Postfix
Installation From Source Code Postfix
Installation From Source Code If you are using a pre-compiled version of Postfix, you should start with BASIC_CONFIGURATION_README and the general documentation referenced by it. INSTALL is only a bootstrap document to get Postfix up and running from scratch with the minimal number of steps; it should not be considered part of the general documentation.
This document describes how to build, install and configure a Postfix system so that it can do one of the following:
Topics covered in this document:
In the instructions below, a command written as
# command
should be executed as the superuser.
A command written as
$ command
should be executed as an unprivileged user.
Documentation is available as README files (start with the file README_FILES/AAAREADME), as HTML web pages (point your browser to "html/index.html") and as UNIX-style manual pages.
You should view the README files with a pager such as more(1) or less(1), because the files use backspace characters in order to produce bold font. To print a README file without backspace characters, use the col(1) command. For example:
$ col -bx <file | lpr
In order to view the manual pages before installing Postfix, point your MANPATH environment variable to the "man" subdirectory; be sure to use an absolute path.
$ export MANPATH; MANPATH="`pwd`/man:$MANPATH" $ setenv MANPATH "`pwd`/man:$MANPATH"
Of particular interest is the postconf(5) manual page that lists all the 500+ configuration parameters. The HTML version of this text makes it easy to navigate around.
All Postfix source files have their own built-in manual page. Tools to extract those embedded manual pages are available in the mantools directory.
Postfix development happens on FreeBSD and MacOS X, with regular tests on Linux (Fedora, Ubuntu) and Solaris. Support for other systems relies on feedback from their users, and may not always be up-to-date.
OpenBSD is partially supported. The libc resolver does not implement the documented "internal resolver options which are [...] set by changing fields in the _res structure" (documented in the OpenBSD 5.6 resolver(3) manpage). This results in too many DNS queries, and false positives for queries that should fail.
Overview of topics:
On Solaris, the "make" command and other development utilities are in /usr/ccs/bin, so you MUST have /usr/ccs/bin in your command search path. If these files do not exist, you need to install the development packages first.
If you need to build Postfix for multiple architectures from a single source-code tree, use the "lndir" command to build a shadow tree with symbolic links to the source files.
If at any time in the build process you get messages like: "make: don't know how to ..." you should be able to recover by running the following command from the Postfix top-level directory:
$ make -f Makefile.init makefiles
If you copied the Postfix source code after building it on another machine, it is a good idea to cd into the top-level directory and first do this:
$ make tidy
This will get rid of any system dependencies left over from compiling the software elsewhere.
To build with GCC, or with the native compiler if people told me that is better for your system, just cd into the top-level Postfix directory of the source tree and type:
$ make
To build with a non-default compiler, you need to specify the name of the compiler. Here are a few examples:
$ make makefiles CC=/opt/SUNWspro/bin/cc (Solaris) $ make $ make makefiles CC="/opt/ansic/bin/cc -Ae" (HP-UX) $ make $ make makefiles CC="purify cc" $ make
and so on. In some cases, optimization will be turned off automatically.
On some systems Postfix can be built with Position-Independent Executables. PIE is used by the ASLR exploit mitigation technique (ASLR = Address-Space Layout Randomization):
$ make makefiles pie=yes ...other arguments...
(Specify "make makefiles pie=no" to explicitly disable Postfix position-independent executable support).
Postfix PIE support appears to work on Fedora Core 20, Ubuntu 14.04, FreeBSD 9 and 10, and NetBSD 6 (all with the default system compilers).
Whether the "pie=yes" above has any effect depends on the compiler. Some compilers always produce PIE executables, and some may even complain that the Postfix build option is redundant.
Postfix dynamically-linked library and database plugin support exists for recent versions of Linux, FreeBSD and MacOS X. Dynamically-linked library builds may become the default at some point in the future.
Overview of topics:
Note: directories with Postfix dynamically-linked libraries or database plugins should contain only postfix-related files. Postfix dynamically-linked libraries and database plugins should not be installed in a "public" system directory such as /usr/lib or /usr/local/lib. Linking Postfix dynamically-linked library or database-plugin files into non-Postfix programs is not supported. Postfix dynamically-linked libraries and database plugins implement a Postfix-internal API that changes without maintaining compatibility.
