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8<title>Postfix Installation From Source Code </title>
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15
16<h1><img src="postfix-logo.jpg" width="203" height="98" ALT="">Postfix
17Installation From Source Code </h1>
18
19<hr>
20
21<h2> <a name="1">1 - Purpose of this document</a> </h2>
22
23<p> If you are using a pre-compiled version of Postfix, you should
24start with BASIC_CONFIGURATION_README and the general documentation
25referenced by it.  INSTALL is only a bootstrap document to get
26Postfix up and running from scratch with the minimal number of
27steps; it should not be considered part of the general documentation.
28</p>
29
30<p> This document describes how to build, install and configure a
31Postfix system so that it can do one of the following: </p>
32
33<ul>
34
35<li> Send mail only, without changing an existing Sendmail
36installation.
37
38<li> Send and receive mail via a virtual host interface, still
39without any change to an existing Sendmail installation.
40
41<li> Run Postfix instead of Sendmail.
42
43</ul>
44
45<p> Topics covered in this document: </p>
46
47<ol>
48
49<li> <a href="#1">Purpose of this document</a>
50
51<li> <a href="#2">Typographical conventions</a>
52
53<li> <a href="#3">Documentation</a>
54
55<li> <a href="#4">Building on a supported system</a>
56
57<li> <a href="#5">Porting Postfix to an unsupported system</a>
58
59<li> <a href="#install">Installing the software after successful
60compilation </a>
61
62<li> <a href="#send_only">Configuring Postfix to send mail
63only </a>
64
65<li> <a href="#send_receive">Configuring Postfix to send and
66receive mail via virtual interface </a>
67
68<li> <a href="#replace">Running Postfix instead of Sendmail</a>
69
70<li> <a href="#mandatory">Mandatory configuration file edits</a>
71
72<li> <a href="#hamlet">To chroot or not to chroot</a>
73
74<li> <a href="#care">Care and feeding of the Postfix system</a>
75
76</ol>
77
78<h2> <a name="2">2 - Typographical conventions</a> </h2>
79
80<p> In the instructions below, a command written as </p>
81
82<blockquote>
83<pre>
84# command
85</pre>
86</blockquote>
87
88<p> should be executed as the superuser. </p>
89
90<p> A command written as </p>
91
92<blockquote>
93<pre>
94$ command
95</pre>
96</blockquote>
97
98<p> should be executed as an unprivileged user.  </p>
99
100<h2> <a name="3">3 - Documentation</a> </h2>
101
102<p> Documentation is available as README files (start with the file
103README_FILES/AAAREADME), as HTML web pages (point your browser to
104"html/index.html") and as UNIX-style manual pages. </p>
105
106<p> You should view the README files with a pager such as more(1)
107or less(1), because the files use backspace characters in order to
108produce <b>bold</b> font. To print a README file without backspace
109characters, use the col(1) command.  For example: </p>
110
111<blockquote>
112<pre>
113$ col -bx &lt;file | lpr
114</pre>
115</blockquote>
116
117<p> In order to view the manual pages before installing Postfix,
118point your MANPATH environment variable to the "man" subdirectory;
119be sure to use an absolute path.  </p>
120
121<blockquote>
122<pre>
123$ export MANPATH; MANPATH="`pwd`/man:$MANPATH"
124$ setenv MANPATH "`pwd`/man:$MANPATH"
125</pre>
126</blockquote>
127
128<p> Of particular interest is the postconf(5) manual page that
129lists all the 500+ configuration parameters. The HTML version of
130this text makes it easy to navigate around.  </p>
131
132<p> All Postfix source files have their own built-in manual page.
133Tools to extract those embedded manual pages are available in the
134mantools directory. </p>
135
136<h2> <a name="4">4 - Building on a supported system</a> </h2>
137
138<p> Postfix development happens on FreeBSD and MacOS X, with regular
139tests on Linux (Fedora, Ubuntu) and Solaris. Support for other
140systems relies on feedback from their users, and may not always be
141up-to-date. </p>
142
143<p> OpenBSD is partially supported. The libc resolver does not
144implement the documented "internal resolver options which are [...]
145set by changing fields in the _res structure" (documented in the
146OpenBSD 5.6 resolver(3) manpage). This results in too many DNS
147queries, and false positives for queries that should fail. </p>
148
149<!--
150
151<p> At some point in time, a version of Postfix was supported on: </p>
152
153<blockquote>
154<p>
155AIX 3.2.5, 4.1.x, 4.2.0, 4.3.x, 5.2 <br>
156BSD/OS 2.x, 3.x, 4.x <br>
157FreeBSD 2.x .. 9.x <br>
158HP-UX  9.x, 10.x, 11.x <br>
159IRIX 5.x, 6.x <br>
160Linux Debian 1.3.1 and later <br>
161Linux RedHat 3.x (January 2004) and later <br>
162Linux Slackware 3.x and later <br>
163Linux SuSE 5.x and later <br>
164Linux Ubuntu 4.10 and later<br>
165Mac OS X <br>
166NEXTSTEP 3.x <br>
167NetBSD 1.x and later <br>
168OPENSTEP 4.x <br>
169OSF1.V3 - OSF1.V5 (Digital UNIX) <br>
170Reliant UNIX 5.x <br>
171SunOS 4.1.4 (March 2007) <br>
172SunOS 5.4 - 5.10 (Solaris 2.4..10) <br>
173Ultrix 4.x (well, that was long ago) <br>
174</p>
175</blockquote>
176
177<p> or something closely resemblant. </p>
178
179-->
180
181<p> Overview of topics: </p>
182
183<ul>
184
185<li><a href="#build_first">4.1 - Getting started</a>
186
187<li><a href="#build_cc">4.2 - What compiler to use</a>
188
189<li><a href="#build_pie">4.3 - Building with Postfix position-independent
190executables (Postfix &ge; 3.0)</a>
191
192<li><a href="#build_dll">4.4 - Building with Postfix dynamically-linked
193libraries and database plugins (Postfix &ge; 3.0)</a>
194
195<li><a href="#build_opt">4.5 - Building with optional features</a>
196
197<li><a href="#build_over">4.6 - Overriding built-in parameter default
198settings</a>
199
200<li><a href="#build_other">4.7 - Overriding other compile-time
201features</a>
202
203<li><a href="#build_proc">4.8 - Support for thousands of processes</a>
204
205<li><a href="#build_final">4.9 - Compiling Postfix, at last</a>
206
207</ul>
208
209
210<h3><a name="build_first">4.1 - Getting started</a> </h3>
211
212<p> On Solaris, the "make" command and other development utilities
213are in /usr/ccs/bin, so you MUST have /usr/ccs/bin in your command
214search path. If these files do not exist, you need to install the
215development packages first. </p>
216
217<p> If you need to build Postfix for multiple architectures from a
218single source-code tree, use the "lndir" command to build a shadow
219tree with symbolic links to the source files. </p>
220
221<p> If at any time in the build process you get messages like: "make:
222don't know how to ..." you should be able to recover by running
223the following command from the Postfix top-level directory: </p>
224
225<blockquote>
226<pre>
227$ make -f Makefile.init makefiles
228</pre>
229</blockquote>
230
231<p> If you copied the Postfix source code after building it on another
232machine, it is a good idea to cd into the top-level directory and
233first do this:</p>
234
235<blockquote>
236<pre>
237$ make tidy
238</pre>
239</blockquote>
240
241<p> This will get rid of any system dependencies left over from
242compiling the software elsewhere. </p>
243
244<h3><a name="build_cc">4.2 - What compiler to use</a></h3>
245
246<p> To build with GCC, or with the native compiler if people told me
247that is better for your system, just cd into the top-level Postfix
248directory of the source tree and type: </p>
249
250<blockquote>
251<pre>
252$ make
253</pre>
254</blockquote>
255
256<p> To build with a non-default compiler, you need to specify the name
257of the compiler. Here are a few examples: </p>
258
259<blockquote>
260<pre>
261$ make makefiles CC=/opt/SUNWspro/bin/cc        (Solaris)
262$ make
263
264$ make makefiles CC="/opt/ansic/bin/cc -Ae"     (HP-UX)
265$ make
266
267$ make makefiles CC="purify cc"
268$ make
269</pre>
270</blockquote>
271
272<p> and so on. In some cases, optimization will be turned off
273automatically. </p>
274
275<h3><a name="build_pie">4.3 - Building with Postfix position-independent
276executables (Postfix &ge; 3.0)</a> </h3>
277
278<p> On some systems Postfix can be built with Position-Independent
279Executables. PIE is used by the ASLR exploit mitigation technique
280(ASLR = Address-Space Layout Randomization): </p>
281
282<blockquote>
283<pre>
284$ make makefiles pie=yes ...other arguments...
