IMAPD.CONF(5) File Formats Manual IMAPD.CONF(5)
*
NAME
imapd.conf - IMAP configuration file
DESCRIPTION
/etc/imapd.conf is the configuration file for the Cyrus IMAP server. It defines local parameters for IMAP.
Each line of the /etc/imapd.conf file has the form
option: value
where option is the name of the configuration option being set and value is the value that the configuration option is being set to.
Although there is no limit to the length of a line, a ``'' (backslash) character may be used as the last character on a line to force it
to continue on the next one. No additional whitespace is inserted before or after the ``''. Note that a line that is split using ``''
character(s) is still considered a single line. For example
option:
value1 value2
value3
is equivalent to
option: value1 value2 value3
Blank lines and lines beginning with ``#'' are ignored.
For boolean and enumerated options, the values ``yes'', ``on'', ``t'', ``true'' and ``1'' turn the option on, the values ``no'', ``off'',
``f'', ``false'' and ``0'' turn the option off.
FIELD DESCRIPTIONS
The sections below detail options that can be placed in the /etc/imapd.conf file, and show each option's default value. Some options have
no default value, these are listed with ``<no default>''. Some options default to the empty string, these are listed with ``<none>''. It
is also possible to override options by specifying them as <service_id>_<optionname>. One example is ``lmtp_admins'', which overrides
``admins'' just for the lmtp service. The <service_id> is the one you specified in the /etc/cyrus.conf file.
admins: <empty string>
The list of userids with administrative rights. Separate each userid with a space. Sites using Kerberos authentication may use sepa-
rate "admin" instances.
Note that accounts used by users should not be administrators. Administrative accounts should not receive mail. That is, if user "jbRo"
is a user reading mail, he should not also be in the admins line. Some problems may occur otherwise, most notably the ability of adminis-
trators to create top-level mailboxes visible to users, but not writable by users.
afspts_localrealms: <none>
The list of realms which are to be treated as local, and thus stripped during identifier canonicalization (for the AFSPTS ptloader
module). This is different from loginrealms in that it occurs later in the authorization process (as the user id is canonified for
PTS lookup)
afspts_mycell: <none>
Cell to use for AFS PTS lookups. Defaults to the local cell.
allowallsubscribe: 0
Allow subscription to nonexistent mailboxes. This option is typically used on backend servers in a Murder so that users can subscribe
to mailboxes that don't reside on their "home" server. This option can also be used as a workaround for IMAP clients which don't play
well with nonexistent or unselectable mailboxes (e.g., Microsoft Outlook).
allowanonymouslogin: 0
Permit logins by the user "anonymous" using any password. Also allows use of the SASL ANONYMOUS mechanism.
allowapop: 1
Allow use of the POP3 APOP authentication command.
Note that this command requires that SASL is compiled with APOP support, that the plaintext passwords are available in a SASL auxprop back-
end (e.g., sasldb), and that the system can provide enough entropy (e.g., from /dev/urandom) to create a challenge in the banner.
allownewnews: 0
Allow use of the NNTP NEWNEWS command.
Note that this is a very expensive command and should only be enabled when absolutely necessary.
allowplaintext: 0
Allow the use of cleartext passwords on the wire.
To allow the use of plaintext passwords for authentication, you can set ``allowplaintext: yes'' in imapd.conf. This will still allow PLAIN
under TLS, but IMAP LOGIN commands will now fail.
If you only list plaintext authentication mechanisms in ``sasl_mech_list'' and set ``allowplaintext: no'', only users on encrypted sessions
(TLS or SSL) will be able to authenticate. On the other hand, if you list no plaintext authentication options in ``sasl_mech_list'',
``allowplaintext: yes'' would have no effect.
allowusermoves: 0
Allow moving user accounts (with associated meta-data) via RENAME or XFER.
Note that measures should be taken to make sure that the user being moved is not logged in, and cannot login during the move. Failure to
do so may result in the user's meta-data (seen state, subscriptions, etc) being corrupted or out of date.
altnamespace: 0
Use the alternate IMAP namespace, where personal folders reside at the same level in the hierarchy as INBOX.
This option ONLY applies where interaction takes place with the client/user. Currently this is limited to the IMAP protocol (imapd) and
Sieve scripts (lmtpd). This option does NOT apply to admin tools such as cyradm (admins ONLY), reconstruct, quota, etc., NOR does it
affect LMTP delivery of messages directly to mailboxes via plus-addressing.
annotation_db: skiplist
The cyrusdb backend to use for mailbox annotations.
Allowed values: berkeley, berkeley-hash, skiplist
annotation_db_path: <none>
The absolute path to the annotations db file. If not specified, will be confdir/annotations.db
anyoneuseracl: 1
Should non-admin users be allowed to set ACLs for the 'anyone' user on their mailboxes? In a large organization this can cause sup-
port problems, but it's enabled by default.
annotation_definitions: <none>
File containing external (third-party) annotation definitions.
Each line of the file specifies the properties of an annotation and has the following form:
name, scope, attrib-type, proxy-type, attrib-names, acl
name is the hierarchical name as in the draft standard, typically of the form /vendor/acme/blurdybloop
scope
specifies whether the annotation is for the server or a mailbox
attrib-type
specifies the attribute data type which is one of: string, boolean, int, uint, or content-type
proxy-type
specifies whether this attribute is for the backend or proxy servers or both (proxy_and_backend)
attrib-names
is the space-separated list of available attributes for the annotation. Possible attribute names are (where the suffixless foo permits
both foo.priv and foo.shared): alue, value.shared, value.priv, size, size.shared, size.priv, modifiedsince, modifiedsince.shared, mod-
ifiedsince.priv, content-type, content-type.shared, content-type.priv
acl is the extra ACL requirements for setting annotations. This is the standard IMAP ACL permission bit string format. Particularly useful
is the a right to require admin privileges. Note that some ACL requirements (read and write on the mailbox) are hard-wired in the
server
Blank lines and lines beginning with ``#'' are ignored.
auditlog: 0
Should cyrus output log entries for every action taken on a message file or mailboxes list entry? It's noisy so disabled by default,
but can be very useful for tracking down what happened if things look strange
auth_mech: unix
The authorization mechanism to use.
