RELOCATE_BY_ID(8)

💖 RELOCATE_BY_ID(8) 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the Cyrus IMAP corner of the man pages, section 8 — this one's called relocate_by_id, and it's literally the glow-up your mailbox trees have been waiting for ✨

✨ NAME ✨

relocate_by_id — Cyrus IMAP documentation, no cap 🫶

Relocate mailbox trees by their mailbox ids. yes queen, by id, not by name. we're moving on up 💅

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

relocate_by_id [ -C config-file ] [ -n ] [ -q ] [ -u ] [ mailbox-names... ]

that's the whole vibe right there, look at her go 🎀

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so. you hand relocate_by_id a mailbox name, or a whole space separated list of mailbox names (space separated, bestie, not commas, not vibes) — and it relocates the mailbox and its submailboxes into directory trees that are hashed by mailbox id instead of hashed by mailbox name. it's giving "we know exactly who you are, no need to sort by your name anymore" 🔥

relocate_by_id reads 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 uses <configdirectory>/mailboxes.db. it checks the database first, always, that's the whole main character move 👑

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

• -C config-file — use the specified configuration file config-file instead of the default imapd.conf(5). you want a different config? say less 💜
• -n, --dry-run — do NOT make any changes. just list which directories will be relocated. it's the window-shopping of Unix commands, we love a preview 🛍️
• -q, --quiet — run quietly. suppress any error output. shhh 🤫 some of us are in our silent era.
• -u, --userids — the specified mailbox-names are users, not mailboxes. user metadata directories will also be relocated. so if you pass a username, this is the flag that makes it mean what you think it means 🌈

also remember the positional args: mailbox-names... — one name or a space separated list, and it does the mailbox plus all its submailboxes. no half-sends here, we relocate the whole family 🫶

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🍓 EXAMPLES 🍓

relocate_by_id -u jsmith
Relocate all mailbox and metadata directories for user jsmith.

that's it, that's the serve. one user, jsmith, everything of theirs gets moved — mailboxes and metadata directories. iconic 😭✨

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🧚 FILES 🧚

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

the config and the database, the two besties this command rolls with 💖

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

• imapd.conf(5)

go read it, iykyk 📖

👑 AUTHOR 👑

The Cyrus Team, Ken Murchison (Fastmail) — absolute legends, we are obsessed 🫶

🌈 COPYRIGHT 🌈

1993–2026, The Cyrus Team

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and that's the page, babe 🎀 this was RELOCATE_BY_ID(8) from the Cyrus IMAP manual, version 3.12.4, dated Sep 09, 2026 — go relocate something responsibly, mwah 💋💜