NAME
postmulti - Postfix multi-instance manager
SYNOPSIS
Enabling multi-instance management:
postmulti -e init [
-v]
Iterator mode:
postmulti -l [
-aRv] [
-g group] [
-i
name]
postmulti -p [
-av] [
-g group] [
-i
name]
command...
postmulti -x [
-aRv] [
-g group] [
-i
name]
command...
Life-cycle management:
postmulti -e create [
-av] [
-g group] [
-i
name] [
-G group] [
-I name]
[
param=value ...]
postmulti -e import [
-av] [
-g group] [
-i
name] [
-G group] [
-I name]
[
config_directory= /path]
postmulti -e destroy [
-v]
-i name
postmulti -e deport [
-v]
-i name
postmulti -e enable [
-v]
-i name
postmulti -e disable [
-v]
-i name
postmulti -e assign [
-v]
-i name [
-I
name] [-G
group]
DESCRIPTION
The
postmulti(1) command allows a Postfix administrator to manage
multiple Postfix instances on a single host.
postmulti(1) implements two fundamental modes of operation. In
iterator mode, it executes the same command for multiple Postfix
instances. In
life-cycle management mode, it adds or deletes one
instance, or changes the multi-instance status of one instance.
Each mode of operation has its own command syntax. For this reason, each mode is
documented in separate sections below.
BACKGROUND
A multi-instance configuration consists of one primary Postfix instance, and one
or more secondary instances whose configuration directory pathnames are
recorded in the primary instance's main.cf file. Postfix instances share
program files and documentation, but have their own configuration, queue and
data directories.
Currently, only the default Postfix instance can be used as primary instance in
a multi-instance configuration. The
postmulti(1) command does not
currently support a
-c option to select an alternative primary
instance, and exits with a fatal error if the
MAIL_CONFIG environment
variable is set to a non-default configuration directory.
See the MULTI_INSTANCE_README tutorial for a more detailed discussion of
multi-instance management with
postmulti(1).
ITERATOR MODE
In iterator mode,
postmulti performs the same operation on all Postfix
instances in turn.
If multi-instance support is not enabled, the requested command is performed
just for the primary instance.
Iterator mode implements the following command options:
Instance selection
- -a
- Perform the operation on all instances. This is the
default.
- -g group
- Perform the operation only for members of the named
group.
- -i name
- Perform the operation only for the instance with the
specified name. You can specify either the instance name or the
absolute pathname of the instance's configuration directory. Specify
"-" to select the primary Postfix instance.
- -R
- Reverse the iteration order. This may be appropriate when
updating a multi-instance system, where "sink" instances are
started before "source" instances.
This option cannot be used with -p.
List mode
- -l
- List Postfix instances with their instance name, instance
group name, enable/disable status and configuration directory.
Postfix-wrapper mode
- -p
- Invoke postfix(1) to execute the specified
command. This option implements the postfix-wrapper(5)
interface.
- •
- With "start"-like commands, "postfix
check" is executed for instances that are not enabled. The full list
of commands is specified with the postmulti_start_commands parameter.
- •
- With "stop"-like commands, the iteration order is
reversed, and disabled instances are skipped. The full list of commands is
specified with the postmulti_stop_commands parameter.
- •
- With "reload" and other commands that require a
started instance, disabled instances are skipped. The full list of
commands is specified with the postmulti_control_commands parameter.
- •
- With "status" and other commands that don't
require a started instance, the command is executed for all
instances.
- The -p option can also be used interactively to
start/stop/etc. a named instance or instance group. For example, to start
just the instances in the group "msa", invoke
postmulti(1) as follows:
- # postmulti -g msa -p start
Command mode
- -x
- Execute the specified command for all Postfix
instances. The command runs with appropriate environment settings for
MAIL_CONFIG, command_directory, daemon_directory, config_directory,
queue_directory, data_directory, multi_instance_name, multi_instance_group
and multi_instance_enable.
Other options
- -v
- Enable verbose logging for debugging purposes. Multiple
-v options make the software increasingly verbose.
