.TH "DOVEADM-DUMP" "1" "October 2025" "65dfbff" "Dovecot"
.SH "NAME"
\fBdoveadm-dump\fR - Dump the content of Dovecot's binary mailbox index/log
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.P
\fBdoveadm\fR \[lB]\fIGLOBAL OPTIONS\fR\[rB] \fBdump\fR \[lB]\fB-t\fR \fItype\fR\[rB] \fIpath\fR \[lB]\fItype-specific args\fR\[rB]
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.P
Dovecot uses several binary index and log files in order to improve performance for accessing mails. For some mailbox formats, such as sdbox and mdbox, the index files are part of the format itself. For details about index files, see \[lB]\[lB]link,design_index_format_main\[rB].
.P
\fBdoveadm dump\fR is used to show the contents of those mailbox index/log files, in human readable format. This is mainly useful for Dovecot developers when debugging some problem.
.SH "GLOBAL OPTIONS"
.P
Global doveadm(1) 
.P
\fB-D\fR
.RS 0
.RS 4
.P
Enables \fIverbosity\fR and debug messages.
.RE 0

.RE 0

.P
\fB-O\fR
.RS 0
.RS 4
.P
Do not read any config file, just use defaults. The \fBdovecot_storage_version\fR setting defaults to the latest version, but can be overridden with 
.RE 0

.RE 0

.P
\fB-k\fR
.RS 0
.RS 4
.P
Preserve entire environment for doveadm, not just \fBimport_environment\fR setting.
.RE 0

.RE 0

.P
\fB-v\fR
.RS 0
.RS 4
.P
Enables verbosity, including progress counter.
.RE 0

.RE 0

.P
\fB-i\fR \fIinstance-name\fR
.RS 0
.RS 4
.P
If using multiple Dovecot instances, choose the config file based on this instance name.
.P
See \fBinstance_name\fR setting for more information.
.RE 0

.RE 0

.P
\fB-c\fR \fIconfig-file\fR
.RS 0
.RS 4
.P
Read configuration from the given \fIconfig-file\fR. By default it first reads config socket, and then falls back to \fI/etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf\fR. You can also point this to config socket of some instance running compatible version.
.RE 0

.RE 0

.P
\fB-o\fR \fIsetting\fR\fB=\fR\fIvalue\fR
.RS 0
.RS 4
.P
Overrides the configuration \fIsetting\fR from \fI/etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf\fR and from the userdb with the given \fIvalue\fR. In order to override multiple settings, the \fB-o\fR option may be specified multiple times.
.RE 0

.RE 0

.SH "OPTIONS"
.P
\fB-t\fR \fItype\fR
.RS 0
.RS 4
.P
 was omitted, doveadm(1) tries to detect the type of 
.P
\fItype\fR can be:
.RS 4
.P
\fBdbox\fR : => m.\fIn\fR (sdbox or mdbox mailbox file)
.RE 0

.RS 4
.P
\fBfts-expunge-log\fR : Dump the list of expunged mails in \fIdovecot-expunges.log\fR.
.RE 0

.RS 4
.P
\fBfts-flatcurve\fR : Dump the keywords indexed in \fIfts-flatcurve\fR indexes directory and their frequencies.
.RE 0

.RS 4
.P
\fBimap-compress\fR : Decompress an IMAP traffic log, which contains data compressed using the IMAP COMPRESSION extension.
.RE 0

.RS 4
.P
\fBdcrypt-file\fR : Dump metadata of a dcrypt encrypted file.
.P
\fItype-specific args\fR
.RS 4
.P
\fBprivate_key\fR=\fI/path\fR : to decrypt file contents.
.RE 0

.RS 4
.P
\fBpassword\fR=\fIsecret\fR : to decrypt private key.
.RE 0

.RE 0

.RS 4
.P
\fBdcrypt-key\fR : Dump metadata of a dcrypt key.
.P
\fItype-specific args\fR
.RS 4
.P
\fBprivate_key\fR=\fI/path\fR
.RS 4
.P
to decrypt file contents.
.RE 0

.RE 0

.RS 4
.P
\fBpassword\fR=\fIsecret\fR
.RS 4
.P
to decrypt private key.
.RE 0

.RE 0

.RS 4
.P
\fBdump\fR=\fIpem|dovecot|jwk\fR
.RS 4
.P
to specify format to dump in.
.RE 0

.RE 0

.RE 0

.RS 4
.P
\fBindex\fR : => dovecot.index, dovecot.map.index
.P
\fItype-specific args\fR
.RS 4
.P
\fBuid\fR=\fInumber\fR : Dump only message with UID
.RE 0

.RE 0

.RS 4
.P
\fBlog\fR : => dovecot.index.log, dovecot.map.index.log
.RE 0

.RS 4
.P
\fBmailboxlog\fR : => dovecot.mailbox.log
.RE 0

.RS 4
.P
\fBthread\fR : => dovecot.index.thread
.RE 0

.RE 0

.RE 0

.SH "ARGUMENTS"
.P
\fIpath\fR
.RS 0
.RS 4
.P
The path to the corresponding dbox storage, index or log file. If only a directory is specified, doveadm tries to detect the type of files under it and dumps them.
.RE 0

.RE 0

.SH "EXAMPLE"
.P
Look at the contents of a mailbox's index:
.P
.RS 2
.nf
doveadm dump ~/Maildir/.work/
.fi
.RE
.SH "REPORTING BUGS"
.P
Report bugs, including \fIdoveconf -n\fR output, to the Dovecot Mailing List \fI\(ladovecot@dovecot.org\(ra\fR. Information about reporting bugs is available at: https://dovecot.org/bugreport.html
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.P
doveadm(1)