doveadm-expunge

DOVEADM-EXPUNGE(1)                  Dovecot                 DOVEADM-EXPUNGE(1)

NAME
       doveadm-expunge - Expunge messages matching given search query

SYNOPSIS
       doveadm [-Dv] expunge [-S socket_path] [-d] search_query
       doveadm [-Dv] expunge [-S socket_path] [-d] -A search_query
       doveadm [-Dv] expunge [-S socket_path] [-d] -F file search_query
       doveadm [-Dv] expunge [-S socket_path] [-d] -u user search_query

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 doveadm fetch or doveadm search 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.

OPTIONS
       Global doveadm(1) options:

       -D     Enables verbosity and debug messages.

       -o setting=value
              Overrides  the  configuration  setting  from  /etc/dovecot/dove-
              cot.conf and from the userdb with the given value.  In order  to
              override  multiple settings, the -o option may be specified mul-
              tiple 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  iter-
              ate_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.  Oth-
              erwise doveadm(1) will be unable to iterate over all users.

       -F file
              Execute the command for all the users in the file.  This is sim-
              ilar 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.

       -S socket_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.

       -u user/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  -F file  option,  nor  the
              -u user was specified, the command will be executed with the en-
              vironment of the currently logged in user.

ARGUMENTS
       search_query
              Expunge   messages   matching   this    search    query.     See
              doveadm-search-query(7) for details.

EXAMPLE
       This example expunges messages from Spam mailbox that were saved/copied
       there more than two weeks ago:

       doveadm expunge -u jane.doe@example.org mailbox Spam savedbefore 2w

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.html

SEE 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)