285</pre>
286</blockquote>
287
288<p> (Specify "make makefiles pie=no" to explicitly disable Postfix
289position-independent executable support). </p>
290
291<p> Postfix PIE support appears to work on Fedora Core 20, Ubuntu
29214.04, FreeBSD 9 and 10, and NetBSD 6 (all with the default system
293compilers). </p>
294
295<p> Whether the "pie=yes" above has any effect depends on the
296compiler.  Some compilers always produce PIE executables, and some
297may even complain that the Postfix build option is redundant. </p>
298
299<h3><a name="build_dll">4.4 - Building with Postfix dynamically-linked
300libraries and database plugins (Postfix &ge; 3.0)</a> </h3>
301
302<p> Postfix dynamically-linked library and database plugin support
303exists for recent versions of Linux, FreeBSD and MacOS X.
304Dynamically-linked library builds may become the default at some
305point in the future. </p>
306
307<p> Overview of topics: </p>
308
309<ul>
310
311<li><a href="#shared_enable">4.4.1 Turning on Postfix dynamically-linked
312library support</a>
313
314<li><a href="#dynamicmaps_enable">4.4.2 Turning on Postfix database-plugin
315support</a>
316
317<li><a href="#shared_custom">4.4.3 Customizing Postfix dynamically-linked
318libraries and database plugins</a>
319
320<li><a href="#shared_tips">4.4.4 Tips for distribution maintainers</a>
321
322</ul>
323
324<p> Note: directories with Postfix dynamically-linked  libraries
325or database plugins should contain only postfix-related files.
326Postfix dynamically-linked libraries and database plugins should
327not be installed in a "public" system directory such as /usr/lib
328or /usr/local/lib.  Linking Postfix dynamically-linked library or
329database-plugin files into non-Postfix programs is not supported.
330Postfix dynamically-linked libraries and database plugins implement
331a Postfix-internal API that changes without maintaining compatibility.
332</p>
333
334<h4><a name="shared_enable"> 4.4.1 Turning on Postfix dynamically-linked
335library support </a></h4>
336
337<p> Postfix can be built with Postfix dynamically-linked libraries
338(files typically named <tt>libpostfix-*.so</tt>). Postfix
339dynamically-linked libraries add minor run-time overhead and result
340in significantly-smaller Postfix executable files. </p>
341
342<p> Specify "shared=yes" on the "make makefiles" command line to
343build Postfix with dynamically-linked library support. </p>
344
345<blockquote>
346<pre>
347$ make makefiles shared=yes ...other arguments...
348$ make
349</pre>
350</blockquote>
351
352<p> (Specify "make makefiles shared=no" to explicitly disable Postfix
353dynamically-linked library support). </p>
354
355<p> This installs dynamically-linked libraries in $shlib_directory,
356typically /usr/lib/postfix or /usr/local/lib/postfix, with file
357names libpostfix-<i>name</i>.so, where the <i>name</i> is a source-code
358directory name such as "util" or "global".  </p>
359
360<p> See section 4.4.3 "<a href="#shared_custom">Customizing Postfix
361dynamically-linked libraries and database plugins</a>" below for
362how to customize the Postfix dynamically-linked library location,
363including support to upgrade a running mail system safely.  </p>
364
365<h4><a name="dynamicmaps_enable"> 4.4.2 Turning on Postfix
366database-plugin support </a></h4>
367
368<p> Additionally, Postfix can be built to support dynamic loading
369of Postfix database clients (database plugins) with the Debian-style
370dynamicmaps feature. Postfix 3.0 supports dynamic loading of cdb:,
371ldap:, lmdb:, mysql:, pcre:, pgsql:, sdbm:, and sqlite: database
372clients.  Dynamic loading is useful when you distribute or install
373pre-compiled Postfix packages. </p>
374
375<p> Specify "dynamicmaps=yes" on the "make makefiles" command line
376to build Postfix with support to dynamically load Postfix database
377clients with the Debian-style dynamicmaps feature.
378</p>
379
380<blockquote>
381<pre>
382$ make makefiles dynamicmaps=yes ...other arguments...
383$ make
384</pre>
385</blockquote>
386
387<p> (Specify "make makefiles dynamicmaps=no" to explicitly disable
388Postfix database-plugin support). </p>
389
390<p> This implicitly enables dynamically-linked library support,
391installs the configuration file dynamicmaps.cf in $meta_directory
392(usually, /etc/postfix or /usr/local/etc/postfix), and installs
393database plugins in $shlib_directory (see above).  Database plugins
394are named postfix-<i>type</i>.so where the <i>type</i> is a database
395type such as "cdb" or "ldap". </p>
396
397<blockquote>
398
399<p> NOTE: The Postfix 3.0 build procedure expects that you specify
400database library dependencies with variables named AUXLIBS_CDB,
401AUXLIBS_LDAP, etc.  With Postfix 3.0 and later, the old AUXLIBS
402variable still supports building a statically-loaded database client,
403but only the new AUXLIBS_CDB etc. variables support building a
404dynamically-loaded or statically-loaded CDB etc. database client.
405See CDB_README, LDAP_README, etc. for details.  </p>
406
407<p> Failure to follow this advice will defeat the purpose of dynamic
408database client loading. Every Postfix executable file will have
409database library dependencies. And that was exactly what dynamic
410database client loading was meant to avoid. </p>
411
412</blockquote>
413
414<p> See the next section for how to customize the location and
415version of Postfix database plugins and the location of the file
416dynamicmaps.cf.  </p>
417
418<h4><a name="shared_custom"> 4.4.3 Customizing Postfix dynamically-linked
419libraries and database plugins </a></h4>
420
421<h5> Customizing build-time and run-time options for Postfix
422dynamically-linked libraries and database plugins </h5>
423
424<p> The build-time environment variables SHLIB_CFLAGS, SHLIB_RPATH,
425and SHLIB_SUFFIX provide control over how Postfix libraries and
426plugins are compiled, linked, and named.
427
428<blockquote>
429<pre>
430$ make makefiles SHLIB_CFLAGS=flags SHLIB_RPATH=rpath SHLIB_SUFFIX=suffix ...other arguments...
431$ make
432</pre>
433</blockquote>
434
435<p> See section 4.7 "<a href="#build_other">Overriding other
436compile-time features</a>" below for details. </p>
437
438<h5> Customizing the location of Postfix dynamically-linked libraries
439and database plugins </h5>
440
441<p> As a reminder, the directories with Postfix dynamically-linked
442libraries or database plugins should contain only Postfix-related
443files.  Linking these files into other programs is not supported.
