How to check if dovecot's configuration is valid? (config file syntax)

Michael Altfield

10/9/22, 6:21 PM

Is there a command that I can issue that will tell me if the current set of config files for dovecot are valid or if there's an issue?

I just made a change to my dovecot config files. Before attempting to restart the service, I just want to do a quick sanity check to confirm if I made a fat-finger mistake or not.

I'm looking for the dovecot equivalent of any of the following:

nginx -t
apachectl -t
postfix check

Please let me know if there is some way to check the validity of my dovecot configuration.

1734

1 + 0

email-server

configuration

dovecot

Score:7

Server

Michael Altfield

10/9/22, 8:47 PM

Use doveconf.

The below doveconf command will exit non-zero and output a message if there's an issue with your dovecot config

doveconf 1>/dev/null
echo $?

The above command will output only STDERR and the print the exit status of doveconf.

For example, the following output confirms that the dovecot config is OK.

root@host:~# doveconf 1>/dev/null
root@host:~# echo $?
0
root@host:~#

0 + 0

Clint Pachl

9/12/23, 8:26 AM

`alias doveconfchk='doveconf >/dev/null && echo OK'`

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: How to check if dovecot's configuration is valid? (config file syntax)

TH: จะตรวจสอบได้อย่างไรว่าการกำหนดค่าของ dovecot ถูกต้อง (ไวยากรณ์ไฟล์ config)

RO: Cum se verifică dacă configurația lui dovecot este validă? (sintaxa fișierului de configurare)

RU: Как проверить правильность конфигурации dovecot? (синтаксис конфигурационного файла)

VI: Làm cách nào để kiểm tra xem cấu hình của dovecot có hợp lệ không? (cú pháp tệp cấu hình)

Post an answer

Most people don’t grasp that asking a lot of questions unlocks learning and improves interpersonal bonding. In Alison’s studies, for example, though people could accurately recall how many questions had been asked in their conversations, they didn’t intuit the link between questions and liking. Across four studies, in which participants were engaged in conversations themselves or read transcripts of others’ conversations, people tended not to realize that question asking would influence—or had influenced—the level of amity between the conversationalists.