NAME

       pigeonhole - Overview of the Pigeonhole Sieve support for Dovecot

DESCRIPTION

       Pigeonhole  adds  support  for  the  Sieve language (RFC 5228) and the ManageSieve protocol (RFC 5804) to
       Dovecot (dovecot(1)).

       In the literal sense, a pigeonhole is a a hole or recess inside a dovecot for pigeons to nest in. It  is,
       however,  also  the  name for one of a series of small, open compartments in a cabinet used for filing or
       sorting mail. As a verb, it describes the act of putting an item into one of those pigeonholes. The  name
       "Pigeonhole"  therefore  well  describes  an important part of the functionality that it adds to Dovecot:
       sorting and filing e-mail messages.

       The Sieve language is used to specify how e-mail needs to be processed. By writing Sieve  scripts,  users
       can  customize  how messages are delivered, e.g. whether they are forwarded or stored in special folders.
       Unwanted messages can be discarded  or  rejected,  and,  when  the  user  is  not  available,  the  Sieve
       interpreter  can send an automated reply. Above all, the Sieve language is meant to be simple, extensible
       and system independent. And, unlike most other mail filtering script languages, it does not  allow  users
       to  execute  arbitrary  programs.  This  is particularly useful to prevent virtual users from having full
       access to the mail store. The intention of the language is to make it impossible for users to do anything
       more complex (and dangerous) than write simple mail filters.

       Using the ManageSieve protocol, users can upload their Sieve scripts  remotely,  without  needing  direct
       filesystem  access through FTP or SCP. Additionally, a ManageSieve server always makes sure that uploaded
       scripts are valid, preventing compile failures at mail delivery.

       Pigeonhole provides the following items:

       •   The LDA Sieve plugin for Dovecot's Local Delivery Agent (LDA) (dovecot-lda(1)) that  facilitates  the
           actual Sieve filtering upon delivery.

       •   The  ManageSieve  service  that  implements the ManageSieve protocol through which users can remotely
           manage Sieve scripts on the server.

       •   A plugin for Dovecot's doveadm(1) command line tool  that  adds  new  doveadm-sieve(1)  commands  for
           management of Sieve filtering.

       •   The  imap-sieve  plugin documentation plugin, which provides the ability to attach Sieve scripts that
           are run for IMAP events in their mailboxes.

       •   The imap-filter-sieve plugin documentation that allows refiltering mails in  a  mailbox  using  Sieve
           scripts.

       The  functionality  and configuration of the LDA Sieve plugin and the ManageSieve service is described in
       detail in the README and INSTALL files contained in the Pigeonhole package and in sieve.

       The following command line tools are available outside of doveadm:

       sievec(1)

           Compiles Sieve scripts into a binary representation for later execution.

       sieve-test(1)

           The universal Sieve test tool for testing the effect of a Sieve script on a particular message.

       sieve-filter(1)

           Filters all messages in a particular source mailbox through a Sieve script.

       sieve-dump(1)

           Dumps the content of a Sieve binary file for (development) debugging purposes.

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

       dovecot(1), dovecot-lda(1), doveadm(1), doveadm-sieve(1), sieve-dump(1), sieve-test(1),  sieve-filter(1),
       sievec(1)

       Additional resources:

       •   sieve

78ffb79                                            March 2025                                      PIGEONHOLE(7)