POSTALIAS(1) POSTALIAS(1)
NAME
postalias - Postfix alias database maintenance
SYNOPSIS
postalias [-Nfinoprvw] [-c config_dir] [-d key] [-q key]
[file_type:]file_name ...
DESCRIPTION
The postalias command creates or queries one or more Post-
fix 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 the 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 spec-
tator programs.
The format of Postfix alias input files is described in
aliases(5).
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 cre-
ating or querying a map.
-i Incremental mode. Read entries from standard input
and do not truncate an existing database. By
default, postalias creates a new database from the
entries in file_name.
-N Include the terminating null character that termi-
nates lookup keys and values. By default, Postfix
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,
Postfix 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 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, cre-
ate 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 informa-
tion 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 warn about duplicate
entries; silently replace them.
-v Enable verbose logging for debugging purposes. Mul-
tiple -v options make the software increasingly
verbose.
-w When updating a table, do not warn about duplicate
entries; silently ignore them.
Arguments:
file_type
The database type. To find out what types are sup-
ported, use the "postconf -m" command.
The postalias 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 only on
systems with support for db databases.
dbm The output consists of two files, named
file_name.pag and file_name.dir. This is
available only on systems with support for
dbm databases.
hash The output is a hashed file, named
file_name.db. This is available only on
systems with support for db databases.
Use the command postconf -m to find out what types
of database your Postfix installation can support.
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 terminates with zero exit status in case of suc-
cess (including successful postalias -q lookup) and termi-
nates 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 (postfix)
The mail system name that is prepended to the pro-
cess 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
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)