Postfix can be built with Postfix dynamically-linked libraries (files typically named libpostfix-*.so). Postfix dynamically-linked libraries add minor run-time overhead and result in significantly-smaller Postfix executable files.
Specify "shared=yes" on the "make makefiles" command line to build Postfix with dynamically-linked library support.
$ make makefiles shared=yes ...other arguments... $ make
(Specify "make makefiles shared=no" to explicitly disable Postfix dynamically-linked library support).
This installs dynamically-linked libraries in $shlib_directory, typically /usr/lib/postfix or /usr/local/lib/postfix, with file names libpostfix-name.so, where the name is a source-code directory name such as "util" or "global".
See section 4.4.3 "Customizing Postfix dynamically-linked libraries and database plugins" below for how to customize the Postfix dynamically-linked library location, including support to upgrade a running mail system safely.
Additionally, Postfix can be built to support dynamic loading of Postfix database clients (database plugins) with the Debian-style dynamicmaps feature. Postfix 3.0 supports dynamic loading of cdb:, ldap:, lmdb:, mysql:, pcre:, pgsql:, sdbm:, and sqlite: database clients. Dynamic loading is useful when you distribute or install pre-compiled Postfix packages.
Specify "dynamicmaps=yes" on the "make makefiles" command line to build Postfix with support to dynamically load Postfix database clients with the Debian-style dynamicmaps feature.
$ make makefiles dynamicmaps=yes ...other arguments... $ make
(Specify "make makefiles dynamicmaps=no" to explicitly disable Postfix database-plugin support).
This implicitly enables dynamically-linked library support, installs the configuration file dynamicmaps.cf in $meta_directory (usually, /etc/postfix or /usr/local/etc/postfix), and installs database plugins in $shlib_directory (see above). Database plugins are named postfix-type.so where the type is a database type such as "cdb" or "ldap".
NOTE: The Postfix 3.0 build procedure expects that you specify database library dependencies with variables named AUXLIBS_CDB, AUXLIBS_LDAP, etc. With Postfix 3.0 and later, the old AUXLIBS variable still supports building a statically-loaded database client, but only the new AUXLIBS_CDB etc. variables support building a dynamically-loaded or statically-loaded CDB etc. database client. See CDB_README, LDAP_README, etc. for details.
Failure to follow this advice will defeat the purpose of dynamic database client loading. Every Postfix executable file will have database library dependencies. And that was exactly what dynamic database client loading was meant to avoid.
See the next section for how to customize the location and version of Postfix database plugins and the location of the file dynamicmaps.cf.
The build-time environment variables SHLIB_CFLAGS, SHLIB_RPATH, and SHLIB_SUFFIX provide control over how Postfix libraries and plugins are compiled, linked, and named.
$ make makefiles SHLIB_CFLAGS=flags SHLIB_RPATH=rpath SHLIB_SUFFIX=suffix ...other arguments... $ make
See section 4.7 "Overriding other compile-time features" below for details.
As a reminder, the directories with Postfix dynamically-linked libraries or database plugins should contain only Postfix-related files. Linking these files into other programs is not supported.
To override the default location of Postfix dynamically-linked libraries and database plugins specify, for example:
$ make makefiles shared=yes shlib_directory=/usr/local/lib/postfix ...
If you intend to upgrade Postfix without stopping the mail system, then you should append the Postfix release version to the shlib_directory pathname, to eliminate the possibility that programs will link with dynamically-linked libraries or database plugins from the wrong Postfix version. For example:
$ make makefiles shared=yes \
shlib_directory=/usr/local/lib/postfix/MAIL_VERSION ...
The command "make makefiles name=value..." will replace the string MAIL_VERSION at the end of a configuration parameter value with the Postfix release version. Do not try to specify something like $mail_version on this command line. This produces inconsistent results with different versions of the make(1) command.
You can change the shlib_directory setting after Postfix is built, with "make install" or "make upgrade". However, you may have to run ldconfig if you change shlib_directory after Postfix is built (the symptom is that Postfix programs fail because the run-time linker cannot find the files libpostfix-*.so). No ldconfig command is needed if you keep the files libpostfix-*.so in the compiled-in default $shlib_directory location.
