sieve-filter(category13-admin-isp-software.html) - phpMan

SIEVE-FILTER(1)                   Pigeonhole                   SIEVE-FILTER(1)

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  (pigeon-
       hole(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  obvi-
       ous 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 simula-
       tion  mode  in  which  it  only prints what would be performed, without
       actually doing anything. Use the -e option to activate true script exe-
       cution.  Also, the source-mailbox is opened read-only by default, mean-
       ing 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 exten-
       sion, 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  omit-
       ted,  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. There-
       fore, 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 per-
              formed. 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  mes-
              sages.  This is equal to the source-mailbox by default. Specify-
              ing a different folder will have the effect of moving (or  copy-
              ing 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.
       -o setting=value
              Overrides  the  configuration  setting  from  /etc/dovecot/dove-
              cot.conf  and from the userdb with the given value.  In order to
              override multiple settings, the -o option may be specified  mul-
              tiple times.
       -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 mes-
              sages 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. When omitted, the com-
              mand will be executed with  the  environment  of  the  currently
              logged in user.
       -v     Produce verbose output during filtering.
       -W     Enables write access to the source-mailbox. This allows (re)mov-
              ing the messages from the source-mailbox,  changing  their  con-
              tents, 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 iden-
              tifiers with + or -, extensions can be included or excluded rel-
              ative to the configured set of active extensions. If  no  exten-
              sions  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 unconfig-
              ured, all supported extensions are available, except for  depre-
              cated 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  configura-
              tion. 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  success-
              fully  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 config-
              uration file)
REPORTING BUGS
       Report  bugs, including doveconf -n output, to the Dovecot Mailing List
       <dovecot AT dovecot.org>.  Information about reporting 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)

Pigeonhole for Dovecot v2.4       2016-04-05                   SIEVE-FILTER(1)