Postfix Command Reference
Luke Hebert
- 6 minutes read - 1214 wordspostfix - Postfix Control Program.
| Switch | Description |
|---|---|
| check | Warn about bad directory/file ownership or permissions, and create missing directories. |
| start | Start the Postfix mail system. This also runs the configuration check described above. |
| stop | Stop the Postfix mail system in an orderly fashion. |
| abort | Stop the Postfix mail system abruptly, Running processes are stopped immediately. |
| flush | Force delivery: attempt to deliver all deferred mail immediately. |
| reload | Re-read configuration files. Running processes terminate at their earliest convince. |
| set-permissions [name=value …] | Set the ownership and permissions of Postfix related files and directories, as specified in the postfix-files file. Specify name=value to override and update specific main.cf configuration parameters. |
| upgrade-configuration [name=value …] | Update the main.cf and master.cf files with information that Postfix needs in order to run: add or update services, and add or update configuration parameter settings. specify name=value to override and update specific main.cf configuration parameters. |
command options
| Switch | Description |
|---|---|
| -c config_dir | Read the main.cf and master.cf configuration files in the named directory instead of the default configuration directory. |
| -D (with postfix start only) | Run each Postfix daemon under control of a debugger as specified via the debugger_command configuration parameter. |
| -v | Verbose. |
postcat - View the contents of a message in the queue.
| Switch | Description |
|---|---|
| -o | Print the que file offset of each record. |
| -q | Search the Postfix queue for the named files. |
| -v | Verbose. |
postdrop - Drop a message into the queue, similar to “sendmail.”
| Switch | Description |
|---|---|
| -r | Use a Postfix-internal protocol for reading the message from standard input, and for reporting status information on standard output. |
| -v | Verbose. |
postqueue - Standard queue management.
| Switch | Description |
|---|---|
| -f | Flush the queue: attempt to deliver all queued mail. |
| -p | Produce traditional sendmail-style queue listing.ID, Size, Arrival time, Sender, Rcpt* Active queue, Hold queue |
| -s | Schedule immediate delivery for all mail that is queued for the named site. |
| -v | Verbose. |
postsuper - In-depth queue management. (Super User)
| Switch | Description |
|---|---|
| -d | Delete one message with the specified queue ID. (Specify ALL to remove all messages, must be caps) |
| -h | Place specified message in the HOLD queue. (Specify ALL to place all messages on hold, must be caps) |
| -H | Release specified message from the HOLD queue to deferred. (Specify ALL to release all messages on hold, must be caps) |
| -p | Purge old temporary files left over after system or software crash. |
| -r | Requeue a message with the specified ID. (Specify ALL to re-queue all messages, must be caps) |
| -s | Structure check and repair, should be done before postfix startup. - Renames files that have incorrect names - Moves queue files to the right queues |
| -v | Verbose. |
postconf - Postfix Configuration Utility.
| Switch | Description |
|---|---|
| -a | List available SASL plug-in types. |
| -A | List available SASL client plug-in types. |
| -b | Display the message text that appears at the beginning of a DSN. |
| -c | Use a different config directory to read main.cf and master.cf. |
| -d | Print default settings instead of configured settings. |
| -e | Edit main.cf configuration file. |
| -h | Show parameter values only not the name or label for the value. |
| -l | List the names of supported mailbox locking methods. |
| -m | List the supported lookup table types. |
| -n | Print parameter settings that are not left at their built-in defaults. |
| -v | Verbose. |
postalias - Postfix alias database maintenance.
| Switch | Description |
|---|---|
| -c config_dir | Read the main.cf configuration file in the named directory instead of the default configuration directory. |
| -d | Search the specified maps for key and remove one entry per map. Exit 0 when data is found. |
| -f | Do not fold the lookup key to lower case while creating or querying a table. |
| -i | Incremental mode. Read entries from stdin and do not truncate an existing database. |
| -N | Include the terminating null character that terminates lookup keys and values. |
| -n | Do not include the terminating null character that terminates lookup keys and values. |
| -o | Do not release root privileges when processing non-root input files. |
| -p | Do not inherit the file access permissions from input file when creating new file, set to (0644). |
| -q | Search the specified maps for key and write first value found to stdout. Exit status is 0 when data is found. |
| -r | When updating a table do not complain about attempts to update existing entries, update them anyway. |
| -s | Retrieve all database elements and write one line of key:value output for each element. |
| -v | Verbose. |
| -w | When updating a table do not complain about existing entries and ignore those attempts. |
postmap - Postfix lookup table management.
| Switch | Description |
|---|---|
| -b | Enable message body query mode. When reading lookup keys from standard input with “-q -", process the input as if it is an email message in RFC 2822 format. Each line of body content becomes one lookup key. By default, the -b option starts generating lookup keys at the first non-header line, and stops when the end of the message is reached. (See the man page for more) |
| -c config_dir | Read the main.cf configuration file in the named directory instead of the default configuration directory. |
| -d | Search the specified maps for key and remove one entry per map. Exit 0 when data is found. |
| -f | Do not fold the lookup key to lower case while creating or querying a table. |
| -h | Enable message header query mode. When reading lookup keys from standard input with “-q -", process the input as if it is an email message in RFC 2822 format. Each logical header line becomes one lookup key. A multi-line header becomes one lookup key with one or more embedded newline characters. By default, the -h option generates lookup keys until the first non-header line is reached. (See the man page for more) |
| -i | Incremental mode. Read entries from stdin and do not truncate an existing database. |
| -m | Include the terminating null character that terminates lookup keys and values. |
| -N | Include the terminating null character that terminates lookup keys and values. |
| -n | Do not include the terminating null character that terminates lookup keys and values. |
| -o | Do not release root privileges when processing non-root input files. |
| -p | Do not inherit the file access permissions from input file when creating new file, set to (0644). |
| -q | Do not inherit the file access permissions from input file when creating new file, set to (0644). |
| -r | When updating a table do not complain about attempts to update existing entries, update them anyway. |
| -s | Retrieve all database elements and write one line of key:value output for each element. |
| -v | Verbose. |
| -w | When updating a table do not complain about existing entries and ignore those attempts. |
qshape - Print Postfix queue by domain and age distribution
| Switch | Description |
|---|---|
| -s | Display sender domain distribution instead of recipient distribution. |
| -p | Generate aggregate statistics for parent domains. TLDs are not shown nor or domains with fewer than min_subdomains set with -m |
| -m | When used with -p, sets minimum subdomain count needed to show separate line from parent. Default 5. |
| -b | The age distribution is broken up into a sequence of increasing intervals. Sets the number of intervals or buckets. |
| -t | The age distribution is broken up into a sequence of increasing intervals. Sets the number of intervals or buckets. |
| -l | Instead of geometric age sequence use a linear age sequence or simple bucket times. |
| -w | The output is right justified, with counts shown on the 80th column. This adjust the terminal width. |