Configuration file locations

The main configuration file for Cyrus IMAP is imapd.conf(5) and its path is compiled into the executable files, based upon the --sysconfdir build flag. For many utilities, this may be overridden at runtime via the -C flag, followed by the name of the configuration file to use. For example:

ctl_mboxlist -C /usr/local/etc/imapd.conf  -d -f mailboxes.dump

The main configuration directory is referred to as <configdirectory> in Cyrus IMAP documentation, and is set via the configdirectory entry in imapd.conf(5):

configdirectory: <none>

The pathname of the IMAP configuration directory. This field is required.

While Cyrus itself has no default values for this setting, most distributions use /var/lib/imap or /var/lib/cyrus.

State Databases

Despite the name, most of what's stored in <configdirectory> is state information. Here's a list of files typically located therein:

The links above document the purpose, DB type and choices for those files. You may adjust the locations of these database files via various settings in imapd.conf(5):

annotation_db_path: <none>

The absolute path to the annotations db file. If not specified, will be configdirectory/annotations.db

backup_db_path: <none>

Deprecated. No longer used.

duplicate_db_path: <none>

The absolute path to the duplicate db file. If not specified, will be configdirectory/deliver.db

mboxlist_db_path: <none>

The absolute path to the mailboxes db file. If not specified will be configdirectory/mailboxes.db

newsrc_db_path: <none>

The absolute path to the newsrc db file. If not specified, will be configdirectory/fetchnews.db

ptscache_db_path: <none>

The absolute path to the ptscache db file. If not specified, will be configdirectory/ptscache.db

quota_db_path: <none>

The absolute path for the quota database (if you choose a single-file quota DB type - or the base path if you choose quotalegacy). If not specified will be configdirectory/quotas.db or configdirectory/quota/

statuscache_db_path: <none>

The absolute path to the statuscache db file. If not specified, will be configdirectory/statuscache.db

tls_sessions_db_path: <none>

The absolute path to the TLS sessions db file. If not specified, will be configdirectory/tls_sessions.db

userdeny_db_path: <none>

The absolute path to the userdeny db file. If not specified, will be configdirectory/user_deny.db

zoneinfo_db_path: <none>

The absolute path to the zoneinfo db file. If not specified, will be configdirectory/zoneinfo.db

Ephemeral Databases

Several of the state databases may be located in RAM-backed locations, such as /run or /var/run or where ever your OS roots such filesystems (i.e. tmpfs on Linux or mfs on FreeBSD). Cyrus 3.0 will recreate the following databases for you automatically:

  • duplicate delivery (deliver.db),

  • TLS cache (tls_sessions.db),

  • PTS cache (ptscache.db),

  • STATUS cache (statuscache.db).

Relocating these DBs to ephemeral storage will place less IO load on your disks and tend to run faster.

Note

Please be warned that some packagers place tasks such as tlsprune (tls_prune(8)) in the START{} stanza of cyrus.conf(5). This will cause a startup problem if the tls_sessions_db is not present. The solution to this is to remove the tlsprune task from START{} and schedule it in EVENTS{}, further down.

State Directories

In addition to the files, are several directories:

  • lock (per-mailbox lock files)

  • log (per-user telemetry log directories)

  • proc (per-process state data)

  • ptclient (PT Loader Unix-domain socket)

  • quota (per-quotaroot quota state data)

  • sieve (per-user sieve message filter scripts)

  • socket (per-service Unix-domain sockets)

  • sync (per-replica directories with sync log files)

  • user (per-user DBs, see next section)

As with the DB files, above, many of these, too, may be relocated via settings in imapd.conf(5):

mboxname_lockpath: <none>

Path to mailbox name lock files (default $conf/lock)

proc_path: <none>

Path to proc directory. Default is NULL - must be an absolute path if specified. If not specified, the path $configdirectory/proc/ will be used.

ptloader_sock: <none>

Unix domain socket that ptloader listens on. (defaults to configdirectory/ptclient/ptsock).

quota_db_path: <none>

The absolute path for the quota database (if you choose a single-file quota DB type - or the base path if you choose quotalegacy). If not specified will be configdirectory/quotas.db or configdirectory/quota/

Note

If your configuration uses quota_db: quotalegacy, then quota_db_path points to the base of the quota directory hierarchy. If you use any other DB type, then this will be the actual filename.

sieveusehomedir: 0

If enabled, lmtpd will look for Sieve scripts in user's home directories: ~user/.sieve.

sievedir: /usr/sieve

If sieveusehomedir is false, this directory is searched for Sieve scripts.

idlesocket: {configdirectory}/socket/idle

Unix domain socket that idled listens on.

lmtpsocket: {configdirectory}/socket/lmtp

Unix domain socket that lmtpd listens on, used by deliver(8). This should match the path specified in cyrus.conf(5).

notifysocket: {configdirectory}/socket/notify

Unix domain socket that the mail notification daemon listens on.

Per-user State Directories

There are several things tracked per-user, and the data files for these items, such as subscriptions and seen state, are stored in <configdirectory>/user. These files may not be relocated from <configdirectory>. They are:

Please follow those links for more information on these files.