NAME¶
sieve-filter - Pigeonhole's Sieve mailbox filter tool
WARNING: This tool is still experimental. Read this manual carefully, and
backup any important mail before using this tool. Also note that some of the
features documented here are not actually implemented yet; this is clearly
indicated where applicable.
SYNOPSIS¶
sieve-filter [
options]
script-file source-mailbox
[
discard-action]
DESCRIPTION¶
The
sieve-filter command is part of the Pigeonhole Project (
pigeonhole(7)), which adds Sieve (RFC 5228) support to the Dovecot
secure IMAP and POP3 server (
dovecot(1)).
The Sieve language was originally meant for filtering messages upon delivery.
However, there are occasions when it is desirable to filter messages that are
already stored in a mailbox, for instance when a bug in a Sieve script caused
many messages to be delivered incorrectly. Using the sieve-filter tool it is
possible to apply a Sieve script on all messages in a particular
source-mailbox, making it possible to delete messages, to store them in
a different mailbox, to change their content, and to change the assigned IMAP
flags and keywords. Attempts to send messages to the outside world are ignored
by default for obvious reasons, but, using the proper command line options, it
is possible to capture and handle outgoing mail as well.
If no options are specified, the sieve-filter command runs in a simulation mode
in which it only prints what would be performed, without actually doing
anything. Use the
-e option to activate true script execution. Also,
the
source-mailbox is opened read-only by default, meaning that it
normally always remains unchanged. Use the
-W option to allow changes
in the
source-mailbox.
Even with the
-W option enabled, messages in the
source-mailbox
are only potentially modified or moved to a different folder. Messages are
never lost unless a
discard-action argument other than
keep (the
default) is specified. If the Sieve filter decides to store the message in the
source-mailbox, where it obviously already exists, it is never
duplicated there. In that case, the IMAP flags of the original message can be
modified by the Sieve interpreter using the
imap4flags extension,
provided that
-W is specified. If the message itself is modified by the
Sieve interpreter (e.g. using the
editheader extension), a new message
is stored and the old one is expunged. However, if
-W is omitted, the
original message is left untouched and the modifications are discarded.
CAUTION¶
Although this is a very useful tool, it can also be very destructive when used
improperly. A small bug in your Sieve script in combination with the wrong
command line options could cause it to discard the wrong e-mails. And, even if
the
source-mailbox is opened in read-only mode to prevent such mishaps,
it can still litter other mailboxes with spurious copies of your e-mails if
your Sieve script decides to do so. Therefore, users are advised to read this
manual carefully and to use the simulation mode first to check what the script
will do. And, of course:
MAKING A BACKUP IS IMPERATIVE FOR ANY IMPORTANT MAIL!
OPTIONS¶
- -c config-file
- Alternative Dovecot configuration file path.
- -C
- Force compilation. By default, the compiled binary is stored on disk. When
this binary is found during the next execution of sieve-filter and
its modification time is more recent than the script file, it is used and
the script is not compiled again. This option forces the script to be
compiled, thus ignoring any present binary. Refer to sievec(1) for
more information about Sieve compilation.
- -D
- Enable Sieve debugging.
- -e
- Turns on execution mode. By default, the sieve-filter command runs in
simulation mode in which it changes nothing, meaning that no mailbox is
altered in any way and no actions are performed. It only prints what would
be done. Using this option, the sieve-filter command becomes active and
performs the requested actions.
- -m default-mailbox
- The mailbox where the (implicit) keep Sieve action stores messages.
This is equal to the source-mailbox by default. Specifying a
different folder will have the effect of moving (or copying if -W
is omitted) all kept messages to the indicated folder, instead of just
leaving them in the source-mailbox. Refer to the explanation of the
source-mailbox argument for more information on mailbox
naming.
- -q output-mailbox [not implemented yet]
- Store outgoing e-mail into the indicated output-mailbox. By
default, the sieve-filter command ignores Sieve actions such as redirect,
reject, vacation and notify, but using this option outgoing messages can
be appended to the indicated mailbox. This option has no effect in
simulation mode. Flags of redirected messages are not preserved.
