.TH "DOVEADM-SEARCH" "1" "October 2025" "65dfbff" "Dovecot"
.SH "NAME"
\fBdoveadm-search\fR - Show a list of mailbox GUIDs and message UIDs matching given search query.
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.P
\fBdoveadm\fR \[lB]\fIGLOBAL OPTIONS\fR\[rB] \[lB]\fB-f\fR \fIformatter\fR\[rB] \fBsearch\fR \[lB]\fB-S\fR \fIsocket_path\fR\[rB] \fB-A\fR \fIsearch_query\fR
.P
\fBdoveadm\fR \[lB]\fIGLOBAL OPTIONS\fR\[rB] \[lB]\fB-f\fR \fIformatter\fR\[rB] \fBsearch\fR \[lB]\fB-S\fR \fIsocket_path\fR\[rB] \fB-F\fR \fIfile\fR \fIsearch_query\fR
.P
\fBdoveadm\fR \[lB]\fIGLOBAL OPTIONS\fR\[rB] \[lB]\fB-f\fR \fIformatter\fR\[rB] \fBsearch\fR \[lB]\fB-S\fR \fIsocket_path\fR\[rB] \fB--no-userdb-lookup\fR \fIsearch_query\fR
.P
\fBdoveadm\fR \[lB]\fIGLOBAL OPTIONS\fR\[rB] \[lB]\fB-f\fR \fIformatter\fR\[rB] \fBsearch\fR \[lB]\fB-S\fR \fIsocket_path\fR\[rB] \fB-u\fR \fIuser\fR \fIsearch_query\fR
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.P
 command is used to find matching messages. doveadm(1) will print the mailbox's guid and the message's uid for each match.
.P
 options, doveadm(1) will print the fields 
.P
In the first form, doveadm(1) will executed the 
.P
In the second form, the command will be performed for all users listed in the given \fIfile\fR.
.P
In the third form, the command will be performed for the user contained in the \fIUSER\fR environment variable.
.P
In the last form, only matching mails of the given \fIuser\fR(s) will be searched.
.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

.P
\fB-f\fR \fIformatter\fR
.RS 0
.RS 4
.P
Specifies the \fIformatter\fR for formatting the output. Supported formatters are:
.P
\fBflow\fR
.RS 4
.P
prints each line with \fIkey\fR\fB=\fR\fIvalue\fR pairs.
.RE 0

.P
\fBjson\fR
.RS 4
.P
prints a JSON array of JSON objects.
.RE 0

.P
\fBpager\fR
.RS 4
.P
prints each \fIkey\fR: \fIvalue\fR pair on its own line and separates records with form feed character (\fB^L\fR).
.RE 0

.P
\fBtab\fR
.RS 4
.P
prints a table header followed by tab separated value lines.
.RE 0

.P
\fBtable\fR
.RS 4
.P
prints a table header followed by adjusted value lines.
.RE 0

.RE 0

.RE 0

.P
This command uses by default the output formatter \fBflow\fR (without the \fIkey\fR=prefix).
.SH "OPTIONS"
.P
\fB-A\fR
.RS 0
.RS 4
.P
If the \fB-A\fR option is present, the \fIcommand\fR will be performed for all users. Using this option in combination with system users from \fBuserdb { driver = passwd }\fR is not recommended, because it contains also users with a lower UID than the one configured with the \fBfirst_valid_uid\fR setting.
.P
When the SQL userdb module is used, make sure that the \fBuserdb_sql_iterate_query\fR setting setting matches your database layout.
.P
When using the LDAP userdb module, make sure that the \fBuserdb_fields\fR setting and \fBuserdb_ldap_iterate_fields\fR setting settings match your LDAP schema. Otherwise doveadm(1) will be unable to iterate over all users.
.RE 0

.RE 0

.P
\fB-F\fR \fIfile\fR
.RS 0
.RS 4
.P
Execute the \fIcommand\fR for all the users in the \fIfile\fR. This is similar to the \fB-A\fR option, but instead of getting the list of users from the userdb, they are read from the given \fIfile\fR. The \fIfile\fR contains one username per line.
.RE 0

.RE 0

.P
\fB--no-userdb-lookup\fR
.RS 0
.RS 4
.P
Do not perform userdb lookup. Use the \fBUSER\fR environment variable to specify the username.
.RE 0

.RE 0

.P
\fB-S\fR \fIsocket_path\fR
.RS 0
.RS 4
.P
The option's argument is either an absolute path to a local UNIX domain socket, or a hostname and port (\fIhostname\fR:\fIport\fR), in order to connect a remote host via a TCP socket.
.P
This allows an administrator to execute doveadm(1) mail commands through the given socket.
.RE 0

.RE 0

.P
\fB-u\fR \fIuser/mask\fR
.RS 0
.RS 4
.P
Run the \fIcommand\fR only for the given \fIuser\fR. It's also possible to use '\fB*\fR' and '\fB?\fR' wildcards (e.g. -u *@example.org).
.RE 0

.RE 0

.SH "ARGUMENTS"
.P
\fIsearch_query\fR
.RS 0
.RS 4
.P
Show messages matching this search query. See doveadm-search-query(7) for details.
.RE 0

.RE 0

.SH "EXAMPLE"
.P
Search in user bob's dovecot mailboxes all messages which contains the word "todo" in the Subject: header:
.P
.RS 2
.nf
doveadm search -u bob mailbox dovecot\[rs]* subject todo
.fi
.RE
.P
.RS 2
.nf
3a94c928d66ebe4bda04000015811c6a	8
3a94c928d66ebe4bda04000015811c6a	25
3a94c928d66ebe4bda04000015811c6a	45
.fi
.RE
.P
The search command is mainly useful when used together with doveadm-fetch(1) command.
.P
For example to save message bodies of all messages from INBOX that have "todo" in subject, use:
.P
.RS 2
.nf
doveadm search -u bob mailbox INBOX subject todo
while read guid uid; do
  doveadm fetch -u bob body mailbox-guid $guid uid $uid > msg.$uid
done
.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), doveadm-search-query(7)