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DOVEAD-LOG

Section: Dovecot (1)
Updated: February 2026
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NAME

dovead-log- Locate, test or reopen Dovecot's log files

SYNOPSIS

doveadm [lB]GLOBAL OPTIONS[rB] log errors [lB]-s min_timestamp[rB] doveadm [lB]GLOBAL OPTIONS[rB] log find [lB]directory[rB] doveadm [lB]GLOBAL OPTIONS[rB] log reopen doveadm [lB]GLOBAL OPTIONS[rB] log test

DESCRIPTION

are used to locate and reopen the log files of dovecot(1). It's also possible to test the configured targets of the

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.

COMMANDS

log errors

doveadm [lB]GLOBAL OPTIONS[rB] log errors [lB]-s min_timestamp[rB] The log errors command is used to show the last- up to 1,000- errors and warnings. If no output is generated, no errors have occurred since the last start. -s min_timestamp

: An integer value, representing seconds since the epoch- also known as Unix timestamp. When a min_timestamp was given, doveadm(1) will only show errors occurred since that point in time.

log find

doveadm [lB]GLOBAL OPTIONS[rB] log find [lB]directory[rB]
command is used to show the location of the log files, to which dovecot(1) logs its messages through

log reopen

doveadm [lB]GLOBAL OPTIONS[rB] log reopen This command causes doveadm to send a SIGUSR1 signal to master process, which causes it to reopen all log files configured in the log_path, info_log_path and debug_log_path settings. These settings are configured in /etc/dovecot/conf.d/1-logging.conf. The master process also signals the log process to do the same. This is mainly useful after manually rotating the log files.

log test

doveadm [lB]GLOBAL OPTIONS[rB] log test This command causes doveadm to write the message "This is Dovecot's priority log (timestamp)" to the configured log files. The used priorities are: debug, info, warning, error and fatal.

EXAMPLE

This example shows how to locate the log files used by dovecot(1):

doveadm log find

Looking for log files from /var/log
Debug: /var/log/dovecot.debug
Info: /var/log/mail.log
Warning: /var/log/mail.log
Error: /var/log/mail.log
Fatal: /var/log/mail.log

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

EXAMPLE

REPORTING BUGS

SEE ALSO