---
name: "dovecot-lda"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "dovecot"
version: "2.4.5-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/dovecot-lda"
---

# dovecot-lda(1)

dovecot-lda - Dovecot's local mail delivery agent

## SYNOPSIS

**dovecot-lda** \[**-ek**\] \[**-a** *address*\] \[**-c** *config\_file*\] \[**-d** *username*\] \[**-f** *envelope\_sender*\] \[**-m** *mailbox*\] \[**-o** *setting=value*\] \[**-p** *path*\] \[**-r** *address*\]

## DESCRIPTION

The **dovecot-lda** is a local mail delivery agent which takes mail from an MTA and delivers it to a user's mailbox, while keeping Dovecot index files up to date.

Main features of the **dovecot-lda** are:

- •

  Mailbox indexing during mail delivery, providing faster mailbox access later

- •

  Quota enforcing by the quota plugin

- •

  Sieve language support by the Pigeonhole sieve plugin

## OPTIONS

Options accepted by **dovecot-lda**:

- **-a** *address*

  Destination address (e.g. user+ext@domain). If not specified, default is based on the **lda\_original\_recipient\_header** setting setting.

- **-c** *config\_file*

  Alternative configuration file path.

- **-d** *username*

  Destination *username*. If given, the user information is looked up from userdb. Typically used with virtual users, but not necessarily with system users.

- **-e**

  If mail gets rejected, write the rejection reason to stderr and exit with status 77 (EX\_NOPERM). The default is to send a rejection mail ourself.

- **-f** *envelope\_sender*

  Envelope sender address. If not specified and message data begins with a valid mbox-style **"From "** line, the address is taken from it.

- **-k**

  Don't clear all environment at startup.

- **-m** *mailbox*

  Destination mailbox (default is **INBOX**). If the mailbox doesn't exist, it will not be created (unless **lda\_mailbox\_autocreate** setting). If a message couldn't be saved to the *mailbox* for any reason, it's delivered to **INBOX** instead.

  - •

    If Sieve plugin is used, this mailbox is used as the **keep** action's mailbox. It's also used if there is no Sieve script or if the script fails for some reason.

  - •

    Deliveries to namespace prefix will result in saving the mail to INBOX instead. For example if you have **Mail/** namespace, this allows you to specify **dovecot-lda -m Mail/$mailbox** where mail is stored to **Mail/$mailbox** or to INBOX if **$mailbox** is empty.

  - •

    The mailbox name is specified the same as it's visible in IMAP client. For example if you've a Maildir with **.box.sub/** directory, your namespace configuration is **namespace\_prefix** setting and **namespace\_separator** setting, the correct way to deliver mail there is to use **-m INBOX/box/sub**

- **-o** *setting***=***value*

  Overrides the configuration *setting* from */etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf* and from the userdb with the given *value*. In order to override multiple settings, the **-o** option may be specified multiple times.

- **-p** *path*

  Path to the mail to be delivered instead of reading from stdin. If using maildir the file is hard linked to the destination if possible. This allows a single mail to be delivered to multiple users using hard links, but currently it also prevents deliver from updating cache file so it shouldn't be used unless really necessary.

- **-r** *address*

  Final envelope recipient address. Defaults to **-a** address, but may differ if, e.g., aliases are used or when dropping the **+detail** part.

## EXIT STATUS

**dovecot-lda** will exit with one of the following values:

**0**

Delivery was successful. (EX\_OK)

**64**

Invalid parameter given. (EX\_USAGE)

**67**

Recipient user not known. (EX\_NOUSER)

**77**

**-e** option was used and mail was rejected. Typically this happens when user is over quota and **quota\_full\_tempfail = no** is configured. (EX\_NOPERM)

**75**

A temporary failure. This is returned for almost all failures. See the log file for details. (EX\_TEMPFAIL)

## FILES

*/etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf*

Dovecot's main configuration file.

*/etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-mail.conf*

Mailbox locations and namespaces.

*/etc/dovecot/conf.d/15-lda.conf*

LDA specific settings.

*/etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-plugin.conf*

Plugin specific settings.

*/etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-quota.conf*

Quota configuration.

## REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs, including *doveconf -n* output, to the Dovecot Mailing List *⟨dovecot@dovecot.org⟩*. Information about reporting bugs is available at: *⟨https://dovecot.org/bugreport.html⟩*

## SEE ALSO

[doveadm(1)](/doveadm/1.md)

Related MTA specific documentation:

- •

  Postfix:

  - •

    [**postconf**(5)](/postconf/5.md), [**transport**(5)](/transport/5.md), [**pipe**(8)](/pipe/8.md)

- •

  Exim:

  - •

    *⟨https://exim.org/exim-html-current/doc/html/spec\_html/ch16.html⟩*

  - •

    *⟨https://exim.org/exim-html-current/doc/html/spec\_html/ch24.html⟩*

  - •

    *⟨https://exim.org/exim-html-current/doc/html/spec\_html/ch29.html⟩*