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] -F file 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 execute 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, doveadm(1) will expunge messages of the users listed in the given file.

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

OPTIONS

       Global doveadm(1) options:

       -D     Enables verbosity and debug messages.

       -o setting=value
              Overrides  the  configuration  setting  from /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf and from the
              userdb with the given value.  In order to override multiple settings, the -o option
              may be specified multiple times.

       -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  database  layout.  When using the
              LDAP userdb module, make sure that the iterate_attrs and iterate_filter settings in
              /etc/dovecot/dovecot-ldap.conf.ext  match  your  LDAP schema.  Otherwise doveadm(1)
              will be unable to iterate over all users.

       -F file
              Execute the command for all the users in the file.   This  is  similar  to  the  -A
              option,  but  instead  of  getting the list of users from the userdb, they are read
              from the given file.  The file contains one username per line.

       -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 the -F file option, nor the -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    available    at:
       http://dovecot.org/bugreport.html

SEE ALSO

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