Allowed values: unix, pts, krb, krb5
autocreatequota: 0
If nonzero, normal users may create their own IMAP accounts by creating the mailbox INBOX. The user's quota is set to the value if it
is positive, otherwise the user has unlimited quota.
berkeley_cachesize: 512
Size (in kilobytes) of the shared memory buffer pool (cache) used by the berkeley environment. The minimum allowed value is 20. The
maximum allowed value is 4194303 (4GB).
berkeley_locks_max: 50000
Maximum number of locks to be held or requested in the berkeley environment.
berkeley_txns_max: 100
Maximum number of transactions to be supported in the berkeley environment.
boundary_limit: 1000
messages are parsed recursively and a deep enough MIME structure can cause a stack overflow. Do not parse deeper than this many lay-
ers of MIME structure. The default of 1000 is much higher than any sane message should have.
client_timeout: 10
Number of seconds to wait before returning a timeout failure when performing a client connection (e.g., in a murder environment)
commandmintimer: <none>
Time in seconds. Any imap command that takes longer than this time is logged.
configdirectory: <none>
The pathname of the IMAP configuration directory. This field is required.
debug_command: <none>
Debug command to be used by processes started with -D option. The string is a C format string that gets 3 options: the first is the
name of the executable (without path). The second is the pid (integer) and the third is the service ID. Example: /usr/local/bin/gdb
/usr/cyrus/bin/%s %d
defaultacl: anyone lrs
The Access Control List (ACL) placed on a newly-created (non-user) mailbox that does not have a parent mailbox.
defaultdomain: <none>
The default domain for virtual domain support. Note that this domain is stripped from the email-address transmitted using LMTP, but it
is not stripped from usernames at login-time. For imapd/pop3d, "user" and "user@defaultdomain" specify two different users. Please
check install-virtdomains.html for details.
defaultpartition: <none>
The partition name used by default for new mailboxes. If not specified, the partition with the most free space will be used for new
mailboxes.
defaultserver: <none>
The backend server name used by default for new mailboxes. If not specified, the server with the most free space will be used for new
mailboxes.
deletedprefix: DELETED
If "delete_mode" set to be "delayed", the prefix for the deleted mailboxes hierarchy. The hierarchy delimiter will be automatically
appended.
delete_mode: immediate
The manner in which mailboxes are deleted. "immediate" mode is the default behavior in which mailboxes are removed immediately. In
"delayed" mode, mailboxes are renamed to a special hiearchy defined by the "deletedprefix" option to be removed later by cyr_expire.
Allowed values: immediate, delayed
deleteright: c
Deprecated - only used for backwards compatibility with existing installations. Lists the old RFC 2086 right which was used to grant
the user the ability to delete a mailbox. If a user has this right, they will automatically be given the new 'x' right.
disable_user_namespace: 0
Preclude list command on user namespace. If set to 'yes', the LIST response will never include any other user's mailbox. Admin users
will always see all mailboxes. The default is 'no'
disable_shared_namespace: 0
Preclude list command on user namespace. If set to 'yes', the LIST response will never include any non-user mailboxes. Admin users
will always see all mailboxes. The default is 'no'
disconnect_on_vanished_mailbox: 0
If enabled, IMAP/POP3/NNTP clients will be disconnected by the server if the currently selected mailbox is (re)moved by another ses-
sion. Otherwise, the missing mailbox is treated as empty while in use by the client.
duplicate_db: skiplist
The cyrusdb backend to use for the duplicate delivery suppression and sieve.
Allowed values: berkeley, berkeley-nosync, berkeley-hash, berkeley-hash-nosync, skiplist, sql
duplicate_db_path: <none>
The absolute path to the duplicate db file. If not specified, will be confdir/deliver.db
duplicatesuppression: 1
If enabled, lmtpd will suppress delivery of a message to a mailbox if a message with the same message-id (or resent-message-id) is
recorded as having already been delivered to the mailbox. Records the mailbox and message-id/resent-message-id of all successful
deliveries.
expunge_mode: default
The mode in which messages (and their corresponding cache entries) are expunged. "default" mode is the default behavior in which the
message files are purged at the time of the EXPUNGE, but index and cache records are retained to facilitate QRESYNC. In "delayed"
mode, the message files are also retained, allowing unexpunge to rescue them. In "immediate" mode, both the message files and the
index records are removed as soon as possible. In all cases, nothing will be finally purged until all other processes have closed the
mailbox to ensure they never see data disappear under them. In "default" or "delayed" mode, a later run of "cyr_expire" will clean
out the retained records (and possibly message files). This reduces the amount of I/O that takes place at the time of EXPUNGE and
should result in greater responsiveness for the client, especially when expunging a large number of messages.
Allowed values: default, immediate, delayed
expunge_days: 7
Number of days to retain expunged messages before cleaning up their index records. The default is 7. This is necessary for QRESYNC
to work correctly. If combined with delayed expunge (above) you will also be able to unexpunge messages during this time.
failedloginpause: 3
Number of seconds to pause after a failed login.
flushseenstate: 0
If enabled, changes to the seen state will be flushed to disk immediately, otherwise changes will be cached and flushed when the mail-
box is closed. This option may be used to fix the problem of previously read messages being marked as unread in Microsoft Outlook, at
the expense of a loss of performance/scalability.
foolstupidclients: 0
If enabled, only list the personal namespace when a LIST "*" is performed (it changes the request to a LIST "INBOX*").
force_sasl_client_mech: <none>
Force preference of a given SASL mechanism for client side operations (e.g., murder environments). This is separate from (and over-
ridden by) the ability to use the <host shortname>_mechs option to set preferred mechanisms for a specific host
fulldirhash: 0
If enabled, uses an improved directory hashing scheme which hashes on the entire username instead of using just the first letter as
the hash. This changes hash algorithm used for quota and user directories and if hashimapspool is enabled, the entire mail spool.