LIFE-CYCLE MANAGEMENT MODE
With the
-e option
postmulti(1) can be used to add or delete a
Postfix instance, and to manage the multi-instance status of an existing
instance.
The following options are implemented:
Existing instance selection
- -a
- When creating or importing an instance, place the new
instance at the front of the secondary instance list.
- -g group
- When creating or importing an instance, place the new
instance before the first secondary instance that is a member of the
specified group.
- -i name
- When creating or importing an instance, place the new
instance before the matching secondary instance.
With other life-cycle operations, apply the operation to the named existing
instance. Specify "-" to select the primary Postfix
instance.
New or existing instance name assignment
- -I name
- Assign the specified instance name to an existing
instance, newly-created instance, or imported instance. Instance names
other than "-" (which makes the instance "nameless")
must start with "postfix-". This restriction reduces the
likelihood of name collisions with system files.
- -G group
- Assign the specified group name to an existing
instance or to a newly created or imported instance.
Instance creation/deletion/status change
- -e action
- "Edit" managed instances. The following actions
are supported:
- init
- This command is required before postmulti(1) can be
used to manage Postfix instances. The "postmulti -e init"
command updates the primary instance's main.cf file by setting:
-
multi_instance_wrapper =
${command_directory}/postmulti -p --
multi_instance_enable = yes
- You can set these by other means if you prefer.
- create
- Create a new Postfix instance and add it to the
multi_instance_directories parameter of the primary instance. The "
-I name" option is recommended to give the instance a
short name that is used to construct default values for the private
directories of the new instance. The " -G group"
option may be specified to assign the instance to a group, otherwise, the
new instance is not a member of any groups.
The new instance main.cf is the stock main.cf with the parameters that
specify the locations of shared files cloned from the primary instance.
For "nameless" instances, you should manually adjust
"syslog_name" to yield a unique "logtag" starting with
"postfix-" that will uniquely identify the instance in the mail
logs. It is simpler to assign the instance a short name with the "
-I name" option.
Optional "name=value" arguments specify the instance
config_directory, queue_directory and data_directory. For example:
-
# postmulti -I postfix-mumble \
-G mygroup -e create \
config_directory=/my/config/dir \
queue_directory=/my/queue/dir \
data_directory=/my/data/dir
- If any of these pathnames is not supplied, the program
attempts to generate the pathname by taking the corresponding primary
instance pathname, and by replacing the last pathname component by the
value of the -I option.
If the instance configuration directory already exists, and contains both a
main.cf and master.cf file, create will "import" the
instance as-is. For existing instances, create and import
are identical.
- import
- Import an existing instance into the list of instances
managed by the postmulti(1) multi-instance manager. This adds the
instance to the multi_instance_directories list of the primary instance.
If the " -I name" option is provided it specifies
the new name for the instance and is used to define a default location for
the instance configuration directory (as with create above). The
" -G group" option may be used to assign the
instance to a group. Add a "
config_directory=/path" argument to override a default
pathname based on " -I name".
- destroy
- Destroy a secondary Postfix instance. To be a candidate for
destruction an instance must be disabled, stopped and its queue must not
contain any messages. Attempts to destroy the primary Postfix instance
trigger a fatal error, without destroying the instance.
The instance is removed from the primary instance main.cf file's
alternate_config_directories parameter and its data, queue and
configuration directories are cleaned of files and directories created by
the Postfix system. The main.cf and master.cf files are removed from the
configuration directory even if they have been modified since initial
creation. Finally, the instance is "deported" from the list of
managed instances.
If other files are present in instance private directories, the directories
may not be fully removed, a warning is logged to alert the administrator.
It is expected that an instance built using "fresh" directories
via the create action will be fully removed by the destroy
action (if first disabled). If the instance configuration and queue
directories are populated with additional files (access and rewriting
tables, chroot jail content, etc.) the instance directories will not be
fully removed.
The destroy action triggers potentially dangerous file removal
operations. Make sure the instance's data, queue and configuration
directories are set correctly and do not contain any valuable files.