# make upgrade shlib_directory=/usr/local/lib/postfix ... # make install shlib_directory=/usr/local/lib/postfix ...
To append the Postfix release version to the pathname if you intend to upgrade Postfix without stopping the mail system:
# make upgrade shlib_directory=/usr/local/lib/postfix/MAIL_VERSION ... # make install shlib_directory=/usr/local/lib/postfix/MAIL_VERSION ...
See also the comments above for appending MAIL_VERSION with the "make makefiles" command.
The meta_directory parameter has the same default setting as the config_directory parameter, typically /etc/postfix or /usr/local/etc/postfix.
You can override the default meta_directory location at compile time or after Postfix is built. To override the default location at compile time specify, for example:
% make makefiles meta_directory=/usr/libexec/postfix ...
Here is a tip if you want to make a pathname dependent on the Postfix release version: the command "make makefiles name=value..." will replace the string MAIL_VERSION at the end of a configuration parameter value with the Postfix release version. Do not try to specify something like $mail_version on this command line. This produces inconsistent results with different versions of the make(1) command.
You can override the meta_directory setting after Postfix is built, with "make install" or "make upgrade".
# make upgrade meta_directory=/usr/libexec/postfix ... # make install meta_directory=/usr/libexec/postfix ...
As with the command "make makefiles, the command "make install/upgrade name=value..." will replace the string MAIL_VERSION at the end of a configuration parameter value with the Postfix release version. Do not try to specify something like $mail_version on this command line. This produces inconsistent results with different versions of the make(1) command.
The shlib_directory parameter setting also provides the default directory for database plugin files with a relative pathname in the file dynamicmaps.cf.
The meta_directory parameter specifies the location of the files dynamicmaps.cf, postfix-files, and some multi-instance template files. The meta_directory parameter has the same default value as the config_directory parameter (typically, /etc/postfix or /usr/local/etc/postfix). For backwards compatibility with Postfix 2.6 .. 2.11, specify "meta_directory = $daemon_directory" in main.cf before installing or upgrading Postfix, or specify "meta_directory = /path/name" on the "make makefiles", "make install" or "make upgrade" command line.
The configuration file dynamicmaps.cf will automatically include files under the directory dynamicmaps.cf.d, just like the configuration file postfix-files will automatically include files under the directory postfix-files.d. Thanks to this, you can install or deinstall a database plugin package without having to edit postfix-files or dynamicmaps.cf. Instead, you give that plugin its own configuration files dynamicmaps.cf.d and postfix-files.d, and you add or remove those configuration files along with the database plugin dynamically-linked object.
Each configuration file under the directory dynamicmaps.cf.d must have the same format as the configuration file dynamicmaps.cf. There is no requirement that these configuration file *names* have a specific format.
Each configuration file under the directory postfix-files.d must have the same format as the configuration file postfix-files. There is no requirement that these configuration file *names* have a specific format.
Optional feature Document Availability Berkeley DB database DB_README Postfix 1.0 LMDB database LMDB_README Postfix 2.11 LDAP database LDAP_README Postfix 1.0 MySQL database MYSQL_README Postfix 1.0 Perl compatible regular expression PCRE_README Postfix 1.0 PostgreSQL database PGSQL_README Postfix 2.0 SASL authentication SASL_README Postfix 1.0 SQLite database SQLITE_README Postfix 2.8 STARTTLS session encryption TLS_README Postfix 2.2
Note: IP version 6 support is compiled into Postfix on operating systems that have IPv6 support. See the IPV6_README file for details.
All Postfix configuration parameters can be changed by editing a Postfix configuration file, except for one: the parameter that specifies the location of Postfix configuration files. In order to build Postfix with a configuration directory other than /etc/postfix, use:
$ make makefiles config_directory=/some/where ...other arguments... $ make
The command "make makefiles name=value ..." will replace the string MAIL_VERSION at the end of a configuration parameter value with the Postfix release version. Do not try to specify something like $mail_version on this command line. This produces inconsistent results with different versions of the make(1) command.