Note that this option CANNOT be changed on a live system. The server must be quiesced and then the directories moved with the rehash util-
ity.
hashimapspool: 0
If enabled, the partitions will also be hashed, in addition to the hashing done on configuration directories. This is recommended if
one partition has a very bushy mailbox tree.
hostname_mechs: <none>
Force a particular list of SASL mechanisms to be used when authenticating to the backend server hostname (where hostname is the short
hostname of the server in question). If it is not specified it will query the server for available mechanisms and pick one to use. -
Cyrus Murder
hostname_password: <none>
The password to use for authentication to the backend server hostname (where hostname is the short hostname of the server) - Cyrus
Murder
idlesocket: {configdirectory}/socket/idle
Unix domain socket that idled listens on.
ignorereference: 0
For backwards compatibility with Cyrus 1.5.10 and earlier -- ignore the reference argument in LIST or LSUB commands.
imapidlepoll: 60
The interval (in seconds) for polling for mailbox changes and ALERTs while running the IDLE command. This option is used when idled
is not enabled or cannot be contacted. The minimum value is 1. A value of 0 will disable IDLE.
imapidresponse: 1
If enabled, the server responds to an ID command with a parameter list containing: version, vendor, support-url, os, os-version, com-
mand, arguments, environment. Otherwise the server returns NIL.
imapmagicplus: 0
Only list a restricted set of mailboxes via IMAP by using userid+namespace syntax as the authentication/authorization id. Using
userid+ (with an empty namespace) will list only subscribed mailboxes.
implicit_owner_rights: lkxa
The implicit Access Control List (ACL) for the owner of a mailbox.
@include: <none>
Directive which includes the specified file as part of the configuration. If the path to the file is not absolute, CYRUS_PATH is
prepended.
improved_mboxlist_sort: 0
If enabled, a special comparator will be used which will correctly sort mailbox names that contain characters such as ' ' and '-'.
Note that this option SHOULD NOT be changed on a live system. The mailboxes database should be dumped (ctl_mboxlist) before the option is
changed, removed, and then undumped after changing the option. When not using flat files for the subscriptions databases the same has to
be done (cyr_dbtool) for each subscription database See improved_mboxlist_sort.html.
internaldate_heuristic: standard
Mechanism to determine email internaldates on delivery/reconstruct. "standard" uses time() when delivering a message, mtime on recon-
struct. "receivedheader" looks at the top most Received header or time/mtime otherwise
Allowed values: standard, receivedheader
ldap_authz: <none>
SASL authorization ID for the LDAP server
ldap_base: <empty string>
Contains the LDAP base dn for the LDAP ptloader module
ldap_bind_dn: <none>
Bind DN for the connection to the LDAP server (simple bind). Do not use for anonymous simple binds
ldap_deref: never
Specify how aliases dereferencing is handled during search.
Allowed values: search, find, always, never
ldap_filter: (uid=%u)
Specify a filter that searches user identifiers. The following tokens can be used in the filter string:
%% = % %u = user %U = user portion of %u (%U = test when %u = test@domain.tld) %d = domain portion of %u if available (%d =
domain.tld when %u = %test@domain.tld), otherwise same as %r %D = user dn. (use when ldap_member_method: filter) %1-9 = domain
tokens (%1 = tld, %2 = domain when %d = domain.tld)
ldap_filter is not used when ldap_sasl is enabled.
ldap_group_base: <empty string>
LDAP base dn for ldap_group_filter.
ldap_group_filter: (cn=%u)
Specify a filter that searches for group identifiers. See ldap_filter for more options.
ldap_group_scope: sub
Specify search scope for ldap_group_filter.
Allowed values: sub, one, base
ldap_id: <none>
SASL authentication ID for the LDAP server
ldap_mech: <none>
SASL mechanism for LDAP authentication
ldap_member_attribute: <none>
See ldap_member_method.
ldap_member_base: <empty string>
LDAP base dn for ldap_member_filter.
ldap_member_filter: (member=%D)
Specify a filter for "ldap_member_method: filter". See ldap_filter for more options.
ldap_member_method: attribute
Specify a group method. The "attribute" method retrieves groups from a multi-valued attribute specified in ldap_member_attribute.
The "filter" method uses a filter, specified by ldap_member_filter, to find groups; ldap_member_attribute is a single-value attribute
group name.
Allowed values: attribute, filter
ldap_member_scope: sub
Specify search scope for ldap_member_filter.
Allowed values: sub, one, base
ldap_password: <none>
Password for the connection to the LDAP server (SASL and simple bind). Do not use for anonymous simple binds
ldap_realm: <none>
SASL realm for LDAP authentication
ldap_referrals: 0
Specify whether or not the client should follow referrals.
ldap_restart: 1
Specify whether or not LDAP I/O operations are automatically restarted if they abort prematurely.
ldap_sasl: 1
Use SASL for LDAP binds in the LDAP PTS module.
ldap_sasl_authc: <none>
Deprecated. Use ldap_id
ldap_sasl_authz: <none>
Deprecated. Use ldap_authz
ldap_sasl_mech: <none>
Deprecated. Use ldap_mech
ldap_sasl_password: <none>
Deprecated. User ldap_password
ldap_sasl_realm: <none>
Deprecated. Use ldap_realm
ldap_scope: sub
Specify search scope.
