.\" Copyright (c) 2010-2018 Dovecot authors, see the included COPYING file
.TH DOVEADM\-EXPUNGE 1 "2015-05-09" "Dovecot v2.3" "Dovecot"
.SH NAME
doveadm\-expunge \- Expunge messages matching given search query
.\"------------------------------------------------------------------------
.SH SYNOPSIS
.BR doveadm " [" \-Dv "] " expunge " [" \-S
.IR socket_path ]
.RB [ \-d ]
.I search_query
.br
.\"-------------------------------------
.BR doveadm " [" \-Dv "] " expunge " [" \-S
.IR socket_path ]
.RB [ \-d ]
.BI \-A " search_query"
.br
.\"-------------------------------------
.BR doveadm " [" \-Dv "] " expunge " [" \-S
.IR socket_path ]
.RB [ \-d ]
.BI \-F " file search_query"
.br
.\"-------------------------------------
.BR doveadm " [" \-Dv "] " expunge " [" \-S
.IR socket_path ]
.RB [ \-d ]
.BI \-u " user search_query"
.\"------------------------------------------------------------------------
.SH DESCRIPTION
This command can be used to expunge mails matching the given search query.
It is typically used to expunge old mails from users\(aq Trash and/or Spam
mailboxes. To test which messages a given search query would match, you can
use
.I doveadm fetch
or
.I doveadm search
commands.
.PP
In the first form,
.BR doveadm (1)
will execute the
.B expunge
action with the environment of the logged in system user.
.PP
In the second form, the command will be performed for all users.
.PP
In the third form,
.BR doveadm (1)
will expunge messages of the users listed
in the given
.IR file .
.PP
In the fourth form, only matching mails of the given
.IR user (s)
will be expunged.
.\"------------------------------------------------------------------------
.SH OPTIONS
Global
.BR doveadm (1)
.IR options :
.TP
.B \-D
Enables verbosity and debug messages.
.TP
.BI \-o\  setting = value
Overrides the configuration
.I setting
from
.I /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
and from the userdb with the given
.IR value .
In order to override multiple settings, the
.B \-o
option may be specified multiple times.
.TP
.B \-v
Enables verbosity, including progress counter.
.\" --- command specific options --- "/.
.PP
Command specific
.IR options :
.\"-------------------------------------
.TP
.B \-A
If the
.B \-A
option is present, the
.I command
will be performed for all users.
Using this option in combination with system users from
.B userdb { driver = passwd }
is not recommended, because it contains also users with a lower UID than
the one configured with the
.I first_valid_uid
setting.
.sp
When the SQL userdb module is used make sure that the
.I iterate_query
setting in
.I /etc/dovecot/dovecot\-sql.conf.ext
matches your database layout.
When using the LDAP userdb module, make sure that the
.IR iterate_attrs " and " iterate_filter
settings in
.I /etc/dovecot/dovecot-ldap.conf.ext
match your LDAP schema.
Otherwise
.BR doveadm (1)
will be unable to iterate over all users.
.\"-------------------------------------
.TP
.BI \-F\  file
Execute the
.I command
for all the users in the
.IR file .
This is similar to the
.B \-A
option,
but instead of getting the list of users from the userdb,
they are read from the given
.IR file .
The
.I file
contains one username per line.
.\"-------------------------------------
.TP
.B \-d
Delete the mailbox if it is empty after expunging.
.\"-------------------------------------
.TP
.BI \-S\  socket_path
The option\(aqs argument is either an absolute path to a local UNIX domain
socket, or a hostname and port
.RI ( hostname : port ),
in order to connect a remote host via a TCP socket.
.sp
This allows an administrator to execute
.BR doveadm (1)
mail commands through the given socket.
.\"-------------------------------------
.TP
.BI \-u\  user/mask
Run the
.I command
only for the given
.IR user .
It\(aqs also possible to use
.RB \(aq * \(aq
and
.RB \(aq ? \(aq
wildcards (e.g. \-u *@example.org).
.br
When neither the
.B \-A
option, nor the
.BI \-F\  file
option, nor the
.BI \-u\  user
was specified, the
.I command
will be executed with the environment of the
currently logged in user.
.\"------------------------------------------------------------------------
.SH ARGUMENTS
.TP
.I search_query
Expunge messages matching this search query.
See
.BR doveadm\-search\-query (7)
for details.
.\"------------------------------------------------------------------------
.SH EXAMPLE
This example expunges messages from Spam mailbox that were saved/copied
there more than two weeks ago:
.PP
.nf
.ft B
doveadm expunge \-u jane.doe@example.org mailbox Spam savedbefore 2w
.ft P
.fi
.\"------------------------------------------------------------------------
.SH REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs, including
.I doveconf \-n
output, to the Dovecot Mailing List <dovecot@dovecot.org>.
Information about reporting bugs is available at:
http://dovecot.org/bugreport.html
.\"------------------------------------------------------------------------
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR doveadm (1),
.BR doveadm\-fetch (1),
.BR doveadm\-purge (1),
.BR doveadm\-search (1),
.BR doveadm\-search\-query (7)