NAME

       doveadm-fetch - Fetch partial/full messages or message information

SYNOPSIS

       doveadm [GLOBAL OPTIONS] [-f formatter] fetch [-S socket_path] -A fields search_query

       doveadm [GLOBAL OPTIONS] [-f formatter] fetch [-S socket_path] -F file fields search_query

       doveadm [GLOBAL OPTIONS] [-f formatter] fetch [-S socket_path] --no-userdb-lookup fields search_query

       doveadm [GLOBAL OPTIONS] [-f formatter] fetch [-S socket_path] -u user fields search_query

DESCRIPTION

        can  be used to fetch messages' contents and metadata. This can be useful for scripts and for debugging.
       If you want to fetch messages one at a time, see doveadm-search(1).

       •   Please respect your users' privacy.

GLOBAL OPTIONS

       Global doveadm(1)

       -D

           Enables verbosity and debug messages.

       -O

           Do not read any config file, just use defaults. The dovecot_storage_version setting defaults  to  the
           latest version, but can be overridden with

       -k

           Preserve entire environment for doveadm, not just import_environment setting.

       -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_name setting 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 -o option may be specified multiple times.

       -f formatter

           Specifies the formatter for formatting the output. Supported formatters are:

           flow

               prints each line with key=value pairs.

       pager

           prints each key: value pair on its own line and separates records with form feed character (^L).

       tab

           prints a table header followed by tab separated value lines.

       table

           prints a table header followed by adjusted value lines.

       This command uses by default the output formatter pager.

OPTIONS

       -A

           If  the  -A  option  is  present,  the  command will be performed for all users. Using this option in
           combination with system users from userdb { driver = passwd } is not recommended, because it contains
           also users with a lower UID than the one configured with the first_valid_uid setting.

           When the SQL userdb module is used, make  sure  that  the  userdb_sql_iterate_query  setting  setting
           matches your database layout.

           When   using   the   LDAP   userdb   module,   make   sure   that   the   userdb_fields  setting  and
           userdb_ldap_iterate_fields setting settings match your LDAP  schema.  Otherwise  doveadm(1)  will  be
           unable to iterate over all users.

       -F file

           Execute  the  command for all the users in the file. This is similar to the -A option, but instead of
           getting the list of users from the userdb, they are read from the given file. The file  contains  one
           username per line.

       --no-userdb-lookup

           Do not perform userdb lookup. Use the USER environment variable to specify the username.

       -S socket_path

           The  option's  argument  is  either an absolute path to a local UNIX domain socket, or a hostname and
           port (hostname:port), in order to connect a remote host via a TCP socket.

           This allows an administrator to execute doveadm(1) mail commands through the given socket.

       -u user/mask

           Run the command only for the given user. It's also possible to use '*' and  '?'  wildcards  (e.g.  -u
           *@example.org).

ARGUMENTS

       fields

           One  or  more  result  field  names to display, if the search_query matches any messages. In order to
           specify multiple fields, enclose them in single or double quotes.

           Supported fields are:

               binary : Message body in decoded format.

           binary.<section> : Part of the body decoded, e.g. binary.1

           body : The body of a message.

           body.<section> : Part of the body, e.g. body.1

           body.preview : Short preview of the body.

           body.snippet : Old alias for preview.

           date.received : Date and time of final delivery, when the message was delivered to a  user's  mailbox
           for the first time.

           The  internal  date  and  time  of  the  source message, when the message was copied by the IMAP COPY
           command.

           The date-time attribute when present, otherwise the current time, when the message was saved  by  the
           IMAP APPEND command.

           date.received.unixtime : date.received as unix timestamp.

           date.saved : Date and time when the message was saved to mailbox.

           date.saved.unixtime : date.saved as unix timestamp.

           date.sent : Date and time of the message's Date: header.

           date.sent.unixtime : date.sent as unix timestamp.

           flags : A message's IMAP flags, e.g. \Seen

           guid : A message's globally unique identifier.

           hdr : The header of the message.

           hdr.<name> : Named header from the message.

            : IMAP BODY output of the message (see RFC 3501).

            : IMAP BODYSTRUCTURE output of the message (see RFC 3501).

            : IMAP ENVELOPE output of the message (see RFC 3501).

           mailbox : Name of the mailbox, in which the message is stored. The name is in UTF-8.

           mailbox-guid : The globally unique identifier of the mailbox, in which the message is located.

           modseq : Modification sequence number for the mail.

           pop3.order : A message's order number within a mailbox.

           pop3.uidl : A message's unique (POP3) identifier within a mailbox.

           refcount : Mail reference count, mdbox only.

           seq : A message's sequence number in a mailbox.

           size.physical : A message's physical size.

           size.virtual : A message's virtual size, computed with CRLF line terminators.

           storageid : Mailbox driver specific ID for the mail.

           text : The entire message (header and body).

           text.utf8 : The entire message (header and body) — UTF-8 encoded.

           uid : A message's unique (IMAP) identifier in a mailbox.

           user : A message owner's login name.

       search_query

           Fetch messages matching this search query. See doveadm-search-query(7) for details.

EXAMPLE

       This example based on the first example from doveadm-search(1). We are fetching the fields

         doveadm fetch -u bob "mailbox date.sent" mailbox-guid 3a94c928d66ebe4bda04000015811c6a uid 8,25,45

         mailbox: dovecot/pigeonhole/2.0
         date.sent: 2010-01-19 01:17:41 (+0100)
         ^L
         mailbox: dovecot/pigeonhole/2.0
         date.sent: 2010-01-28 09:38:49 (+0100)
         ^L
         mailbox: dovecot/pigeonhole/2.0
         date.sent: 2010-03-28 18:41:14 (+0200)

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)

78ffb79                                            March 2025                                   DOVEADM-FETCH(1)