CYRADM(8)

📦
version 3.12.4 · 6 versions
, in fedora 44

🦋 CYRADM(8) — Cyrus IMAP 🦋

okay bestie, this one is literally called cyradm, it lives in section 8 of the manual, and it belongs to Cyrus IMAP. buckle up, we're doing admin things 💅

🌸 NAME 🌸

cyradm — Cyrus IMAP documentation

🌸 NAME (again, she's thorough) 🌸

Cyrus::IMAP::Shell — Perl version of cyradm 🐪✨

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

so the main character entrance looks like this, no cap:

$ cyradm [--user authid] [--authz authzid] [--[no]rc] [--systemrc file] [--userrc file] \
> [--port n] [--auth mechanism] [--server] server

but possibly also this:

$ perl -MCyrus::IMAP::Shell -e 'run("myscript")'

or even this, and bestie I need you to know the manual itself says (not recommended) 🙈:

use Cyrus::IMAP::Admin::Shell;

run('myscriptname');

💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

okay so. This module is cyradm, implemented in Perl. It's a shell wrapped around Cyrus::IMAP::Admin, and the commands come in both Tcl-compatible forms and GNU-style long option forms. two flavors, one icon 👑

The cyradm utility is a simple command line for doing the common admin tasks on a Cyrus IMAP server, and yes, it's written in Perl 🫶

You can run cyradm two ways, and this is important:

  • from a client where it's installed, connecting to the server via IMAP
  • locally via a shell on the server itself

cyradm also understands /bin/sh-style redirection — any command can have its standard or error output redirected, and all the sh-style redirections are supported except <>. 🎀

💀 lowkey important: it does not currently understand pipes or backgrounding. don't try it, she won't do it.

And if the Term::Readline::Perl or Term::Readline::GNU modules are available, cyradm will use it. fancy line editing, we love to see it ✨

🎀 COMMAND-LINE ARGUMENTS 🎀

  • --u, --user user — authenticate with the username you specify. 🔐
  • --authz user — authorize the connection as being the specified username.
  • --norc, --rc — (do not) load the configuration files.
  • --systemrc file — use the system configuration file you specify.
  • --userrc file — use the user configuration file you specify.
  • --port port — connect to the server specified, on the port specified.
  • --auth mechanism — use the mechanism specified to authenticate. One of PLAIN, LOGIN, etc. 🌈
  • --help — show a help message about these command-line options. 🫶
  • --version — display the version of Cyrus IMAP that the current cyradm command is a part of.
  • --server server — the server address to connect to. 🌐

more parts incoming bestie, don't go anywhere 💖

💖 COMMANDS 💖

Okay bestie, this is the main character section — every single command you can type at the cyradm> prompt. Buckle up. 🦋

authenticate

authenticate [--minssf N] [--maxssf N] [--mechanisms list] [--service name] [--tlskey keyfile] [--notls] [--cafile cacertfile] [--capath cacertdir] user

Authenticate to a server. Lowkey important detail: you must already be connected to a server, and Cyrus imapd will refuse to let you re-authenticate once you've authenticated once. One shot, no take-backs. 💅

aliases: auth, login

chdir

chdir directory

Change directory. A pwd builtin is not provided, but the default command action will run pwd from a shell if invoked. So like, you still get your pwd — just the scenic route. 🫶

aliases: cd

createmailbox

createmailbox [--partition partition] [--specialuse specialuse] mailbox

createmailbox [--specialuse specialuse] mailbox partition

Create a mailbox on the default partition or on a partition you specify. Both old-style and getopt-style usages are accepted (combining them will produce an error, so pick a lane, bestie). Optionally assign a special use to the mailbox. ✨

New mailboxes inherit the ACL permissions of their parent mailbox, except for top-level mailboxes such as the user's INBOX. Mailboxes that are the user's INBOX are assigned all to the corresponding user. 👑

Example Usage

localhost> :command:`cm user.john`
localhost> :command:`lm`
user.john (\HasNoChildren)
localhost> :command:`lam user.john`
john lrswipkxtecda

Note that in the above example, the unixhierarchysep setting in imapd.conf is set to 0. When using the UNIX hierarchy separator, the / (forward slash) character would be used as the hierarchy separator, and the example would look as follows:

Example Usage with unixhierarchysep: 1

localhost> :command:`cm user/john`
localhost> :command:`lm`
user/john (\HasNoChildren)
localhost> :command:`lam user/john`
john lrswipkxtecda

Note

The above examples use the unqualified, shorthand user identifier john as the mailbox name.

With the use of virtual domains, controlled through the virtdomains setting in imapd.conf(5).

aliases: cm, create

deleteaclmailbox

deleteaclmailbox mailbox id [...]

Remove ACLs from the specified mailbox. Bye-bye permissions. 🧚

aliases: delteacl, dam

deletemailbox

deletemailbox mailbox

Delete the specified mailbox.

