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



NAME
       doveadm-expunge - Expunge messages matching given search query

SYNOPSIS
       doveadm [-Dv] expunge [-S socket_path] search_query
       doveadm [-Dv] expunge [-S socket_path] -A search_query
       doveadm [-Dv] expunge [-S socket_path] -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 executed 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, only matching mails of the given user(s) will be expunged.

OPTIONS
       Global doveadm(1) options:

       -D     Enables verbosity and debug messages.

       -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  iter-
              ate_filter  settings  in  /etc/dovecot/dovecot-ldap.conf.ext match your LDAP schema.  Otherwise doveadm(1) will be
              unable to iterate over all users.

       -S socket_path
              The option's argument is either an absolute path to a local UNIX domain socket, or  a  hostname  and  port  (host-
              name: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 -u user was specified, the command will be executed with the environment 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.doeATexample.org mailbox Spam savedbefore 2w

REPORTING BUGS
       Report bugs, including doveconf -n output, to the Dovecot Mailing List <dovecotATdovecot.org>.  Information about  report-
       ing 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 v2.0                                               2010-11-25                                         DOVEADM-EXPUNGE(1)