Dovecot Instalation Testing

Check that it's listening
check that Dovecot is listening for connections from locahost

$ telnet localhost 143
Trying ::1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
* OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 LITERAL+ SASL-IR LOGIN-REFERRALS ID ENABLE IDLE STARTTLS AUTH=PLAIN] Dovecot ready.
^]

check from remote host

$ telnet nebula.anekarupatera.lan 143
Trying 192.168.110.254...
Connected to nebula.anekarupatera.lan.
Escape character is '^]'.
* OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 LITERAL+ SASL-IR LOGIN-REFERRALS ID ENABLE IDLE STARTTLS AUTH=PLAIN] Dovecot ready.
^]

Check that it's allowing logins
check from localhost

$ telnet localhost 143
Trying ::1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
* OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 LITERAL+ SASL-IR LOGIN-REFERRALS ID ENABLE IDLE STARTTLS AUTH=PLAIN] Dovecot ready.
a login diantokam ********
a OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 LITERAL+ SASL-IR LOGIN-REFERRALS ID ENABLE IDLE SORT SORT=DISPLAY THREAD=REFERENCES THREAD=REFS MULTIAPPEND UNSELECT CHILDREN NAMESPACE UIDPLUS LIST-EXTENDED I18NLEVEL=1 CONDSTORE QRESYNC ESEARCH ESORT SEARCHRES WITHIN CONTEXT=SEARCH LIST-STATUS] Logged in
^]

check from remote host

$ telnet nebula.anekarupatera.lan 143
Trying 192.168.110.254...
Connected to nebula.anekarupatera.lan.
Escape character is '^]'.
* OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 LITERAL+ SASL-IR LOGIN-REFERRALS ID ENABLE IDLE STARTTLS AUTH=PLAIN] Dovecot ready.
a login diantokam ********
a OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 LITERAL+ SASL-IR LOGIN-REFERRALS ID ENABLE IDLE SORT SORT=DISPLAY THREAD=REFERENCES THREAD=REFS MULTIAPPEND UNSELECT CHILDREN NAMESPACE UIDPLUS LIST-EXTENDED I18NLEVEL=1 CONDSTORE QRESYNC ESEARCH ESORT SEARCHRES WITHIN CONTEXT=SEARCH LIST-STATUS] Logged in
^]

check that it find inbox after login, do " b select inbox"

b select inbox
* FLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Deleted \Seen \Draft)
* OK [PERMANENTFLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Deleted \Seen \Draft \*)] Flags permitted.
* 6 EXISTS
* 0 RECENT
* OK [UIDVALIDITY 1321690865] UIDs valid
* OK [UIDNEXT 906] Predicted next UID
* OK [HIGHESTMODSEQ 1] Highest
b OK [READ-WRITE] Select completed.

Check that it finds other mailboxes after login, do "d lsub "" *"

d lsub "" *
* LSUB () "." "Sent"
* LSUB () "." "Trash"
* LSUB () "." "Drafts"
d OK Lsub completed.

Make a graceful exit

e logout
* BYE Logging out
e OK Logout completed.

Note

^] = Ctrl + ]

Done

Source