DOKK / manpages / debian 12 / dovecot-core / doveadm-move.1.en
DOVEADM-MOVE(1) Dovecot DOVEADM-MOVE(1)

doveadm-move - Move messages matching the given search query into another mailbox
doveadm-copy - Copy messages matching the given search query into another mailbox

doveadm [-Dv] move [-S socket_path] destination [user source_user] search_query
doveadm [-Dv] move [-S socket_path] -A destination [user source_user] search_query
doveadm [-Dv] move [-S socket_path] -F file destination [user source_user] search_query
doveadm [-Dv] move [-S socket_path] -u user destination [user source_user] search_query

doveadm [-Dv] copy [-S socket_path] destination [user source_user] search_query
doveadm [-Dv] copy [-S socket_path] -A destination [user source_user] search_query
doveadm [-Dv] copy [-S socket_path] -F file destination [user source_user] search_query
doveadm [-Dv] copy [-S socket_path] -u user destination [user source_user] search_query

doveadm move can be used for moving mails between mailboxes for one or more users. The search_query is used to restrict which messages are moved into the destination mailbox.
doveadm copy behaves the same as doveadm move, except that copied messages will not be expunged after copying.

In the first form, doveadm(1) will execute the move/copy action with the environment of the logged in system user.

In the second form, doveadm(1) will iterate over all users, found in the configured user_db(s), and move or copy each user's messages, matching the given search_query, into the user's destination mailbox.

In the third form, doveadm(1) will iterate over all users, found in the given file, and move or copy each user's messages, matching the given search_query, into the user's destination mailbox.

In the fourth form, matching mails will be moved or copied only for given user(s).

Global doveadm(1) options:

Enables verbosity and debug messages.
Overrides the configuration setting from /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf and from the userdb with the given value. In order to override multiple settings, the -o option may be specified multiple times.
Enables verbosity, including progress counter.

Command specific options:

If the -A option is present, the command will be performed for all users. Using this option in combination with system users from userdb { driver = passwd } is not recommended, because it contains also users with a lower UID than the one configured with the first_valid_uid setting.

When the SQL userdb module is used make sure that the iterate_query setting in /etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf.ext matches your database layout. When using the LDAP userdb module, make sure that the iterate_attrs and iterate_filter settings in /etc/dovecot/dovecot-ldap.conf.ext match your LDAP schema. Otherwise doveadm(1) will be unable to iterate over all users.

Execute the command for all the users in the file. This is similar to the -A option, but instead of getting the list of users from the userdb, they are read from the given file. The file contains one username per line.
The option's argument is either an absolute path to a local UNIX domain socket, or a hostname and port (hostname:port), in order to connect a remote host via a TCP socket.

This allows an administrator to execute doveadm(1) mail commands through the given socket.

Run the command only for the given user. It's also possible to use '*' and '?' wildcards (e.g. -u *@example.org).
When neither the -A option, nor the -F file option, nor the -u user was specified, the command will be executed with the environment of the currently logged in user.

The name of the destination mailbox, into which the mails should be moved or copied. The destination mailbox must exist, otherwise this command will fail.
Move/copy messages matching the given search query. See doveadm-search-query(7) for details.
The keyword user followed by a valid user name. When this argument is present, doveadm(1) will apply the search_query to the source_user's mail_location.
Limitation: Currently the users, specified by -u user and user source_user, must share the same UID and GID.

Move jane's messages - received in September 2011 - from her INBOX into her archive.

doveadm move -u jane Archive/2011/09 mailbox INBOX BEFORE \
2011-10-01 SINCE 01-Sep-2011

Report bugs, including doveconf -n output, to the Dovecot Mailing List <dovecot@dovecot.org>. Information about reporting bugs is available at: http://dovecot.org/bugreport.html

doveadm(1), doveadm-search-query(7)

2015-05-09 Dovecot v2.3