xref: /netbsd-src/external/ibm-public/postfix/dist/html/pipe.8.html (revision 1b9578b8c2c1f848eeb16dabbfd7d1f0d9fdefbd)
1<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
2        "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
3<html> <head>
4<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
5<title> Postfix manual - pipe(8) </title>
6</head> <body> <pre>
7PIPE(8)                                                                PIPE(8)
8
9<b>NAME</b>
10       pipe - Postfix delivery to external command
11
12<b>SYNOPSIS</b>
13       <b>pipe</b> [generic Postfix daemon options] command_attributes...
14
15<b>DESCRIPTION</b>
16       The  <a href="pipe.8.html"><b>pipe</b>(8)</a>  daemon  processes  requests from the Postfix
17       queue manager to deliver messages  to  external  commands.
18       This  program expects to be run from the <a href="master.8.html"><b>master</b>(8)</a> process
19       manager.
20
21       Message  attributes  such  as  sender  address,  recipient
22       address  and  next-hop  host name can be specified as com-
23       mand-line macros that are  expanded  before  the  external
24       command is executed.
25
26       The  <a href="pipe.8.html"><b>pipe</b>(8)</a>  daemon updates queue files and marks recipi-
27       ents as finished, or it informs  the  queue  manager  that
28       delivery  should  be tried again at a later time. Delivery
29       status reports are sent  to  the  <a href="bounce.8.html"><b>bounce</b>(8)</a>,  <a href="defer.8.html"><b>defer</b>(8)</a>  or
30       <a href="trace.8.html"><b>trace</b>(8)</a> daemon as appropriate.
31
32<b>SINGLE-RECIPIENT DELIVERY</b>
33       Some  destinations  cannot  handle more than one recipient
34       per delivery request. Examples are pagers or fax machines.
35       In  addition, multi-recipient delivery is undesirable when
36       prepending  a  <b>Delivered-to:</b>  or  <b>X-Original-To:</b>   message
37       header.
38
39       To  prevent  Postfix  from sending multiple recipients per
40       delivery request, specify
41
42           <b><a href="postconf.5.html#transport_destination_recipient_limit"><i>transport</i>_destination_recipient_limit</a> = 1</b>
43
44       in the Postfix <a href="postconf.5.html"><b>main.cf</b></a> file, where <i>transport</i> is  the  name
45       in the first column of the Postfix <a href="master.5.html"><b>master.cf</b></a> entry for the
46       pipe-based delivery transport.
47
48<b>COMMAND ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX</b>
49       The external command attributes are given in the <a href="master.5.html"><b>master.cf</b></a>
50       file at the end of a service definition.  The syntax is as
51       follows:
52
53       <b>chroot=</b><i>pathname</i> (optional)
54              Change  the  process  root  directory  and  working
55              directory  to  the  named  directory.  This happens
56              before switching to the privileges  specified  with
57              the   <b>user</b>  attribute,  and  before  executing  the
58              optional <b>directory=</b><i>pathname</i> directive. Delivery  is
59              deferred in case of failure.
60
61              This feature is available as of Postfix 2.3.
62
63       <b>directory=</b><i>pathname</i> (optional)
64              Change  to the named directory before executing the
65              external command.  The directory must be accessible
66              for the user specified with the <b>user</b> attribute (see
67              below).    The   default   working   directory   is
68              <b>$<a href="postconf.5.html#queue_directory">queue_directory</a></b>.   Delivery is deferred in case of
69              failure.
70
71              This feature is available as of Postfix 2.2.
72
73       <b>eol=</b><i>string</i> (optional, default: <b>\n</b>)
74              The output record delimiter.  Typically  one  would
75              use  either <b>\r\n</b> or <b>\n</b>. The usual C-style backslash
76              escape sequences are recognized: <b>\a \b \f \n \r  \t</b>
77              <b>\v \</b><i>ddd</i> (up to three octal digits) and <b>\\</b>.
78
79       <b>flags=BDFORXhqu.</b>&gt; (optional)
80              Optional  message  processing  flags. By default, a
81              message is copied unchanged.
82
83              <b>B</b>      Append a blank line at the end of each  mes-
84                     sage.  This  is  required  by some mail user
85                     agents that recognize  "<b>From</b>  "  lines  only
86                     when preceded by a blank line.
87
88              <b>D</b>      Prepend  a "<b>Delivered-To:</b> <i>recipient</i>" message
89                     header with the envelope recipient  address.