444</p>
445
446<p> To override the default location of Postfix dynamically-linked
447libraries and database plugins specify, for example: </p>
448
449<blockquote>
450<pre>
451$ make makefiles shared=yes shlib_directory=/usr/local/lib/postfix ...
452</pre>
453</blockquote>
454
455<p> If you intend to upgrade Postfix without stopping the mail
456system, then you should append the Postfix release version to the
457shlib_directory pathname, to eliminate the possibility that programs
458will link with dynamically-linked libraries or database plugins
459from the wrong Postfix version.  For example: </p>
460
461<blockquote>
462<pre>
463$ make makefiles shared=yes \
464    shlib_directory=/usr/local/lib/postfix/MAIL_VERSION ...
465</pre>
466</blockquote>
467
468<p> The command "make makefiles name=value..." will replace the
469string MAIL_VERSION at the end of a configuration parameter value
470with the Postfix release version. Do not try to specify something
471like $mail_version on this command line. This produces inconsistent
472results with different versions of the make(1) command.  </p>
473
474<p> You can change the shlib_directory setting after Postfix is
475built, with "make install" or "make upgrade". However, you may have
476to run ldconfig if you change shlib_directory after Postfix is built
477(the symptom is that Postfix programs fail because the run-time
478linker cannot find the files libpostfix-*.so).  No ldconfig command
479is needed if you keep the files libpostfix-*.so in the compiled-in
480default $shlib_directory location. </p>
481
482<blockquote>
483<pre>
484# make upgrade shlib_directory=/usr/local/lib/postfix ...
485# make install shlib_directory=/usr/local/lib/postfix ...
486</pre>
487</blockquote>
488
489<p> To append the Postfix release version to the pathname if you
490intend to upgrade Postfix without stopping the mail system:  </p>
491
492<blockquote>
493<pre>
494# make upgrade shlib_directory=/usr/local/lib/postfix/MAIL_VERSION ...
495# make install shlib_directory=/usr/local/lib/postfix/MAIL_VERSION ...
496</pre>
497</blockquote>
498
499<p> See also the comments above for appending MAIL_VERSION with
500the "make makefiles" command. </p>
501
502<h5> Customizing the location of dynamicmaps.cf and other files
503</h5>
504
505<p> The meta_directory parameter has the same default setting as
506the config_directory parameter, typically /etc/postfix or
507/usr/local/etc/postfix. </p>
508
509<p> You can override the default meta_directory location at compile
510time or after Postfix is built. To override the default location
511at compile time specify, for example: </p>
512
513<blockquote>
514<pre>
515% make makefiles meta_directory=/usr/libexec/postfix ...
516</pre>
517</blockquote>
518
519<p> Here is a tip if you want to make a pathname dependent on the
520Postfix release version: the command "make makefiles name=value..."
521will replace the string MAIL_VERSION at the end of a configuration
522parameter value with the Postfix release version. Do not try to
523specify something like $mail_version on this command line. This
524produces inconsistent results with different versions of the make(1)
525command.  </p>
526
527<p> You can override the meta_directory setting after Postfix is
528built, with "make install" or "make upgrade". </p>
529
530<blockquote>
531<pre>
532# make upgrade meta_directory=/usr/libexec/postfix ...
533# make install meta_directory=/usr/libexec/postfix ...
534</pre>
535</blockquote>
536
537<p> As with the command "make makefiles, the command "make
538install/upgrade name=value..." will replace the string MAIL_VERSION
539at the end of a configuration parameter value with the Postfix
540release version.  Do not try to specify something like $mail_version
541on this command line. This produces inconsistent results with
542different versions of the make(1) command.  </p>
543
544<h4><a name="shared_tips"> 4.4.4 Tips for distribution maintainers
545</a></h4>
546
547<ul>
548
549<li> <p> The shlib_directory parameter setting also provides the
550default directory for database plugin files with a relative pathname
551in the file dynamicmaps.cf. </p>
552
553<li> <p> The meta_directory parameter specifies the location of the
554files dynamicmaps.cf, postfix-files, and some multi-instance template
555files. The meta_directory parameter has the same default value as
556the config_directory parameter (typically, /etc/postfix or
557/usr/local/etc/postfix). For backwards compatibility with Postfix
5582.6 .. 2.11, specify "meta_directory = $daemon_directory" in main.cf
559before installing or upgrading Postfix, or specify "meta_directory
560= /path/name" on the "make makefiles", "make install" or "make
561upgrade" command line.  </p>
562
563<li> <p> The configuration file dynamicmaps.cf will automatically
564include files under the directory dynamicmaps.cf.d, just like the
565configuration file postfix-files will automatically include files
566under the directory postfix-files.d.  Thanks to this, you can install
567or deinstall a database plugin package without having to edit
568postfix-files or dynamicmaps.cf. Instead, you give that plugin its
569own configuration files under dynamicmaps.cf.d and postfix-files.d, and
570you add or remove those configuration files along with the database
571plugin dynamically-linked object.  </p>
572
573<li> <p> Each configuration file under the directory dynamicmaps.cf.d
574must have the same format as the configuration file dynamicmaps.cf.
575There is no requirement that these configuration file *names* have a
576specific format.  </p>
577
578<li> <p> Each configuration file under the directory postfix-files.d
579must have the same format as the configuration file postfix-files.
580There is no requirement that these configuration file *names* have a
581specific format.  </p>
582
583</ul>
584
585<h3><a name="build_opt">4.5 - Building with optional features</a></h3>
586
587By default, Postfix builds as a mail system with relatively few
588bells and whistles. Support for third-party databases etc.
589must be configured when Postfix is compiled.  The following documents
590describe how to build Postfix with support for optional features:
591
592<blockquote>
593<table border="1">
594
595<tr> <th>Optional feature </th> <th>Document </th> <th>Availability</th>
596</tr>
597
598<tr> <td> Berkeley DB database</td> <td>DB_README</td> <td> Postfix
5991.0 </td> </tr>
600
601<tr> <td> LMDB database</td> <td>LMDB_README</td> <td> Postfix
6022.11 </td> </tr>
603
604<tr> <td> LDAP database</td> <td>LDAP_README</td> <td> Postfix
6051.0 </td> </tr>
606
607<tr> <td> MySQL database</td> <td>MYSQL_README</td> <td> Postfix
6081.0 </td> </tr>
609
610<tr> <td> Perl compatible regular expression</td> <td>PCRE_README</td>
611<td> Postfix 1.0 </td> </tr>
612
613<tr> <td> PostgreSQL database</td> <td>PGSQL_README</td> <td>
614Postfix 2.0 </td> </tr>
615
616<tr> <td> SASL authentication </td> <td>SASL_README</td> <td>
617Postfix 1.0 </td> </tr>
618
619<tr> <td> SQLite database</td> <td>SQLITE_README</td> <td> Postfix
6202.8 </td> </tr>
621
622<tr> <td> STARTTLS session encryption </td> <td>TLS_README</td> <td>
623Postfix 2.2 </td> </tr>
624
625</table>
626
627</blockquote>
628
629<p> Note: IP version 6 support is compiled into Postfix on operating
630systems that have IPv6 support. See the IPV6_README file for details.
631</p>
632
633<h3><a name="build_over">4.6 - Overriding built-in parameter default
634settings</a></h3>
635
636<h4>4.6.1 - Postfix 3.0 and later </h4>
637
638<p> All Postfix configuration parameters can be changed by editing
639a Postfix configuration file, except for one: the parameter that
640specifies the location of Postfix configuration files. In order to
641build Postfix with a configuration directory other than /etc/postfix,
642use: </p>
643
644<blockquote>
645<pre>
646$ make makefiles config_directory=/some/where ...other arguments...