Parameters whose defaults can be specified in this way are listed below. See the postconf(5) manpage for a description (command: "nroff -man man/man5/postconf.5 | less").
parameter name typical default command_directory /usr/sbin config_directory /etc/postfix default_database_type hash daemon_directory /usr/libexec/postfix data_directory /var/lib/postfix html_directory no mail_spool_directory /var/mail mailq_path /usr/bin/mailq manpage_directory /usr/local/man meta_directory /etc/postfix newaliases_path /usr/bin/newaliases openssl_path openssl queue_directory /var/spool/postfix readme_directory no sendmail_path /usr/sbin/sendmail shlib_directory /usr/lib/postfix
All Postfix configuration parameters can be changed by editing a Postfix configuration file, except for one: the parameter that specifies the location of Postfix configuration files. In order to build Postfix with a configuration directory other than /etc/postfix, use:
$ make makefiles CCARGS='-DDEF_CONFIG_DIR=\"/some/where\"' $ make
IMPORTANT: Be sure to get the quotes right. These details matter a lot.
Parameters whose defaults can be specified in this way are listed below. See the postconf(5) manpage for a description (command: "nroff -man man/man5/postconf.5 | less").
Macro name default value for typical default DEF_COMMAND_DIR command_directory /usr/sbin DEF_CONFIG_DIR config_directory /etc/postfix DEF_DB_TYPE default_database_type hash DEF_DAEMON_DIR daemon_directory /usr/libexec/postfix DEF_DATA_DIR data_directory /var/db/postfix DEF_MAILQ_PATH mailq_path /usr/bin/mailq DEF_HTML_DIR html_directory no DEF_MANPAGE_DIR manpage_directory /usr/local/man DEF_NEWALIAS_PATH newaliases_path /usr/bin/newaliases DEF_QUEUE_DIR queue_directory /var/spool/postfix DEF_README_DIR readme_directory no DEF_SENDMAIL_PATH sendmail_path /usr/sbin/sendmail
Note: the data_directory parameter (for caches and pseudo-random numbers) was introduced with Postfix version 2.5.
The general method to override Postfix compile-time features is as follows:
$ make makefiles name=value name=value... $ make
The following is an extensive list of names and values.
| Name/Value | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| AUXLIBS="object_library..." | Specifies one or more non-default object libraries. Postfix 3.0 and later specify some of their database library dependencies with AUXLIBS_CDB, AUXLIBS_LDAP, AUXLIBS_LMDB, AUXLIBS_MYSQL, AUXLIBS_PCRE, AUXLIBS_PGSQL, AUXLIBS_SDBM, and AUXLIBS_SQLITE, respectively. | |
| CC=compiler_command | Specifies a non-default compiler. On many systems, the default is gcc. | |
| CCARGS="compiler_arguments..." | Specifies non-default compiler arguments, for example, a non-default include directory. The following directives turn off Postfix features at compile time: | |
| -DNO_DB | Do not build with Berkeley DB support. By default, Berkeley DB support is compiled in on platforms that are known to support this feature. If you override this, then you probably should also override DEF_DB_TYPE as described in section 4.6. | |
| -DNO_DNSSEC | Do not build with DNSSEC support, even if the resolver library appears to support it. | |
| -DNO_DEVPOLL | Do not build with Solaris /dev/poll support. By default, /dev/poll support is compiled in on Solaris versions that are known to support this feature. | |
| -DNO_EPOLL | Do not build with Linux EPOLL support. By default, EPOLL support is compiled in on platforms that are known to support this feature. | |
| -DNO_EAI | Do not build with EAI (SMTPUTF8) support. By default, EAI support is compiled in when the "icuuc" library and header files are found. | |
| -DNO_INLINE | Do not require support for C99 "inline" functions. Instead, implement argument typechecks for non-printf/scanf-like functions with ternary operators and unreachable code. | |
| -DNO_IPV6 | Do not build with IPv6 support. By default, IPv6 support is compiled in on platforms that are known to have IPv6 support. Note: this directive is for debugging and testing only. It is not guaranteed to work on all platforms. | |
| -DNO_KQUEUE | Do not build with FreeBSD / NetBSD / OpenBSD / MacOSX KQUEUE support. By default, KQUEUE support is compiled in on platforms that are known to support it. | |
| -DNO_NIS | Do not build with NIS or NISPLUS support. NIS is not available on some recent Linux distributions. | |
| -DNO_NISPLUS | Do not build with NISPLUS support. NISPLUS is not available on some recent Solaris distributions. | |
| -DNO_PCRE | Do not build with PCRE support. By default, PCRE support is compiled in when the pcre-config utility is installed. | |
