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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] postfix-command...

       postmulti -x [-aRv] [-g group] [-i name] unix-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

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

       -g group
              Perform the operation only for members of the named group.

       -i name
              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.

       -R     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

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

Postfix-wrapper mode

       -p postfix-command
              Invoke  postfix(1)  to  execute  postfix-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

       -x unix-command
              Execute the specified unix-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

       -v     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

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

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

       -i name
              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

       -I name
              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.

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

Instance creation/deletion/status change

       -e action
              "Edit" managed instances. The following actions are supported:

              init   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 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 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
                     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 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 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.

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

              disable
                     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

       -v     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:

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

       MAIL_CONFIG
              The location of the configuration directory of the instance.

CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS

       config_directory (see 'postconf -d' output)
              The default location of the Postfix main.cf and master.cf configuration files.

       daemon_directory (see 'postconf -d' output)
              The directory with Postfix support programs and daemon programs.

       import_environment (see 'postconf -d' output)
              The  list  of  environment parameters that a privileged Postfix process will import
              from a non-Postfix parent process, or name=value environment overrides.

       multi_instance_directories (empty)
              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.

       multi_instance_group (empty)
              The optional instance group name of this Postfix instance.

       multi_instance_name (empty)
              The optional instance name of this Postfix instance.

       multi_instance_enable (no)
              Allow  this  Postfix  instance  to  be  started, stopped, etc., by a multi-instance
              manager.

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

       postmulti_stop_commands (see 'postconf -d' output)
              The  postfix(1)  commands  that  the postmulti(1) instance manager treats as "stop"
              commands.

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

       syslog_facility (mail)
              The syslog facility of Postfix logging.

       syslog_name (see 'postconf -d' output)
              A  prefix  that  is  prepended  to the process name in syslog records, so that, for
              example, "smtpd" becomes "prefix/smtpd".

       Available in Postfix 3.0 and later:

       meta_directory (see 'postconf -d' output)
              The location of  non-executable  files  that  are  shared  among  multiple  Postfix
              instances,  such  as postfix-files, dynamicmaps.cf, and the multi-instance template
              files main.cf.proto and master.cf.proto.

       shlib_directory (see 'postconf -d' output)
              The location of Postfix dynamically-linked  libraries  (libpostfix-*.so),  and  the
              default  location  of  Postfix database plugins (postfix-*.so) that have a relative
              pathname in the dynamicmaps.cf file.

FILES

       $meta_directory/main.cf.proto, stock configuration file
       $meta_directory/master.cf.proto, 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

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

                                                                                     POSTMULTI(1)