Allowed values: sub, one, base
ldap_servers: ldap://localhost/
Deprecated. Use ldap_uri
ldap_size_limit: 1
Specify a number of entries for a search request to return.
ldap_start_tls: 0
Use StartTLS extended operation. Do not use ldaps: ldap_uri when this option is enabled.
ldap_time_limit: 5
Specify a number of seconds for a search request to complete.
ldap_timeout: 5
Specify a number of seconds a search can take before timing out.
ldap_tls_cacert_dir: <none>
Path to directory with CA (Certificate Authority) certificates.
ldap_tls_cacert_file: <none>
File containing CA (Certificate Authority) certificate(s).
ldap_tls_cert: <none>
File containing the client certificate.
ldap_tls_check_peer: 0
Require and verify server certificate. If this option is yes, you must specify ldap_tls_cacert_file or ldap_tls_cacert_dir.
ldap_tls_ciphers: <none>
List of SSL/TLS ciphers to allow. The format of the string is described in ciphers(1).
ldap_tls_key: <none>
File containing the private client key.
ldap_uri: <none>
Contains a list of the URLs of all the LDAP servers when using the LDAP PTS module.
ldap_version: 3
Specify the LDAP protocol version. If ldap_start_tls and/or ldap_use_sasl are enabled, ldap_version will be automatically set to 3.
lmtp_downcase_rcpt: 0
If enabled, lmtpd will convert the recipient addresses to lowercase (up to a '+' character, if present).
lmtp_fuzzy_mailbox_match: 0
If enabled, and the mailbox specified in the detail part of the recipient (everything after the '+') does not exist, lmtpd will try to
find the closest match (ignoring case, ignoring whitespace, falling back to parent) to the specified mailbox name.
lmtp_over_quota_perm_failure: 0
If enabled, lmtpd returns a permanent failure code when a user's mailbox is over quota. By default, the failure is temporary, causing
the MTA to queue the message and retry later.
lmtp_strict_quota: 0
If enabled, lmtpd returns a failure code when the incoming message will cause the user's mailbox to exceed its quota. By default, the
failure won't occur until the mailbox is already over quota.
lmtp_strict_rfc2821: 1
By default, lmtpd will be strict (per RFC 2821) with regards to which envelope addresses are allowed. If this option is set to false,
8bit characters in the local-part of envelope addresses are changed to 'X' instead. This is useful to avoid generating backscatter
with certain MTAs like Postfix or Exim which accept such messages.
lmtpsocket: {configdirectory}/socket/lmtp
Unix domain socket that lmtpd listens on, used by deliver(8). This should match the path specified in cyrus.conf(5).
lmtptxn_timeout: 300
Timeout (in seconds) used during a lmtp transaction to a remote backend (e.g. in a murder environment). Can be used to prevent hung
lmtpds on proxy hosts when a backend server becomes unresponsive during a lmtp transaction. The default is 300 - change to zero for
infinite.
loginrealms: <empty string>
The list of remote realms whose users may authenticate using cross-realm authentication identifiers. Separate each realm name by a
space. (A cross-realm identity is considered any identity returned by SASL with an "@" in it.) Note that to support multiple virtual
domains on the same interface/IP, you need to list them all as loginreals. If you don't list them here, your users probably won't be
able to log in.
loginuseacl: 0
If enabled, any authentication identity which has a rights on a user's INBOX may log in as that user.
logtimestamps: 0
Include notations in the protocol telemetry logs indicating the number of seconds since the last command or response.
mailbox_default_options: 0
Default "options" field for the mailbox on create. You'll want to know what you're doing before setting this, but it can apply some
default annotations like duplicate supression
mailnotifier: <none>
Notifyd(8) method to use for "MAIL" notifications. If not set, "MAIL" notifications are disabled.
maxheaderlines: 1000
Maximum number of lines of header that will be processed into cache records. Default 1000. If set to zero, it is unlimited. If a
message hits the limit, an error will be logged and the rest of the lines in the header will be skipped. This is to avoid malformed
messages causing giant cache records
maxmessagesize: 0
Maximum incoming LMTP message size. If non-zero, lmtpd will reject messages larger than maxmessagesize bytes. If set to 0, this will
allow messages of any size (the default).
maxquoted: 131072
Maximum size of a single quoted string for the parser. Default 128k
maxword: 131072
Maximum size of a single word for the parser. Default 128k
mboxkey_db: skiplist
The cyrusdb backend to use for mailbox keys.
Allowed values: berkeley, skiplist
mboxlist_db: skiplist
The cyrusdb backend to use for the mailbox list.
Allowed values: flat, berkeley, berkeley-hash, skiplist
mboxlist_db_path: <none>
The absolute path to the mailboxes db file. If not specified will be confdir/mailboxes.db
mboxname_lockpath: <none>
Path to mailbox name lock files (default $conf/lock)
metapartition_files: <empty string>
Space-separated list of metadata files to be stored on a metapartition rather than in the mailbox directory on a spool partition.
Allowed values: header, index, cache, expunge, squat
metapartition-name: <none>
The pathname of the metadata partition name, corresponding to spool partition partition-name. For any mailbox residing in a directory
on partition-name, the metadata files listed in metapartition_files will be stored in a corresponding directory on metapartition-name.
Note that not every partition-name option is required to have a corresponding metapartition-name option, so that you can selectively
choose which spool partitions will have separate metadata partitions.
mupdate_authname: <none>
The SASL username (Authentication Name) to use when authenticating to the mupdate server (if needed).
mupdate_config: standard
The configuration of the mupdate servers in the Cyrus Murder. The "standard" config is one in which there are discreet frontend
(proxy) and backend servers. The "unified" config is one in which a server can be both a frontend and backend. The "replicated" con-
fig is one in which multiple backend servers all share the same mailspool, but each have their own "replicated" copy of mailboxes.db.