| -DNO_POSIX_GETPW_R | Disable support for POSIX getpwnam_r/getpwuid_r. By default Postfix uses these where they are known to be available. | |
| -DNO_SIGSETJMP | Use setjmp()/longjmp() instead of sigsetjmp()/siglongjmp(). By default, Postfix uses sigsetjmp()/siglongjmp() when they are known to be available. | |
| DEBUG=debug_level | Specifies a non-default compiler debugging level. The default is "-g". Specify DEBUG= to turn off debugging. | |
| OPT=optimization_level | Specifies a non-default optimization level. The default is "-O". Specify OPT= to turn off optimization. | |
| SHLIB_CFLAGS=flags | Specifies non-default compiler options for building Postfix dynamically-linked libraries and database plugins. The typical default is "-fPIC". | |
| SHLIB_RPATH=rpath | Specifies a non-default runpath for Postfix dynamically-linked libraries. The typical default is "'-Wl,-rpath,${SHLIB_DIR}'". | |
| SHLIB_SUFFIX=suffix | Specifies a non-default suffix for Postfix dynamically-linked libraries and database plugins. The typical default is ".so". | |
| WARN="warning_flags..." | Specifies non-default compiler warning options for use when "make" is invoked in a source subdirectory only. | |
The number of connections that Postfix can manage simultaneously is limited by the number of processes that it can run. This number in turn is limited by the number of files and sockets that a single process can open. For example, the Postfix queue manager has a separate connection to each delivery process, and the anvil(8) server has one connection per smtpd(8) process.
Postfix version 2.4 and later have no built-in limits on the number of open files or sockets, when compiled on systems that support one of the following:
With other Postfix versions or operating systems, the number of file descriptors per process is limited by the value of the FD_SETSIZE macro. If you expect to run more than 1000 mail delivery processes, you may need to override the definition of the FD_SETSIZE macro to make select() work correctly:
$ make makefiles CCARGS=-DFD_SETSIZE=2048
Warning: the above has no effect on some Linux versions. Apparently, on these systems the FD_SETSIZE value can be changed only by using undocumented interfaces. Currently, that means including <bits/types.h> directly (which is not allowed) and overriding the __FD_SETSIZE macro. Beware, undocumented interfaces can change at any time and without warning.
But wait, there is more: none of this will work unless the operating system is configured to handle thousands of connections. See the TUNING_README guide for examples of how to increase the number of open sockets or files.
If the command
$ make
is successful, then you can proceed to install Postfix (section 6).
If the command produces compiler error messages, it may be time to search the web or to ask the postfix-users@postfix.org mailing list, but be sure to search the mailing list archives first. Some mailing list archives are linked from http://www.postfix.org/.
Each system type that Postfix knows is identified by a unique name. Examples: SUNOS5, FREEBSD4, and so on. When porting Postfix to a new system, the first step is to choose a SYSTEMTYPE name for the new system. You must use a name that includes at least the major version of the operating system (such as SUNOS4 or LINUX2), so that different releases of the same system can be supported without confusion.
Add a case statement to the "makedefs" shell script in the source code top-level directory that recognizes the new system reliably, and that emits the right system-specific information. Be sure to make the code robust against user PATH settings; if the system offers multiple UNIX flavors (e.g. BSD and SYSV) be sure to build for the native flavor, instead of the emulated one.
Add an "#ifdef SYSTEMTYPE" section to the central util/sys_defs.h include file. You may have to invent new feature macro names. Please choose sensible feature macro names such as HAS_DBM or FIONREAD_IN_SYS_FILIO_H.
I strongly recommend against using "#ifdef SYSTEMTYPE" in individual source files. While this may look like the quickest solution, it will create a mess when newer versions of the same SYSTEMTYPE need to be supported. You're likely to end up placing "#ifdef" sections all over the source code again.
This text describes how to install Postfix from source code. See the PACKAGE_README file if you are building a package for distribution to other systems.
IMPORTANT: if you are REPLACING an existing Sendmail installation with Postfix, you may need to keep the old sendmail program running for some time in order to flush the mail queue.
