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You are here: manpages

DOVEADM

Section: Dovecot (1)
Updated: February 2026
Index Return to Main Contents

NAME

doveadm- Dovecot's administration utility

SYNOPSIS

doveadm [lB]-DOkv[rB] [lB]-i instanc-name[rB] [lB]-c confi-file[rB] [lB]-o key=value [lB] .. [rB][rB] [lB]-f formatter[rB] command [lB]command_options[rB] [lB]command_arguments[rB]

DESCRIPTION

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 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.

COMMANDS

These commands work directly with Dovecot's master process.

doveadm reload

Force dovecot(1) to reload the configuration.

doveadm stop

Stop dovecot(1) and all its child processes.

ADDITIONAL MASTER COMMANDS

doveadm config

doveconf(1), Dump Dovecot configuration.

doveadm exec

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

doveadm instance

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

doveadm kick

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

doveadm log

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

doveadm penalty

dovead-penalty(1), Show current penalties.

doveadm proxy

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

doveadm who

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

AUTHENTICATION COMMANDS

doveadm auth

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

doveadm pw

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

doveadm user

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

MAILBOX COMMANDS

doveadm acl

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

doveadm altmove

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

doveadm backup

dovead-sync(1), Dovecot's on-way mailbox synchronization utility.

doveadm copy

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

doveadm deduplicate

dovead-deduplicate(1), Expunge duplicate messages.

doveadm dump

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

doveadm expunge

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

doveadm fetch

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

doveadm flags

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

doveadm forc-resync

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

doveadm fs

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

doveadm fts

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

doveadm import

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

doveadm index

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

doveadm mail fs

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

doveadm mailbox

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

doveadm mailbox cryptokey

dovead-mailbo-cryptokey(1), Mail crypt plugin management.

doveadm move

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

doveadm purge

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

doveadm quota

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

doveadm rebuild

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

doveadm save

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

doveadm search

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

doveadm stats

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

doveadm sync

dovead-sync(1), Dovecot's tw-way mailbox synchronization utility.

EXIT STATUS

doveadm will exit with one of the following values: 0

: Selected command was executed successful.

: Command line usage error.

: Data format error or operation is not possible.

: User does not exist.

: Input file, address or other resource does not exist.

: Cannot create output file.

: There was some temporary error, check logs.

: Protocol error during remote host connection.

: Permission error.

: Configuration error.

127

: Unknown error.

ENVIRONMENT

USER

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

FILES

/etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf

: Dovecot's main configuration file.

/etc/dovecot/conf.d/1-mail.conf

: Mailbox locations and namespaces.

/etc/dovecot/conf.d/9-plugin.conf

: Plugin specific settings.

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