Quick Configuration
If you just want to get Dovecot running with typical configuration in a typical environment, here's what you'll have to do:
Contents
Configuration file
If you compiled and installed Dovecot from sources, Dovecot has installed only a /usr/local/etc/dovecot/README file, which contains the path to the installed example configuration files, usually /usr/local/share/doc/dovecot/example-config. Copy the dovecot.conf file and conf.d directory from the example-config directory into /usr/local/etc/dovecot/. Prebuilt packages usually install the configuration files directly into /etc/dovecot/.
You'll find the path by running doveconf -n | head -n 1.
It's a good idea to read through all the files and see what settings you might want to change.
Authentication
You'll probably be using PAM authentication. See the PAM page for how to configure it. A typical configuration with Linux would be to create /etc/pam.d/dovecot which contains:
auth required pam_unix.so account required pam_unix.so
If you're using something else, see password databases and user databases.
Mail Location
You can let Dovecot do its automatic mail location detection, but if that doesn't work, you can set the location manually in mail_location setting. See MailLocation for more information.
Mbox
Make sure that all software accessing the mboxes are using the same locking methods in the same order. The order is important to prevent deadlocking. From Dovecot's side you can change these from mbox_read_locks and mbox_write_locks settings. See MboxLocking for more information.
If you're using /var/mail/ directory for INBOXes, you may need to set mail_privileged_group = mail so Dovecot can create dotlocks there.
For better performance you may want to set mbox_very_dirty_syncs = yes option.
Maildir
For better performance you may want to set maildir_very_dirty_syncs = yes option.
Client Workarounds
Check imap_client_workarounds and pop3_client_workarounds and see if you want to enable more of them than the defaults.
SSL and Plaintext Authentication
If you intend to use SSL, set ssl_cert and ssl_key settings. Otherwise set ssl = no. Easiest way to get SSL certificates built is to use Dovecot's doc/mkcert.sh script. See SSL.
By default Dovecot doesn't allow users to send passwords unencrypted to the server. Usually if SSL is enabled, it's a good idea not to allow this. However, if you don't offer SSL for some reason, you'll probably want to set disable_plaintext_auth = no.
NFS
If you're using NFS or some other remote filesystem that's shared between multiple computers, you should read NFS.
Running
See RunningDovecot and Logging.