Ubuntu Manpage: master - Postfix master process configuration file format

Provided by: postfix_3.10.2-1ubuntu1_amd64

NAME

       master - Postfix master process configuration file format

DESCRIPTION

       The  Postfix  mail  system is implemented by small number of (mostly) client commands that are invoked by
       users, and by a larger number of services that run in the background.

       Postfix services are implemented by daemon processes. These run in the background, started  on-demand  by
       the  master(8)  process.   The  master.cf  configuration  file defines how a client program connects to a
       service, and what daemon program runs when a service is requested.  Most daemon processes are short-lived
       and terminate voluntarily after serving max_use clients, or after inactivity for max_idle or  more  units
       of time.

       All  daemons  specified  here  must  speak  a  Postfix-internal protocol. In order to execute non-Postfix
       software use the local(8), pipe(8) or spawn(8)  services,  or  execute  the  software  with  inetd(8)  or
       equivalent.

       After changing master.cf you must execute "postfix reload" to reload the configuration.

SYNTAX

The general format of the master.cf file is as follows:

• Empty lines and whitespace-only lines are ignored, as are lines whose first non-whitespace
character is a `#'.

• A logical line starts with non-whitespace text. A line that starts with whitespace continues a
logical line.

• Each logical line defines a single Postfix service. Each service is identified by its name and
type as described below. When multiple lines specify the same service name and type, only the
last one is remembered. Otherwise, the order of master.cf service definitions does not matter.

Each logical line consists of eight fields separated by whitespace. These are described below in the
order as they appear in the master.cf file.

Where applicable a field of "-" requests that the built-in default value be used. For boolean fields
specify "y" or "n" to override the default value.

Service name
The service name syntax depends on the service type as described next.

Service type
Specify one of the following service types:

inet The service listens on a TCP/IP socket and is accessible via the network.

The service name is specified as host:port, denoting the host and port on which new
connections should be accepted. The host part (and colon) may be omitted. Either host or
port may be given in symbolic form (see hosts(5) or services(5)) or in numeric form (IP
address or port number). Host information may be enclosed inside "[]"; this form is
necessary only with IPv6 addresses.

Examples: a service named 127.0.0.1:smtp or ::1:smtp receives mail via the loopback
interface only; and a service named 10025 accepts connections on TCP port 10025 via all
interfaces configured with the inet_interfaces parameter.

Note: with Postfix version 2.2 and later specify "inet_interfaces = loopback-only" in
main.cf, instead of hard-coding loopback IP address information in master.cf or in main.cf.

unix The service listens on a UNIX-domain stream socket and is accessible for local clients
only.

The service name is a pathname relative to the Postfix queue directory (pathname controlled
with the queue_directory configuration parameter in main.cf).

On Solaris 8 and earlier systems the unix type is implemented with streams sockets.

unix-dgram
The service listens on a UNIX-domain datagram socket and is accessible for local clients
only.

The service name is a pathname relative to the Postfix queue directory (pathname controlled
with the queue_directory configuration parameter in main.cf).

fifo (obsolete)
The service listens on a FIFO (named pipe) and is accessible for local clients only.

The service name is a pathname relative to the Postfix queue directory (pathname controlled
with the queue_directory configuration parameter in main.cf).

pass The service listens on a UNIX-domain stream socket, and is accessible to local clients
only. It receives one open connection (file descriptor passing) per connection request.

The service name is a pathname relative to the Postfix queue directory (pathname controlled
with the queue_directory configuration parameter in main.cf).

On Solaris 8 and earlier systems the pass type is implemented with streams sockets.

This feature is available as of Postfix version 2.5.

Private (default: y)
Whether a service is internal to Postfix (pathname starts with private/), or exposed through
Postfix command-line tools (pathname starts with public/). Internet (type inet) services can't be
private.

Unprivileged (default: y)
Whether the service runs with root privileges or as the owner of the Postfix system (the owner
name is controlled by the mail_owner configuration variable in the main.cf file).

The local(8), pipe(8), spawn(8), and virtual(8) daemons require privileges.

