DOVEAD-USER

Section: Dovecot (1)
Updated: May 2026
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NAME

dovead-user- Perform a user lookup in Dovecot's userdbs  

SYNOPSIS

doveadm [lB]GLOBAL OPTIONS[rB] user [lB]-a userdb_socket_path[rB] [lB]-e template[rB] [lB]-f field[rB] [lB]-u[rB] [lB]-x auth_info[rB] user...  

DESCRIPTION

The user command is used to perform a user lookup- to show what information Dovecot sees about the user (s), or if it exists at all in the configured userdb (s). The auth_info may be useful when the userdb is for example a SQL database and you are using %variables, like %{protocol} or %{local_ip}, in the userdb_sql_query setting. Or when you have configured the userdb in a way like this:

userdb passw-file {
  passwd_file_path = /etc/%{protocol}.passwd
}

 

GLOBAL OPTIONS

Global doveadm(1) options: -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 -o.

-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.

 

OPTIONS

-a userdb_socket_path

This option is used to specify an absolute path to an alternative UNIX domain socket. By default doveadm(1) will use the socket /rundir/aut-userdb. The socket may be located in another directory, when the default base_dir setting was overridden in /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf.

-e template

When this option and a string with %variables is given, doveadm(1) will show the expanded string for the user. This option can't be used together with the -f or -u options.

-f field

When this option and the name of a userdb field is given, doveadm(1) will show only the value of the specified field. This option can't be used together with the -e or -u options.

-u

When this option is given, doveadm(1) will only show values from the userdb. Without -u parameter if any of the uid, gid, home or mail_path fields are missing, their defaults are taken from configuration file. This option can't be used together with the -e or -f options.

-x auth_info

auth_info specifies additional conditions for the user command. The auth_info option string has to be given as name = value pair. For multiple conditions the -x option could be supplied multiple times. Possible names for the auth_info are: service

The service for which the userdb lookup should be tested. The value may be the name of a service, commonly used with Dovecot. For example: imap, pop3 or smtp.

session

Session identifier.

lip

The local IP address (server) for the test.

rip

The remote IP address (client) for the test.

lport

The local port, e.g. 143

rport

The remote port, e.g. 24567

real_lip

The local IP to which the client connected on this host.

real_rip

The remote IP where client connected from to this host.

real_lport

The local port to which client connected to to this host.

real_rport

The remote port from where the client connected from to this host.

forward_<field>

Field to forward as %{forward:field} to auth process.

 

ARGUMENTS

user

Is a user's login name. Depending on the configuration, a login name may be for example jane or lajohn@example.comra. It's also possible to use '*' and '?' wildcards (e.g. -u [rs]*@example.org).

 

EXAMPLE

Perform a user lookup for the users jane and lajohn@example.comra:

doveadm user jane john@example.com

userdb: jane
  uid       : 8001
  gid       : 8001
  home      : /home/jane
  mail_path : ~/sdbox
  plugins   : sieve
  quota_storage_size: 150M

userdb: john@example.com
  home      : /srv/mail/8/70312/79832
  uid       : 79832
  gid       : 70312
  mail_path : ~/mdbox

User lookup, using wildcards:

doveadm user [rs]*.?oe@example.net

jane.doe@example.net
judy.roe@example.net
john.doe@example.net

 

REPORTING BUGS

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

SEE ALSO

doveadm(1)

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Index

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

GLOBAL OPTIONS

OPTIONS

ARGUMENTS

EXAMPLE

REPORTING BUGS

SEE ALSO