647$ make
648</pre>
649</blockquote>
650
651<p> The command "make makefiles name=value ..." will replace the
652string MAIL_VERSION at the end of a configuration parameter value
653with the Postfix release version. Do not try to specify something
654like $mail_version on this command line. This produces inconsistent
655results with different versions of the make(1) command.  </p>
656
657<p> Parameters whose defaults can be specified in this way are
658listed below. See the postconf(5) manpage for a description
659(command: "<tt>nroff -man man/man5/postconf.5 | less</tt>").  </p>
660
661<blockquote>
662
663<table border="1">
664
665<tr> <th>parameter name</th>  <th>typical default</th> </tr>
666
667<tr> <td>command_directory</td> <td>/usr/sbin</td> </tr>
668
669<tr> <td>config_directory</td> <td>/etc/postfix</td> </tr>
670
671<tr> <td>default_database_type</td> <td>hash</td> </tr>
672
673<tr> <td>daemon_directory</td> <td>/usr/libexec/postfix</td> </tr>
674
675<tr> <td>data_directory</td> <td>/var/lib/postfix</td> </tr>
676
677<tr> <td>html_directory</td> <td>no</td> </tr>
678
679<tr> <td>mail_spool_directory</td> <td>/var/mail</td> </tr>
680
681<tr> <td>mailq_path</td> <td>/usr/bin/mailq</td> </tr>
682
683<tr> <td>manpage_directory</td> <td>/usr/local/man</td> </tr>
684
685<tr> <td>meta_directory</td> <td>/etc/postfix</td> </tr>
686
687<tr> <td>newaliases_path</td> <td>/usr/bin/newaliases</td> </tr>
688
689<tr> <td>openssl_path</td> <td>openssl</td> </tr>
690
691<tr> <td>queue_directory</td> <td>/var/spool/postfix</td> </tr>
692
693<tr> <td>readme_directory</td> <td>no</td> </tr>
694
695<tr> <td>sendmail_path</td> <td>/usr/sbin/sendmail</td> </tr>
696
697<tr> <td>shlib_directory</td> <td>/usr/lib/postfix</td> </tr>
698
699</table>
700
701</blockquote>
702
703<h4>4.6.2 - All Postfix versions </h4>
704
705<p> All Postfix configuration parameters can be changed by editing
706a Postfix configuration file, except for one: the parameter that
707specifies the location of Postfix configuration files. In order to
708build Postfix with a configuration directory other than /etc/postfix,
709use: </p>
710
711<blockquote>
712<pre>
713$ make makefiles CCARGS='-DDEF_CONFIG_DIR=\"/some/where\"'
714$ make
715</pre>
716</blockquote>
717
718<p> IMPORTANT: Be sure to get the quotes right. These details matter
719a lot. </p>
720
721<p> Parameters whose defaults can be specified in this way are
722listed below. See the postconf(5) manpage for a description
723(command: "<tt>nroff -man man/man5/postconf.5 | less</tt>").  </p>
724
725<blockquote>
726
727<table border="1">
728
729<tr><th> Macro name </th> <th>default value for</th>  <th>typical
730default</th> </tr>
731
732<tr> <td>DEF_COMMAND_DIR</td> <td>command_directory</td>
733<td>/usr/sbin</td> </tr>
734
735<tr> <td>DEF_CONFIG_DIR</td> <td>config_directory</td>
736<td>/etc/postfix</td> </tr>
737
738<tr> <td>DEF_DB_TYPE</td> <td>default_database_type</td>
739<td>hash</td> </tr>
740
741<tr> <td>DEF_DAEMON_DIR</td> <td>daemon_directory</td>
742<td>/usr/libexec/postfix</td> </tr>
743
744<tr> <td>DEF_DATA_DIR</td> <td>data_directory</td>
745<td>/var/db/postfix</td> </tr>
746
747<tr> <td>DEF_MAILQ_PATH</td> <td>mailq_path</td> <td>/usr/bin/mailq</td>
748</tr>
749
750<tr> <td>DEF_HTML_DIR</td> <td>html_directory</td>
751<td>no</td> </tr>
752
753<tr> <td>DEF_MANPAGE_DIR</td> <td>manpage_directory</td>
754<td>/usr/local/man</td> </tr>
755
756<tr> <td>DEF_NEWALIAS_PATH</td> <td>newaliases_path</td>
757<td>/usr/bin/newaliases</td> </tr>
758
759<tr> <td>DEF_QUEUE_DIR</td> <td>queue_directory</td>
760<td>/var/spool/postfix</td> </tr>
761
762<tr> <td>DEF_README_DIR</td> <td>readme_directory</td>
763<td>no</td> </tr>
764
765<tr> <td>DEF_SENDMAIL_PATH</td> <td>sendmail_path</td>
766<td>/usr/sbin/sendmail</td> </tr>
767
768</table>
769
770</blockquote>
771
772<p> Note: the data_directory parameter (for caches and pseudo-random
773numbers) was introduced with Postfix version 2.5. </p>
774
775<h3><a name="build_other">4.7 - Overriding other compile-time
776features</a></h3>
777
778<p> The general method to override Postfix compile-time features
779is as follows: </p>
780
781<blockquote>
782<pre>
783$ make makefiles name=value name=value...
784$ make
785</pre>
786</blockquote>
787
788<p> The following is an extensive list of names and values. </p>
789
790<table border="1">
791
792<tr> <th colspan="2"> Name/Value </th> <th> Description </th> </tr>
793
794<tr> <td colspan="2"> AUXLIBS="object_library..."</td> <td> Specifies
795one or more non-default object libraries. Postfix 3.0 and later
796specify some of their database library dependencies with AUXLIBS_CDB,
797AUXLIBS_LDAP, AUXLIBS_LMDB, AUXLIBS_MYSQL, AUXLIBS_PCRE, AUXLIBS_PGSQL,
798AUXLIBS_SDBM, and AUXLIBS_SQLITE, respectively. </td> </tr>
799
800<tr> <td colspan="2"> CC=compiler_command</td> <td> Specifies a
801non-default compiler. On many systems, the default is <tt>gcc</tt>.
802</td> </tr>
803
804<tr> <td colspan="2"> CCARGS="compiler_arguments..."</td> <td>
805Specifies non-default compiler arguments, for example, a non-default
806<tt>include</tt> directory.  The following directives turn
807off Postfix features at compile time:</td> </tr>
808
809<tr> <td> </td> <td> -DNO_DB </td> <td> Do not build with Berkeley
810DB support. By default, Berkeley DB support is compiled in on
811platforms that are known to support this feature. If you override
812this, then you probably should also override DEF_DB_TYPE as described
813in section 4.6.  </td> </tr>
814
815<tr> <td> </td> <td> -DNO_DNSSEC </td> <td> Do not build with DNSSEC
816support, even if the resolver library appears to support it. </td>
817</tr>
818
819<tr> <td> </td> <td> -DNO_DEVPOLL </td> <td> Do not build with
820Solaris <tt>/dev/poll</tt> support. By default, <tt>/dev/poll</tt>
821support is compiled in on Solaris versions that are known to support
822this feature.  </td> </tr>
823
824<tr> <td> </td> <td> -DNO_EPOLL </td> <td> Do not build with Linux
825EPOLL support.  By default, EPOLL support is compiled in on platforms
826that are known to support this feature. </td> </tr>
827
828<tr> <td> </td> <td> -DNO_EAI </td> <td> Do not build with EAI
829(SMTPUTF8) support. By default, EAI support is compiled in when
830the "icuuc" library and header files are found.  </td> </tr>
831
832<tr> <td> </td> <td> -DNO_INLINE </td> <td> Do not require support
833for C99 "inline" functions. Instead, implement argument typechecks
834for non-printf/scanf-like functions with ternary operators and
835unreachable code. </td> </tr>
836
837<tr> <td> </td> <td> -DNO_IPV6 </td> <td> Do not build with IPv6
838support. By default, IPv6 support is compiled in on platforms that
839are known to have IPv6 support. Note: this directive is for debugging
840And testing only. It is not guaranteed to work on all platforms.
