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)
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