Some systems implement a mail switch mechanism where different MTAs (Postfix, Sendmail, etc.) can be installed at the same time, while only one of them is actually being used. Examples of such switching mechanisms are the FreeBSD mailwrapper(8) or the Linux mail switch. In this case you should try to "flip" the switch to "Postfix" before installing Postfix.
If your system has no mail switch mechanism, execute the following commands (your sendmail, newaliases and mailq programs may be in a different place):
# mv /usr/sbin/sendmail /usr/sbin/sendmail.OFF
# mv /usr/bin/newaliases /usr/bin/newaliases.OFF
# mv /usr/bin/mailq /usr/bin/mailq.OFF
# chmod 755 /usr/sbin/sendmail.OFF /usr/bin/newaliases.OFF \
/usr/bin/mailq.OFF
Before you install Postfix for the first time you need to create an account and a group:
Create a user account "postfix" with a user id and group id that are not used by any other user account. Preferably, this is an account that no-one can log into. The account does not need an executable login shell, and needs no existing home directory. My password and group file entries look like this:
/etc/passwd:
postfix:*:12345:12345:postfix:/no/where:/no/shell
/etc/group:
postfix:*:12345:
Note: there should be no whitespace before "postfix:".
Create a group "postdrop" with a group id that is not used by any other user account. Not even by the postfix user account. My group file entry looks like:
/etc/group:
postdrop:*:54321:
Note: there should be no whitespace before "postdrop:".
To install or upgrade Postfix from compiled source code, run one of the following commands as the super-user:
# make install (interactive version, first time install) # make upgrade (non-interactive version, for upgrades)
The interactive version ("make install") asks for pathnames for Postfix data and program files, and stores your preferences in the main.cf file. If you don't want Postfix to overwrite non-Postfix "sendmail", "mailq" and "newaliases" files, specify pathnames that end in ".postfix".
The non-interactive version ("make upgrade") needs the /etc/postfix/main.cf file from a previous installation. If the file does not exist, use interactive installation ("make install") instead.
If you specify name=value arguments on the "make install" or "make upgrade" command line, then these will take precedence over compiled-in default settings or main.cf settings.
The command "make install/upgrade name=value ..." will replace the string MAIL_VERSION at the end of a configuration parameter value with the Postfix release version. Do not try to specify something like $mail_version on this command line. This produces inconsistent results with different versions of the make(1) command.
Proceed to the section on how you wish to run Postfix on your particular machine:
Send mail only, without changing an existing Sendmail installation (section 7).
Send and receive mail via a virtual host interface, still without any change to an existing Sendmail installation (section 8).
Run Postfix instead of Sendmail (section 9).
If you are going to use Postfix to send mail only, there is no need to change your existing sendmail setup. Instead, set up your mail user agent so that it calls the Postfix sendmail program directly.
Follow the instructions in the "Mandatory configuration file edits" in section 10, and review the "To chroot or not to chroot" text in section 11.
You MUST comment out the "smtp inet" entry in /etc/postfix/master.cf, in order to avoid conflicts with the real sendmail. Put a "#" character in front of the line that defines the smtpd service:
/etc/postfix/master.cf:
#smtp inet n - n - - smtpd
Start the Postfix system:
# postfix start
or, if you feel nostalgic, use the Postfix sendmail command:
# sendmail -bd -qwhatever
and watch your maillog file for any error messages. The pathname is /var/log/maillog, /var/log/mail, /var/log/syslog, or something else. Typically, the pathname is defined in the /etc/syslog.conf file.
$ egrep '(reject|warning|error|fatal|panic):' /some/log/file
Note: the most important error message is logged first. Later messages are not as useful.
In order to inspect the mail queue, use one of the following commands:
$ mailq $ sendmail -bp $ postqueue -p
See also the "Care and feeding" section 12 below.
Alternatively, you can use the Postfix system to send AND receive mail while leaving your Sendmail setup intact, by running Postfix on a virtual interface address. Simply configure your mail user agent to directly invoke the Postfix sendmail program.
To create a virtual network interface address, study your system ifconfig manual page. The command syntax could be any of:
# ifconfig le0:1 <address> netmask <mask> up # ifconfig en0 alias <address> netmask 255.255.255.255
In the /etc/postfix/main.cf file, I would specify
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
myhostname = virtual.host.tld
inet_interfaces = $myhostname
mydestination = $myhostname
Follow the instructions in the "Mandatory configuration file edits" in section 10, and review the "To chroot or not to chroot" text in section 11.