- -Q mail-command [not implemented yet]
- Send outgoing e-mail (e.g. as produced by redirect, reject and vacation)
through the specified program. By default, the sieve-filter command
ignores Sieve actions such as redirect, reject, vacation and notify, but
using this option outgoing messages can be fed to the stdin of an
external shell command. This option has no effect in simulation mode.
Unless you really know what you are doing, DO NOT USE THIS TO FEED MAIL
TO SENDMAIL!.
- -s script-file [not implemented yet]
- Specify additional scripts to be executed before the main script. Multiple
-s arguments are allowed and the specified scripts are executed
sequentially in the order specified at the command line.
- -u user
- Run the Sieve script for the given user.
- -v
- Produce verbose output during filtering.
- -W
- Enables write access to the source-mailbox. This allows (re)moving
the messages from the source-mailbox, changing their contents, and
changing the assigned IMAP flags and keywords.
- -x extensions
- Set the available extensions. The parameter is a space-separated list of
the active extensions. By prepending the extension identifiers with
+ or -, extensions can be included or excluded relative to
the configured set of active extensions. If no extensions have a +
or - prefix, only those extensions that are explicitly listed will
be enabled. Unknown extensions are ignored and a warning is produced.
For example -x "+imapflags -enotify" will enable the
deprecated imapflags extension and disable the enotify extension. The rest
of the active extensions depends on the sieve_extensions and
sieve_global_extensions settings. By default, i.e. when
sieve_extensions and sieve_global_extensions remain
unconfigured, all supported extensions are available, except for
deprecated extensions or those that are still under development.
ARGUMENTS¶
- script-file
- Specifies the Sieve script to (compile and) execute.
Note that this tool looks for a pre-compiled binary file with a
.svbin extension and with basename and path identical to the
specified script. Use the -C option to disable this behavior by
forcing the script to be compiled into a new binary.
- source-mailbox
- Specifies the source mailbox containing the messages that the Sieve filter
will act upon.
This is the name of a mailbox, as visible to IMAP clients, except in UTF-8
format. The hierarchy separator between a parent and child mailbox is
commonly '/' or '.', but this depends on your selected
mailbox storage format and namespace configuration. The mailbox names may
also require a namespace prefix.
This mailbox is not modified unless the -W option is specified.
- discard-action
- Specifies what is done with messages in the source-mailbox that
where not kept or otherwise stored by the Sieve script; i.e. those
messages that would normally be discarded if the Sieve script were
executed at delivery. The discard-action parameter accepts one of
the following values:
- keep (default)
- Keep discarded messages in source mailbox.
- move mailbox
- Move discarded messages to the indicated mailbox. This is for
instance useful to move messages to a Trash mailbox. Refer to the
explanation of the source-mailbox argument for more information on
mailbox naming.
- delete
- Flag discarded messages as \DELETED.
- expunge
- Expunge discarded messages, meaning that these are removed irreversibly
when the tool finishes filtering.
- When the -W option is not specified, the source-mailbox is
immutable and the specified discard-action has no effect. This
means that messages are at most copied to a new location. In
contrast, when the -W is specified, messages that are successfully
stored somewhere else by the Sieve script are always expunged from
the source-mailbox, with the effect that these are thus
moved to the new location. This happens irrespective of the
specified discard-action. Remember: only discarded messages are
affected by the specified discard-action.
EXAMPLES¶
- [...]
-
EXIT STATUS¶
sieve-filter will exit with one of the following values:
- 0
- Sieve filter applied successfully. (EX_OK, EXIT_SUCCESS)
- 1
- Operation failed. This is returned for almost all failures.
(EXIT_FAILURE)
- 64
- Invalid parameter given. (EX_USAGE)
FILES¶
- /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
- Dovecot's main configuration file.
- /etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-sieve.conf
- Sieve interpreter settings (included from Dovecot's main configuration
file)
REPORTING BUGS¶
Report bugs, including
doveconf -n output, to the Dovecot Mailing List
<dovecot@dovecot.org>. Information about reporting Dovecot and
Pigeonhole bugs is available at:
http://dovecot.org/bugreport.html
SEE ALSO¶
dovecot(1),
dovecot-lda(1),
sieve-dump(1),
sieve-test(1),
sievec(1),
pigeonhole(7)