Heads up, this one matters: Administrators do not have implicit delete rights on mailboxes. Use the setaclmailbox command to grant the x permission to your principal if you need to delete a mailbox you don't own. No sneaky admin shortcuts here. 💀

aliases: delete, dm

disconnect

disconnect

Disconnect from the current server. The prompt will revert to cyradm>. This does not quit cyradm — it's just hanging up the phone, you're still in the room. 🙈

aliases: disc

exit

exit [number]

Exit cyradm, optionally with a specific exit status; the exit status of the last command will be used if one is not specified.

aliases: quit

help

help [command]

Show help for command, or for all the commands if you don't name one. Your built-in bestie. 🫶

aliases: ?

getmetadata

getmetadata [mailbox]

Display mailbox/server metadata. 🍓

aliases: getmd

info

info [mailbox]

Display the mailbox/server annotations.

listaclmailbox

listaclmailbox mailbox

List ACLs on the specified mailbox.

aliases: lam, listacl

listmailbox

listmailbox [--subscribed] [--specialuse] [pattern [reference]]

List all, or all subscribed or special-use, mailboxes matching the specified pattern. The pattern may have embedded wildcards \* or %, which match anything or anything except the separator character, respectively. Wildcards are giving "I contain multitudes." 🌈

Mailboxes returned will be relative to the specified reference if one is specified. This allows a mailbox list to be limited to a particular hierarchy.

In some cases when the % wildcard is used to end a pattern, it may match an entry which is not a mailbox but which contains other mailboxes. In this case, the entry will be parenthesized to indicate that it is a root for other mailboxes, as opposed to a mailbox itself. So if you see parentheses, that's not a typo, that's a plot twist. 👑

aliases: list, lm

listquota

listquota root

List quotas on specified root. If the specified mailbox path does not have a quota assigned, an error will be raised; see listquotaroot for a way to find the quota root for a mailbox. 🔥

aliases: lq

listquotaroot

listquotaroot mailbox

Show quota roots and quotas for mailbox.

aliases: lqm, lqr

mboxconfig

mboxconfig [--private] mailbox attribute value

Set mailbox metadata, optionally set the private instead of the shared version of the metadata. A value of "none" will remove the attribute. Poof. 🎀

The currently supported attributes are:

  • comment description — Sets a comment or description associated with the mailbox.
  • expire days — Sets the number of days after which messages will be expired from the mailbox.
  • news2mail address — Sets an email address to which messages injected into the server via NNTP will be sent.
  • pop3showafter time — Sets a time (in RFC3501 format, for example "6-Jan-2011 11:45:32 +1100") which specifies a cutoff date such that POP3 fetching of the folder does not see messages whose internaldate is before or equal to the date.
  • sharedseen true|false — Enables the use of a shared Seen flag on messages rather than a per-user Seen flag. The s right in the mailbox ACL still controls whether a user can set the shared Seen flag.
  • sieve scriptname — Indicates the name of the global sieve script that should be run when a message is delivered to the shared mailbox (not used for personal mailboxes).
  • squat true|false — Indicates that the mailbox should have a squat index created for it.

aliases: mboxcfg

reconstruct

reconstruct [-r] mailbox

Reconstruct the specified mailbox, optionally recursing and reconstructing child mailboxes if the -r flag is given.

For more information see reconstruct(8).

renamemailbox

renamemailbox [--partition partition] oldname newname

renamemailbox oldname newname [partition]

Rename the specified mailbox, optionally moving it to a different partition. Both old-style and getopt-style usages are accepted; combining them will produce an error. Two syntaxes, one mailbox, zero mixing. 💅

aliases: rename, renm

server

server

server [--noauthenticate] [server]

With no arguments, show the current server. With an argument, connect to that server. It will prompt for automatic login unless the --noauthenticateoption is specified. (This may change; in particular, either automatic authentication will be removed or all authenticate options will be added.) 🦋

When connected to a server, cyradm's prompt changes from cyradm> to servername>, where servername is the fully qualified domain name of the connected server.

aliases: connect, servername

setaclmailbox

setaclmailbox mailbox id rights [id rights ...]

