.TH "DOVEADM-USER" "1" "May 2026" "e5ac02a" "Dovecot" .SH "NAME" \fBdoveadm-user\fR - Perform a user lookup in Dovecot's userdbs .SH "SYNOPSIS" .P \fBdoveadm\fR \[lB]\fIGLOBAL OPTIONS\fR\[rB] \fBuser\fR \[lB]\fB-a\fR \fIuserdb_socket_path\fR\[rB] \[lB]\fB-e\fR \fItemplate\fR\[rB] \[lB]\fB-f\fR \fIfield\fR\[rB] \[lB]\fB-u\fR\[rB] \[lB]\fB-x\fR \fIauth_info\fR\[rB] \fIuser\fR... .SH "DESCRIPTION" .P The \fBuser\fR command is used to perform a user lookup - to show what information Dovecot sees about the \fIuser\fR (s), or if it exists at all in the configured \fIuserdb\fR (s). .P The \fIauth_info\fR may be useful when the userdb is for example a SQL database and you are using %variables, like \fB%{protocol}\fR or \fB%{local_ip}\fR, in the \fIuserdb_sql_query\fR setting. Or when you have configured the userdb in a way like this: .P .RS 2 .nf userdb passwd-file { passwd_file_path = /etc/%{protocol}.passwd } .fi .RE .SH "GLOBAL OPTIONS" .P Global doveadm(1) \fIoptions\fR: .P \fB-D\fR .RS 0 .RS 4 .P Enables \fIverbosity\fR and debug messages. .RE 0 .RE 0 .P \fB-O\fR .RS 0 .RS 4 .P Do not read any config file, just use defaults. The \fBdovecot_storage_version\fR setting defaults to the latest version, but can be overridden with \fB-o\fR. .RE 0 .RE 0 .P \fB-k\fR .RS 0 .RS 4 .P Preserve entire environment for doveadm, not just \fBimport_environment\fR setting. .RE 0 .RE 0 .P \fB-v\fR .RS 0 .RS 4 .P Enables verbosity, including progress counter. .RE 0 .RE 0 .P \fB-i\fR \fIinstance-name\fR .RS 0 .RS 4 .P If using multiple Dovecot instances, choose the config file based on this instance name. .P See \fBinstance_name\fR setting for more information. .RE 0 .RE 0 .P \fB-c\fR \fIconfig-file\fR .RS 0 .RS 4 .P Read configuration from the given \fIconfig-file\fR. By default it first reads config socket, and then falls back to \fI/etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf\fR. You can also point this to config socket of some instance running compatible version. .RE 0 .RE 0 .P \fB-o\fR \fIsetting\fR\fB=\fR\fIvalue\fR .RS 0 .RS 4 .P Overrides the configuration \fIsetting\fR from \fI/etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf\fR and from the userdb with the given \fIvalue\fR. In order to override multiple settings, the \fB-o\fR option may be specified multiple times. .RE 0 .RE 0 .SH "OPTIONS" .P \fB-a\fR \fIuserdb_socket_path\fR .RS 0 .RS 4 .P This option is used to specify an absolute path to an alternative UNIX domain socket. .P By default doveadm(1) will use the socket \fI/rundir/auth-userdb\fR. The socket may be located in another directory, when the default \fIbase_dir\fR setting was overridden in \fI/etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf\fR. .RE 0 .RE 0 .P \fB-e\fR \fItemplate\fR .RS 0 .RS 4 .P 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 \fB-f\fR or \fB-u\fR options. .RE 0 .RE 0 .P \fB-f\fR \fIfield\fR .RS 0 .RS 4 .P 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 \fB-e\fR or \fB-u\fR options. .RE 0 .RE 0 .P \fB-u\fR .RS 0 .RS 4 .P When this option is given, doveadm(1) will only show values from the \fIuserdb\fR. Without \fB-u\fR parameter if any of the \fIuid\fR, \fIgid\fR, \fIhome\fR or \fImail_path\fR fields are missing, their defaults are taken from configuration file. This option can't be used together with the \fB-e\fR or \fB-f\fR options. .RE 0 .RE 0 .P \fB-x\fR \fIauth_info\fR .RS 0 .RS 4 .P \fIauth_info\fR specifies additional conditions for the \fBuser\fR command. The \fIauth_info\fR option string has to be given as \fIname\fR \fB=\fR \fIvalue\fR pair. For multiple conditions the \fB-x\fR option could be supplied multiple times. .P Possible names for the \fIauth_info\fR are: .P \fBservice\fR .RS 4 .P The service for which the userdb lookup should be tested. The value may be the name of a service, commonly used with Dovecot. For example: \fBimap\fR, \fBpop3\fR or \fBsmtp\fR. .RE 0 .P \fBsession\fR .RS 4 .P Session identifier. .RE 0 .P \fBlip\fR .RS 4 .P The local IP address (server) for the test. .RE 0 .P \fBrip\fR .RS 4 .P The remote IP address (client) for the test. .RE 0 .P \fBlport\fR .RS 4 .P The local port, e.g. 143 .RE 0 .P \fBrport\fR .RS 4 .P The remote port, e.g. 24567 .RE 0 .P \fBreal_lip\fR .RS 4 .P The local IP to which the client connected on this host. .RE 0 .P \fBreal_rip\fR .RS 4 .P The remote IP where client connected from to this host. .RE 0 .P \fBreal_lport\fR .RS 4 .P The local port to which client connected to to this host. .RE 0 .P \fBreal_rport\fR .RS 4 .P The remote port from where the client connected from to this host. .RE 0 .P \fBforward_\fR .RS 4 .P Field to forward as %{forward:field} to auth process. .RE 0 .RE 0 .RE 0 .SH "ARGUMENTS" .P \fIuser\fR .RS 0 .RS 4 .P Is a \fIuser\fR's login name. Depending on the configuration, a login name may be for example \fBjane\fR or \fB\fI\(lajohn@example.com\(ra\fB\fR. It's also possible to use '\fB*\fR' and '\fB?\fR' wildcards (e.g. \fB-u \[rs]*@example.org\fR). .RE 0 .RE 0 .SH "EXAMPLE" .P Perform a user lookup for the users jane and \fI\(lajohn@example.com\(ra\fR: .P .RS 2 .nf doveadm user jane john@example.com .fi .RE .P .RS 2 .nf userdb: jane uid : 8001 gid : 8001 home : /home/jane mail_path : ~/sdbox plugins : sieve quota_storage_size: 150M userdb: john@example.com home : /srv/mail/8/70312/79832 uid : 79832 gid : 70312 mail_path : ~/mdbox .fi .RE .P User lookup, using wildcards: .P .RS 2 .nf doveadm user \[rs]*.?oe@example.net .fi .RE .P .RS 2 .nf jane.doe@example.net judy.roe@example.net john.doe@example.net .fi .RE .SH "REPORTING BUGS" .P Report bugs, including \fIdoveconf -n\fR output, to the Dovecot Mailing List \fI\(ladovecot@dovecot.org\(ra\fR. Information about reporting bugs is available at: \fI\(lahttps://dovecot.org/bugreport.html\(ra\fR .SH "SEE ALSO" .P doveadm(1)