90                     Note: for this to work, the <i>transport</i><b>_desti-</b>
91                     <b>nation_recipient_limit</b> must be 1  (see  SIN-
92                     GLE-RECIPIENT DELIVERY above for details).
93
94                     The  <b>D</b>  flag  also  enforces  loop detection
95                     (Postfix  2.5  and  later):  if  a   message
96                     already contains a <b>Delivered-To:</b> header with
97                     the same recipient address, then the message
98                     is  returned  as  undeliverable. The address
99                     comparison is case insensitive.
100
101                     This feature is available as of Postfix 2.0.
102
103              <b>F</b>      Prepend  a "<b>From</b> <i>sender time</i><b>_</b><i>stamp</i>" envelope
104                     header to  the  message  content.   This  is
105                     expected by, for example, <b>UUCP</b> software.
106
107              <b>O</b>      Prepend  an  "<b>X-Original-To:</b> <i>recipient</i>" mes-
108                     sage header with the  recipient  address  as
109                     given  to  Postfix.  Note: for this to work,
110                     the    <b><a href="postconf.5.html#transport_destination_recipient_limit"><i>transport</i>_destination_recipient_limit</a></b>
111                     must  be  1  (see  SINGLE-RECIPIENT DELIVERY
112                     above for details).
113
114                     This feature is available as of Postfix 2.0.
115
116              <b>R</b>      Prepend  a  <b>Return-Path:</b> message header with
117                     the envelope sender address.
118
119              <b>X</b>      Indicate that the external command  performs
120                     final  delivery.  This flag affects the sta-
121                     tus reported in "success" DSN (delivery sta-
122                     tus  notification)  messages, and changes it
123                     from "relayed" into "delivered".
124
125                     This feature is available as of Postfix 2.5.
126
127              <b>h</b>      Fold  the  command-line  <b>$original_recipient</b>
128                     and <b>$recipient</b> address domain part (text  to
129                     the  right of the right-most <b>@</b> character) to
130                     lower case;  fold  the  entire  command-line
131                     <b>$domain</b> and <b>$nexthop</b> host or domain informa-
132                     tion to lower case.  This is recommended for
133                     delivery via <b>UUCP</b>.
134
135              <b>q</b>      Quote  white space and other special charac-
136                     ters in the  command-line  <b>$sender</b>,  <b>$origi-</b>
137                     <b>nal_recipient</b>  and <b>$recipient</b> address local-
138                     parts (text to the left of the right-most  <b>@</b>
139                     character),  according to an 8-bit transpar-
140                     ent version of <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc822">RFC 822</a>.  This is recommended
141                     for delivery via <b>UUCP</b> or <b>BSMTP</b>.
142
143                     The  result  is  compatible with the address
144                     parsing of command-line  recipients  by  the
145                     Postfix <a href="sendmail.1.html"><b>sendmail</b>(1)</a> mail submission command.
146
147                     The <b>q</b> flag affects  only  entire  addresses,
148                     not the partial address information from the
149                     <b>$user</b>, <b>$extension</b> or  <b>$mailbox</b>  command-line
150                     macros.
151
152              <b>u</b>      Fold  the  command-line  <b>$original_recipient</b>
153                     and <b>$recipient</b> address  localpart  (text  to
154                     the  left  of the right-most <b>@</b> character) to
155                     lower case.  This is recommended for  deliv-
156                     ery via <b>UUCP</b>.
157
158              <b>.</b>      Prepend "<b>.</b>" to lines starting with "<b>.</b>". This
159                     is needed by, for example, <b>BSMTP</b> software.
160
161              &gt;      Prepend "&gt;" to lines starting with "<b>From</b>  ".
162                     This is expected by, for example, <b>UUCP</b> soft-
163                     ware.
164
165       <b>null_sender</b>=<i>replacement</i> (default: MAILER-DAEMON)
166              Replace the null sender address (typically used for
167              delivery  status  notifications) with the specified
168              text when expanding the <b>$sender</b> command-line macro,
169              and when generating a From_ or Return-Path: message
170              header.
171
172              If the null sender replacement text is a  non-empty
173              string  then  it  is  affected  by  the  <b>q</b> flag for
174              address quoting in command-line arguments.
175
176              The null sender replacement text may be empty; this
177              form  is  recommended for content filters that feed
178              mail back into Postfix. The empty sender address is
179              not  affected  by the <b>q</b> flag for address quoting in
180              command-line arguments.