841If you don't want IPv6 support, set "inet_protocols = ipv4" in
842main.cf.
843</td> </tr>
844
845<tr> <td> </td> <td> -DNO_KQUEUE </td> <td> Do not build with FreeBSD
846/ NetBSD / OpenBSD / MacOSX KQUEUE support. By default, KQUEUE
847support is compiled in on platforms that are known to support it.
848</td> </tr>
849
850<tr> <td> </td> <td> -DNO_NIS </td> <td> Do not build with NIS or
851NISPLUS support. NIS is not available on some recent Linux
852distributions. </td> </tr>
853
854<tr> <td> </td> <td> -DNO_NISPLUS </td> <td> Do not build with
855NISPLUS support. NISPLUS is not available on some recent Solaris
856distributions. </td> </tr>
857
858<tr> <td> </td> <td> -DNO_PCRE </td> <td> Do not build with PCRE
859support. By default, PCRE support is compiled in when the
860<tt>pcre-config</tt> utility is installed. </td> </tr>
861
862<tr> <td> </td> <td> -DNO_POSIX_GETPW_R </td> <td> Disable support
863for POSIX <tt>getpwnam_r/getpwuid_r</tt>. By default Postfix uses
864these where they are known to be available. </td> </tr>
865
866<tr> <td> </td> <td> -DNO_SIGSETJMP </td> <td> Use
867<tt>setjmp()/longjmp()</tt> instead of <tt>sigsetjmp()/siglongjmp()</tt>.
868By default, Postfix uses <tt>sigsetjmp()/siglongjmp()</tt> when
869they are known to be available. </td> </tr>
870
871<tr> <td> </td> <td> -DNO_SNPRINTF </td> <td> Use <tt>sprintf()</tt>
872instead of <tt>snprintf()</tt>.  By default, Postfix uses
873<tt>snprintf()</tt> except on ancient systems. </td> </tr>
874
875<tr> <td colspan="2"> DEBUG=debug_level </td> <td> Specifies a
876non-default compiler debugging level. The default is "<tt>-g</tt>".
877Specify DEBUG= to turn off debugging. </td> </tr>
878
879<tr> <td colspan="2"> OPT=optimization_level </td> <td> Specifies
880a non-default optimization level. The default is "<tt>-O</tt>".
881Specify OPT= to turn off optimization. </td> </tr>
882
883<tr> <td colspan="2"> POSTFIX_INSTALL_OPTS=-option... </td> <td>
884Specifies options for the <tt>postfix-install</tt> command, separated
885by whitespace. Currently, the only supported option is
886"<tt>-keep-build-mtime</tt>". </td> </tr>
887
888<tr> <td colspan="2"> SHLIB_CFLAGS=flags </td> <td> Specifies
889non-default compiler options for building Postfix dynamically-linked
890libraries and database plugins. The typical default is "-fPIC".
891</td> </tr>
892
893<tr> <td colspan="2"> SHLIB_RPATH=rpath </td> <td> Specifies
894a non-default runpath for Postfix dynamically-linked libraries. The
895typical default is "'-Wl,-rpath,${SHLIB_DIR}'". </td> </tr>
896
897<tr> <td colspan="2"> SHLIB_SUFFIX=suffix </td> <td> Specifies
898a non-default suffix for Postfix dynamically-linked libraries and
899database plugins.  The typical default is "<tt>.so</tt>". </td>
900</tr>
901
902<tr> <td colspan="2"> WARN="warning_flags..." </td> <td> Specifies
903non-default compiler warning options for use when "<tt>make</tt>"
904is invoked in a source subdirectory only. </td>
905</tr>
906
907</table>
908
909<h3><a name="build_proc">4.8 - Support for thousands of processes</a></h3>
910
911<p> The number of connections that Postfix can manage simultaneously
912is limited by the number of processes that it can run.  This number
913in turn is limited by the number of files and sockets that a single
914process can open. For example, the Postfix queue manager has a
915separate connection to each delivery process, and the anvil(8)
916server has one connection per smtpd(8) process. </p>
917
918<p> Postfix version 2.4 and later have no built-in limits on the
919number of open files or sockets, when compiled on systems that
920support one of the following: </p>
921
922<ul>
923
924<li> BSD kqueue(2) (FreeBSD 4.1, NetBSD 2.0, OpenBSD 2.9),
925
926<li> Solaris 8 /dev/poll,
927
928<li> Linux 2.6 epoll(4).
929
930</ul>
931
932
933<p> With other Postfix versions or operating systems, the number
934of file descriptors per process is limited by the value of the
935FD_SETSIZE macro. If you expect to run more than 1000 mail delivery
936processes, you may need to override the definition of the FD_SETSIZE
937macro to make select() work correctly: </p>
938
939<blockquote>
940<pre>
941$ make makefiles CCARGS=-DFD_SETSIZE=2048
942</pre>
943</blockquote>
944
945<p> Warning: the above has no effect on some Linux versions.
946Apparently, on these systems the FD_SETSIZE value can be changed
947only by using undocumented interfaces. Currently, that means
948including &lt;bits/types.h&gt; directly (which is not allowed) and
949overriding the __FD_SETSIZE macro. Beware, undocumented interfaces
950can change at any time and without warning. </p>
951
952<p> But wait, there is more: none of this will work unless the
953operating system is configured to handle thousands of connections.
954See the TUNING_README guide for examples of how to increase the
955number of open sockets or files. </p>
956
957<h3><a name="build_final">4.9 - Compiling Postfix, at last</a></h3>
958
959<p> If the command </p>
960
961<blockquote>
962<pre>
963$ make
964</pre>
965</blockquote>
966
967<p> is successful, then you can proceed to <a href="#install">install</a>
968Postfix (section 6).
969
970<p> If the command produces compiler error messages, it may be time
971to search the web or to ask the postfix-users@postfix.org mailing
972list, but be sure to search the mailing list archives first. Some
973mailing list archives are linked from http://www.postfix.org/. </p>
974
975<h2> <a name="5">5 - Porting Postfix to an unsupported system</a> </h2>
976
977<p> Each system type that Postfix knows is identified by a unique
978name. Examples:  SUNOS5, FREEBSD4, and so on.  When porting Postfix
979to a new system, the first step is to choose a SYSTEMTYPE name for
980the new system. You must use a name that includes at least the
981major version of the operating system (such as SUNOS4 or LINUX2),
982so that different releases of the same system can be supported
983without confusion.  </p>
984
985<p> Add a case statement to the "makedefs" shell script in the
986source code top-level directory that recognizes the new system
987reliably, and that emits the right system-specific information.
988Be sure to make the code robust against user PATH settings; if the
989system offers multiple UNIX flavors (e.g. BSD and SYSV) be sure to
990build for the native flavor, instead of the emulated one. </p>
991
992<p> Add an "#ifdef SYSTEMTYPE" section to the central util/sys_defs.h
993include file.  You may have to invent new feature macro names.
994Please choose sensible feature macro names such as HAS_DBM or
995FIONREAD_IN_SYS_FILIO_H.
996
997<p> I strongly recommend against using "#ifdef SYSTEMTYPE" in
998individual source files.  While this may look like the quickest
999solution, it will create a mess when newer versions of the same
1000SYSTEMTYPE need to be supported.  You're likely to end up placing
1001"#ifdef" sections all over the source code again.  </p>
1002
1003<h2><a name="install">6 - Installing the software after successful
1004compilation</a></h2>
1005
1006<p> This text describes how to install Postfix from source code.
