DOKK / manpages / debian 13 / dovecot-core / doveadm.1.en
DOVEADM(1) Dovecot DOVEADM(1)

doveadm - Dovecot's administration utility

doveadm [-DOkv] [-i instance-name] [-c config-file] [-o key=value [ .. ]] [-f formatter] command [command_options] [command_arguments]

doveadm is the Dovecot administration tool. It can be used to manage various parts of Dovecot, as well as access users' mailboxes.

Execute doveadm help, for a command usage listing.

Global doveadm(1)

-D

Enables verbosity and debug messages.

-O

Do not read any config file, just use defaults. The dovecot_storage_version setting defaults to the latest version, but can be overridden with

-k

Preserve entire environment for doveadm, not just import_environment setting.

-v

Enables verbosity, including progress counter.

-i instance-name

If using multiple Dovecot instances, choose the config file based on this instance name.

See instance_name setting for more information.

-c config-file

Read configuration from the given config-file. By default it first reads config socket, and then falls back to /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf. You can also point this to config socket of some instance running compatible version.

-o setting=value

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.

-f formatter

Specifies the formatter for formatting the output. Supported formatters are:

flow

prints each line with key=value pairs.

pager

prints each key: value pair on its own line and separates records with form feed character (^L).

tab

prints a table header followed by tab separated value lines.

table

prints a table header followed by adjusted value lines.

These commands work directly with Dovecot's master process.

Force dovecot(1) to reload the configuration.

Stop dovecot(1) and all its child processes.

doveconf(1), Dump Dovecot configuration.

doveadm-exec(1), Easily execute commands from Dovecot's libexec_dir.

doveadm-instance(1), Manage the list of running Dovecot instances.

doveadm-kick(1), Disconnect users by user name and/or IP address.

doveadm-log(1), Locate, test or reopen Dovecot's log files.

doveadm-penalty(1), Show current penalties.

doveadm-proxy(1), Handle Dovecot proxy connections.

doveadm-who(1), Show who is logged into the Dovecot server.

doveadm-auth(1), Test authentication for a user.

doveadm-pw(1), Dovecot's password hash generator.

doveadm-user(1), Perform a user lookup in Dovecot's userdbs

doveadm-acl(1), Manage Access Control List (ACL).

doveadm-altmove(1), Move matching mails to the alternative storage.

doveadm-sync(1), Dovecot's one-way mailbox synchronization utility.

doveadm-move(1), Copy/move messages matching the given search query into another mailbox.

doveadm-deduplicate(1), Expunge duplicate messages.

doveadm-dump(1), Dump the content of Dovecot's binary mailbox index/log.

doveadm-expunge(1), Expunge messages matching given search query.

doveadm-fetch(1), Fetch messages matching given search query.

doveadm-flags(1), Add, remove or replace messages' flags.

doveadm-force-resync(1), Repair broken mailboxes, in case Dovecot doesn't automatically do that.

doveadm-fs(1), Interact with the abstract mail storage filesystem.

doveadm-fts(1), Manipulate the Full Text Search (FTS) index.

doveadm-import(1), Import messages matching given search query.

doveadm-index(1), Index messages in a given mailbox.

doveadm-mail-fs(1), Interact with the abstract mail storage filesystem in a user context.

doveadm-mailbox(1), Various commands related to handling mailboxes.

doveadm-mailbox-cryptokey(1), Mail crypt plugin management.

doveadm-move(1), Move messages matching the given search query into another mailbox.

doveadm-purge(1), Remove messages with refcount=0 from mdbox files.

doveadm-quota(1), Initialize/recalculate or show current quota usage.

doveadm-rebuild(1), Rebuild index metadata from message data.

doveadm-save(1), Save email to users' mailboxes.

doveadm-search(1), Show a list of mailbox GUIDs and message UIDs matching given search query.

doveadm-stats(1), Inspect or reset stats.

doveadm-sync(1), Dovecot's two-way mailbox synchronization utility.

doveadm will exit with one of the following values:

0

Selected command was executed successful.

64

Command line usage error.

65

Data format error or operation is not possible.

67

User does not exist.

68

Input file, address or other resource does not exist.

73

Cannot create output file.

75

There was some temporary error, check logs.

76

Protocol error during remote host connection.

77

Permission error.

78

Configuration error.

127

Unknown error.

USER

This environment variable is used to determine the user if a command accepts a user but none was specified.

/etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf

Dovecot's main configuration file.

/etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-mail.conf

Mailbox locations and namespaces.

/etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-plugin.conf

Plugin specific settings.

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

doveadm-help(1)

March 2025 78ffb79