181
182              Caution: a null sender address is easily mis-parsed
183              by  naive  software.  For example, when the <a href="pipe.8.html"><b>pipe</b>(8)</a>
184              daemon executes a command such as:
185
186                  <i>Wrong</i>: command -f$sender -- $recipient
187
188              the command will mis-parse the -f option value when
189              the  sender  address is a null string.  For correct
190              parsing, specify <b>$sender</b> as an argument by itself:
191
192                  <i>Right</i>: command -f $sender -- $recipient
193
194              This feature is available as of Postfix 2.3.
195
196       <b>size</b>=<i>size</i><b>_</b><i>limit</i> (optional)
197              Don't deliver messages that exceed this size  limit
198              (in bytes); return them to the sender instead.
199
200       <b>user</b>=<i>username</i> (required)
201
202       <b>user</b>=<i>username</i>:<i>groupname</i>
203              Execute  the  external command with the user ID and
204              group ID of the specified <i>username</i>.   The  software
205              refuses  to  execute commands with root privileges,
206              or with the privileges of the mail system owner. If
207              <i>groupname</i>  is specified, the corresponding group ID
208              is used instead of the group ID of <i>username</i>.
209
210       <b>argv</b>=<i>command</i>... (required)
211              The command to be executed. This must be  specified
212              as the last command attribute.  The command is exe-
213              cuted  directly,  i.e.  without  interpretation  of
214              shell  meta  characters  by  a shell command inter-
215              preter.
216
217              In  the  command  argument  vector,  the  following
218              macros are recognized and replaced with correspond-
219              ing information  from  the  Postfix  queue  manager
220              delivery request.
221
222              In  addition  to  the form ${<i>name</i>}, the forms $<i>name</i>
223              and $(<i>name</i>) are also recognized.  Specify <b>$$</b>  where
224              a single <b>$</b> is wanted.
225
226              <b>${client_address</b>}
227                     This macro expands to the remote client net-
228                     work address.
229
230                     This feature is available as of Postfix 2.2.
231
232              <b>${client_helo</b>}
233                     This macro expands to the remote client HELO
234                     command parameter.
235
236                     This feature is available as of Postfix 2.2.
237
238              <b>${client_hostname</b>}
239                     This  macro  expands  to  the  remote client
240                     hostname.
241
242                     This feature is available as of Postfix 2.2.
243
244              <b>${client_port</b>}
245                     This  macro expands to the remote client TCP
246                     port number.
247
248                     This feature is available as of Postfix 2.5.
249
250              <b>${client_protocol</b>}
251                     This macro expands to the remote client pro-
252                     tocol.
253
254                     This feature is available as of Postfix 2.2.
255
256              <b>${domain</b>}
257                     This  macro expands to the domain portion of
258                     the recipient address.  For example, with an
259                     address   <i>user+foo@domain</i>   the   domain  is
260                     <i>domain</i>.
261
262                     This information is modified by the  <b>h</b>  flag
263                     for case folding.
264
265                     This feature is available as of Postfix 2.5.
266
267              <b>${extension</b>}
268                     This macro expands to the extension part  of
269                     a  recipient  address.  For example, with an
270                     address  <i>user+foo@domain</i>  the  extension  is
271                     <i>foo</i>.
272
273                     A   command-line   argument   that  contains
274                     <b>${extension</b>} expands into as  many  command-
275                     line arguments as there are recipients.
276
277                     This  information  is modified by the <b>u</b> flag
278                     for case folding.
279
280              <b>${mailbox</b>}
281                     This macro expands  to  the  complete  local
282                     part  of  a recipient address.  For example,
283                     with an address <i>user+foo@domain</i> the  mailbox
284                     is <i>user+foo</i>.
285
286                     A   command-line   argument   that  contains
287                     <b>${mailbox</b>} expands to as  many  command-line
288                     arguments as there are recipients.
289
290                     This  information  is modified by the <b>u</b> flag
291                     for case folding.
292
293              <b>${nexthop</b>}
294                     This macro expands to the next-hop hostname.
295
296                     This  information  is modified by the <b>h</b> flag
297                     for case folding.
298
299              <b>${original_recipient</b>}
300                     This macro expands to the complete recipient
301                     address  before  any  address  rewriting  or
302                     aliasing.
303
304                     A  command-line   argument   that   contains
305                     <b>${original_recipient</b>}  expands  to  as  many
306                     command-line arguments as there are  recipi-
307                     ents.
