Mail User

src/lib-storage/mail-user.h describes mail user. The struct contains all kinds of useful information about the user that can be accessed directly. Some of the most useful things you can do with a user are:

• user->username gives you the actual username string (e.g. user@domain.org).

• user->set gives you access to user’s settings.

• user->namespaces points to a linked list of user’s namespaces.

• mail_user_get_home() returns user’s home directory, if there’s one.

• mail_user_home_expand() expands ~/ at the beginning of given path to user’s actual home directory.

• mail_user_plugin_getenv() returns value for a setting defined in plugin {} section.

Typically each new IMAP/POP3/etc. connection creates a single mail user. If the same process handles multiple connections for the same user, they don’t share the same mail_user (especially since each mail_user has a unique session ID).

If a user has shared mailboxes from other users (not public namespaces), a mail user is also created whenever necessary to list/access the user’s mailboxes. Again there is no attempt to share the created mail user with other connections.