DOVEAD-DICT

Section: Dovecot (1)
Updated: February 2026
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NAME

dovead-dict- Commands related to dictionary manipulation  

SYNOPSIS

doveadm [lB]GLOBAL OPTIONS[rB] dict command [lB]-u user[rB] [lB]OPTIONS[rB] confi-filte-name [lB]args[rB] doveadm [lB]GLOBAL OPTIONS[rB] mail dict command [lB]OPTIONS[rB] confi-filte-name [lB]args[rB]  

DESCRIPTION

doveadm dict and doveadm mail dict can be used to query and modify dictionary entries. The doveadm mail dict command can be used within a specific user context. This may be useful if e.g. userdb lookup returns use-specific dict settings. Otherwise the commands behave identically. confi-filte-name

Filter name to use when looking up the dict settings. For example mail_attribute, quota_clone. It's also possible to use an empty filter name and specify the dict settings using the -o parameters.

 

GLOBAL OPTIONS

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 instanc-name

If using multiple Dovecot instances, choose the config file based on this instance name. See instance_name setting for more information.

-c confi-file

Read configuration from the given confi-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.

json

prints a JSON array of JSON objects.

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.

 

OPTIONS

doveadm dict comman-specific options: -u user

The user to use.

doveadm mail dict comman-specific options: -A

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 userdb_sql_iterate_query setting setting matches your database layout. When using the LDAP userdb module, make sure that the userdb_fields setting and userdb_ldap_iterate_fields setting settings match your LDAP schema. Otherwise doveadm(1) will be unable to iterate over all users.

-F file

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.

-S socket_path

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.

-u user/mask

Run the command only for the given user. It's also possible to use '*' and '?' wildcards (e.g.-u *@example.org).

 

COMMANDS

 

get

doveadm [lB]GLOBAL OPTIONS[rB] dict get [lB]-u user[rB] confi-filte-name key doveadm [lB]GLOBAL OPTIONS[rB] mail dict get [lB]-A | -u user | -F file[rB] [lB]-S socket_path[rB] confi-filte-name key Fetch a key from a dictionary. key

The key to fetch.

 

iter

doveadm [lB]GLOBAL OPTIONS[rB] dict iter [lB]-u user[rB] [lB]-1RV[rB] confi-filte-name prefix doveadm [lB]GLOBAL OPTIONS[rB] mail dict iter [lB]-A | -u user | -F file[rB] [lB]-S socket_path[rB] [lB]-1RV[rB] confi-filte-name prefix Find the keys matching the a prefix in a dictionary. -1

Exact match.

-R

Recurse.

-V

Don't print values, just key names

prefix

The key prefix to look for.

List keys into the dictionary.  

inc

doveadm [lB]GLOBAL OPTIONS[rB] dict inc [lB]-u user[rB] [lB]-t timestam-msecs[rB] confi-filte-name key diff doveadm [lB]GLOBAL OPTIONS[rB] mail dict inc [lB]-A | -u user | -F file[rB] [lB]-S socket_path[rB] [lB]-t timestam-msecs[rB] confi-filte-name key diff Increment the value of a numeric key in the keys into the dictionary. -t timestam-msecs

Set the timestamp also.

key

The key to increment.

diff

The amount of the increment.

 

set

doveadm [lB]GLOBAL OPTIONS[rB] dict set [lB]-u user[rB] [lB]-t timestam-msecs[rB] [lB]-e expir-secs[rB] confi-filte-name key value doveadm [lB]GLOBAL OPTIONS[rB] mail dict set [lB]-A | -u user | -F file[rB] [lB]-S socket_path[rB] [lB]-t timestam-msecs[rB] [lB]-e expir-secs[rB] confi-filte-name key value Set/create keys into the dictionary. -t timestam-msecs

Set the timestamp also.

-e expir-secs

Set the key duration also.

key

The key to set.

value

The value to set.

 

unset

doveadm [lB]GLOBAL OPTIONS[rB] dict unset [lB]-u user[rB] [lB]-t timestam-msecs[rB] confi-filte-name key doveadm [lB]GLOBAL OPTIONS[rB] mail dict unset [lB]-A | -u user | -F file[rB] [lB]-S socket_path[rB] [lB]-t timestam-msecs[rB] confi-filte-name key Remove a key from the dictionary. -t timestam-msecs

Set the timestamp also.

key

The key to unset.

 

REPORTING BUGS

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

SEE ALSO

doveadm(1)

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Index

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

GLOBAL OPTIONS

OPTIONS

COMMANDS

get

iter

inc

set

unset

REPORTING BUGS

SEE ALSO