308
309                     This  information  is  modified  by  the <b>hqu</b>
310                     flags for quoting and case folding.
311
312                     This feature is available as of Postfix 2.5.
313
314              <b>${recipient</b>}
315                     This macro expands to the complete recipient
316                     address.
317
318                     A  command-line   argument   that   contains
319                     <b>${recipient</b>} expands to as many command-line
320                     arguments as there are recipients.
321
322                     This information  is  modified  by  the  <b>hqu</b>
323                     flags for quoting and case folding.
324
325              <b>${sasl_method</b>}
326                     This  macro  expands to the name of the SASL
327                     authentication mechanism in the AUTH command
328                     when  the  Postfix  SMTP server received the
329                     message.
330
331                     This feature is available as of Postfix 2.2.
332
333              <b>${sasl_sender</b>}
334                     This  macro  expands to the SASL sender name
335                     (i.e. the  original  submitter  as  per  <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4954">RFC</a>
336                     <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4954">4954</a>)  in  the  MAIL  FROM  command when the
337                     Postfix SMTP server received the message.
338
339                     This feature is available as of Postfix 2.2.
340
341              <b>${sasl_username</b>}
342                     This  macro expands to the SASL user name in
343                     the  AUTH  command  when  the  Postfix  SMTP
344                     server received the message.
345
346                     This feature is available as of Postfix 2.2.
347
348              <b>${sender</b>}
349                     This macro expands to  the  envelope  sender
350                     address. By default, the null sender address
351                     expands  to  MAILER-DAEMON;  this   can   be
352                     changed  with  the <b>null_sender</b> attribute, as
353                     described above.
354
355                     This information is modified by the  <b>q</b>  flag
356                     for quoting.
357
358              <b>${size</b>}
359                     This  macro expands to Postfix's idea of the
360                     message size, which is an  approximation  of
361                     the size of the message as delivered.
362
363              <b>${user</b>}
364                     This macro expands to the username part of a
365                     recipient address.   For  example,  with  an
366                     address <i>user+foo@domain</i> the username part is
367                     <i>user</i>.
368
369                     A  command-line   argument   that   contains
370                     <b>${user</b>}  expands  into  as many command-line
371                     arguments as there are recipients.
372
373                     This information is modified by the  <b>u</b>  flag
374                     for case folding.
375
376<b>STANDARDS</b>
377       <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3463">RFC 3463</a> (Enhanced status codes)
378
379<b>DIAGNOSTICS</b>
380       Command  exit status codes are expected to follow the con-
381       ventions defined in &lt;<b>sysexits.h</b>&gt;.   Exit  status  0  means
382       normal successful completion.
383
384       In the case of a non-zero exit status, a limited amount of
385       command output is reported in an delivery status notifica-
386       tion.   When  the  output  begins  with  a  4.X.X or 5.X.X
387       enhanced status code, the  status  code  takes  precedence
388       over  the  non-zero  exit  status (Postfix version 2.3 and
389       later).
390
391       Problems and transactions are logged to <b>syslogd</b>(8).   Cor-
392       rupted  message files are marked so that the queue manager
393       can move them to the <b>corrupt</b> queue for further inspection.
394
395<b>SECURITY</b>
396       This  program  needs  a  dual personality 1) to access the
397       private Postfix queue and IPC mechanisms, and 2)  to  exe-
398       cute external commands as the specified user. It is there-
399       fore security sensitive.
400
401<b>CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS</b>
402       Changes to <a href="postconf.5.html"><b>main.cf</b></a> are picked up automatically as  <a href="pipe.8.html"><b>pipe</b>(8)</a>
403       processes  run  for only a limited amount of time. Use the
404       command "<b>postfix reload</b>" to speed up a change.
405
406       The text below provides  only  a  parameter  summary.  See
407       <a href="postconf.5.html"><b>postconf</b>(5)</a> for more details including examples.
408
409<b>RESOURCE AND RATE CONTROLS</b>
410       In  the text below, <i>transport</i> is the first field in a <b>mas-</b>
411       <b>ter.cf</b> entry.
412
413       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#transport_destination_concurrency_limit"><i>transport</i>_destination_concurrency_limit</a> ($<a href="postconf.5.html#default_destination_concurrency_limit">default_destina</a>-</b>
414       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#default_destination_concurrency_limit">tion_concurrency_limit</a>)</b>
415              Limit the number of parallel deliveries to the same
416              destination,  for delivery via the named <i>transport</i>.
