DOVEADM-ALTMOVE(1) Dovecot DOVEADM-ALTMOVE(1)
NAME
doveadm-altmove - Move matching mails to the alternative storage (dbox-
only)
SYNOPSIS
doveadm [GLOBAL OPTIONS] altmove [-r] [-S socket_path] -A search_query
doveadm [GLOBAL OPTIONS] altmove [-r] [-S socket_path] -F file
search_query
doveadm [GLOBAL OPTIONS] altmove [-r] [-S socket_path] --no-userdb-
lookup search_query
doveadm [GLOBAL OPTIONS] altmove [-r] [-S socket_path] -u user
search_query
DESCRIPTION
This command can be used with sdbox or mdbox storage to move mails to
alternative storage path when mail_alt_path is specified for the mail
location.
In the first form, doveadm(1) will execute the
In the second form, the command will be performed for all users listed
in the given file.
In the third form, the command will be performed for the user contained
in the USER environment variable.
In the last form, only matching mails of the given user(s) will be moved
to the alternative storage.
GLOBAL OPTIONS
Global doveadm(1)
-D
Enables verbosity and debug messages.
-O
Do not read any config file, just use defaults. The dovecot_stor-
age_version setting defaults to the latest version, but can be over-
ridden with
-k
Preserve entire environment for doveadm, not just import_environment
setting.
-v
Enables verbosity, including progress counter.
-i instance-name
If using multiple Dovecot instances, choose the config file based on
this instance name.
See instance_name setting for more information.
-c config-file
Read configuration from the given config-file. By default it first
reads config socket, and then falls back to /etc/dovecot/dove-
cot.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 mul-
tiple settings, the -o option may be specified multiple times.
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 lay-
out.
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.
--no-userdb-lookup
Do not perform userdb lookup. Use the USER environment variable to
specify the username.
-r
When the -r option is given this command works the other way round.
Mails will be moved from the alternative storage back to the default
mail location.
-S socket_path
The option's argument is either an absolute path to a local UNIX do-
main 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).
ARGUMENTS
search_query
Messages matching this search query will be moved to alt storage.
See doveadm-search-query(7) for details.
FILES
/etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-mail.conf
Mailbox locations and namespaces.
EXAMPLE
This example moves seen mails older than one week to alternative storage
under /nfsmount:
mail_driver = mdbox
mail_path = ~/mdbox
mail_alt_path = /nfsmount/%{home}/mdbox
doveadm altmove -u johnd@example.com seen savedbefore 1w<
REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs, including doveconf -n output, to the Dovecot Mailing List
⟨dovecot@dovecot.org⟩. Information about reporting bugs is available at:
https://dovecot.org/bugreport.html
SEE ALSO
doveadm(1)
78ffb79 March 2025 DOVEADM-ALTMOVE(1)
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