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POSTMULTI(1) General Commands Manual POSTMULTI(1)

NAME

postmulti - Postfix multi-instance manager

SYNOPSIS



ENABLING MULTI-INSTANCE MANAGEMENT:


postmulti -e init [-v]


ITERATOR MODE:


postmulti -l [-aRv] [-g group]
    [-i name]


postmulti -p [-av] [-g group]
    [-i name] command...


postmulti -x [-aRv] [-g group]
    [-i name] command...


LIFE-CYCLE MANAGEMENT:


postmulti -e create [-av] [-g
    group] [-i name] [-G group] [-I
    name] [param=value ...]


postmulti -e import [-av] [-g
    group] [-i name] [-G group] [-I
    name] [config_directory=/path]


postmulti -e destroy [-v] -i
    name


postmulti -e deport [-v] -i
    name


postmulti -e enable [-v] -i
    name


postmulti -e disable [-v] -i
    name


postmulti -e assign [-v] -i
    name [-I name] [-G group]






DESCRIPTION




The postmulti(1) command allows a Postfix administrator to
    manage multiple Postfix instances on a single host.


postmulti(1) implements two fundamental modes of operation.
    In iterator mode, it executes the same command for multiple Postfix
    instances. In life-cycle management mode, it adds or deletes
    one instance, or changes the multi-instance status of one instance.


Each mode of operation has its own command syntax. For this
    reason, each mode is documented in separate sections below.






BACKGROUND




A multi-instance configuration consists of one primary Postfix
    instance, and one or more secondary instances whose configuration directory
    pathnames are recorded in the primary instance's main.cf file. Postfix
    instances share program files and documentation, but have their own
    configuration, queue and data directories.


Currently, only the default Postfix instance can be used as
    primary instance in a multi-instance configuration. The postmulti(1)
    command does not currently support a -c option to select an
    alternative primary instance, and exits with a fatal error if the
    MAIL_CONFIG environment variable is set to a non-default
    configuration directory.


See the MULTI_INSTANCE_README tutorial for a more detailed
    discussion of multi-instance management with postmulti(1).






ITERATOR MODE




In iterator mode, postmulti performs the same operation on
    all Postfix instances in turn.


If multi-instance support is not enabled, the requested command is
    performed just for the primary instance.


Iterator mode implements the following command options:






Instance selection



  

  
Perform the operation on all instances. This is the default.

  

  
Perform the operation only for members of the named group.

  

  
Perform the operation only for the instance with the specified
      name. You can specify either the instance name or the absolute
      pathname of the instance's configuration directory. Specify "-"
      to select the primary Postfix instance.

  

  
Reverse the iteration order. This may be appropriate when updating a
      multi-instance system, where "sink" instances are started before
      "source" instances.
    
This option cannot be used with -p.

  








List mode



  

  
List Postfix instances with their instance name, instance group name,
      enable/disable status and configuration directory.








Postfix-wrapper mode



  

  
Invoke postfix(1) to execute the specified command. This
      option implements the postfix-wrapper(5) interface.






    
  
  • With "start"-like commands, "postfix check" is
      executed for instances that are not enabled. The full list of commands is
      specified with the postmulti_start_commands parameter.
    • 
  
  • With "stop"-like commands, the iteration order is reversed, and
      disabled instances are skipped. The full list of commands is specified
      with the postmulti_stop_commands parameter.
    • 
  
  • With "reload" and other commands that require a started
      instance, disabled instances are skipped. The full list of commands is
      specified with the postmulti_control_commands parameter.
    • 
  
  • With "status" and other commands that don't require a started
      instance, the command is executed for all instances.
    • 






  

  
The -p option can also be used interactively to start/stop/etc. a
      named instance or instance group. For example, to start just the instances
      in the group "msa", invoke postmulti(1) as follows:







  

  
# postmulti -g msa -p start










Command mode



  

  
Execute the specified command for all Postfix instances. The
      command runs with appropriate environment settings for MAIL_CONFIG,
      command_directory, daemon_directory, config_directory, queue_directory,
      data_directory, multi_instance_name, multi_instance_group and
      multi_instance_enable.








Other options



  

  
Enable verbose logging for debugging purposes. Multiple -v options
      make the software increasingly verbose.








LIFE-CYCLE MANAGEMENT MODE




With the -e option postmulti(1) can be used to add
    or delete a Postfix instance, and to manage the multi-instance status of an
    existing instance.


The following options are implemented:






Existing instance selection



  

  
When creating or importing an instance, place the new instance at the
      front of the secondary instance list.

  

  
When creating or importing an instance, place the new instance before the
      first secondary instance that is a member of the specified group.

  

  
When creating or importing an instance, place the new instance before the
      matching secondary instance.
    
With other life-cycle operations, apply the operation to the
        named existing instance. Specify "-" to select the primary
        Postfix instance.

  








New or existing instance name assignment



  

  
Assign the specified instance name to an existing instance,
      newly-created instance, or imported instance. Instance names other than
      "-" (which makes the instance "nameless") must start
      with "postfix-". This restriction reduces the likelihood of name
      collisions with system files.

  

  
Assign the specified group name to an existing instance or to a
      newly created or imported instance.








Instance creation/deletion/status change



  

  
"Edit" managed instances. The following actions are
    supported:







  

  
This command is required before postmulti(1) can be used to manage
      Postfix instances. The "postmulti -e init" command updates the
      primary instance's main.cf file by setting:







  

  

    
multi_instance_wrapper =


        ${command_directory}/postmulti -p --
multi_instance_enable = yes

  







  

  
You can set these by other means if you prefer.

