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master(5) - phpMan
MASTER(5) File Formats Manual MASTER(5)
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 under
control of 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 run the server
under control by 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 (host or service
name) 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 param‐
eter.
Note: with Postfix version 2.2 and later specify "inet_interfaces = loop‐
back-only" in main.cf, instead of hard-coding loopback IP address informa‐
tion in master.cf or in main.cf.
unix The service listens on a UNIX-domain 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.
fifo 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 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 or not access is restricted to the mail system. Internet (type inet) ser‐
vices 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: 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) dae‐
mons. 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 archive
show 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. Spec‐
ify 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.
The command name is relative to the Postfix daemon directory (pathname is con‐
trolled 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_com‐
mand variable in the main.cf configuration file. See DEBUG_README for hints
and tips.
-o name=value
Override the named main.cf configuration parameter. The parameter value can
refer to other parameters as $name etc., just like in main.cf. See post‐
conf(5) for syntax.
NOTE 1: do not specify whitespace around the "=" or in parameter values. To
specify a parameter value that contains whitespace, use commas instead of
spaces, or specify the value in main.cf. Example:
/etc/postfix/master.cf:
submission inet .... smtpd
-o smtpd_mumble=$submission_mumble
/etc/postfix/main.cf
submission_mumble = text with whitespace...
NOTE 2: Over-zealous use of parameter overrides makes the Postfix configura‐
tion hard to understand and maintain. At a certain point, it might be eas‐
ier to configure multiple instances of Postfix, instead of configuring mul‐
tiple personalities via master.cf.
-v Increase the verbose logging level. Specify multiple -v options to make a
Postfix daemon process increasingly verbose.
SEE ALSO
master(8), process manager
postconf(5), configuration parameters
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
MASTER(5)
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