Allowed values: standard, unified, replicated
munge8bit: 1
If enabled, lmtpd munges messages with 8-bit characters in the headers. The 8-bit characters are changed to `X'. If reject8bit is
enabled, setting munge8bit has no effect. (A proper solution to non-ASCII characters in headers is offered by RFC 2047 and its prede-
cessors.)
mupdate_connections_max: 128
The max number of connections that a mupdate process will allow, this is related to the number of file descriptors in the mupdate
process. Beyond this number connections will be immediately issued a BYE response.
mupdate_password: <none>
The SASL password (if needed) to use when authenticating to the mupdate server.
mupdate_port: 3905
The port of the mupdate server for the Cyrus Murder
mupdate_realm: <none>
The SASL realm (if needed) to use when authenticating to the mupdate server.
mupdate_retry_delay: 20
The base time to wait between connection retries to the mupdate server.
mupdate_server: <none>
The mupdate server for the Cyrus Murder
mupdate_username: <empty string>
The SASL username (Authorization Name) to use when authenticating to the mupdate server
mupdate_workers_max: 50
The maximum number of mupdate worker threads (overall)
mupdate_workers_maxspare: 10
The maximum number of idle mupdate worker threads
mupdate_workers_minspare: 2
The minimum number of idle mupdate worker threads
mupdate_workers_start: 5
The number of mupdate worker threads to start
netscapeurl: <none>
If enabled at compile time, this specifies a URL to reply when Netscape asks the server where the mail administration HTTP server is.
Administrators should set this to a local resource.
newsaddheaders: to
Space-separated list of headers to be added to incoming usenet articles. Added To: headers will contain email delivery addresses cor-
responding to each newsgroup in the Newsgroups: header. Added Reply-To: headers will contain email delivery addresses corresponding
to each newsgroup in the Followup-To: or Newsgroups: header. If the specified header(s) already exist in an article, the email deliv-
ery addresses will be appended to the original header body(s).
This option applies if and only if the newspostuser option is set.
Allowed values: to, replyto
newsgroups: *
A wildmat pattern specifying which mailbox hierarchies should be treated as newsgroups. Only mailboxes matching the wildmat will
accept and/or serve articles via NNTP. If not set, a default wildmat of "*" (ALL shared mailboxes) will be used. If the newsprefix
option is also set, the default wildmat will be translated to "<newsprefix>.*"
newsmaster: news
Userid that is used for checking access controls when executing Usenet control messages. For instance, to allow articles to be auto-
matically deleted by cancel messages, give the "news" user the 'd' right on the desired mailboxes. To allow newsgroups to be automat-
ically created, deleted and renamed by the corresponding control messages, give the "news" user the 'c' right on the desired mailbox
hierarchies.
newspeer: <none>
A list of whitespace-separated news server specifications to which articles should be fed. Each server specification is a string of
the form [user[:pass]@]host[:port][/wildmat] where 'host' is the fully qualified hostname of the server, 'port' is the port on which
the server is listening, 'user' and 'pass' are the authentication credentials and 'wildmat' is a pattern that specifies which groups
should be fed. If no 'port' is specified, port 119 is used. If no 'wildmat' is specified, all groups are fed. If 'user' is speci-
fied (even if empty), then the NNTP POST command will be used to feed the article to the server, otherwise the IHAVE command will be
used.
A '@' may be used in place of '!' in the wildmat to prevent feeding articles cross-posted to the given group, otherwise cross-posted
articles are fed if any part of the wildmat matches. For example, the string "peer.example.com:*,!control.*,@local.*" would feed all
groups except control messages and local groups to peer.example.com. In the case of cross-posting to local groups, these articles
would not be fed.
newspostuser: <none>
Userid used to deliver usenet articles to newsgroup folders (usually via lmtp2nntp). For example, if set to "post", email sent to
"post+comp.mail.imap" would be delivered to the "comp.mail.imap" folder.
When set, the Cyrus NNTP server will add the header(s) specified in the newsaddheaders option to each incoming usenet article. The
added header(s) will contain email delivery addresses corresponding to each relevent newsgroup. If not set, no headers are added to
usenet articles.
newsprefix: <none>
Prefix to be prepended to newsgroup names to make the corresponding IMAP mailbox names.
newsrc_db_path: <none>
The absolute path to the newsrc db file. If not specified, will be confdir/fetchnews.db
nntptimeout: 3
Set the length of the NNTP server's inactivity autologout timer, in minutes. The minimum value is 3, the default.
notifysocket: {configdirectory}/socket/notify
Unix domain socket that the mail notification daemon listens on.
notify_external: <none>
Path to the external program that notifyd(8) will call to send mail notifications.
The external program will be called with the following command line options:
-c class
-p priority
-u user
-m mailbox
And the notification message will be available on stdin.
partition-name: <none>
The pathname of the partition name. At least one partition pathname MUST be specified. If the defaultpartition option is used, then
its pathname MUST be specified. For example, if the value of the defaultpartion option is default, then the partition-default field
is required.
plaintextloginpause: 0
Number of seconds to pause after a successful plaintext login. For systems that support strong authentication, this permits users to
perceive a cost of using plaintext passwords. (This does not affect the use of PLAIN in SASL authentications.)
plaintextloginalert: <none>
Message to send to client after a successful plaintext login.
popexpiretime: -1
The number of days advertised as being the minimum a message may be left on the POP server before it is deleted (via the CAPA command,
defined in the POP3 Extension Mechanism, which some clients may support). "NEVER", the default, may be specified with a negative num-
ber. The Cyrus POP3 server never deletes mail, no matter what the value of this parameter is. However, if a site implements a less
liberal policy, it needs to change this parameter accordingly.
popminpoll: 0
Set the minimum amount of time the server forces users to wait between successive POP logins, in minutes.
popsubfolders: 0
Allow access to subfolders of INBOX via POP3 by using userid+subfolder syntax as the authentication/authorization id.
poppollpadding: 1
Create a softer minimum poll restriction. Allows poppollpadding connections before the minpoll restriction is triggered. Addition-
ally, one padding entry is recovered every popminpoll minutes. This allows for the occasional polling rate faster than popminpoll,
(i.e., for clients that require a send/receive to send mail) but still enforces the rate long-term. Default is 1 (disabled).
