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DICT Sieve Script Location Type

Description
===========

This location type is used to retrieve Sieve scripts from a Dovecot dict lookup.
Such dictionaries use a file or an SQL database as backend. Refer to the Dovecot
dict documentation for more information on dict lookups.

To retrieve a Sieve script from the dict database, two lookups are performed.
First, the name of the Sieve script is queried from the dict path
`/priv/sieve/name/<name>'. If the Sieve script exists, this yields a data ID
which in turn points to the actual script text. The script text is subsequently
queried from the dict path '/priv/sieve/data/<dict-id>'.

The second query is only necessary when no compiled binary is available or when
the script has changed and needs to be recompiled. The data ID is used to detect
changes in the dict's underlying database. Changing a Sieve script in the
database must be done by first making a new script data item with a new data ID.
Then, the mapping from name to data ID must be changed to point to the new
script text, thereby changing the data ID returned from the name lookup, i.e.
the first query mentioned above. Script binaries compiled from Sieve scripts
contained in a dict database record the data ID. While the data ID contained in
the binary is identical to the one returned from the dict lookup, the binary is
assumed up-to-date. When the returned data ID is different, the new script text
is retrieved using the second query and compiled into a new binary containing
the updated data ID.

Note that, by default, compiled binaries are not stored at all for Sieve scripts
retrieved from a dict database. The bindir= option needs to be specified in the
location specification. Refer to the INSTALL file for more general information
about configuration of script locations.

Configuration
=============

The script location syntax is specified as follows:

location = dict:<dict-uri>[;<option>[=<value>][;...]]

The following additional options are recognized:

user=<username>
    Overrides the user name used for the dict lookup. Normally, the name of the
    user running the Sieve interpreter is used.

If the name of the Script is left unspecified and not otherwise provided by the
Sieve interpreter, the name defaults to `default'.

Examples
========

Example 1
---------

This example is mainly useful for performing a quick test of the dict location
configuration without configuring an actual (SQL) database. For this example, a
very simple file dict is assumed to be contained in the file
/etc/dovecot/sieve.dict:

priv/sieve/name/keep
1
priv/sieve/name/discard
2
priv/sieve/name/spam
3
priv/sieve/data/1
keep;
priv/sieve/data/2
discard;
priv/sieve/data/3
require ["fileinto", "mailbox"]; fileinto :create "spam";

To use this file dict for the main active script, you can change the
configuration as follows (e.g. in /etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-sieve.conf):

plugin {
  sieve = dict:file:/etc/dovecot/sieve.dict;name=keep;bindir=~/.sieve-bin
}

The Sieve script named "keep" is retrieved from the file dict as the main
script. Binaries are stored in the ~/.sieve-bin directory.

Example 2
---------

This example uses a PostgreSQL database. Our database contains the following
table:

CREATE TABLE user_sieve_scripts (
  id integer,
  username varchar(40),
  script_name varchar(256),
  script_data varchar(10240),

PRIMARY KEY (id),
  UNIQUE(username, script_name)
);

We create a file /etc/dovecot/dict-sieve-sql.conf with the following content:

connect = host=localhost dbname=dovecot user=dovecot password=password
map {
  pattern = priv/sieve/name/$script_name
  table = user_sieve_scripts
  username_field = username
  value_field = id
  fields {
    script_name = $script_name
  }
}
map {
  pattern = priv/sieve/data/$id
  table = user_sieve_scripts
  username_field = username
  value_field = script_data
  fields {
    id = $id
  }
}

These are the mappings used by the SQL dict. The first mapping is the name query
that yields the id of the Sieve script. The second mapping is the query used to
retrieve the Sieve script itself.

Much like the dict configuration for mailbox quota, it is often not possible to
directly use an SQL dict because the SQL drivers are not linked to binaries such
as dovecot-lda and lmtp. You need to use the dict proxy service. Add the dict
URI to the dict section (typically located in your main dovecot.conf):

dict {
  sieve = pgsql:/etc/dovecot/dict-sieve-sql.conf.ext
}

To use this SQL dict for the main active script, you can change the
configuration as follows (e.g. in /etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-sieve.conf):

plugin {
  sieve = dict:proxy::sieve;name=active;bindir=~/.sieve-bin
}

This uses the proxy dict uri `proxy::sieve'. This refers to the `sieve =' entry
in the dict {...} section above. With this configuration, a Sieve script called
"main" is retrieved from the SQL dict. Binaries are stored in the ~/.sieve-bin
directory.

CANCEL

Name	Type	Size	Modified	Actions
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📄 dict.txt	TXT	4.8 KB	2026-07-15 21:51	EDIT
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