- deport
- Deport a secondary instance from the list of managed
instances. This deletes the instance configuration directory from the
primary instance's multi_instance_directories list, but does not remove
any files or directories.
- assign
- Assign a new instance name or a new group name to the
selected instance. Use " -G -" to specify "no
group" and " -I -" to specify "no name".
If you choose to make an instance "nameless", set a suitable
syslog_name in the corresponding main.cf file.
- enable
- Mark the selected instance as enabled. This just sets the
multi_instance_enable parameter to "yes" in the instance's
main.cf file.
- disable
- Mark the selected instance as disabled. This means that the
instance will not be started etc. with "postfix start",
"postmulti -p start" and so on. The instance can still be
started etc. with "postfix -c config-directory start".
Other options
- -v
- Enable verbose logging for debugging purposes. Multiple
-v options make the software increasingly verbose.
ENVIRONMENT
The
postmulti(1) command exports the following environment variables
before executing the requested
command for a given instance:
- MAIL_VERBOSE
- This is set when the -v command-line option is
present.
- MAIL_CONFIG
- The location of the configuration directory of the
instance.
CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS
- config_directory (see 'postconf -d' output)
- The default location of the Postfix main.cf and master.cf
configuration files.
- daemon_directory (see 'postconf -d' output)
- The directory with Postfix support programs and daemon
programs.
- import_environment (see 'postconf -d' output)
- The list of environment parameters that a Postfix process
will import from a non-Postfix parent process.
- multi_instance_directories (empty)
- An optional list of non-default Postfix configuration
directories; these directories belong to additional Postfix instances that
share the Postfix executable files and documentation with the default
Postfix instance, and that are started, stopped, etc., together with the
default Postfix instance.
- multi_instance_group (empty)
- The optional instance group name of this Postfix
instance.
- multi_instance_name (empty)
- The optional instance name of this Postfix instance.
- multi_instance_enable (no)
- Allow this Postfix instance to be started, stopped, etc.,
by a multi-instance manager.
- postmulti_start_commands (start)
- The postfix(1) commands that the postmulti(1)
instance manager treats as "start" commands.
- postmulti_stop_commands (see 'postconf -d'
output)
- The postfix(1) commands that the postmulti(1)
instance manager treats as "stop" commands.
- postmulti_control_commands (reload flush)
- The postfix(1) commands that the postmulti(1)
instance manager treats as "control" commands, that operate on
running instances.
- syslog_facility (mail)
- The syslog facility of Postfix logging.
- syslog_name (see 'postconf -d' output)
- The mail system name that is prepended to the process name
in syslog records, so that "smtpd" becomes, for example,
"postfix/smtpd".
Available in Postfix 3.0 and later:
- meta_directory (see 'postconf -d' output)
- The location of non-executable files that are shared among
multiple Postfix instances, such as postfix-files, dynamicmaps.cf, and the
multi-instance template files main.cf.proto and master.cf.proto.
- shlib_directory (see 'postconf -d' output)
- The location of Postfix dynamically-linked libraries
(libpostfix-*.so), and the default location of Postfix database plugins
(postfix-*.so) that have a relative pathname in the dynamicmaps.cf
file.
FILES
$meta_directory/main.cf.proto, stock configuration file
$meta_directory/master.cf.proto, stock configuration file
$daemon_directory/postmulti-script, life-cycle helper program
SEE ALSO
postfix(1), Postfix control program
postfix-wrapper(5), Postfix multi-instance API
README FILES
Use "
postconf readme_directory" or "
postconf
html_directory" to locate this information.
MULTI_INSTANCE_README, Postfix multi-instance management
HISTORY
The
postmulti(1) command was introduced with Postfix version 2.6.
LICENSE
The Secure Mailer license must be distributed with this software.
AUTHOR(S)
Victor Duchovni
Morgan Stanley
Wietse Venema
IBM T.J. Watson Research
P.O. Box 704
Yorktown Heights, NY 10598, USA