire mailbox and populate `shared/user/{Inbox, Sent, Trash,...} ?

Setup

On a postfix+dovecot setup with system users, mailbox sharing has been setup:

acl.conf:
plugin {
  #acl = vfile:/etc/dovecot/global-acls:cache_secs=300
  acl = vfile
}

# To let users LIST mailboxes shared by other users, Dovecot needs a
# shared mailbox dictionary. For example:
plugin {
  #acl_shared_dict = file:/var/lib/dovecot/shared-mailboxes
  acl_shared_dict = file:/var/mail/shared-dict

}

shared.conf:
namespace {
  type = shared
  separator = /
  prefix = shared/%%u/
  location = maildir:%%h/mail:INDEX=~/mail/shared/%%u
  #subscriptions = no
  list = children
}
mail_shared_explicit_inbox = yes

Using doveadm to populate the acl and the dictionnary:

doveadm -Dv acl add -u james 'INBOX' user=john lookup read write write-seen write-deleted insert post expunge create delete admin

All works.

Problem

1. Folders

Logged in as james, the shared/john folder show only the inbox folder. ANd its subfolders if we create any. Hence we tried with the mail_shared_explicit_inbox setting to make the other folders appear. We also tried to use '*' or '' in the doveadm command, it fails. With no luck.

Is there any way to show in shared/john the entire mailbox of james ?

2. setup in MUA someone else's mailbox. If we setup in any IMAP MUA the address of john, but with the login/passwd of james, the mailbox that will be shown will actually be james's. Suspect it comes from:

userdb {
  driver = passwd
  override_fields = home=/var/spool/mail/%d/%u uid=mail gid=mail
}

This was to enable running as mail:mail, which does not have access to the home folders.

and/or out of any namespace brackets:

mail_location = maildir:~/mail

But we cannot use %%u in here since it needs %u to access when the user himself is logged in.

Any way to perform that ? The purpose is to have a common mailbox that people can use indistinctively.

Thanks in advance !