.TH "DOVEADM-ALTMOVE" "1" "May 2026" "e5ac02a" "Dovecot"
.SH "NAME"
\fBdoveadm-altmove\fR - Move matching mails to the alternative storage (dbox-only)
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.P
\fBdoveadm\fR \[lB]\fIGLOBAL OPTIONS\fR\[rB] \fBaltmove\fR \[lB]\fB-r\fR\[rB] \[lB]\fB-S\fR \fIsocket_path\fR\[rB] \fB-A\fR \fIsearch_query\fR
.P
\fBdoveadm\fR \[lB]\fIGLOBAL OPTIONS\fR\[rB] \fBaltmove\fR \[lB]\fB-r\fR\[rB] \[lB]\fB-S\fR \fIsocket_path\fR\[rB] \fB-F\fR \fIfile search_query\fR
.P
\fBdoveadm\fR \[lB]\fIGLOBAL OPTIONS\fR\[rB] \fBaltmove\fR \[lB]\fB-r\fR\[rB] \[lB]\fB-S\fR \fIsocket_path\fR\[rB] \fB--no-userdb-lookup\fR \fIsearch_query\fR
.P
\fBdoveadm\fR \[lB]\fIGLOBAL OPTIONS\fR\[rB] \fBaltmove\fR \[lB]\fB-r\fR\[rB] \[lB]\fB-S\fR \fIsocket_path\fR\[rB] \fB-u\fR \fIuser search_query\fR
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.P
This command can be used with sdbox or mdbox storage to move mails to alternative storage path when \fImail_alt_path\fR is specified for the mail location.
.P
In the first form, doveadm(1) will execute the \fBaltmove\fR for all users.
.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 moved to the alternative storage.
.SH "GLOBAL OPTIONS"
.P
Global doveadm(1) \fIoptions\fR:
.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 \fB-o\fR.
.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-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-r\fR
.RS 0
.RS 4
.P
When the \fB-r\fR option is given this \fIcommand\fR works the other way round. Mails will be moved from the alternative storage back to the default mail location.
.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
Messages matching this search query will be moved to alt storage. See doveadm-search-query(7) for details.
.RE 0

.RE 0

.SH "FILES"
.P
\fI/etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-mail.conf\fR
.RS 0
.RS 4
.P
Mailbox locations and namespaces.
.RE 0

.RE 0

.SH "EXAMPLE"
.P
This example moves seen mails older than one week to alternative storage under /nfsmount:
.P
.RS 2
.nf
mail_driver = mdbox
mail_path = ~/mdbox
mail_alt_path = /nfsmount/%{home}/mdbox
.fi
.RE
.P
.RS 2
.nf
doveadm altmove -u johnd@example.com seen savedbefore 1w<
.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: \fI\(lahttps://dovecot.org/bugreport.html\(ra\fR
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.P
doveadm(1)