417              The limit is enforced by the Postfix queue manager.
418
419       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#transport_destination_recipient_limit"><i>transport</i>_destination_recipient_limit</a>   ($<a href="postconf.5.html#default_destination_recipient_limit">default_destina</a>-</b>
420       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#default_destination_recipient_limit">tion_recipient_limit</a>)</b>
421              Limit  the  number of recipients per message deliv-
422              ery, for delivery via  the  named  <i>transport</i>.   The
423              limit is enforced by the Postfix queue manager.
424
425       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#transport_time_limit"><i>transport</i>_time_limit</a> ($<a href="postconf.5.html#command_time_limit">command_time_limit</a>)</b>
426              Limit  the  time  for delivery to external command,
427              for delivery via the named <i>transport</i>.  The limit is
428              enforced by the pipe delivery agent.
429
430              Postfix  2.4 and later support a suffix that speci-
431              fies the time unit: s  (seconds),  m  (minutes),  h
432              (hours), d (days), w (weeks). The default time unit
433              is seconds.
434
435<b>MISCELLANEOUS CONTROLS</b>
436       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#config_directory">config_directory</a> (see 'postconf -d' output)</b>
437              The default location of  the  Postfix  <a href="postconf.5.html">main.cf</a>  and
438              <a href="master.5.html">master.cf</a> configuration files.
439
440       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#daemon_timeout">daemon_timeout</a> (18000s)</b>
441              How  much time a Postfix daemon process may take to
442              handle a request  before  it  is  terminated  by  a
443              built-in watchdog timer.
444
445       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#delay_logging_resolution_limit">delay_logging_resolution_limit</a> (2)</b>
446              The  maximal  number  of  digits  after the decimal
447              point when logging sub-second delay values.
448
449       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#export_environment">export_environment</a> (see 'postconf -d' output)</b>
450              The list of environment variables  that  a  Postfix
451              process will export to non-Postfix processes.
452
453       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#ipc_timeout">ipc_timeout</a> (3600s)</b>
454              The time limit for sending or receiving information
455              over an internal communication channel.
456
457       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#mail_owner">mail_owner</a> (postfix)</b>
458              The UNIX system account that owns the Postfix queue
459              and most Postfix daemon processes.
460
461       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#max_idle">max_idle</a> (100s)</b>
462              The  maximum  amount  of  time that an idle Postfix
463              daemon process waits  for  an  incoming  connection
464              before terminating voluntarily.
465
466       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#max_use">max_use</a> (100)</b>
467              The  maximal  number of incoming connections that a
468              Postfix daemon process will service  before  termi-
469              nating voluntarily.
470
471       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#process_id">process_id</a> (read-only)</b>
472              The  process  ID  of  a  Postfix  command or daemon
473              process.
474
475       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#process_name">process_name</a> (read-only)</b>
476              The process name of a  Postfix  command  or  daemon
477              process.
478
479       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#queue_directory">queue_directory</a> (see 'postconf -d' output)</b>
480              The  location of the Postfix top-level queue direc-
481              tory.
482
483       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#recipient_delimiter">recipient_delimiter</a> (empty)</b>
484              The separator between user names and address exten-
485              sions (user+foo).
486
487       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#syslog_facility">syslog_facility</a> (mail)</b>
488              The syslog facility of Postfix logging.
489
490       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#syslog_name">syslog_name</a> (see 'postconf -d' output)</b>
491              The  mail  system  name  that  is  prepended to the
492              process name in syslog  records,  so  that  "smtpd"
493              becomes, for example, "postfix/smtpd".
494
495<b>SEE ALSO</b>
496       <a href="qmgr.8.html">qmgr(8)</a>, queue manager
497       <a href="bounce.8.html">bounce(8)</a>, delivery status reports
498       <a href="postconf.5.html">postconf(5)</a>, configuration parameters
499       <a href="master.5.html">master(5)</a>, generic daemon options
500       <a href="master.8.html">master(8)</a>, process manager
501       syslogd(8), system logging
502
503<b>LICENSE</b>
504       The  Secure  Mailer  license must be distributed with this
505       software.
506
507<b>AUTHOR(S)</b>
508       Wietse Venema
509       IBM T.J. Watson Research
510       P.O. Box 704
511       Yorktown Heights, NY 10598, USA
512
513                                                                       PIPE(8)
514</pre> </body> </html>
515