DOVEADM-EXPUNGE(1)						      Dovecot							DOVEADM-EXPUNGE(1)

NAME

       doveadm-expunge - Expunge messages matching given search query

SYNOPSIS

       doveadm [-Dv] expunge [-S socket_path] [-d] search_query
       doveadm [-Dv] expunge [-S socket_path] [-d] -A search_query
       doveadm [-Dv] expunge [-S socket_path] [-d] -u user search_query

DESCRIPTION

       This  command  can  be  used to expunge mails matching the given search query.  It is typically used to expunge old mails from users' Trash
       and/or Spam mailboxes. To test which messages a given search query would match, you can use doveadm fetch or doveadm search commands.

       In the first form, doveadm(1) will executed the expunge action with the environment of the logged in system user.

       In the second form, the command will be performed for all users.

       In the third form, only matching mails of the given user(s) will be expunged.

OPTIONS

       Global doveadm(1) options:

       -D     Enables verbosity and debug messages.

       -v     Enables verbosity, including progress counter.

       Command specific options:

       -A     If the -A option is present, the command will be performed for all users.  Using this option in combination with system  users  from
	      userdb  {  driver  =  passwd  } is not recommended, because it contains also users with a lower UID than the one configured with the
	      first_valid_uid setting.

	      When the SQL userdb module is used make sure that the iterate_query setting in /etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf.ext matches your  data-
	      base  layout.  When using the LDAP userdb module, make sure that the iterate_attrs and iterate_filter settings in /etc/dovecot/dove-
	      cot-ldap.conf.ext match your LDAP schema.  Otherwise doveadm(1) will be unable to iterate over all users.

       -d     Delete the mailbox if it is empty after expunging.

       -S socket_path
	      The option's argument is either an absolute path to a local UNIX domain socket, or a hostname and port (hostname:port), in order	to
	      connect a remote host via a TCP socket.

	      This allows an administrator to execute doveadm(1) mail commands through the given socket.

       -u user/mask
	      Run the command only for the given user.	It's also possible to use '*' and '?' wildcards (e.g. -u *@example.org).
	      When  neither  the -A option nor -u user was specified, the command will be executed with the environment of the currently logged in
	      user.

ARGUMENTS

       search_query
	      Expunge messages matching this search query.  See doveadm-search-query(7) for details.

EXAMPLE

       This example expunges messages from Spam mailbox that were saved/copied there more than two weeks ago:

       doveadm expunge -u jane.doe@example.org mailbox Spam savedbefore 2w

REPORTING BUGS

       Report bugs, including doveconf -n output, to the Dovecot Mailing List <dovecot@dovecot.org>.  Information about reporting bugs	is  avail-
       able at: http://dovecot.org/bugreport.html

SEE ALSO

       doveadm(1), doveadm-fetch(1), doveadm-purge(1), doveadm-search(1), doveadm-search-query(7)

Dovecot v2.2							    2013-11-24							DOVEADM-EXPUNGE(1)