The easiest way to think of it is a queue of past connections, with one slot being filled for every connection, and one slot being
cleared every popminpoll minutes. When the queue is full, the user will not be able to check mail again until a slot is cleared. If
the user waits a sufficient amount of time, they will get back many or all of the slots.
poptimeout: 10
Set the length of the POP server's inactivity autologout timer, in minutes. The minimum value is 10, the default.
popuseacl: 0
Enforce IMAP ACLs in the pop server. Due to the nature of the POP3 protocol, the only rights which are used by the pop server are
'r', 't', and 's' for the owner of the mailbox. The 'r' right allows the user to open the mailbox and list/retrieve messages. The
't' right allows the user to delete messages. The 's' right allows messages retrieved by the user to have the Seen flag set (only if
popuseimapflags is also enabled).
popuseimapflags: 0
If enabled, the pop server will set and obey IMAP flags. Messages having the Deleted flag are ignored as if they do not exist. Mes-
sages that are retrieved by the client will have the Seen flag set. All messages will have the Recent flag unset.
postmaster: postmaster
Username that is used as the 'From' address in rejection MDNs produced by sieve.
postuser: <empty string>
Userid used to deliver messages to shared folders. For example, if set to "bb", email sent to "bb+shared.blah" would be delivered to
the "shared.blah" folder. By default, an email address of "+shared.blah" would be used.
proc_path: <none>
Path to proc directory. Default is NULL - must be an absolute path if specified. If not specified, the path $confdir/proc/ will be
used.
proxy_authname: proxy
The authentication name to use when authenticating to a backend server in the Cyrus Murder.
proxy_compress: 0
Try to enable protocol-specific compression when performing a client connection to a backend server in the Cyrus Murder.
Note that this should only be necessary over slow network connections. Also note that currently only IMAP and MUPDATE support compression.
proxy_password: <none>
The default password to use when authenticating to a backend server in the Cyrus Murder. May be overridden on a host-specific basis
using the hostname_password option.
proxy_realm: <none>
The authentication realm to use when authenticating to a backend server in the Cyrus Murder
proxyd_allow_status_referral: 0
Set to true to allow proxyd to issue referrals to clients that support it when answering the STATUS command. This is disabled by
default since some clients issue many STATUS commands in a row, and do not cache the connections that these referrals would cause,
thus resulting in a higher authentication load on the respective backend server.
proxyd_disable_mailbox_referrals: 0
Set to true to disable the use of mailbox-referrals on the proxy servers.
proxyservers: <none>
A list of users and groups that are allowed to proxy for other users, separated by spaces. Any user listed in this will be allowed to
login for any other user: use with caution.
pts_module: afskrb
The PTS module to use.
Allowed values: afskrb, ldap
ptloader_sock: <none>
Unix domain socket that ptloader listens on. (defaults to configdir/ptclient/ptsock)
ptscache_db: skiplist
The cyrusdb backend to use for the pts cache.
Allowed values: berkeley, berkeley-hash, skiplist
ptscache_db_path: <none>
The absolute path to the ptscache db file. If not specified, will be confdir/ptscache.db
ptscache_timeout: 10800
The timeout (in seconds) for the PTS cache database when using the auth_krb_pts authorization method (default: 3 hours).
ptskrb5_convert524: 1
When using the AFSKRB ptloader module with Kerberos 5 canonicalization, do the final 524 conversion to get a n AFS style name (using
'.' instead of '/', and using short names
ptskrb5_strip_default_realm: 1
When using the AFSKRB ptloader module with Kerberos 5 canonicalization, strip the default realm from the userid (this does not affect
the stripping of realms specified by the afspts_localrealms option)
qosmarking: cs0
This specifies the Class Selector or Differentiated Services Code Point designation on IP headers (in the ToS field).
Allowed values: cs0, cs1, cs2, cs3, cs4, cs5, cs6, cs7, af11, af12, af13, af21, af22, af23, af31, af32, af33, af41, af42, af43, ef
quota_db: quotalegacy
The cyrusdb backend to use for quotas.
Allowed values: flat, berkeley, berkeley-hash, skiplist, sql, quotalegacy
quota_db_path: <none>
The absolute path for the quota database (if you choose a single-file quota DB type - or the base path if you choose quotalegacy). If
not specified will be confdir/quota.db or confdir/quota/
quotawarn: 90
The percent of quota utilization over which the server generates warnings.
quotawarnkb: 0
The maximum amount of free space (in kB) at which to give a quota warning (if this value is 0, or if the quota is smaller than this
amount, than warnings are always given).
reject8bit: 0
If enabled, lmtpd rejects messages with 8-bit characters in the headers.
rfc2046_strict: 0
If enabled, imapd will be strict (per RFC 2046) when matching MIME boundary strings. This means that boundaries containing other
boundaries as substrings will be treated as identical. Since enabling this option will break some messages created by Eudora 5.1 (and
earlier), it is recommended that it be left disabled unless there is good reason to do otherwise.
rfc3028_strict: 1
If enabled, Sieve will be strict (per RFC 3028) with regards to which headers are allowed to be used in address and envelope tests.
