1<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" 2 "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> 3 4<html> 5 6<head> 7 8<title>Guidelines for Package Builders</title> 9 10<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> 11 12</head> 13 14<body> 15 16<h1><img src="postfix-logo.jpg" width="203" height="98" ALT="">Guidelines for Package Builders</h1> 17 18<hr> 19 20<h2>Purpose of this document</h2> 21 22<p> This document has hints and tips for those who manage their 23own Postfix binary distribution for internal use, and for those who 24maintain Postfix binary distributions for general use. </p> 25 26<h2>General distributions: please provide a small default main.cf 27file</h2> 28 29<p> The installed <a href="postconf.5.html">main.cf</a> file must be small. PLEASE resist the 30temptation to list all parameters in the <a href="postconf.5.html">main.cf</a> file. Postfix 31is supposed to be easy to configure. Listing all parameters in <a href="postconf.5.html">main.cf</a> 32defeats the purpose. It is an invitation for hobbyists to make 33random changes without understanding what they do, and gets them 34into endless trouble. </p> 35 36<h2>General distributions: please include README or HTML files</h2> 37 38<p> Please provide the applicable README or HTML files. They are 39referenced by the Postfix manual pages and by other files. Without 40README or HTML files, Postfix will be difficult if not impossible 41to configure. </p> 42 43<h2>Postfix Installation parameters</h2> 44 45<p> Postfix installation is controlled by a dozen installation 46parameters. See the postfix-install and post-install files for 47details. Most parameters have system-dependent default settings 48that are configurable at compile time, as described in the <a href="INSTALL.html">INSTALL</a> 49file. </p> 50 51<h2>Preparing a pre-built package for distribution to other 52systems</h2> 53 54<p> You can build a Postfix package on a machine that does not have 55Postfix installed on it. All you need is Postfix source code and 56a compilation environment that is compatible with the target system. 57</p> 58 59<p> You can build a pre-built Postfix package as an unprivileged 60user. </p> 61 62<p> First compile Postfix. After successful compilation, execute: 63</p> 64 65<blockquote> <pre> % <b>make package</b> </pre> 66</blockquote> 67 68<p> With Postfix versions before 2.2 you must invoke the post-install 69script directly (<tt>% <b>sh post-install</b></tt>). </p> 70 71<p> You will be prompted for installation parameters. Specify an 72install_root directory other than /. The <a href="postconf.5.html#mail_owner">mail_owner</a> and <a href="postconf.5.html#setgid_group">setgid_group</a> 73installation parameter settings will be recorded in the <a href="postconf.5.html">main.cf</a> 74file, but they won't take effect until the package is unpacked and 75installed on the destination machine. </p> 76 77<p> If you want to fully automate this process, specify all the 78non-default installation parameters on the command line: </p> 79 80<blockquote> 81<pre> % <b>make non-interactive-package install_root=/some/where</b>... 82</pre> </blockquote> 83 84<p> With Postfix versions before 2.2 you must invoke the post-install 85script directly (<tt>% <b>sh post-install -non-interactive 86install_root...</b></tt>). </p> 87 88<h2>Begin Security Alert</h2> 89 90<p> <b> When building an archive for distribution, be sure to 91archive only files and symbolic links, not their parent directories. 92Otherwise, unpacking a pre-built Postfix package may mess up 93permission and/or ownership of system directories such as / /etc 94/usr /usr/bin /var /var/spool and so on. This is especially an 95issue if you executed postfix-install (see above) as an unprivileged 96user. </b> </p> 97 98<h2>End Security Alert</h2> 99 100<p> Thus, to tar up the pre-built package, take the following steps: 101</p> 102 103<blockquote> <pre> 104% cd INSTALL_ROOT 105% rm -f SOMEWHERE/outputfile 106% find . \! -type d -print | xargs tar rf SOMEWHERE/outputfile 107% gzip SOMEWHERE/outputfile </pre> </blockquote> 108 109<p>This way you will not include any directories that might cause 110trouble upon extraction. </p> 111 112<h2>Installing a pre-built Postfix package</h2> 113 114<ul> 115 116<li> <p> To unpack a pre-built Postfix package, execute the equivalent 117of: </p> 118 119<pre> 120# umask 022 121# gzip -d <outputfile.tar.gz | (cd / ; tar xvpf -) </pre> 122 123<p> The umask command is necessary for getting the correct permissions 124on non-Postfix directories that need to be created in the process. 125</p> 126 127<li> <p> Create the necessary <a href="postconf.5.html#mail_owner">mail_owner</a> account and <a href="postconf.5.html#setgid_group">setgid_group</a> 128group for exclusive use by Postfix. </p> 129 130<li> <p> Execute the postfix command to set ownership and permission 131of Postfix files and directories, and to update Postfix configuration 132files. If necessary, specify any non-default settings for <a href="postconf.5.html#mail_owner">mail_owner</a> 133or <a href="postconf.5.html#setgid_group">setgid_group</a> on the postfix command line: </p> 134 135<pre> 136# postfix set-permissions upgrade-configuration \ 137 <a href="postconf.5.html#setgid_group">setgid_group</a>=xxx <a href="postconf.5.html#mail_owner">mail_owner</a>=yyy 138</pre> 139 140<p> With Postfix versions before 2.1 you achieve the same result 141by invoking the post-install script directly. </p> 142 143</ul> 144 145</body> 146 147</html> 148
