doveadm-expunge - Expunge messages matching given search query
Contents
Arguments
search_query
Expunge messages matching this search query. See doveadm-search-query(7) for details.
Description
This command can be used to expunge mails matching the given search query. It is typically used to
expunge old mails from users' Trash and/or Spam mailboxes. To test which messages a given search query
would match, you can use doveadmfetch or doveadmsearch commands.
In the first form, doveadm(1) will execute the expunge action with the environment of the logged in
system user.
In the second form, the command will be performed for all users.
In the third form, doveadm(1) will expunge messages of the users listed in the given file.
In the fourth form, only matching mails of the given user(s) will be expunged.
Example
This example expunges messages from Spam mailbox that were saved/copied there more than two weeks ago:
doveadmexpunge-ujane.doe@example.orgmailboxSpamsavedbefore2wName
doveadm-expunge - Expunge messages matching given search query
Options
Global doveadm(1) options:
-D Enables verbosity and debug messages.
-osetting=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.
-v Enables verbosity, including progress counter.
Command 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 iterate_query setting in
/etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf.ext matches your database layout. When using the LDAP userdb
module, make sure that the iterate_attrs and iterate_filter settings in /etc/dovecot/dovecot-ldap.conf.ext match your LDAP schema. Otherwise doveadm(1) will be unable to iterate over all
users.
-Ffile
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.
-d Delete the mailbox if it is empty after expunging.
-Ssocket_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.
-uuser/mask
Run the command only for the given user. It's also possible to use '*' and '?' wildcards (e.g. -u
*@example.org).
When neither the -A option, nor the -Ffile option, nor the -uuser was specified, the command
will be executed with the environment of the currently logged in user.
Reporting Bugs
Report bugs, including doveconf-n output, to the Dovecot Mailing List <dovecot@dovecot.org>.
Information about reporting bugs is available at: http://dovecot.org/bugreport.htmlSee Also
doveadm(1), doveadm-fetch(1), doveadm-purge(1), doveadm-search(1), doveadm-search-query(7) Dovecot v2.3 2015-05-09 DOVEADM-EXPUNGE(1)
Synopsis
doveadm [-Dv] expunge [-Ssocket_path] [-d] search_querydoveadm [-Dv] expunge [-Ssocket_path] [-d] -Asearch_querydoveadm [-Dv] expunge [-Ssocket_path] [-d] -Ffilesearch_querydoveadm [-Dv] expunge [-Ssocket_path] [-d] -uusersearch_query