1007See the PACKAGE_README file if you are building a package for
1008distribution to other systems. </p>
1009
1010<h3>6.1 - Save existing Sendmail binaries</h3>
1011
1012<p> <a name="save">IMPORTANT</a>: if you are REPLACING an existing
1013Sendmail installation with Postfix, you may need to keep the old
1014sendmail program running for some time in order to flush the mail
1015queue. </p>
1016
1017<ul>
1018
1019<li> <p> Some systems implement a mail switch mechanism where
1020different MTAs (Postfix, Sendmail, etc.) can be installed at the
1021same time, while only one of them is actually being used. Examples
1022of such switching mechanisms are the FreeBSD mailwrapper(8) or the
1023Linux mail switch.  In this case you should try to "flip" the switch
1024to "Postfix" before installing Postfix. </p>
1025
1026<li> <p> If your system has no mail switch mechanism, execute the
1027following commands (your sendmail, newaliases and mailq programs
1028may be in a different place): </p>
1029
1030<pre>
1031# mv /usr/sbin/sendmail /usr/sbin/sendmail.OFF
1032# mv /usr/bin/newaliases /usr/bin/newaliases.OFF
1033# mv /usr/bin/mailq /usr/bin/mailq.OFF
1034# chmod 755 /usr/sbin/sendmail.OFF /usr/bin/newaliases.OFF \
1035    /usr/bin/mailq.OFF
1036</pre>
1037
1038</ul>
1039
1040<h3>6.2 - Create account and groups</h3>
1041
1042<p> Before you install Postfix for the first time you need to
1043create an account and a group:</p>
1044
1045<ul>
1046
1047<li> <p> Create a user account "postfix" with a user id and group
1048id that are not used by any other user account.  Preferably, this
1049is an account that no-one can log into.  The account does not need
1050an executable login shell, and needs no existing home directory.
1051My password and group file entries look like this: </p>
1052
1053<blockquote>
1054<pre>
1055/etc/passwd:
1056    postfix:*:12345:12345:postfix:/no/where:/no/shell
1057
1058/etc/group:
1059    postfix:*:12345:
1060</pre>
1061</blockquote>
1062
1063<p> Note: there should be no whitespace before "postfix:". </p>
1064
1065<li> <p> Create a group "postdrop" with a group id that is not used
1066by any other user account. Not even by the postfix user account.
1067My group file entry looks like:
1068
1069<blockquote>
1070<pre>
1071/etc/group:
1072    postdrop:*:54321:
1073</pre>
1074</blockquote>
1075
1076<p> Note: there should be no whitespace before "postdrop:". </p>
1077
1078</ul>
1079
1080<h3>6.3 - Install Postfix</h3>
1081
1082<p> To install or upgrade Postfix from compiled source code, run
1083one of the following commands as the super-user:</p>
1084
1085<blockquote>
1086<pre>
1087# make install       (interactive version, first time install)
1088
1089# make upgrade       (non-interactive version, for upgrades)
1090</pre>
1091</blockquote>
1092
1093<ul>
1094
1095<li> <p> The interactive version ("make install") asks for pathnames
1096for Postfix data and program files, and stores your preferences in
1097the main.cf file. <b> If you don't want Postfix to overwrite
1098non-Postfix "sendmail", "mailq" and "newaliases" files, specify
1099pathnames that end in ".postfix"</b>. </p>
1100
1101<li> <p> The non-interactive version ("make upgrade") needs the
1102/etc/postfix/main.cf file from a previous installation. If the file
1103does not exist, use interactive installation ("make install")
1104instead. </p>
1105
1106<li> <p> If you specify name=value arguments on the "make install"
1107or "make upgrade" command line, then these will take precedence
1108over compiled-in default settings or main.cf settings. </p>
1109
1110<p> The command "make install/upgrade name=value ..." will replace
1111the string MAIL_VERSION at the end of a configuration parameter
1112value with the Postfix release version. Do not try to specify
1113something like $mail_version on this command line. This produces
1114inconsistent results with different versions of the make(1) command.
1115</p>
1116
1117</ul>
1118
1119<h3>6.4 - Configure Postfix</h3>
1120
1121<p> Proceed to the section on how you wish to run Postfix on
1122your particular machine: </p>
1123
1124<ul>
1125
1126<li> <p> <a href="#send_only">Send</a> mail only, without changing
1127an existing Sendmail installation (section 7). </p>
1128
1129<li> <p> <a href="#send_receive">Send and receive</a> mail via a
1130virtual host interface, still without any change to an existing
1131Sendmail installation (section 8). </p>
1132
1133<li> <p> Run Postfix <a href="#replace">instead of</a> Sendmail
1134(section 9). </p>
1135
1136</ul>
1137
1138<h2><a name="send_only">7 - Configuring Postfix to send mail
1139only</a></h2>
1140
1141<p> If you are going to use Postfix to send mail only, there is no
1142need to change your existing sendmail setup. Instead, set up your
1143mail user agent so that it calls the Postfix sendmail program
1144directly. </p>
1145
1146<p> Follow the instructions in the "<a href="#mandatory">Mandatory
1147configuration file edits</a>" in section 10, and review the "<a
1148href="#hamlet">To chroot or not to chroot</a>" text in section
114911. </p>
1150
1151<p> You MUST comment out the "smtp inet" entry in /etc/postfix/master.cf,
1152in order to avoid conflicts with the real sendmail. Put a "#"
1153character in front of the line that defines the smtpd service: </p>
1154
1155<blockquote>
1156<pre>
1157/etc/postfix/master.cf:
1158    #smtp      inet  n       -       n       -       -       smtpd
1159</pre>
1160</blockquote>
1161
1162<p> Start the Postfix system: </p>
1163
1164<blockquote>
1165<pre>
1166# postfix start
1167</pre>
1168</blockquote>
1169
1170<p> or, if you feel nostalgic, use the Postfix sendmail command: </p>
1171
1172<blockquote>
1173<pre>
1174# sendmail -bd -qwhatever
1175</pre>
1176</blockquote>
1177
1178<p> and watch your maillog file for any error messages. The pathname
1179is /var/log/maillog, /var/log/mail, /var/log/syslog, or something
1180else. Typically, the pathname is defined in the /etc/syslog.conf
1181file. </p>
1182
1183<blockquote>
1184<pre>
1185$ egrep '(reject|warning|error|fatal|panic):' /some/log/file
1186</pre>
1187</blockquote>
1188
1189<p> Note: the most important error message is logged first. Later
1190messages are not as useful. </p>
1191
1192<p> In order to inspect the mail queue, use one of the following
1193commands: </p>
1194
1195<blockquote>
1196<pre>
1197$ mailq
1198
1199$ sendmail -bp
1200
1201$ postqueue -p
1202</pre>
1203</blockquote>
1204
1205<p> See also the "<a href="#care">Care and feeding</a>" section 12
1206below.  </p>
1207
1208<h2><a name="send_receive">8 - Configuring Postfix to send and
1209receive mail via virtual interface</a></h2>
1210
1211<p> Alternatively, you can use the Postfix system to send AND
1212receive mail while leaving your Sendmail setup intact, by running
1213Postfix on a virtual interface address.  Simply configure your mail
1214user agent to directly invoke the Postfix sendmail program.  </p>
1215
1216<p> To create a virtual network interface address, study your
1217system ifconfig manual page. The command syntax could be any
1218of: </p>
1219
1220<blockquote>
1221<pre>
1222# <b>ifconfig le0:1 &lt;address&gt; netmask &lt;mask&gt; up</b>
