DOVEADM-FETCH(1) Dovecot DOVEADM-FETCH(1)
NAME
doveadm-fetch - Fetch partial/full messages or message information
SYNOPSIS
doveadm [GLOBAL OPTIONS] [-f formatter] fetch [-S socket_path] -A fields
search_query
doveadm [GLOBAL OPTIONS] [-f formatter] fetch [-S socket_path] -F file
fields search_query
doveadm [GLOBAL OPTIONS] [-f formatter] fetch [-S socket_path] --no-
userdb-lookup fields search_query
doveadm [GLOBAL OPTIONS] [-f formatter] fetch [-S socket_path] -u user
fields search_query
DESCRIPTION
can be used to fetch messages' contents and metadata. This can be use-
ful for scripts and for debugging. If you want to fetch messages one at
a time, see doveadm-search(1).
• Please respect your users' privacy.
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.
-f formatter
Specifies the formatter for formatting the output. Supported format-
ters are:
flow
prints each line with key=value pairs.
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.
This command uses by default the output formatter pager.
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.
-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
fields
One or more result field names to display, if the search_query
matches any messages. In order to specify multiple fields, enclose
them in single or double quotes.
Supported fields are:
binary : Message body in decoded format.
binary.<section> : Part of the body decoded, e.g. binary.1
body : The body of a message.
body.<section> : Part of the body, e.g. body.1
body.preview : Short preview of the body.
body.snippet : Old alias for preview.
date.received : Date and time of final delivery, when the message
was delivered to a user's mailbox for the first time.
The internal date and time of the source message, when the message
was copied by the IMAP COPY command.
The date-time attribute when present, otherwise the current time,
when the message was saved by the IMAP APPEND command.
date.received.unixtime : date.received as unix timestamp.
date.saved : Date and time when the message was saved to mailbox.
date.saved.unixtime : date.saved as unix timestamp.
date.sent : Date and time of the message's Date: header.
date.sent.unixtime : date.sent as unix timestamp.
flags : A message's IMAP flags, e.g. \Seen
guid : A message's globally unique identifier.
hdr : The header of the message.
hdr.<name> : Named header from the message.
: IMAP BODY output of the message (see RFC 3501).
: IMAP BODYSTRUCTURE output of the message (see RFC 3501).
: IMAP ENVELOPE output of the message (see RFC 3501).
mailbox : Name of the mailbox, in which the message is stored. The
name is in UTF-8.
mailbox-guid : The globally unique identifier of the mailbox, in
which the message is located.
modseq : Modification sequence number for the mail.
pop3.order : A message's order number within a mailbox.
pop3.uidl : A message's unique (POP3) identifier within a mailbox.
refcount : Mail reference count, mdbox only.
seq : A message's sequence number in a mailbox.
size.physical : A message's physical size.
size.virtual : A message's virtual size, computed with CRLF line
terminators.
storageid : Mailbox driver specific ID for the mail.
text : The entire message (header and body).
text.utf8 : The entire message (header and body) — UTF-8 encoded.
uid : A message's unique (IMAP) identifier in a mailbox.
user : A message owner's login name.
search_query
Fetch messages matching this search query. See doveadm-search-
query(7) for details.
EXAMPLE
This example based on the first example from doveadm-search(1). We are
fetching the fields
doveadm fetch -u bob "mailbox date.sent" mailbox-guid 3a94c928d66ebe4bda04000015811c6a uid 8,25,45
mailbox: dovecot/pigeonhole/2.0
date.sent: 2010-01-19 01:17:41 (+0100)
^L
mailbox: dovecot/pigeonhole/2.0
date.sent: 2010-01-28 09:38:49 (+0100)
^L
mailbox: dovecot/pigeonhole/2.0
date.sent: 2010-03-28 18:41:14 (+0200)
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-FETCH(1)
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