This means that only those headers which are defined to contain addresses will be allowed in address tests and only "to" and "from"
will be allowed in envelope tests. When disabled, ANY grammatically correct header will be allowed.
sasl_auto_transition: 0
If enabled, the SASL library will automatically create authentication secrets when given a plaintext password. See the SASL documen-
tation.
sasl_maximum_layer: 256
Maximum SSF (security strength factor) that the server will allow a client to negotiate.
sasl_minimum_layer: 0
The minimum SSF that the server will allow a client to negotiate. A value of 1 requires integrity protection; any higher value
requires some amount of encryption.
sasl_option: 0
Any SASL option can be set by preceding it with "sasl_". This file overrides the SASL configuration file.
sasl_pwcheck_method: <none>
The mechanism used by the server to verify plaintext passwords. Possible values include "auxprop", "saslauthd", and "pwcheck".
seenstate_db: skiplist
The cyrusdb backend to use for the seen state.
Allowed values: flat, berkeley, berkeley-hash, skiplist
sendmail: /usr/lib/sendmail
The pathname of the sendmail executable. Sieve invokes sendmail for sending rejections, redirects and vacation responses.
serverlist: <none>
Whitespace separated list of backend server names. Used for finding server with the most available free space for proxying CREATE.
servername: <none>
This is the hostname visible in the greeting messages of the POP, IMAP and LMTP daemons. If it is unset, then the result returned from
gethostname(2) is used.
serverinfo: on
The server information to display in the greeting and capability responses. Information is displayed as follows:
"off" = no server information in the greeting or capabilities
"min" = servername in the greeting; no server information in the capabilities
"on" = servername and product version in the greeting; product version in the capabilities
Allowed values: off, min, on
sharedprefix: Shared Folders
If using the alternate IMAP namespace, the prefix for the shared namespace. The hierarchy delimiter will be automatically appended.
sieve_allowreferrals: 1
If enabled, timsieved will issue referrals to clients when the user's scripts reside on a remote server (in a Murder). Otherwise,
timsieved will proxy traffic to the remote server.
sieve_extensions: fileinto reject vacation imapflags notify envelope relational regex subaddress copy
Space-separated list of Sieve extensions allowed to be used in sieve scripts, enforced at submission by timsieved(8). Any previously
installed script will be unaffected by this option and will continue to execute regardless of the extensions used. This option has no
effect on options that are disabled at compile time (e.g., "regex").
Allowed values: fileinto, reject, vacation, imapflags, notify, include, envelope, body, relational, regex, subaddress, copy
sieve_maxscriptsize: 32
Maximum size (in kilobytes) any sieve script can be, enforced at submission by timsieved(8).
sieve_maxscripts: 5
Maximum number of sieve scripts any user may have, enforced at submission by timsieved(8).
sieve_utf8fileinto: 0
If enabled, the sieve engine expects folder names for the fileinto action in scripts to use UTF8 encoding. Otherwise, modified UTF7
encoding should be used.
sieve_sasl_send_unsolicited_capability: 0
If enabled, timsieved will emit a capability response after a successful SASL authentication, per draft-martin-managesieve-12.txt .
sievedir: /usr/sieve
If sieveusehomedir is false, this directory is searched for Sieve scripts.
sievenotifier: <none>
Notifyd(8) method to use for "SIEVE" notifications. If not set, "SIEVE" notifications are disabled.
This method is only used when no method is specified in the script.
sieveusehomedir: 0
If enabled, lmtpd will look for Sieve scripts in user's home directories: ~user/.sieve.
singleinstancestore: 1
If enabled, imapd, lmtpd and nntpd attempt to only write one copy of a message per partition and create hard links, resulting in a
potentially large disk savings.
skiplist_always_checkpoint: 1
If enabled, this option forces the skiplist cyrusdb backend to always checkpoint when doing a recovery. This causes slightly more IO,
but on the other hand leads to more efficient databases, and the entire file is already "hot".
skiplist_unsafe: 0
If enabled, this option forces the skiplist cyrusdb backend to not sync writes to the disk. Enabling this option is NOT RECOMMENDED.
soft_noauth: 1
If enabled, lmtpd returns temporary failures if the client does not successfully authenticate. Otherwise lmtpd returns permanent
failures (causing the mail to bounce immediately).
specialusealways: 0
If enabled, this option causes LIST and LSUB output to always include the XLIST "special-use" flags. See "xlist-*'"
sql_database: <none>
Name of the database which contains the cyrusdb table(s).
sql_engine: <none>
Name of the SQL engine to use.
Allowed values: mysql, pgsql, sqlite
sql_hostnames: <empty string>
Comma separated list of SQL servers (in host[:port] format).
sql_passwd: <none>
Password to use for authentication to the SQL server.
sql_user: <none>
Username to use for authentication to the SQL server.
sql_usessl: 0
If enabled, a secure connection will be made to the SQL server.
srvtab: <empty string>
The pathname of srvtab file containing the server's private key. This option is passed to the SASL library and overrides its default
setting.
submitservers: <none>
A list of users and groups that are allowed to resolve "urlauth=submit+" IMAP URLs, separated by spaces. Any user listed in this will
be allowed to fetch the contents of any valid "urlauth=submit+" IMAP URL: use with caution.
subscription_db: flat
The cyrusdb backend to use for the subscriptions list.
Allowed values: flat, berkeley, berkeley-hash, skiplist
suppress_capabilities: <none>
Suppress the named capabilities from any capability response. Use the exact case as it appears in the response, e.g. "suppress_capa-
bilities: ESEARCH QRESYNC WITHIN XLIST LIST-EXTENDED" if you have a murder with 2.3.x backends and don't want clients being confused
by new capabilities that some backends don't support.
statuscache: 0
Enable/disable the imap status cache.
statuscache_db: skiplist
The cyrusdb backend to use for the imap status cache.
