muenchhausen/ubuntu-dovecot-simple-imap repository overview

⁠What is it

It is a simple Dovecot⁠ IMAP server Docker image with one predefined account for archiving your mail on a locally available NFS share.

This docker image is running perfect since Jan 2015 on my QNAP NAS :) Feedback e.g. on the alternative Synology DSM environment is very welcome.

⁠My personal motivation to create this Docker image

• I need to archive mail on a local IMAP Server at home
• there is a present NFS server (NAS server with NFS)
• home use requires limited IT security
• solution must allow to migrate easily to new technologies over many years
• as simple as possible :)

⁠How to use

Here I create a NFS share with the name mailarchive. Allow your Docker host IP address to access it.

Start the docker container:

docker run --rm --privileged -e NFS_REMOTETARGET=192.168.10.10:/mailarchive \
-p 143:143 muenchhausen/ubuntu-dovecot-simple-imap:latest -F

Start it as Daemon and keep it running:

docker run -d --restart=always --privileged -e NFS_REMOTETARGET=192.168.10.10:/mailarchive \
-p 143:143 muenchhausen/ubuntu-dovecot-simple-imap:latest -F

Create an imap mail account with username mailarchive and password mailarchive and plain text authentication. Done.

To stop dovecot by Ctrl-C does not work here. I usally stop it by running

docker ps -all

docker stop <id>

Because I use the --rm docker option, the container will be removed after stopping, which is fine for this use case. Just try also other dovecot options than -F. E.g. option -n will show the actual config.

⁠Adapt and Build it

You can optimize the IT Security settings if required. Pull it from GitHub. Edit the dockerfile and try to build it on your own :)

docker build -t muenchhausen/ubuntu-dovecot-simple-imap .

⁠Future Steps

The preferred way is the Unix Way: Small reusable images with clear responsibilities. One image for Dovecot, one image for the NFS Client - e.g. cpuguy83's nfs-client⁠: Somewhen this can be used to map NFS shares to volumes which can be accessed by any other Docker containers as required. This is not possible today - see issue⁠. So let's wait.