  

  
Create a new Postfix instance and add it to the multi_instance_directories
      parameter of the primary instance. The "-I name"
      option is recommended to give the instance a short name that is used to
      construct default values for the private directories of the new instance.
      The "-G group" option may be specified to assign
      the instance to a group, otherwise, the new instance is not a member of
      any groups.
    
The new instance main.cf is the stock main.cf with the
        parameters that specify the locations of shared files cloned from the
        primary instance. For "nameless" instances, you should
        manually adjust "syslog_name" to yield a unique
        "logtag" starting with "postfix-" that will uniquely
        identify the instance in the mail logs. It is simpler to assign the
        instance a short name with the "-I name"
      option.

    
Optional "name=value" arguments specify the instance
        config_directory, queue_directory and data_directory. For example:

  







  

  

    
# postmulti -I postfix-mumble \


        -G mygroup -e create \


        config_directory=/my/config/dir \


        queue_directory=/my/queue/dir \


        data_directory=/my/data/dir

  







  

  
If any of these pathnames is not supplied, the program attempts to
      generate the pathname by taking the corresponding primary instance
      pathname, and by replacing the last pathname component by the value of the
      -I option.
    
If the instance configuration directory already exists, and
        contains both a main.cf and master.cf file, create will
        "import" the instance as-is. For existing instances,
        create and import are identical.

  

  

  
Import an existing instance into the list of instances managed by the
      postmulti(1) multi-instance manager. This adds the instance to the
      multi_instance_directories list of the primary instance. If the
      "-I name" option is provided it specifies the new
      name for the instance and is used to define a default location for the
      instance configuration directory (as with create above). The
      "-G group" option may be used to assign the
      instance to a group. Add a
      "config_directory=/path" argument to override a
      default pathname based on "-I name".

  

  
Destroy a secondary Postfix instance. To be a candidate for destruction an
      instance must be disabled, stopped and its queue must not contain any
      messages. Attempts to destroy the primary Postfix instance trigger a fatal
      error, without destroying the instance.
    
The instance is removed from the primary instance main.cf
        file's alternate_config_directories parameter and its data, queue and
        configuration directories are cleaned of files and directories created
        by the Postfix system. The main.cf and master.cf files are removed from
        the configuration directory even if they have been modified since
        initial creation. Finally, the instance is "deported" from the
        list of managed instances.

    
If other files are present in instance private directories,
        the directories may not be fully removed, a warning is logged to alert
        the administrator. It is expected that an instance built using
        "fresh" directories via the create action will be fully
        removed by the destroy action (if first disabled). If the
        instance configuration and queue directories are populated with
        additional files (access and rewriting tables, chroot jail content,
        etc.) the instance directories will not be fully removed.

    
The destroy action triggers potentially dangerous file
        removal operations. Make sure the instance's data, queue and
        configuration directories are set correctly and do not contain any
        valuable files.

  

  

  
Deport a secondary instance from the list of managed instances. This
      deletes the instance configuration directory from the primary instance's
      multi_instance_directories list, but does not remove any files or
      directories.

  

  
Assign a new instance name or a new group name to the selected instance.
      Use "-G -" to specify "no group" and
      "-I -" to specify "no name". If you choose to
      make an instance "nameless", set a suitable syslog_name in the
      corresponding main.cf file.

  

  
Mark the selected instance as enabled. This just sets the
      multi_instance_enable parameter to "yes" in the instance's
      main.cf file.

  

  
Mark the selected instance as disabled. This means that the instance will
      not be started etc. with "postfix start", "postmulti -p
      start" and so on. The instance can still be started etc. with
      "postfix -c config-directory start".










Other options



  

  
Enable verbose logging for debugging purposes. Multiple -v options
      make the software increasingly verbose.








ENVIRONMENT




The postmulti(1) command exports the following environment
    variables before executing the requested command for a given
    instance:



  

  
This is set when the -v command-line option is present.

  

  
The location of the configuration directory of the instance.








CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS





  

  
The default location of the Postfix main.cf and master.cf configuration
      files.

  

  
The directory with Postfix support programs and daemon programs.

  

  
The list of environment parameters that a Postfix process will import from
      a non-Postfix parent process.

  

  
An optional list of non-default Postfix configuration directories; these
      directories belong to additional Postfix instances that share the Postfix
      executable files and documentation with the default Postfix instance, and
      that are started, stopped, etc., together with the default Postfix
      instance.

  

  
The optional instance group name of this Postfix instance.

  

  
The optional instance name of this Postfix instance.

  

  
Allow this Postfix instance to be started, stopped, etc., by a
      multi-instance manager.

  

  
The postfix(1) commands that the postmulti(1) instance
      manager treats as "start" commands.

  

  
The postfix(1) commands that the postmulti(1) instance
      manager treats as "stop" commands.

  

  
The postfix(1) commands that the postmulti(1) instance
      manager treats as "control" commands, that operate on running
      instances.

  

  
The syslog facility of Postfix logging.

  

  
The mail system name that is prepended to the process name in syslog
      records, so that "smtpd" becomes, for example,
      "postfix/smtpd".








FILES


$daemon_directory/main.cf, stock configuration file
$daemon_directory/master.cf, stock configuration file
$daemon_directory/postmulti-script, life-cycle helper program






SEE ALSO


postfix(1), Postfix control program
postfix-wrapper(5), Postfix multi-instance API






README FILES


Use "postconf readme_directory" or "postconf
html_directory" to locate this information.
MULTI_INSTANCE_README, Postfix multi-instance management






HISTORY




The postmulti(1) command was introduced with Postfix
    version 2.6.






LICENSE




The Secure Mailer license must be distributed with this
  software.






AUTHOR(S)


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