DOVECONF(1)

NAME
doveconf - Dovecot's configuration dumping utility

SYNOPSIS

doveconf [-adnPNUx] [-c config-file] [-f filter]

doveconf [-n] [-c config-file] section_name ...

doveconf [-h] [-c config-file] [-f filter] setting_name ...

DESCRIPTION

doveconf reads and parses Dovecot's configuration files and converts them into a simpler format used by the rest of Dovecot.

All standalone programs, such as dovecot(1), will first get their settings by executing doveconf, unless they can get the settings by connecting to the config UNIX socket.

For system administrators, doveconf is mainly useful for dumping the configuration in easy human readable output.

OPTIONS

-a

        Show all settings with their currently configured values.

-c config-file

        Read configuration from the given config-file. By default /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf will be used.

-d

        Show the setting's default value instead of the one currently configured.

-f filter

        Show the matching configuration for the specified filter condition. The filter option string has to be given as name = value pair. For multiple filter conditions the -f option can be supplied multiple times.

        Possible names for the filter are:

            protocol : The protocol, e.g. imap or pop3

    local_name : The local hostname for TLS SNI matching, e.g. mail.example.com.

    This matches filters which were configured like:

        local_name mail.example.com { # special settings }

    local : The local hostname or IP address.

    This matches filters which were configured like:

        local 1.2.3.0/24 { # special settings }

    remote : The client's hostname or IP address.

    This matches filters which were configured like:

        remote 1.2.3.0/24 { # special settings }

-F

        Show the configuration in a filter-based format, which is how Dovecot internally accesses it. This can be useful for debugging why configuration is not working as expected.

        The settings are grouped into different "structs", which are all accessed independently. A new struct is started in the output as # struct_name.

        Next is the list of filters, which begin with :FILTER followed by the filter in the event filter syntax. An empty filter matches everything. The filters are processed from end to beginning. The settings are taken from the first matching filter (i.e. the last in the output). Since not all filters have all settings defined, the processing continues until all settings have been found.

        Named list filter such as protocols = imap pop3 are shown as protocol/imap=yes and protocol/pop3=yes # stop list. The "stop list" means that the value is not modified by any following filters that match. If the setting was defined as protocols { imap=yes, pop3=yes }, the "stop list" would be missing, because this setting is only adding the protocols, not replacing the list.

        Settings groups are included in :INCLUDE lines. The includes are processed last, after all filters have been applied, so all settings inside the groups can be overridden.

-h

        Hide the setting's name, show only the setting's value.

-n

        Show only settings with non-default values. This is the default behavior when no other parameters are given.

-N

        Show settings with non-default values and explicitly set default values.

-s

        Show also hidden settings. The hidden settings should not be changed normally.

-P

        Show passwords and other sensitive values.

-U

        Ignore all unknown settings in config file.

-x

        Expand configuration variables (e.g. $ENV:foo) and show file contents (from e.g. ssl_server_key_password = \</etc/ssl/password.txt).

section_name

        Show only the current configuration of one or more specified sections.

setting_name

        Show only the setting of one or more setting_name (s) with the

        currently configured value. You can show a setting inside a section

        using '/' as the section separator, e.g. service/imap/executable.

EXAMPLE

When Dovecot was configured to use different settings for some networks/subnets it is possible to show which settings will be applied for a specific connection.

    doveconf -f local=10.0.0.110 -f remote=10.11.1.2 -f protocol=pop3 -n

doveconf can be also used to convert v1.x configuration files into v2.x format.

    doveconf -n -c /oldpath/dovecot.conf > /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf.new

Ask doveconf for a global setting:

    doveconf mail_plugins

    mail_plugins = quota

Ask doveconf for a protocol specific setting. Uses the -h option, in order to hide the setting's name:

    doveconf -h -f protocol=imap login_greeting

    Dovecot ready.

Dump a whole configuration section:

    doveconf service

    service imap {
      ...
    }
    service pop3 {
      ...
    }

Or dump only the imap service:

    doveconf service/imap

    service imap {
      ...
    }

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)