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.
- 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 :)
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.
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 .
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.