DOVECOT(1)

NAME
dovecot - a secure and highly configurable IMAP and POP3 server

SYNOPSIS
dovecot [-Fp] [-c config-file]
dovecot -a [-c config-file]
dovecot -n [-c config-file]
dovecot --build-options
dovecot --help
dovecot --version
dovecot reload
dovecot stop

DESCRIPTION
Dovecot is an open source IMAP and POP3 server for Linux/UNIX-like systems, written with security primarily in mind. Dovecot is an excellent choice for both small and large installations. It's fast, simple to set up, requires no special administration and it uses very little memory.

OPTIONS

-a  Dump all configuration settings to stdout and exit successfully. The same as doveconf -a.

-c config-file
    Start dovecot with an alternative configuration.

-F  Run dovecot in foreground, do not daemonize.

-n  Dump non-default settings to stdout and exit successfully. The same as doveconf -n.

-p  Prompt for the ssl key password for the configured ssl_key on startup.

--build-options
    Show Dovecot's build options and exit successfully.

--help
    Print a usage message to stdout and exit successfully.

--version
    Show Dovecot's version and exit successfully.

COMMANDS

reload
    Force dovecot to reload its configuration.

stop
    Shutdown dovecot and all its child processes.

When shutdown_clients is set to no, existing sessions will continue to use the old settings, after a dovecot reload. Also all sessions will keep alive after a dovecot stop.
By default all active sessions will be shut down.

SIGNALS
Dovecot handles the following signals as described:

HUP Force dovecot to reload its configuration.

INT Shutdown dovecot and all its child processes.

TERM
    Shutdown dovecot and all its child processes.

USR1
    Force dovecot to reopen all configured log files (log_path, info_log_path and debug_log_path).

The signals ALARM and PIPE are ignored.

FILES

/etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
    Dovecot's main configuration file.

/etc/dovecot/dovecot-ldap.conf.ext
    Dovecot's LDAP authdb/userdb module configuration file.

/etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf.ext
    Dovecot's SQL authdb/userdb module configuration file.

/etc/dovecot/dovecot-dict-sql.conf.ext
    Dovecot's dict configuration with SQL-backend.

/etc/dovecot/conf.d/auth-*-conf.ext
    Configuration files of different authentication modules.

/etc/dovecot/conf.d/*.conf
    Configuration files of different services and settings.

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

AUTHOR
Dovecot <http://dovecot.org> and its manual pages were written by the Dovecot authors <http://dovecot.org/doc/AUTHORS>, mainly Timo Sirainen <tss at iki.fi>, and are licensed under the terms of the MIT and LGPLv2.1 licenses, see <http://dovecot.org/doc/COPYING> for details.

SEE ALSO
doveadm(1), doveconf(1), dovecot-lda(1), dsync(1)