build dovecot from scratch

grab the latest release

ver=2.3.14
wget https://dovecot.org/releases/2.3/dovecot-$ver.tar.gz
wget https://dovecot.org/releases/2.3/dovecot-$ver.tar.gz.sig
gpg --verify dovecot-$ver.tar.gz.sig
gpg --recv-key ED409DA1
gpg --verify dovecot-$ver.tar.gz.sig

you should have a good signature with this fingerprint

Primary key fingerprint: 2BE7 4AAB 3EE7 54DF B9C8  0D33 18A3 48AE ED40 9DA1

eventually add Kerberos support on your distro e.g.

slackpkg install krb5 pam-krb5

extract and build

tar xzf dovecot-$ver.tar.gz
cd dovecot-$ver/
./configure --help
./configure --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var \
    --without-nss --without-sql --without-pgsql --without-mysql --without-sqlite --without-cassandra \
    --with-gssapi=yes --with-ntlm
grep ^SSL Makefile # eventually points to LibreSSL in /usr/local/
echo $MAKEFLAGS
screen -S build
time nice make > ../dovecot.log && echo BUILT
# 25m25.453s
nice make install
echo /usr/local/lib >> /etc/ld.so.conf
ldconfig

prepare the system – create groups and users

grep dove /etc/passwd # no exist
grep dove /etc/group # no exist

slackware

groupadd -g 94 dovecot
useradd --system -M -d /dev/null -u 94 -g dovecot -s /sbin/nologin dovecot

groupadd -g 95 dovenull
useradd --system -M -d /dev/null -u 95 -g dovenull -s /sbin/nologin dovenull

netbsd

groupadd -g 42 dovecot
useradd -d /dev/null -u 42 -g dovecot -s /sbin/nologin dovecot
#-c "Dovecot unprivileged user"

groupadd -g 43 dovenull
useradd -d /dev/null -u 43 -g dovenull -s /sbin/nologin dovenull
#-c "Dovecot login user"

so you’re now ready to proceed

Resources

Ubuntu/Debian: Installing Nginx/Postfix/Dovecot using LibreSSL https://zurgl.com/ubuntu-debian-installing-nginx-postfix-dovecot-using-libressl/