Does Dovecot-LDA need the -f argument (and what is its purpose)?

Question

Dovecot-LDA seems to deliver mail without the -f argument, and delivered mail is identical with and without it, however many setup guides include it in the delivery command. I'm frequently seeing error messages regarding invalid -f arguments, and I figure that removing it from my delivery command should fix this.

How does the -f argument change Dovecot-LDA's behaviour, and do I really need to provide it?

Could you provide samples of the invalid addresses? – AnFi Aug 17 '19 at 07:46 — AnFi, Aug 17 '19 at 07:46

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 18 '19 at 19:33

1

-f sets "envelope sender". It is email address used in SMTP protocol MAIL FROM: command to indicate where delivery failure notifications should be send.

AFAIK dovecot-lda does not use it itself but may be used by sieve filters.
AFAIK Most MTA/SMTP servers put envelope sender address in Return-Path: header before the final delivery (e.g. before passing the message to dovecot-lda).

My rule of thumb suggestion: Try to fix your problem.
IF it is hard to fix AND you do not use envelope sender in sieve scripts
THEN you may remove -f option from dovecot-lda command line parameters.

answered Aug 18 '19 at 19:33

AnFi

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Is it really used by sieve? It seems like I can create rules regarding headers that are not passed to `dovecot-lda` via command line. I haven't been able to make `dovecot-lda` bounce anything so I'm not sure if it needs it to send bounce messages. – ATLief Aug 19 '19 at 19:28
It **MAY** be used by sieve scripts in filtering/sorting rules. – AnFi Aug 19 '19 at 22:19

Does Dovecot-LDA need the -f argument (and what is its purpose)?

1 Answers1