1223# <b>ifconfig en0 alias &lt;address&gt; netmask 255.255.255.255</b>
1224</pre>
1225</blockquote>
1226
1227<p> In the /etc/postfix/main.cf file, I would specify </p>
1228
1229<blockquote>
1230<pre>
1231/etc/postfix/main.cf:
1232    myhostname = virtual.host.tld
1233    inet_interfaces = $myhostname
1234    mydestination = $myhostname
1235</pre>
1236</blockquote>
1237
1238<p> Follow the instructions in the "<a href="#mandatory">Mandatory
1239configuration file edits</a>" in section 10, and review the "<a
1240name="#hamlet">To chroot or not to chroot</a>" text in section
124111. </p>
1242
1243<p> Start the Postfix system: </p>
1244
1245<blockquote>
1246<pre>
1247# postfix start
1248</pre>
1249</blockquote>
1250
1251<p> or, if you feel nostalgic, use the Postfix sendmail command: </p>
1252
1253<blockquote>
1254<pre>
1255# sendmail -bd -qwhatever
1256</pre>
1257</blockquote>
1258
1259<p> and watch your maillog file for any error messages. The pathname
1260is /var/log/maillog, /var/log/mail, /var/log/syslog, or something
1261else. Typically, the pathname is defined in the /etc/syslog.conf
1262file. </p>
1263
1264<blockquote>
1265<pre>
1266$ egrep '(reject|warning|error|fatal|panic):' /some/log/file
1267</pre>
1268</blockquote>
1269
1270<p> Note: the most important error message is logged first. Later
1271messages are not as useful. </p>
1272
1273<p> In order to inspect the mail queue, use one of the following
1274commands: </p>
1275
1276<blockquote>
1277<pre>
1278$ mailq
1279
1280$ sendmail -bp
1281
1282$ postqueue -p
1283</pre>
1284</blockquote>
1285
1286<p> See also the "<a href="#care">Care and feeding</a>" section 12
1287below.  </p>
1288
1289<h2><a name="replace">9 - Running Postfix instead of Sendmail</a></h2>
1290
1291<p> Prior to installing Postfix you should <a href="#save">save</a>
1292any existing sendmail program files as described in section 6.  Be
1293sure to keep the old sendmail running for at least a couple days
1294to flush any unsent mail. To do so, stop the sendmail daemon and
1295restart it as: </p>
1296
1297<blockquote>
1298<pre>
1299# /usr/sbin/sendmail.OFF -q
1300</pre>
1301</blockquote>
1302
1303<p> Note: this is old sendmail syntax. Newer versions use separate
1304processes for mail submission and for running the queue. </p>
1305
1306<p> After you have visited the "<a href="#mandatory">Mandatory
1307configuration file edits</a>" section below, you can start the
1308Postfix system with: </p>
1309
1310<blockquote>
1311<pre>
1312# postfix start
1313</pre>
1314</blockquote>
1315
1316<p> or, if you feel nostalgic, use the Postfix sendmail command: </p>
1317
1318<blockquote>
1319<pre>
1320# sendmail -bd -qwhatever
1321</pre>
1322</blockquote>
1323
1324<p> and watch your maillog file for any error messages. The pathname
1325is /var/log/maillog, /var/log/mail, /var/log/syslog, or something
1326else. Typically, the pathname is defined in the /etc/syslog.conf
1327file. </p>
1328
1329<blockquote>
1330<pre>
1331$ egrep '(reject|warning|error|fatal|panic):' /some/log/file
1332</pre>
1333</blockquote>
1334
1335<p> Note: the most important error message is logged first. Later
1336messages are not as useful. </p>
1337
1338<p> In order to inspect the mail queue, use one of the following
1339commands: </p>
1340
1341<blockquote>
1342<pre>
1343$ mailq
1344
1345$ sendmail -bp
1346
1347$ postqueue -p
1348</pre>
1349</blockquote>
1350
1351<p> See also the "<a href="#care">Care and feeding</a>" section 12
1352below.  </p>
1353
1354<h2><a name="mandatory">10 - Mandatory configuration file edits</a></h2>
1355
1356<p> Note: the material covered in this section is covered in more
1357detail in the BASIC_CONFIGURATION_README document. The information
1358presented below is targeted at experienced system administrators.
1359</p>
1360
1361<h3>10.1 - Postfix configuration files</h3>
1362
1363<p> By default, Postfix configuration files are in /etc/postfix.
1364The two most important files are main.cf and master.cf; these files
1365must be owned by root.  Giving someone else write permission to
1366main.cf or master.cf (or to their parent directories) means giving
1367root privileges to that person. </p>
1368
1369<p> In /etc/postfix/main.cf, you will have to set up a minimal number
1370of configuration parameters.  Postfix configuration parameters
1371resemble shell variables, with two important differences: the first
1372one is that Postfix does not know about quotes like the UNIX shell
1373does.</p>
1374
1375<p> You specify a configuration parameter as: </p>
1376
1377<blockquote>
1378<pre>
1379/etc/postfix/main.cf:
1380    parameter = value
1381</pre>
1382</blockquote>
1383
1384<p> and you use it by putting a "$" character in front of its name: </p>
1385
1386<blockquote>
1387<pre>
1388/etc/postfix/main.cf:
1389    other_parameter = $parameter
1390</pre>
1391</blockquote>
1392
1393<p> You can use $parameter before it is given a value (that is the
1394second main difference with UNIX shell variables). The Postfix
1395configuration language uses lazy evaluation, and does not look at
1396a parameter value until it is needed at runtime.  </p>
1397
1398<p> Whenever you make a change to the main.cf or master.cf file,
1399execute the following command in order to refresh a running mail
1400system: </p>
1401
1402<blockquote>
1403<pre>
1404# postfix reload
1405</pre>
1406</blockquote>
1407
1408<h3>10.2 - Default domain for unqualified addresses</h3>
1409
1410<p> First of all, you must specify what domain will be appended to an
1411unqualified address (i.e. an address without @domain.tld). The
1412"myorigin" parameter defaults to the local hostname, but that is
1413probably OK only for very small sites.  </p>
1414
1415<p> Some examples (use only one): </p>
1416
1417<blockquote>
1418<pre>
1419/etc/postfix/main.cf:
1420    myorigin = $myhostname    (send mail as "user@$myhostname")
1421    myorigin = $mydomain      (send mail as "user@$mydomain")
1422</pre>
1423</blockquote>
1424
1425<h3>10.3 - What domains to receive locally</h3>
1426
1427<p> Next you need to specify what mail addresses Postfix should deliver
1428locally. </p>
1429
1430<p> Some examples (use only one): </p>
1431
1432<blockquote>
1433<pre>
1434/etc/postfix/main.cf:
1435    mydestination = $myhostname, localhost.$mydomain, localhost
1436    mydestination = $myhostname, localhost.$mydomain, localhost, $mydomain
1437    mydestination = $myhostname
1438</pre>
1439</blockquote>
1440
1441<p>The first example is appropriate for a workstation, the second
1442is appropriate for the mailserver for an entire domain. The third
1443example should be used when running on a virtual host interface.</p>
1444
1445<h3>10.4 - Proxy/NAT interface addresses </h3>
1446
1447<p> The proxy_interfaces parameter specifies all network addresses
1448that Postfix receives mail on by way of a proxy or network address
1449translation unit. You may specify symbolic hostnames instead of
1450network addresses. </p>
1451
1452<p> IMPORTANT: You must specify your proxy/NAT external addresses
1453when your system is a backup MX host for other domains, otherwise
1454mail delivery loops will happen when the primary MX host is down.
