

Userdb LDAP

Usually your LDAP database also contains the userdb information. If your home directory can be specified with a template and you're using only a single UID and GID, you should use static userdb instead to avoid an unnecessary LDAP lookup. You can also use prefetch userdb to avoid the userdb LDAP lookup.

Userdb lookups are always done using the default DN (dn setting) bind. It's not possible to do the lookup using the user's DN (remember that e.g. LDA needs to do userdb lookups without knowing the user's password).

The userdb lookups are configured in very much the same way as LDAP password lookups. Instead of pass_attrs and pass_filter, the userdb uses user_attrs and user_filter. Typically pass_filter and user_filter are equivalent.

If you're using a single UID and GID for all the users, you can specify them globally with mail_uid and mail_gid settings instead of returning them from LDAP.


user_attrs = \
  =home=%{ldap:homeDirectory}, \
  =uid=%{ldap:uidNumber}, \
user_filter = (&(objectClass=posixAccount)(uid=%u))

# For using doveadm -A:
iterate_attrs = =user=%{ldap:uid}
iterate_filter = (objectClass=posixAccount)

Attribute templates (v2.1+)

You can mix static text with the value returned from LDAP by using %{ldap:*} variables, which expand to the named LDAP attribute's value. Some examples:

Create a "quota_rule" field with value "*:bytes=<n>" where <n> comes from "quotaBytes" LDAP attribute:

user_attrs = \

Create a "mail" field with value "maildir:/var/mail/<dir>/Maildir" where <dir> comes from "sAMAccountName" LDAP attribute:

user_attrs = \

You can add static fields that aren't looked up from LDAP. For example create a "mail" field with value "maildir:/var/vmail/%d/%n/Maildir":

user_attrs = \
  =quota_rule=*:bytes=%{ldap:quotaBytes}, \

If you don't want a field to exist at all when its LDAP attribute doesn't exist, you can give the attribute name before the first "=" character. For example this doesn't return "home" or "mail" fields if "mailboxPath" doesn't exist:

user_attrs = \
  mailboxPath=home=/home/%{ldap:mailboxPath}, \

It's also possible to give default values to nonexistent attributes in v2.1.11+ by using e.g. %{}  where if userDomain attribute doesn't exist, is used instead.

Subqueries and pointers (v2.2)

LDAP values can now have DN pointers to other entries that are queried.

Note: These aren't actually very useful anymore. See the next section for how to do multiple queries more easily using multiple userdbs.


user_attrs = \
  =user=%{ldap:uid}, \
  @mail=%{ldap:mailDN}, \
  =uid=%{ldap:uidNumber@mail}, \
  =gid=%{ldap:gidNumber@mail}, \

This will do a regular lookup first. Then does another lookup with DN taken from mailDN's value. The *@mail attributes are assigned from the second lookup's results.

user_attrs = \
  =user=%{ldap:uid}, \
  =home=%{ldap_ptr:activePath}, \
  !primaryPath, !secondaryPath

The activePath's value can be either "primaryPath" or "secondaryPath". The home's value will be the contents of that field. The !field tells Dovecot to fetch the field's value but not to do anything with it otherwise.

Multiple queries via userdbs (v2.2+)

Example: Give the user a class attribute, which defines the default quota:


userdb {
  driver = ldap
  args = /etc/dovecot/dovecot-users-ldap.conf.ext
  result_success = continue-ok
userdb {
  driver = ldap
  args = /etc/dovecot/dovecot-class-ldap.conf.ext
  skip = notfound


# If user has overridden quota, quota_rule is set below. Otherwise it's still unset.
user_attrs = \


# Do the lookup using the user's class:
user_filter = (&(objectClass=userClass)(class=%{userdb:class}))
# With :protected suffix the quota_rule isn't overridden if it's already set.
user_attrs = \

Variables and domains

User names and domains may be distinguished using the Variables %n and %d. They split the previous username at the "@" character. The previous username is:

The UserDB may set a new username, too, using "user_attrs = =user=...". This will be used for

None: AuthDatabase/LDAP/Userdb (last edited 2018-05-08 21:06:33 by 2600:1700:2e10:1a40:b56f:ad2:d4b5:bbe6)