NetBSD/gnu/dist/postfix/man/man8/nqmgr.8

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.TH NQMGR 8
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.fi
.SH NAME
nqmgr
\-
Postfix queue manager
.SH SYNOPSIS
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.nf
\fBnqmgr\fR [generic Postfix daemon options]
.SH DESCRIPTION
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The \fBnqmgr\fR daemon awaits the arrival of incoming mail
and arranges for its delivery via Postfix delivery processes.
The actual mail routing strategy is delegated to the
\fBtrivial-rewrite\fR(8) daemon.
This program expects to be run from the \fBmaster\fR(8) process
manager.
Mail addressed to the local \fBdouble-bounce\fR address is silently
discarded. This stops potential loops caused by undeliverable
bounce notifications.
Mail addressed to a user listed in the optional \fBrelocated\fR
database is bounced with a "user has moved to \fInew_location\fR"
message. See \fBrelocated\fR(5) for a precise description.
.SH MAIL QUEUES
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The \fBnqmgr\fR daemon maintains the following queues:
.IP \fBincoming\fR
Inbound mail from the network, or mail picked up by the
local \fBpickup\fR agent from the \fBmaildrop\fR directory.
.IP \fBactive\fR
Messages that the queue manager has opened for delivery. Only
a limited number of messages is allowed to enter the \fBactive\fR
queue (leaky bucket strategy, for a fixed delivery rate).
.IP \fBdeferred\fR
Mail that could not be delivered upon the first attempt. The queue
manager implements exponential backoff by doubling the time between
delivery attempts.
.IP \fBcorrupt\fR
Unreadable or damaged queue files are moved here for inspection.
.SH DELIVERY STATUS REPORTS
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The \fBnqmgr\fR daemon keeps an eye on per-message delivery status
reports in the following directories. Each status report file has
the same name as the corresponding message file:
.IP \fBbounce\fR
Per-recipient status information about why mail is bounced.
These files are maintained by the \fBbounce\fR(8) daemon.
.IP \fBdefer\fR
Per-recipient status information about why mail is delayed.
These files are maintained by the \fBdefer\fR(8) daemon.
.PP
The \fBnqmgr\fR daemon is responsible for asking the
\fBbounce\fR(8) or \fBdefer\fR(8) daemons to send non-delivery
reports.
.SH STRATEGIES
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The queue manager implements a variety of strategies for
either opening queue files (input) or for message delivery (output).
.IP "\fBleaky bucket\fR"
This strategy limits the number of messages in the \fBactive\fR queue
and prevents the queue manager from running out of memory under
heavy load.
.IP \fBfairness\fR
When the \fBactive\fR queue has room, the queue manager takes one
message from the \fBincoming\fR queue and one from the \fBdeferred\fR
queue. This prevents a large mail backlog from blocking the delivery
of new mail.
.IP "\fBslow start\fR"
This strategy eliminates "thundering herd" problems by slowly
adjusting the number of parallel deliveries to the same destination.
.IP "\fBround robin\fR
The queue manager sorts delivery requests by destination.
Round-robin selection prevents one destination from dominating
deliveries to other destinations.
.IP "\fBexponential backoff\fR"
Mail that cannot be delivered upon the first attempt is deferred.
The time interval between delivery attempts is doubled after each
attempt.
.IP "\fBdestination status cache\fR"
The queue manager avoids unnecessary delivery attempts by
maintaining a short-term, in-memory list of unreachable destinations.
.IP "\fBpreemptive message scheduling\fR"
The queue manager attempts to minimize the average per-recipient delay
while still preserving the correct per-message delays, using
a sophisticated preemptive message scheduling.
.SH TRIGGERS
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On an idle system, the queue manager waits for the arrival of
trigger events, or it waits for a timer to go off. A trigger
is a one-byte message.
Depending on the message received, the queue manager performs
one of the following actions (the message is followed by the
symbolic constant used internally by the software):
.IP "\fBD (QMGR_REQ_SCAN_DEFERRED)\fR"
Start a deferred queue scan. If a deferred queue scan is already
in progress, that scan will be restarted as soon as it finishes.
.IP "\fBI (QMGR_REQ_SCAN_INCOMING)\fR"
Start an incoming queue scan. If an incoming queue scan is already
in progress, that scan will be restarted as soon as it finishes.
.IP "\fBA (QMGR_REQ_SCAN_ALL)\fR"
Ignore deferred queue file time stamps. The request affects
the next deferred queue scan.
.IP "\fBF (QMGR_REQ_FLUSH_DEAD)\fR"
Purge all information about dead transports and destinations.
.IP "\fBW (TRIGGER_REQ_WAKEUP)\fR"
Wakeup call, This is used by the master server to instantiate
servers that should not go away forever. The action is to start
an incoming queue scan.
.PP
The \fBnqmgr\fR daemon reads an entire buffer worth of triggers.
Multiple identical trigger requests are collapsed into one, and
trigger requests are sorted so that \fBA\fR and \fBF\fR precede
\fBD\fR and \fBI\fR. Thus, in order to force a deferred queue run,
one would request \fBA F D\fR; in order to notify the queue manager
of the arrival of new mail one would request \fBI\fR.
.SH STANDARDS
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None. The \fBnqmgr\fR daemon does not interact with the outside world.
.SH SECURITY
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The \fBnqmgr\fR daemon is not security sensitive. It reads
single-character messages from untrusted local users, and thus may
be susceptible to denial of service attacks. The \fBnqmgr\fR daemon
does not talk to the outside world, and it can be run at fixed low
privilege in a chrooted environment.