Chroot (default: Postfix >= 3.0: n, Postfix < 3.0: y)
Whether or not the service runs chrooted to the mail queue directory (pathname is controlled by
the queue_directory configuration variable in the main.cf file).

Chroot should not be used with the local(8), pipe(8), spawn(8), and virtual(8) daemons. Although
the proxymap(8) server can run chrooted, doing so defeats most of the purpose of having that
service in the first place.

The files in the examples/chroot-setup subdirectory of the Postfix source show how to set up a
Postfix chroot environment on a variety of systems. See also BASIC_CONFIGURATION_README for issues
related to running daemons chrooted.

Wake up time (default: 0)
Automatically wake up the named service after the specified number of seconds. The wake up is
implemented by connecting to the service and sending a wake up request. A ? at the end of the
wake-up time field requests that no wake up events be sent before the first time a service is
used. Specify 0 for no automatic wake up.

The pickup(8), qmgr(8) and flush(8) daemons require a wake up timer.

Process limit (default: $default_process_limit)
The maximum number of processes that may execute this service simultaneously. Specify 0 for no
process count limit.

NOTE: Some Postfix services must be configured as a single-process service (for example, qmgr(8))
and some services must be configured with no process limit (for example, cleanup(8)). These
limits must not be changed.

Command name + arguments
The command to be executed. Characters that are special to the shell such as ">" or "|" have no
special meaning here, and quotes cannot be used to protect arguments containing whitespace. To
protect whitespace, use "{" and "}" as described below.

The command name is relative to the Postfix daemon directory (pathname is controlled by the
daemon_directory configuration variable).

The command argument syntax for specific commands is specified in the respective daemon manual
page.

The following command-line options have the same effect for all daemon programs:

-D Run the daemon under control by the command specified with the debugger_command variable in
the main.cf configuration file. See DEBUG_README for hints and tips.

-o { name = value } (long form, Postfix >= 3.0)
Override the named main.cf configuration parameter. The parameter value can refer to other
parameters as $name etc., just like in main.cf. See postconf(5) for syntax.

The "long form" supports whitespace in parameter values. Whitespace after the outer "{",
around "=", and before the outer "}" is ignored. Example:

/etc/postfix/master.cf:
submission inet .... smtpd
-o { smtpd_xxx_yyy = text with whitespace... }

NOTE: Over-zealous use of parameter overrides makes the Postfix configuration hard to
understand and maintain. At a certain point, it might be easier to configure multiple
instances of Postfix, instead of configuring multiple personalities via master.cf.

-o name=value (short form)
Override the named main.cf configuration parameter. The parameter value can refer to other
parameters as $name etc., just like in main.cf. See postconf(5) for syntax.

The "short form" does not support whitespace around the "=" or in parameter values. To
specify a parameter value that contains whitespace, use the long form described above, or
use commas instead of spaces if the parameter supports that, or specify the value in
main.cf. Example:

/etc/postfix/master.cf:
submission inet .... smtpd
-o smtpd_xxx_yyy=$submission_xxx_yyy

/etc/postfix/main.cf
submission_xxx_yyy = text with whitespace...

-v Increase the verbose logging level. Specify multiple -v options to make a Postfix daemon
process increasingly verbose.

Command-line arguments that start with {

Command-line arguments that contain whitespace

Command-line arguments that must be empty
Specify "{" and "}" around such arguments (Postfix 3.0 and later). The outer "{" and "}"
will be removed, together with any leading or trailing whitespace in the remaining text.

README FILES

       Use "postconf readme_directory" or "postconf html_directory" to locate this information.
       BASIC_CONFIGURATION_README, basic configuration
       DEBUG_README, Postfix debugging

LICENSE

       The Secure Mailer license must be distributed with this software.

AUTHOR(S)

       Initial version by
       Magnus Baeck
       Lund Institute of Technology
       Sweden

       Wietse Venema
       IBM T.J. Watson Research
       P.O. Box 704
       Yorktown Heights, NY 10598, USA

       Wietse Venema
       Google, Inc.
       111 8th Avenue
       New York, NY 10011, USA

                                                                                                       MASTER(5)

NAME

DESCRIPTION

SYNTAX

SEE ALSO

README FILES

LICENSE

AUTHOR(S)