Start the Postfix system:
# postfix start
or, if you feel nostalgic, use the Postfix sendmail command:
# sendmail -bd -qwhatever
and watch your maillog file for any error messages. The pathname is /var/log/maillog, /var/log/mail, /var/log/syslog, or something else. Typically, the pathname is defined in the /etc/syslog.conf file.
$ egrep '(reject|warning|error|fatal|panic):' /some/log/file
Note: the most important error message is logged first. Later messages are not as useful.
In order to inspect the mail queue, use one of the following commands:
$ mailq $ sendmail -bp $ postqueue -p
See also the "Care and feeding" section 12 below.
Prior to installing Postfix you should save any existing sendmail program files as described in section 6. Be sure to keep the old sendmail running for at least a couple days to flush any unsent mail. To do so, stop the sendmail daemon and restart it as:
# /usr/sbin/sendmail.OFF -q
Note: this is old sendmail syntax. Newer versions use separate processes for mail submission and for running the queue.
After you have visited the "Mandatory configuration file edits" section below, you can start the Postfix system with:
# postfix start
or, if you feel nostalgic, use the Postfix sendmail command:
# sendmail -bd -qwhatever
and watch your maillog file for any error messages. The pathname is /var/log/maillog, /var/log/mail, /var/log/syslog, or something else. Typically, the pathname is defined in the /etc/syslog.conf file.
$ egrep '(reject|warning|error|fatal|panic):' /some/log/file
Note: the most important error message is logged first. Later messages are not as useful.
In order to inspect the mail queue, use one of the following commands:
$ mailq $ sendmail -bp $ postqueue -p
See also the "Care and feeding" section 12 below.
Note: the material covered in this section is covered in more detail in the BASIC_CONFIGURATION_README document. The information presented below is targeted at experienced system administrators.
By default, Postfix configuration files are in /etc/postfix. The two most important files are main.cf and master.cf; these files must be owned by root. Giving someone else write permission to main.cf or master.cf (or to their parent directories) means giving root privileges to that person.
In /etc/postfix/main.cf, you will have to set up a minimal number of configuration parameters. Postfix configuration parameters resemble shell variables, with two important differences: the first one is that Postfix does not know about quotes like the UNIX shell does.
You specify a configuration parameter as:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
parameter = value
and you use it by putting a "$" character in front of its name:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
other_parameter = $parameter
You can use $parameter before it is given a value (that is the second main difference with UNIX shell variables). The Postfix configuration language uses lazy evaluation, and does not look at a parameter value until it is needed at runtime.
Whenever you make a change to the main.cf or master.cf file, execute the following command in order to refresh a running mail system:
# postfix reload
First of all, you must specify what domain will be appended to an unqualified address (i.e. an address without @domain.tld). The "myorigin" parameter defaults to the local hostname, but that is probably OK only for very small sites.
Some examples (use only one):
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
myorigin = $myhostname (send mail as "user@$myhostname")
myorigin = $mydomain (send mail as "user@$mydomain")
Next you need to specify what mail addresses Postfix should deliver locally.
Some examples (use only one):
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
mydestination = $myhostname, localhost.$mydomain, localhost
mydestination = $myhostname, localhost.$mydomain, localhost, $mydomain
mydestination = $myhostname
The first example is appropriate for a workstation, the second is appropriate for the mailserver for an entire domain. The third example should be used when running on a virtual host interface.
The proxy_interfaces parameter specifies all network addresses that Postfix receives mail on by way of a proxy or network address translation unit. You may specify symbolic hostnames instead of network addresses.
IMPORTANT: You must specify your proxy/NAT external addresses when your system is a backup MX host for other domains, otherwise mail delivery loops will happen when the primary MX host is down.
Example: host behind NAT box running a backup MX host.
