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.
- -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
- The name of the source mailbox containing the messages that
the Sieve filter will act upon. 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.
- 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)