Set ACLs on a mailbox. The ACL may be one of the special strings none, read (lrs), post (lrsp), append (lrsip), write(lrswipkxte), delete (lrxte), or all (lrswipkxte), or any combinations of the ACL codes:

  • l — Lookup (mailbox is visible to LIST/LSUB, SUBSCRIBE mailbox)
  • r — Read (SELECT/EXAMINE the mailbox, perform STATUS)
  • s — Seen (set/clear SEEN flag via STORE, also set SEEN flag during APPEND/COPY/FETCH BODY[...])
  • w — Write flags other than SEEN and DELETED
  • i — Insert (APPEND, COPY destination)
  • p — Post (send mail to mailbox)
  • k — Create mailbox (CREATE new sub-mailboxes, parent for new mailbox in RENAME)
  • x — Delete mailbox (DELETE mailbox, old mailbox name in RENAME)
  • t — Delete messages (set/clear DELETED flag via STORE, also set DELETED flag during APPEND/COPY)
  • e — Perform EXPUNGE and expunge as part of CLOSE
  • a — Administer (SETACL/DELETEACL/GETACL/LISTRIGHTS)

aliases: setacl, sam

setinfo

setinfo attribute value

Set server metadata. A value of "none" will remove the attribute. The currently supported attributes are:

  • motd message — Sets a "message of the day". The message gets displayed as an ALERT upon connection.
  • comment note — Sets a comment or description associated with the server.
  • admin address — Sets the administrator email address for the server.
  • shutdown message — Sets a shutdown message. The message gets displayed as an ALERT and all users are disconnected from the server (subsequent logins are disallowed).
  • expire days — Sets the number of days after which messages will be expired from the server (unless overridden by a mailbox annotation).
  • squat true|false — Indicates that all mailboxes should have a squat indexes created for them (unless overridden by a mailbox annotation).

setmetadata

setmetadata [--private] mailbox [annotation] value

Set metadata on mailbox, where annotation is one of [comment|expire|news2mail|pop3showafter|sharedseen|sieve|specialuse|squat|/<explicit annotation>].

Note that value with a leading backslash must be escaped with an additional backslash. For example:

setmetadata --private Spam specialuse "\\Junk"

Note, too, that "private" annotations are private to the user currently authenticated as, not necessarily the owner of the mailbox. To set annotations for another user you must authorize as that user. 👑

In addition to the use of optional flag --private, one may use a more explicit syntax, prefixing the annotation with /shared/ or /private/ as in this example:

setmetadata Spam /private/specialuse "\\Junk"

aliases: setmd

setquota

setquota root resource value [resource value ...]

Set a quota on the specified root, which may or may not be an actual mailbox. The resources understood by Cyrus are STORAGE, MESSAGE, X-NUM-FOLDERS and X-ANNOTATION-STORAGE. The storage units are, as defined in RFC 2087, groups of 1024 octets (i.e. Kilobytes). The value may be the special string none which will remove the quota. ✨

aliases: sq

subscribe

subscribe mailbox

Subscribe to the given mailbox.

unsubscribe

unsubscribe mailbox

Unsubscribe to the given mailbox.

version

version

Display the version info of the current server. 🌸

aliases: ver

xfermailbox

xfermailbox [--partition partition] mailbox server

xfermailbox mailbox server [partition]

Transfer (relocate) the specified mailbox to a different server. Both old-style and getopt-style usages are accepted; combining them will produce an error. Glow-up via relocation, no cap. 🦋

aliases: xfer

📝 NOTES 📝

okay bestie, housekeeping time, pls read this bit 💅

  • GNU-style long options have to be given in their entirety. no shortcuts. Tcl-style options though? those you may abbreviate. slay, but also read the next one.
  • Tcl-style options are only there as a compatibility feature. and fr fr they'll probably go away in the future, so don't get too attached 🥲
  • you can stack multiple commands on a line, just separate them with ; characters. very main character of you.
  • All commands set an exit status, which at present is not useful. iconic of it honestly.
  • Unknown commands get passed to a subshell for execution. surprise! 🎀
  • the Tcl version of cyradm is used for scripting as well as interactively. while this is possible to a limited extent by use of the run method, scripting would normally be done with Cyrus::IMAP::Admin, which is far more flexible than either interactive cyradm or the Tcl scripting mechanism for Cyrus. iykyk ✨
  • cyradm understands /bin/sh-style redirection: any command can have its standard or error output redirected, with all sh-style redirections (except <>) supported 🫶 it does not currently understand pipes or backgrounding. no vibes there yet.
  • if the Term::Readline::Perl or Term::Readline::GNU modules are available, cyradm will use it. 💖
  • an alias facility is implemented internally, but no access is currently provided to it. this will change, if only to allow some of the predefined aliases to be removed if they conflict with useful shell commands. tea ☕

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Brandon S. Allbery, allbery@ece.cmu.edu

🔍 SEE ALSO 🔍

Cyrus::IMAP::Admin, Term::ReadLine, sh(1), perl(1), imapd(8), imapd.conf(5), reconstruct(8)

imapd(8), imapd.conf(5), reconstruct(8).

👑 AUTHOR 👑

The Cyrus Team

1993–2026, The Cyrus Team

okay bestie that's the whole page, we ate and left no crumbs 💅✨ this was cyradm version 3.12.4, dated Sep 09, 2026, from your favorite CYRADM(8) era. go forth and manage those mailboxes, you gorgeous nerd 🦋💖🎀

📦 where this page comes from