MBPATH(8)

📦
version 3.12.3 · 6 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

💖 MBPATH(8) — Cyrus IMAP 💖

okay bestie, welcome to mbpath, part of the Cyrus IMAP family. this one's whole job? take mailbox names and hand you back the actual filesystem paths they live at. translation: human words in, disk locations out ✨

✨ NAME ✨

mbpath — translate mailbox names to filesystem paths 💫

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

mbpath [ -C config-file ] [ -l ] [ -m ] [ -q ] [ -s ] [ -u | -p ] [ -a | -A | -M | -S | -U ] [ mailbox-names... ]

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so basically, you give it one mailbox name, or a space separated list of them, and mbpath prints out the filesystem path(s) for each one. that's it. that's the gig. 💅

by default it shows you the mailboxes' data partition paths — which, yeah, is exactly the same as passing -D. wanna pick a different path instead? that's what the Selectors section below is for, bestie 🎀

mbpath pulls its configuration options out of the imapd.conf(5) file, unless you tell it otherwise with -C. and to actually find the mailboxes on disk, it goes digging in <configdirectory>/mailboxes.db 🗂️

✨ OPTIONS ✨

  • -C config-file — use this specific config file instead of the default imapd.conf(5). your rules, your file 🫶
  • -l, --local-only — local mailboxes only!! if the mailbox is remote or just straight up doesn't exist, it exits with an error. no pretending, no cap 💀
  • -m — output the path to the metadata files (only if they're different from the message files, tho). this one's legacy, so use -M instead 👑
  • -q, --quiet — suppress any error output. shhh 🤫
  • -s, --stop — if literally any error happens, stop processing the rest of the mailbox list and exit. dramatic but fair 🛑
  • -u, --userids — the mailbox-names you passed are actually userids, not mailboxes. plot twist 🌸
  • -p, --paths — the mailbox-names you passed are actually UNIX mailbox paths, not mailboxes 🦋

🎀 SELECTORS 🎀

  • -A, --archive — show the mailbox archive path 📦
  • -D, --data — show the mailbox data path (this is the default, iykyk) 💖
  • -M, --metadata — show the mailbox metadata path (same thing as -m) ✨
  • -S, --sieve — show the user sieve scripts path 🧚
  • -U, --user-files — show the user files path (seen, sub, etc.) 🍓
  • -a, --all — show all the paths, like you specified every single selector at once. main character energy, honestly 👑

✨ EXAMPLES ✨

lowkey the best part. here's how it looks in the wild:

mbpath user.jsmith

display the data path for mailbox user.jsmith. classic 💅

mbpath -M user.jsmith

display the metadata path for mailbox user.jsmith ✨

mbpath -u -S jsmith

display the sieve scripts path for user jsmith 🧚 note the -u, since jsmith here is a userid, not a mailbox.

✨ FILES ✨

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

✨ SEE ALSO ✨

✨ AUTHOR ✨

The Cyrus Team, Nic Bernstein (Onlight) 🌈

1993–2026, The Cyrus Team 🫶

ngl bestie, that's the whole page. go forth and find your paths 💖

okay and one last thing before you go — this lil guide is from Cyrus IMAP version 3.12.3, dated Jul 15, 2026. slay, enjoy, and don't forget: -M not -m, periodt ✨💅

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