.SH DIAGNOSTICS
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Problems and transactions are logged to the syslog daemon.
Corrupted message files are saved to the \fBcorrupt\fR queue
for further inspection.
Depending on the setting of the \fBnotify_classes\fR parameter,
the postmaster is notified of bounces and of other trouble.
.SH BUGS
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A single queue manager process has to compete for disk access with
multiple front-end processes such as \fBsmtpd\fR. A sudden burst of
inbound mail can negatively impact outbound delivery rates.
.SH CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS
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The following \fBmain.cf\fR parameters are especially relevant to
this program. See the Postfix \fBmain.cf\fR file for syntax details
and for default values. Use the \fBpostfix reload\fR command after
a configuration change.
.SH Miscellaneous
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.IP \fBallow_min_user\fR
Do not bounce recipient addresses that begin with '-'.
.IP \fBrelocated_maps\fR
Tables with contact information for users, hosts or domains
that no longer exist. See \fBrelocated\fR(5).
.IP \fBqueue_directory\fR
Top-level directory of the Postfix queue.
.SH "Active queue controls"
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In the text below, \fItransport\fR is the first field in a
\fBmaster.cf\fR entry.
.IP \fBqmgr_message_active_limit\fR
Limit the number of messages in the active queue.
.IP \fBqmgr_message_recipient_limit\fR
Limit the number of in-memory recipients.
.sp
This parameter also limits the size of the short-term, in-memory
destination cache.
.IP \fBqmgr_message_recipient_minimum\fR
Per message minimum of in-memory recipients.
.IP \fBdefault_recipient_limit\fR
Default limit on the number of in-memory recipients per transport.
.IP \fItransport\fB_recipient_limit\fR
Limit on the number of in-memory recipients, for the named
message \fItransport\fR.
.IP \fBdefault_extra_recipient_limit\fR
Default limit on the total number of per transport in-memory
recipients that the preempting messages can have.
.IP \fItransport\fB_extra_recipient_limit\fR
Limit on the number of in-memory recipients which all preempting
messages delivered by the transport \fItransport\fR can have.
.SH "Timing controls"
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.IP \fBmin_backoff\fR
Minimal time in seconds between delivery attempts
of a deferred message.
.sp
This parameter also limits the time an unreachable destination
is kept in the short-term, in-memory destination status cache.
.IP \fBmax_backoff\fR
Maximal time in seconds between delivery attempts
of a deferred message.
.IP \fBmaximal_queue_lifetime\fR
Maximal time in days a message is queued
before it is sent back as undeliverable.
.IP \fBqueue_run_delay\fR
Time in seconds between deferred queue scans. Queue scans do
not overlap.
.IP \fBtransport_retry_time\fR
Time in seconds between attempts to contact a broken
delivery transport.
.SH "Concurrency controls"
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.IP \fBinitial_destination_concurrency\fR
Initial per-destination concurrency level for parallel delivery
to the same destination.
.IP \fBdefault_destination_concurrency_limit\fR
Default limit on the number of parallel deliveries to the same
destination.
.IP \fItransport\fB_destination_concurrency_limit\fR
Limit on the number of parallel deliveries to the same destination,
for delivery via the named message \fItransport\fR.
.SH "Recipient controls"
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.IP \fBdefault_destination_recipient_limit\fR
Default limit on the number of recipients per message transfer.
.IP \fItransport\fB_destination_recipient_limit\fR
Limit on the number of recipients per message transfer, for the
named message \fItransport\fR.
.SH "Message scheduling"
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.IP "\fItransport\fB_delivery_slot_cost\fR (valid range: 0,2,3...)
This parameter basically controls how often a message
delivered by \fItransport\fR can be preempted by another
message.
An internal per-message/transport counter is incremented by one
for each \fItransport\fB_delivery_slot_cost\fR
deliveries handled by \fItransport\fR. This counter represents
the number of "available delivery slots" for use by other messages.
Current message can be preempted by another message when that
other message can be delivered using less \fItransport\fR agents
than the value of the "available delivery slots" counter.
.sp
Value equal to 0 disables the message preemption for \fItransport\fR.
.IP \fItransport\fB_minimum_delivery_slots\fR
Message preemption is not attempted at all whenever a message
that can't ever accumulate at least \fItransport\fB_minimum_delivery_slots\fR
available delivery slots is being delivered by \fItransport\fR.
.IP "\fItransport\fB_delivery_slot_discount\fR (valid range: 0..100)"
.IP \fItransport\fB_delivery_slot_loan\fR
These parameters speed up the moment when a message preemption can happen.
Instead of waiting until the full amount of delivery slots
required is available, the preemption can happen when
\fItransport\fB_delivery_slot_discount\fR percent of the required
amount plus \fItransport\fB_delivery_slot_loan\fR still remains to
be accumulated. Note that the full amount will still have to be
accumulated before another preemption can take place later.
.IP \fBdefault_delivery_slot_cost\fR
.IP \fBdefault_minimum_delivery_slots\fR
.IP \fBdefault_delivery_slot_discount\fR
.IP \fBdefault_delivery_slot_loan\fR
Default values for the transport specific parameters described above.
.SH SEE ALSO
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master(8), process manager
relocated(5), format of the "user has moved" table
syslogd(8) system logging
trivial-rewrite(8), address routing
.SH LICENSE
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The Secure Mailer license must be distributed with this software.
.SH AUTHOR(S)
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Wietse Venema
IBM T.J. Watson Research
P.O. Box 704
Yorktown Heights, NY 10598, USA
Scheduler enhancements:
Patrik Rak
Modra 6
155 00, Prague, Czech Republic