DOVECOT(1)                                                   Dovecot                                                  DOVECOT(1)



NAME
       dovecot - a secure and highly configurable IMAP and POP3 server

SYNOPSIS
       dovecot [-Fp] [-c config-file]
       dovecot -a [-c config-file]
       dovecot -n [-c config-file]
       dovecot --build-options
       dovecot --help
       dovecot --version
       dovecot reload
       dovecot stop

DESCRIPTION
       Dovecot  is  an  open  source  IMAP and POP3 server for Linux/UNIX-like systems, written with security primarily in mind.
       Dovecot is an excellent choice for both small and large installations.  It's fast, simple to set up, requires no  special
       administration and it uses very little memory.

OPTIONS
       -a     Dump all configuration settings to stdout and exit successfully.  The same as doveconf -a.

       -c config-file
              Start dovecot with an alternative configuration.

       -F     Run dovecot in foreground, do not daemonize.

       -n     Dump non-default settings to stdout and exit successfully.  The same as doveconf -n.

       -p     Prompt for the ssl key password for the configured ssl_key on startup.

       --build-options
              Show Dovecot's build options and exit successfully.

       --help Print a usage message to stdout and exit successfully.

       --version
              Show Dovecot's version and exit successfully.

COMMANDS
       reload Force dovecot to reload its configuration.

       stop   Shutdown dovecot and all its child processes.

       When  shutdown_clients  is  set  to  no, existing sessions will continue to use the old settings, after a dovecot reload.
       Also all sessions will keep alive after a dovecot stop.
       By default all active sessions will be shut down.

SIGNALS
       Dovecot handles the following signals as described:

       HUP    Force dovecot to reload its configuration.

       INT    Shutdown dovecot and all its child processes.

       TERM   Shutdown dovecot and all its child processes.

       USR1   Force dovecot to reopen all configured log files (log_path, info_log_path and debug_log_path).

       The signals ALARM and PIPE are ignored.

FILES
       /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
              Dovecot's main configuration file.

       /etc/dovecot/dovecot-ldap.conf.ext
              Dovecot's LDAP authdb/userdb module configuration file.

       /etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf.ext
              Dovecot's SQL authdb/userdb module configuration file.

       /etc/dovecot/dovecot-dict-sql.conf.ext
              Dovecot's dict configuration with SQL-backend.

       /etc/dovecot/conf.d/auth-*-conf.ext
              Configuration files of different authentication modules.

       /etc/dovecot/conf.d/*.conf
              Configuration files of different services and settings.

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

AUTHOR
       Dovecot  <http://dovecot.org>;  and its manual pages were written by the Dovecot authors <http://dovecot.org/doc/AUTHORS>;,
       mainly Timo Sirainen <tss at iki.fi>,  and  are  licensed  under  the  terms  of  the  MIT  and  LGPLv2.1  licenses,  see
       <http://dovecot.org/doc/COPYING>; for details.

SEE ALSO
       doveadm(1), doveconf(1), dovecot-lda(1), dsync(1)



Dovecot v2.0                                               2010-07-02                                                 DOVECOT(1)