CTL_MBOXLIST(8)

NAME
ctl_mboxlist - Cyrus IMAP documentation

Perform operations on the mailbox list database

SYNOPSIS

    ctl_mboxlist [ -C config-file ] -d [ -x ] [-y] [ -p partition ] [ -f filename ]
    ctl_mboxlist [ -C config-file ] -u [ -f filename ] [ -L ]
    ctl_mboxlist [ -C config-file ] -m [ -a ] [ -w ] [ -i ] [ -f filename ]
    ctl_mboxlist [ -C config-file ] -v [ -f filename ]

DESCRIPTION

ctl_mboxlist is used to perform various administrative operations on the mailbox list database.

ctl_mboxlist reads its configuration options out of the imapd.conf(5) <#std-cyrusman-imapd.conf-5> file unless specified otherwise by -C. The configdirectory option in imapd.conf(5) <#std-cyrusman-imapd.conf-5> is used to determine the default location of the mailboxes database.

OPTIONS

-C config-file
    Use the specified configuration file config-file rather than the default imapd.conf(5) <#std-cyrusman-imapd.conf-5>.

-d, --dump
    Dump the contents of the database to standard output in JSON format.

-x, --remove-dumped
    When performing a dump, remove the mailboxes dumped from the mailbox list (mostly useful when specified with -p).

-y, --include-intermediaries
    When performing a dump, also list intermediary mailboxes which would be hidden from IMAP.

-p partition, --partition=partition
    When performing a dump, dump only those mailboxes that live on partition.

-f filename, --filename=filename
    Use the database specified by filename instead of the default (configdirectory/mailboxes.db*).

-L, --legacy
    When performing an undump, use the legacy dump parser instead of the JSON parser. This might be useful for importing a dump produced by an older version of Cyrus.

-u, --undump
    Load ("undump") the contents of the database from standard input. The input MUST be a valid JSON file, unless the -L option is also supplied.

    Important: USE THIS OPTION WITH CARE. If you have modified the dump file since it was dumped, or if the file was not produced by -d in the first place, or was produced on a different server, you can easily break your mailboxes.db. Undump will refuse to process a syntactically-invalid dump file, but it can't do much to protect you from a valid file containing bad data.

-m, --sync-mupdate
    For backend servers in the Cyrus Murder, synchronize the local mailbox list file with the MUPDATE server.

-a, --authoritative
    When used with -m, assume the local mailboxes file is authoritative, that is, only change the mupdate server, do not delete any local mailboxes.

    Important: USE THIS OPTION WITH CARE, as it allows namespace collisions into the murder.

-w, --warn-only
    When used with -m, print out what would be done but do not perform the operations.

-i, --interactive
    When used with -m, asks for verification before deleting local mailboxes.

-v, --verify
    Verify the consistency of the mailbox list database and the spool partition(s). Mailboxes present in the database and not located on a spool partition, and those located on a spool partition (directory containing a valid cyrus.header file) and not present in the database will be reported. Note that this function is very I/O intensive.

EXAMPLES

    ctl_mboxlist -d
Dump the mailboxes list to standard output in JSON format

    ctl_mboxlist -u < newmboxlist.dump
Undump (restore) the mailboxes database from newmboxlist.dump, where newmboxlist.dump is a JSON file produced by ctl_mboxlist -d

Note: Be very careful with this option.

    ctl_mboxlist -m
Synchronize our mailboxes database with the MUPDATE server. (One may commonly put a command like this into the START section of cyrus.conf(5) <#std-cyrusman-cyrus.conf-5> on backend nodes of a Murder cluster to cause the backend to synchronize its mailbox list with the mupdate master upon startup).

    ctl_mboxlist -m -w
The same as above, but only show us what would be done, don't actually do it.

    ctl_mboxlist -m -a
Populate the Mupdate server from our copy of the mailboxes database.

Note: Be very careful with this option, as it can create conflicts in the Murder.

    ctl_mboxlist -m -i
Synchronize our mailboxes database with the MUPDATE server interactively, asking for verification before deleting any local mailboxes.

FILES

/etc/imapd.conf, <configdirectory>/mailboxes.db

SEE ALSO

imapd.conf(5) <#std-cyrusman-imapd.conf-5>, master(8) <#std-cyrusman-master-8>

Author
The Cyrus Team, Nic Bernstein (Onlight), Jeroen van Meeuwen (Kolab Systems)

Copyright
1993–2026, The Cyrus Team