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dovecot-lda - Dovecot's local mail delivery agent
SYNOPSIS
dovecot-lda [-ek] [-a address] [-c config_file] [-d username] [-f envelope_sender] [-m mailbox] [-o setting=value] [-p path] [-r address]
DESCRIPTION
The dovecot-lda is a local mail delivery agent which takes mail from an MTA and delivers it to a user's mailbox, while keeping Dovecot index files up to date.
Main features of the dovecot-lda are:
- Mailbox indexing during mail delivery, providing faster mailbox access later
- Quota enforcing by the quota plugin
- Sieve language support by the Pigeonhole sieve plugin
OPTIONS
Options accepted by dovecot-lda:
- -a address
Destination address (e.g. user+ext@domain). If not specified, default is based on the
lda_original_recipient_headersetting.- -c config_file
Alternative configuration file path.
- -d username
Destination username. If given, the user information is looked up from userdb. Typically used with virtual users, but not necessarily with system users.
- -e
If mail gets rejected, write the rejection reason to stderr and exit with status 77 (EX_NOPERM). The default is to send a rejection mail ourself.
- -f envelope_sender
Envelope sender address. If not specified and message data begins with a valid mbox-style
"From "line, the address is taken from it.- -k
Don't clear all environment at startup.
- -m mailbox
Destination mailbox (default is INBOX). If the mailbox doesn't exist, it will not be created (unless
lda_mailbox_autocreate = yes). If a message couldn't be saved to the mailbox for any reason, it's delivered to INBOX instead.If Sieve plugin is used, this mailbox is used as the
keepaction's mailbox. It's also used if there is no Sieve script or if the script fails for some reason.Deliveries to namespace prefix will result in saving the mail to INBOX instead. For example if you have
Mail/namespace, this allows you to specifydovecot-lda -m Mail/$mailboxwhere mail is stored toMail/$mailboxor to INBOX if$mailboxis empty.The mailbox name is specified the same as it's visible in IMAP client. For example if you've a Maildir with
.box.sub/directory, your namespace configuration isnamespace_prefix = INBOX/andnamespace_separator = /, the correct way to deliver mail there is to use-m INBOX/box/sub
- -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 -o option may be specified multiple times.
- -p path
Path to the mail to be delivered instead of reading from stdin. If using maildir the file is hard linked to the destination if possible. This allows a single mail to be delivered to multiple users using hard links, but currently it also prevents deliver from updating cache file so it shouldn't be used unless really necessary.
- -r address
Final envelope recipient address. Defaults to
-aaddress, but may differ if, e.g., aliases are used or when dropping the+detailpart.
EXIT STATUS
dovecot-lda will exit with one of the following values:
- 0
- Delivery was successful. (EX_OK)
- 64
- Invalid parameter given. (EX_USAGE)
- 67
- Recipient user not known. (EX_NOUSER)
- 77
- -e option was used and mail was rejected. Typically this happens when user is over quota and quota_full_tempfail = no is configured. (EX_NOPERM)
- 75
- A temporary failure. This is returned for almost all failures. See the log file for details. (EX_TEMPFAIL)
FILES
- /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
- Dovecot's main configuration file.
- /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-mail.conf
- Mailbox locations and namespaces.
- /etc/dovecot/conf.d/15-lda.conf
- LDA specific settings.
- /etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-plugin.conf
- Plugin specific settings.
- /etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-quota.conf
- Quota configuration.
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
Related MTA specific documentation: