Standard Dovecot layout on Debian/Ubuntu:
| Path | Purpose |
|---|---|
/etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf |
Top-level config (mostly !includes) |
/etc/dovecot/conf.d/ |
Modular configs (10-mail.conf, 10-auth.conf, ...) |
/etc/dovecot/local.conf |
Your overrides (load last) |
/etc/dovecot/sieve/ |
Global Sieve scripts |
/var/mail/vhosts/ or /home/vmail/ |
Mailbox storage |
/var/log/dovecot.log |
Service log |
/var/log/dovecot-info.log |
Verbose log (when enabled) |
/var/run/dovecot/ |
Sockets, PIDs |
Always edit local.conf for overrides — never edit files in conf.d/ directly. Distro upgrades will clobber them.
Quick config dump:
doveconf -n
Shows the effective config with all includes resolved and defaults stripped. The single most useful command when troubleshooting.
Sign in to keep track of what you have read.