doveadm-user1
Perform a user lookup in dovecot's userdbs
Usage
doveadm [GLOBAL
OPTIONS]
user
[-a
userdb_socket_path]
[-e
template]
[-f
field]
[-u]
[-x
auth_info]
user ...
Overview
The user command is used to perform a user lookup - to show what information Dovecot sees about the user (s), or if it exists at all in the configured userdb (s).
The auth_info may be useful when the userdb is for example a SQL database and you are using %variables, like %{protocol} or %{local_ip}, in the userdb_sql_query setting. Or when you have configured the userdb in a way like this:
userdb passwd-file {
passwd_file_path = /etc/%{protocol}.passwd
}
Options
Global doveadm(1) options:
-
-D -
Enables verbosity and debug messages.
-
-O -
Do not read any config file, just use defaults. The
dovecot_storage_versionsetting defaults to the latest version, but can be overridden with-o.
-
-k -
Preserve entire environment for doveadm, not just
import_environmentsetting.
-
-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_namesetting 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/dovecot.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 multiple settings, the
-ooption may be specified multiple times.
Options
-
-a userdb_socket_path -
This option is used to specify an absolute path to an alternative UNIX domain socket.
By default doveadm(1) will use the socket /rundir/auth-userdb. The socket may be located in another directory, when the default base_dir setting was overridden in /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf.
-
-e template -
When this option and a string with %variables is given, doveadm(1) will show the expanded string for the user. This option can't be used together with the
-for-uoptions.
-
-f field -
When this option and the name of a userdb field is given, doveadm(1) will show only the value of the specified field. This option can't be used together with the
-eor-uoptions.
-
-u -
When this option is given, doveadm(1) will only show values from the userdb. Without
-uparameter if any of the uid, gid, home or mail_path fields are missing, their defaults are taken from configuration file. This option can't be used together with the-eor-foptions.
-
-x auth_info -
auth_info specifies additional conditions for the
usercommand. The auth_info option string has to be given as name = value pair. For multiple conditions the-xoption could be supplied multiple times.Possible names for the auth_info are:
serviceThe service for which the userdb lookup should be tested. The value may be the name of a service, commonly used with Dovecot. For example:
imap,pop3orsmtp.sessionSession identifier.
lipThe local IP address (server) for the test.
ripThe remote IP address (client) for the test.
lportThe local port, e.g. 143
rportThe remote port, e.g. 24567
real_lipThe local IP to which the client connected on this host.
real_ripThe remote IP where client connected from to this host.
real_lportThe local port to which client connected to to this host.
real_rportThe remote port from where the client connected from to this host.
forward_<field>Field to forward as %{forward:field} to auth process.
Arguments
user
Is a user's login name. Depending on the configuration, a login name may be for example jane or ⟨[email protected]⟩. It's also possible to use '*' and '?' wildcards (e.g. -u \*@example.org).
Examples
Perform a user lookup for the users jane and ⟨[email protected]⟩:
doveadm user jane [email protected]
userdb: jane uid : 8001 gid : 8001 home : /home/jane mail_path : ~/sdbox plugins : sieve quota_storage_size: 150M userdb: [email protected] home : /srv/mail/8/70312/79832 uid : 79832 gid : 70312 mail_path : ~/mdbox
User lookup, using wildcards:
doveadm user \*[email protected]
Releases
8 releases since Debian 7 (Wheezy); the text changed 6 times.
-O since Debian 13 (Trixie);
-c since Debian 13 (Trixie);
-e since Arch Linux 2026-11-01;
-i since Debian 13 (Trixie);
-k since Debian 13 (Trixie);
-o since Debian 9 (Stretch);
-u since Debian 8 (Jessie).