Provided by: postfix_2.11.0-1ubuntu1.2_amd64 bug

NAME

       postalias - Postfix alias database maintenance

SYNOPSIS

       postalias [-Nfinoprsvw] [-c config_dir] [-d key] [-q key]
               [file_type:]file_name ...

DESCRIPTION

       The  postalias(1)  command  creates  or  queries  one  or more Postfix alias databases, or
       updates an existing one. The input and output file formats are expected to  be  compatible
       with Sendmail version 8, and are expected to be suitable for the use as NIS alias maps.

       If  the  result files do not exist they will be created with the same group and other read
       permissions as their source file.

       While a database update is in progress, signal delivery is postponed,  and  an  exclusive,
       advisory,  lock is placed on the entire database, in order to avoid surprises in spectator
       processes.

       The format of Postfix alias input files is described in aliases(5).

       By default the lookup key is mapped to lowercase to make the lookups case insensitive;  as
       of Postfix 2.3 this case folding happens only with tables whose lookup keys are fixed-case
       strings such as btree:, dbm: or hash:. With earlier versions, the  lookup  key  is  folded
       even  with  tables  where a lookup field can match both upper and lower case text, such as
       regexp: and pcre:. This resulted in loss of information with $number substitutions.

       Options:

       -c config_dir
              Read the main.cf configuration file in the named directory instead of  the  default
              configuration directory.

       -d key Search the specified maps for key and remove one entry per map.  The exit status is
              zero when the requested information was found.

              If a key value of - is specified, the program reads key values  from  the  standard
              input  stream.  The exit status is zero when at least one of the requested keys was
              found.

       -f     Do not fold the lookup key to lower case while creating or querying a table.

              With Postfix version  2.3  and  later,  this  option  has  no  effect  for  regular
              expression  tables.  There,  case  folding  is  controlled by appending a flag to a
              pattern.

       -i     Incremental mode. Read entries from standard input and do not truncate an  existing
              database.  By  default,  postalias(1)  creates  a  new database from the entries in
              file_name.

       -N     Include the terminating null character that terminates lookup keys and  values.  By
              default, postalias(1) does whatever is the default for the host operating system.

       -n     Don't  include  the  terminating  null  character  that  terminates lookup keys and
              values. By default,  postalias(1)  does  whatever  is  the  default  for  the  host
              operating system.

       -o     Do  not  release root privileges when processing a non-root input file. By default,
              postalias(1) drops root privileges and runs as the source file owner instead.

       -p     Do not inherit the file access permissions from the input file when creating a  new
              file.  Instead, create a new file with default access permissions (mode 0644).

       -q key Search  the  specified maps for key and write the first value found to the standard
              output stream. The exit status is zero when the requested information was found.

              If a key value of - is specified, the program reads key values  from  the  standard
              input  stream and writes one line of key: value output for each key that was found.
              The exit status is zero when at least one of the requested keys was found.

       -r     When updating a table, do not complain about attempts to update  existing  entries,
              and make those updates anyway.

       -s     Retrieve  all  database  elements, and write one line of key: value output for each
              element. The elements are printed in database order, which is not  necessarily  the
              same as the original input order.  This feature is available in Postfix version 2.2
              and later, and is not available for all database types.

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

       -w     When  updating  a table, do not complain about attempts to update existing entries,
              and ignore those attempts.

       Arguments:

       file_type
              The database type. To find out what types are  supported,  use  the  "postconf  -m"
              command.

              The  postalias(1) command can query any supported file type, but it can create only
              the following file types:

              btree  The output is a btree  file,  named  file_name.db.   This  is  available  on
                     systems with support for db databases.

              cdb    The  output  is  one file named file_name.cdb.  This is available on systems
                     with support for cdb databases.

              dbm    The output consists of two files,  named  file_name.pag  and  file_name.dir.
                     This is available on systems with support for dbm databases.

              hash   The  output  is  a  hashed  file,  named file_name.db.  This is available on
                     systems with support for db databases.

              fail   A table that reliably fails all requests. The lookup table name is used  for
                     logging only. This table exists to simplify Postfix error tests.

              sdbm   The  output  consists  of  two files, named file_name.pag and file_name.dir.
                     This is available on systems with support for sdbm databases.

              When no file_type is specified, the software uses the database type  specified  via
              the  default_database_type  configuration  parameter.   The  default value for this
              parameter depends on the host environment.

       file_name
              The name of the alias database source file when creating a database.

DIAGNOSTICS

       Problems are logged to the standard error stream and to syslogd(8).  No output means  that
       no problems were detected. Duplicate entries are skipped and are flagged with a warning.

       postalias(1)  terminates  with  zero  exit status in case of success (including successful
       "postalias -q" lookup) and terminates with non-zero exit status in case of failure.

ENVIRONMENT

       MAIL_CONFIG
              Directory with Postfix configuration files.

       MAIL_VERBOSE
              Enable verbose logging for debugging purposes.

CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS

       The following main.cf parameters are especially relevant to this program.

       The text below provides only  a  parameter  summary.  See  postconf(5)  for  more  details
       including examples.

       alias_database (see 'postconf -d' output)
              The  alias  databases  for  local(8) delivery that are updated with "newaliases" or
              with "sendmail -bi".

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

       berkeley_db_create_buffer_size (16777216)
              The per-table I/O buffer size for programs that create Berkeley DB  hash  or  btree
              tables.

       berkeley_db_read_buffer_size (131072)
              The  per-table  I/O  buffer  size  for programs that read Berkeley DB hash or btree
              tables.

       default_database_type (see 'postconf -d' output)
              The default database type for use in  newaliases(1),  postalias(1)  and  postmap(1)
              commands.

       syslog_facility (mail)
              The syslog facility of Postfix logging.

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

STANDARDS

       RFC 822 (ARPA Internet Text Messages)

SEE ALSO

       aliases(5), format of alias database input file.
       local(8), Postfix local delivery agent.
       postconf(1), supported database types
       postconf(5), configuration parameters
       postmap(1), create/update/query lookup tables
       newaliases(1), Sendmail compatibility interface.
       syslogd(8), system logging

README FILES

       Use "postconf readme_directory" or "postconf html_directory" to locate this information.
       DATABASE_README, Postfix lookup table overview

LICENSE

       The Secure Mailer license must be distributed with this software.

AUTHOR(S)

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

                                                                                     POSTALIAS(1)