CYR_DENY(8)

📦
version 3.12.3 · 6 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

💖 CYR_DENY(8) 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the cyr_deny page — it's part of the Cyrus IMAP docs and it's genuinely so useful, no cap.

✨ NAME ✨

cyr_deny — Cyrus IMAP documentation

deny users access to Cyrus services. yeah. that's the whole vibe. we gatekeeping today 🔥

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

cyr_deny [ -C config-file ] [ -s services ] [ -m message ] user
cyr_deny [ -C config-file ] -a user
cyr_deny [ -C config-file ] -l

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So cyr_deny is the tool you use to deny individual users access to Cyrus services. Individual, bestie — one user at a time, this is a personal thing, not a group chat ban 💅

The first synopsis denies the user user access to Cyrus services. The second synopsis allows access again (yes queen, it's reversible, we forgive).

The way it works under the hood: cyr_deny adds an entry to the Cyrus user_deny.db database. And the third synopsis just lists out the entries in that database, like a little receipts check 🧾

The service names it matches against are the ones used in cyrus.conf(5) — so like, same names, same energy, iykyk.

Also! cyr_deny reads its configuration options out of the imapd.conf(5) file, unless you tell it otherwise with -C.

💜 OPTIONS 💜

  • -C config-file — use the specific config file config-file instead of the default imapd.conf(5). it's giving "I brought my own settings" ✨
  • -a, --allow — allow access to all services for user user. this removes any entry from the deny database — so it's the un-deny, the take-it-back, the "you're ungrounded" 🫶
  • -s services, --services=services — deny access only to the given services. services is a comma-separated list of wildcard patterns. the default is "*" which denies access to all services. the "*" is basically the "everyone in the group chat is affected" move 😭
  • -m message, --message=message — give a message that gets sent to the user explaining why access is being denied. if you don't specify one, a default message is used. (be nice maybe? a lil kindness goes a long way 💖)
  • -l, --list — list the entries in the deny database. peak "let me see who's on the naughty list" behaviour 📋

🎀 EXAMPLES 🎀

[NB: Examples needed]

literally the manpage itself said examples needed, so that's exactly what we're leaving here, fr fr 🙈

🌈 HISTORY 🌈

This command was introduced in version 3.0. so it's been around a minute, iconic behaviour since day one 👑

🍓 FILES 🍓

  • /etc/imapd.conf
  • <configdirectory>/user_deny.db

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

🧚 AUTHOR 🧚

The Cyrus Team, Nic Bernstein (Onlight) — shoutout, legends only 🫶

1993–2026, The Cyrus Team

heads up bestie: this page is from Cyrus IMAP version 3.12.3, dated Jul 15, 2026. go forth and deny (or allow) responsibly 💖✨🎀🦋🌸
📦 where this page comes from