1455</p>
1456
1457<p> Example: host behind NAT box running a backup MX host. </p>
1458
1459<blockquote>
1460<pre>
1461/etc/postfix/main.cf:
1462    proxy_interfaces = 1.2.3.4 (the proxy/NAT external network address)
1463</pre>
1464</blockquote>
1465
1466<h3>10.5 - What local clients to relay mail from </h3>
1467
1468<p> If your machine is on an open network then you must specify
1469what client IP addresses are authorized to relay their mail through
1470your machine into the Internet.  The default setting includes all
1471subnetworks that the machine is attached to. This may give relay
1472permission to too many clients.  My own settings are: </p>
1473
1474<blockquote>
1475<pre>
1476/etc/postfix/main.cf:
1477    mynetworks = 168.100.189.0/28, 127.0.0.0/8
1478</pre>
1479</blockquote>
1480
1481<h3>10.6 - What relay destinations to accept from strangers </h3>
1482
1483<p> If your machine is on an open network then you must also specify
1484whether Postfix will forward mail from strangers.  The default
1485setting will forward mail to all domains (and subdomains of) what
1486is listed in $mydestination.  This may give relay permission for
1487too many destinations.  Recommended settings (use only one): </p>
1488
1489<blockquote>
1490<pre>
1491/etc/postfix/main.cf:
1492    relay_domains =            (do not forward mail from strangers)
1493    relay_domains = $mydomain  (my domain and subdomains)
1494    relay_domains = $mydomain, other.domain.tld, ...
1495</pre>
1496</blockquote>
1497
1498<h3>10.7 - Optional: configure a smart host for remote delivery</h3>
1499
1500<p> If you're behind a firewall, you should set up a relayhost.  If
1501you can, specify the organizational domain name so that Postfix
1502can use DNS lookups, and so that it can fall back to a secondary
1503MX host when the primary MX host is down. Otherwise just specify
1504a hard-coded hostname.  </p>
1505
1506<p> Some examples (use only one): </p>
1507
1508<blockquote>
1509<pre>
1510/etc/postfix/main.cf:
1511    relayhost = $mydomain
1512    relayhost = [mail.$mydomain]
1513</pre>
1514</blockquote>
1515
1516<p> The form enclosed with <tt>[]</tt> eliminates DNS MX lookups. </p>
1517
1518<p> By default, the SMTP client will do DNS lookups even when you
1519specify a relay host. If your machine has no access to a DNS server,
1520turn off SMTP client DNS lookups like this: </p>
1521
1522<blockquote>
1523<pre>
1524/etc/postfix/main.cf:
1525    disable_dns_lookups = yes
1526</pre>
1527</blockquote>
1528
1529<p> The STANDARD_CONFIGURATION_README file has more hints and tips for
1530firewalled and/or dial-up networks. </p>
1531
1532<h3>10.8 - Create the aliases database</h3>
1533
1534<p> Postfix uses a Sendmail-compatible aliases(5) table to redirect
1535mail for local(8) recipients.  Typically, this information is kept
1536in two files: in a text file /etc/aliases and in an indexed file
1537/etc/aliases.db.  The command "postconf alias_maps" will tell you
1538the exact location of the text file.  </p>
1539
1540<p> First, be sure to update the text file with aliases for root,
1541postmaster and "postfix" that forward mail to a real person.  Postfix
1542has a sample aliases file /etc/postfix/aliases that you can adapt
1543to local conditions.  </p>
1544
1545<blockquote>
1546<pre>
1547/etc/aliases:
1548    root: you
1549    postmaster: root
1550    postfix: root
1551    bin: root
1552    <i>etcetera...</i>
1553</pre>
1554</blockquote>
1555
1556<p> Note: there should be no whitespace before the ":". </p>
1557
1558<p> Finally, build the indexed aliases file with one of the
1559following commands: </p>
1560
1561<blockquote>
1562<pre>
1563# newaliases
1564# sendmail -bi
1565</pre>
1566</blockquote>
1567
1568<h2><a name="hamlet">11 - To chroot or not to chroot</a></h2>
1569
1570<p> Postfix daemon processes can be configured (via master.cf) to
1571run in a chroot jail.  The processes run at a fixed low privilege
1572and with access only to the Postfix queue directories (/var/spool/postfix).
1573This provides a significant barrier against intrusion. The barrier
1574is not impenetrable, but every little bit helps. </p>
1575
1576<p> With the exception of Postfix daemons that deliver mail locally
1577and/or that execute non-Postfix commands, every Postfix daemon can
1578run chrooted. </p>
1579
1580<p> Sites with high security requirements should consider to chroot
1581all daemons that talk to the network:  the smtp(8) and smtpd(8)
1582processes, and perhaps also the lmtp(8) client. The author's own
1583porcupine.org mail server runs all daemons chrooted that can be
1584chrooted. </p>
1585
1586<p> The default /etc/postfix/master.cf file specifies that no
1587Postfix daemon runs chrooted.  In order to enable chroot operation,
1588edit the file /etc/postfix/master.cf. Instructions are in the file.
1589</p>
1590
1591<p> Note that a chrooted daemon resolves all filenames relative to
1592the Postfix queue directory (/var/spool/postfix). For successful
1593use of a chroot jail,  most UNIX systems require you to bring in
1594some files or device nodes.  The examples/chroot-setup directory
1595in the source code distribution has a collection of scripts that
1596help you set up Postfix chroot environments on different operating
1597systems. </p>
1598
1599<p> Additionally, you almost certainly need to configure syslogd
1600so that it listens on a socket inside the Postfix queue directory.
1601Examples for specific systems: </p>
1602
1603<dl>
1604
1605<dt> FreeBSD: </dt>
1606
1607<dd> <pre>
1608# mkdir -p /var/spool/postfix/var/run
1609# syslogd -l /var/spool/postfix/var/run/log
1610</pre> </dd>
1611
1612<dt> Linux, OpenBSD: </dt>
1613
1614<dd> <pre>
1615# mkdir -p /var/spool/postfix/dev
1616# syslogd -a /var/spool/postfix/dev/log
1617</pre> </dd>
1618
1619</dl>
1620
1621<h2><a name="care">12 - Care and feeding of the Postfix system</a></h2>
1622
1623<p> Postfix daemon processes run in the background, and log problems
1624and normal activity to the syslog daemon. The names of logfiles
1625are specified in /etc/syslog.conf. At the very least you need
1626something like:  </p>
1627
1628<blockquote>
1629<pre>
1630/etc/syslog.conf:
1631    mail.err                                    /dev/console
1632    mail.debug                                  /var/log/maillog
1633</pre>
1634</blockquote>
1635
1636<p> IMPORTANT: the syslogd will not create files. You must create
1637them before (re)starting syslogd. </p>
1638
1639<p> IMPORTANT: on Linux you need to put a "-" character before
1640the pathname, e.g., -/var/log/maillog, otherwise the syslogd
1641will use more system resources than Postfix does. </p>
1642
1643<p> Hopefully, the number of problems will be small, but it is a good
1644idea to run every night before the syslog files are rotated: </p>
1645
1646<blockquote>
1647<pre>
1648# postfix check
1649# egrep '(reject|warning|error|fatal|panic):' /some/log/file
1650</pre>
1651</blockquote>
1652
1653<ul>
1654
1655<li> <p> The first line (postfix check) causes Postfix to report
1656file permission/ownership discrepancies. </p>
1657
1658<li> <p> The second line looks for problem reports from the mail
1659software, and reports how effective the relay and junk mail access
1660blocks are.  This may produce a lot of output.  You will want to
1661apply some postprocessing to eliminate uninteresting information.
1662</p>
1663
1664</ul>
1665
1666<p>  The <a href="DEBUG_README.html#logging"> DEBUG_README </a>
1667document describes the meaning of the "warning" etc. labels in
1668Postfix logging. </p>
1669
1670</body>
1671
1672</html>
1673