How to enable full-text search (FTS) with Xapian in Dovecot on myVesta (Debian 12)
Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2025 4:47 pm
If your Roundcube search is slow or not working properly on a myVesta mail server running Debian 12, enabling full-text search with Xapian (fts_xapian) for Dovecot can drastically improve performance.
In this post, I’ll walk you through how to install, configure, and index emails using fts_xapian, so you get instant results in Roundcube’s search box.
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Requirements:
Step 1: Install the fts_xapian plugin for Dovecot
Run this command:
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Step 2: Configure Dovecot to use fts_xapian
1. Edit the file:
Add or replace with:
2. Add the plugin to mail_plugins. Open this file:
Make sure this line is added or modified accordingly:
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Step 3: Restart Dovecot
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Step 4: Manually index existing emails
FTS auto-indexing works for new messages, but for existing inboxes you need to index manually.
To index only INBOX:
To index all folders:
Replace [email protected] with the real email address.
You can monitor index creation via:
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Step 5: Test Roundcube search
Now go to Roundcube and test searching for any word that exists in old emails. The results should be instant (under 1 second), even with thousands of messages.
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Notes:
In this post, I’ll walk you through how to install, configure, and index emails using fts_xapian, so you get instant results in Roundcube’s search box.
⸻
Requirements:
- myVesta server (Debian 12)
- Dovecot 2.3.19.1 or newer
- Roundcube Webmail
Step 1: Install the fts_xapian plugin for Dovecot
Run this command:
Code: Select all
apt update
apt install dovecot-fts-xapian -y
Step 2: Configure Dovecot to use fts_xapian
1. Edit the file:
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nano /etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-plugin.conf
Code: Select all
plugin {
fts = xapian
fts_autoindex = yes
}
Code: Select all
nano /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-mail.conf
Code: Select all
mail_plugins = $mail_plugins fts fts_xapian
Step 3: Restart Dovecot
Code: Select all
systemctl restart dovecot
Step 4: Manually index existing emails
FTS auto-indexing works for new messages, but for existing inboxes you need to index manually.
To index only INBOX:
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doveadm index -u [email protected] INBOX
Code: Select all
doveadm mailbox list -u [email protected] | while read box; do
doveadm index -u [email protected] “$box”
done
You can monitor index creation via:
Code: Select all
watch -n 1 ‘du -sh /home/user/mail/domain/office(or some other email adress)/xapian-indexes’
Step 5: Test Roundcube search
Now go to Roundcube and test searching for any word that exists in old emails. The results should be instant (under 1 second), even with thousands of messages.
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Notes:
- If your Dovecot version is older than 2.3.11, this setup may not be needed - search is faster by default.
- FTS is especially useful if your users have large mailboxes or use IMAP search frequently.