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
proxy_interfaces = 1.2.3.4 (the proxy/NAT external network address)
If your machine is on an open network then you must specify what client IP addresses are authorized to relay their mail through your machine into the Internet. The default setting includes all subnetworks that the machine is attached to. This may give relay permission to too many clients. My own settings are:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
mynetworks = 168.100.189.0/28, 127.0.0.0/8
If your machine is on an open network then you must also specify whether Postfix will forward mail from strangers. The default setting will forward mail to all domains (and subdomains of) what is listed in $mydestination. This may give relay permission for too many destinations. Recommended settings (use only one):
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
relay_domains = (do not forward mail from strangers)
relay_domains = $mydomain (my domain and subdomains)
relay_domains = $mydomain, other.domain.tld, ...
If you're behind a firewall, you should set up a relayhost. If you can, specify the organizational domain name so that Postfix can use DNS lookups, and so that it can fall back to a secondary MX host when the primary MX host is down. Otherwise just specify a hard-coded hostname.
Some examples (use only one):
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
relayhost = $mydomain
relayhost = [mail.$mydomain]
The form enclosed with [] eliminates DNS MX lookups.
By default, the SMTP client will do DNS lookups even when you specify a relay host. If your machine has no access to a DNS server, turn off SMTP client DNS lookups like this:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
disable_dns_lookups = yes
The STANDARD_CONFIGURATION_README file has more hints and tips for firewalled and/or dial-up networks.
Postfix uses a Sendmail-compatible aliases(5) table to redirect mail for local(8) recipients. Typically, this information is kept in two files: in a text file /etc/aliases and in an indexed file /etc/aliases.db. The command "postconf alias_maps" will tell you the exact location of the text file.
First, be sure to update the text file with aliases for root, postmaster and "postfix" that forward mail to a real person. Postfix has a sample aliases file /etc/postfix/aliases that you can adapt to local conditions.
/etc/aliases:
root: you
postmaster: root
postfix: root
bin: root
etcetera...
Note: there should be no whitespace before the ":".
Finally, build the indexed aliases file with one of the following commands:
# newaliases # sendmail -bi
Postfix daemon processes can be configured (via master.cf) to run in a chroot jail. The processes run at a fixed low privilege and with access only to the Postfix queue directories (/var/spool/postfix). This provides a significant barrier against intrusion. The barrier is not impenetrable, but every little bit helps.
With the exception of Postfix daemons that deliver mail locally and/or that execute non-Postfix commands, every Postfix daemon can run chrooted.
Sites with high security requirements should consider to chroot all daemons that talk to the network: the smtp(8) and smtpd(8) processes, and perhaps also the lmtp(8) client. The author's own porcupine.org mail server runs all daemons chrooted that can be chrooted.
The default /etc/postfix/master.cf file specifies that no Postfix daemon runs chrooted. In order to enable chroot operation, edit the file /etc/postfix/master.cf. Instructions are in the file.
Note that a chrooted daemon resolves all filenames relative to the Postfix queue directory (/var/spool/postfix). For successful use of a chroot jail, most UNIX systems require you to bring in some files or device nodes. The examples/chroot-setup directory in the source code distribution has a collection of scripts that help you set up Postfix chroot environments on different operating systems.
Additionally, you almost certainly need to configure syslogd so that it listens on a socket inside the Postfix queue directory. Examples for specific systems:
# mkdir -p /var/spool/postfix/var/run # syslogd -l /var/spool/postfix/var/run/log
# mkdir -p /var/spool/postfix/dev # syslogd -a /var/spool/postfix/dev/log
Postfix daemon processes run in the background, and log problems and normal activity to the syslog daemon. The names of logfiles are specified in /etc/syslog.conf. At the very least you need something like:
/etc/syslog.conf:
mail.err /dev/console
mail.debug /var/log/maillog
IMPORTANT: the syslogd will not create files. You must create them before (re)starting syslogd.
IMPORTANT: on Linux you need to put a "-" character before the pathname, e.g., -/var/log/maillog, otherwise the syslogd will use more system resources than Postfix does.
Hopefully, the number of problems will be small, but it is a good idea to run every night before the syslog files are rotated:
# postfix check # egrep '(reject|warning|error|fatal|panic):' /some/log/file
The first line (postfix check) causes Postfix to report file permission/ownership discrepancies.
The second line looks for problem reports from the mail software, and reports how effective the relay and junk mail access blocks are. This may produce a lot of output. You will want to apply some postprocessing to eliminate uninteresting information.
The DEBUG_README document describes the meaning of the "warning" etc. labels in Postfix logging.