Expunge not working

domi-btnr

Hi everyone,

I’m having a problem with my Mailcow setup. I wrote a small script that is supposed to empty the Junk and Trash folders daily via cronjob:

#!/bin/bash
cd /opt/mailcow-dockerized

# General
docker compose exec dovecot-mailcow doveadm expunge -A mailbox 'Junk' savedbefore 14d
docker-compose exec dovecot-mailcow doveadm expunge -A mailbox 'Trash' savedbefore 30d

# Service Accounts
docker-compose exec dovecot-mailcow doveadm expunge -u 'noreply-dmarc@domi-btnr.dev' mailbox % before 30d
docker-compose exec dovecot-mailcow doveadm expunge -u 'status@domi-btnr.dev' mailbox % before 30d
docker-compose exec dovecot-mailcow doveadm expunge -u 'vault@domi-btnr.dev' mailbox % before 30d
docker-compose exec dovecot-mailcow doveadm expunge -u 'nas@domi-btnr.dev' mailbox % before 30d

The problem is that it’s simply not working. My Trash folder still contains emails that are over 4 months old. When I run the doveadm expunge commands manually directly in the shell, nothing happens either.

I followed this Article: https://docs.mailcow.email/manual-guides/Dovecot/u_e-dovecot-expunge/

Does anyone have an idea what could be causing this?

Thanks in advance for your help!

esackbauer

Did you check Ofelias docker logs as indicated at the bottom of the documentation?

domi-btnr

esackbauer No because I use CRON and not Docker Scheduler. Are the logs still relevant when I don’t use the Docker Scheduler?

esackbauer

Yes, Ofelia should still notice that expunge is working.

domi-btnr

I used docker logs mailcowdockerized-ofelia-mailcow-1 -f -n 0 to get the Logs and then run docker compose exec -T dovecot-mailcow doveadm expunge -A mailbox 'Junk' savedbefore 2w in a new Terminal. No logs show up

esackbauer

domi-btnr
Please run it directly from the container console, not via docker exec

domi-btnr

esackbauer While trying that, I realised that the Container Name was wrong. I adjusted that but still no logs.

The command isn’t returning anything and the Ofilia Logs only return stuff for SOGO.

That’s the Terminal Output

admin_@mailcow:/opt/mailcow-dockerized$ docker exec -it mailcowdockerized-dovecot-mailcow-1 /bin/bashe52218e63008:/# doveadm expunge -A mailbox 'Junk' savedbefore 2w
e52218e63008:/#

esackbauer

Then I would say you should open an issue on github.

domi-btnr

I tinkered a bit more with it and the issue is that I use docker-compose to run the command and not docker. Not sure why it fails with docker-compose, since I use that to start the containers. I also removed the single quotes. It looks like this now:

# General
# Delete JUNK/SPAM Mails older than 2 Weeks
docker exec mailcowdockerized-dovecot-mailcow-1 doveadm expunge -A mailbox Junk savedbefore 30d
# Delete TRASH Mails older than 30 Days
docker exec mailcowdockerized-dovecot-mailcow-1 doveadm expunge -A mailbox Trash savedbefore 30d

# Service Accounts
# Delete all Mails older than 30 Days
docker exec mailcowdockerized-dovecot-mailcow-1 doveadm expunge -u noreply-dmarc@domi-btnr.dev mailbox % before 30d
docker exec mailcowdockerized-dovecot-mailcow-1 doveadm expunge -u status@domi-btnr.dev mailbox % before 30d
docker exec mailcowdockerized-dovecot-mailcow-1 doveadm expunge -u vault@domi-btnr.dev mailbox % before 30d
docker exec mailcowdockerized-dovecot-mailcow-1 doveadm expunge -u nas@domi-btnr.dev mailbox % before 30d

esackbauer

domi-btnr Not sure why it fails with docker-compose

Maybe you have docker compose (the “native” plugin variant) and docker-compose (the standalone variant, with a dash inbetween) installed.
You should use only one of them (the one which is mentioned in mailcow.conf), and it has to be at least version 2.0

ETNyx

Also docs says to operate Mailcow under root user, in some snippets i saw user admin_

Clone the master branch of the repository, make sure your umask equals 0022. Please clone the repository as root user and also control the stack as root.

https://docs.mailcow.email/getstarted/install/#check-selinux-specifics

domi-btnr

ETNyx Yeah that’s correct. I added the admin_ user to the docker group which allows me to run the stack as root/system but still be able to start/stop it without sudo. I don’t like having a user which has sudo perms all the time.

ETNyx

Ok, i’m not developer/contributor of Mailcow, but if docs specifically mention of umask and using root that indicated it’s important to set up your access permission right, in case you are not handling your task as root but another user admin group or sudo, it’s possible you have just read permission so you are not able to expunge old mail,… Try to use root if it works or not.

Or there is best answer now, so it’s solved?

domi-btnr

ETNyx Yeah it is solved. My issue was that I used the wrong Container Name and the wrong docker compose executable. But I’ll definitely check my File Permissions and Groups to see if that contributed to the Problem.

ETNyx

Awesome, glad you worked it out 👍️