Allowed values: berkeley, berkeley-nosync, berkeley-hash, berkeley-hash-nosync, skiplist
statuscache_db_path: <none>
The absolute path to the statuscache db file. If not specified, will be confdir/statuscache.db
sync_authname: <none>
The authentication name to use when authenticating to a sync server. Prefix with a channel name to only apply for that channel
sync_compress: 0
Enable compression on replication traffic. Prefix with a channel name to only apply for that channel
sync_host: <none>
Name of the host (replica running sync_server(8)) to which replication actions will be sent by sync_client(8). Prefix with a channel
name to only apply for that channel
sync_log: 0
Enable replication action logging by lmtpd(8), imapd(8), pop3d(8), and nntpd(8). The log {configdirectory}/sync/log is used by
sync_client(8) for "rolling" replication.
sync_log_chain: 0
Enable replication action logging by sync_server as well, allowing chaining of replicas. Use this on 'B' for A => B => C replication
layout
sync_log_channels: <none>
If specified, log all events to multiple log files in directories specified by each "channel". To run these log files, you need to
pass the -n option to sync_client -r with the channel name. Use this for a mesh style replication layout - every machine replicating
to every other machine.
sync_password: <none>
The default password to use when authenticating to a sync server. Prefix with a channel name to only apply for that channel
sync_port: csync
Name of the service (or port number) of the replication service on replica host. The default is "csync" which is usally port 2005,
but any service name or numeric port can be specified. Prefix with a channel name to only apply for that channel
sync_realm: <none>
The authentication realm to use when authenticating to a sync server. Prefix with a channel name to only apply for that channel
sync_repeat_interval: 1
Minimum interval (in seconds) between replication runs in rolling replication mode. If a replication run takes longer than this time,
we repeat immediately. Prefix with a channel name to only apply for that channel
sync_shutdown_file: <none>
Simple latch used to tell sync_client(8) that it should shut down at the next opportunity. Safer than sending signals to running pro-
cesses. Prefix with a channel name to only apply for that channel
syslog_prefix: <none>
String to be prepended to the process name in syslog entries.
tcp_keepalive: 0
Enable keepalive on TCP connections
tcp_keepalive_cnt: 0
Number of TCP keepalive probes to send before declaring the connection dead (0 == system default)
tcp_keepalive_idle: 0
Number of seconds a connection must be idle before keepalive probes are sent (0 == system default)
tcp_keepalive_intvl: 0
Number of seconds between keepalive probes (0 == system default)
temp_path: /tmp
The pathname to store temporary files in
timeout: 30
The length of the IMAP server's inactivity autologout timer, in minutes. The minimum value is 30, the default.
tls_ca_file: <none>
File containing one or more Certificate Authority (CA) certificates.
tls_ca_path: <none>
Path to directory with certificates of CAs. This directory must have filenames with the hashed value of the certificates (see
openssl(XXX)).
tlscache_db: skiplist
The cyrusdb backend to use for the TLS cache.
Allowed values: berkeley, berkeley-nosync, berkeley-hash, berkeley-hash-nosync, skiplist, sql
tlscache_db_path: <none>
The absolute path to the tlscache db file. If not specified, will be confdir/tls_sessions.db
tls_cert_file: <none>
File containing the certificate presented for server authentication during STARTTLS. A value of "disabled" will disable SSL/TLS.
tls_cipher_list: DEFAULT
The list of SSL/TLS ciphers to allow. The format of the string is described in ciphers(1).
tls_key_file: <none>
File containing the private key belonging to the server certificate. A value of "disabled" will disable SSL/TLS.
tls_require_cert: 0
Require a client certificate for ALL services (imap, pop3, lmtp, sieve).
tls_session_timeout: 1440
The length of time (in minutes) that a TLS session will be cached for later reuse. The maximum value is 1440 (24 hours), the default.
A value of 0 will disable session caching.
umask: 077
The umask value used by various Cyrus IMAP programs.
userdeny_db: flat
The cyrusdb backend to use for the user access list.
Allowed values: flat, berkeley, berkeley-hash, skiplist, sql
userdeny_db_path: <none>
The absolute path to the userdeny db file. If not specified, will be confdir/user_deny.db
user_folder_limit: 0
Limit the number of folders a user can create in their INBOX. Set to 0 (default) for no limit. Only affects folders in user.
username_tolower: 1
Convert usernames to all lowercase before login/authentication. This is useful with authentication backends which ignore case during
username lookups (such as LDAP).
userprefix: Other Users
If using the alternate IMAP namespace, the prefix for the other users namespace. The hierarchy delimiter will be automatically
appended.
unix_group_enable: 1
Should we look up groups when using auth_unix (disable this if you are not using groups in ACLs for your IMAP server, and you are
using auth_unix with a backend (such as LDAP) that can make getgrent() calls very slow)
unixhierarchysep: 0
Use the UNIX separator character '/' for delimiting levels of mailbox hierarchy. The default is to use the netnews separator charac-
ter '.'.
virtdomains: off
Enable virtual domain support. If enabled, the user's domain will be determined by splitting a fully qualified userid at the last '@'
or '%' symbol. If the userid is unqualified, and the virtdomains option is set to "on", then the domain will be determined by doing a
reverse lookup on the IP address of the incoming network interface, otherwise the user is assumed to be in the default domain (if
set).
Allowed values: off, userid, on
xlist-*: <none>
Cyrus 2.4 ONLY - enable special use flags. The valid names can be taken from GMail's XLIST documents or RFC 6154. Attribute name in
the configuration key should be defined in lowercase. The attribute value is case sensitive, may contain whitespace and and must valid
UTF7-IMAP string. It must exactly match the name of the subfolder of a user's INBOX.
Example: xlist-drafts: My Drafts
Every user on your server with a 'INBOX.My Drafts' folder will get the special use flag " versions of Cyrus have a much more flexible
RFC 6154 compatible system.
normalizeuid: 0
Lowercase uid and strip leading and trailing blanks. It is recommended to set this to yes, especially if OpenLDAP is used as authenti-
cation source.
SEE ALSO
imapd(8), pop3d(8), nntpd(8), lmtpd(8), timsieved(8), idled(8), notifyd(8), deliver(8), master(8), ciphers(1)
CMU Project Cyrus IMAPD.CONF(5)