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POSTMULTI(1)                General Commands Manual               POSTMULTI(1)

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 mul-
       tiple Postfix instances on a single host.

       postmulti(1) implements two fundamental modes of operation.  In  itera-
       tor  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  in-
       stance,  and one or more secondary instances whose configuration direc-
       tory 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 in-
       stance in a multi-instance configuration. The postmulti(1) command does
       not currently support a -c option to select an alternative primary  in-
       stance,  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 per-
       formed 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 updat-
              ing  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 im-
              plements the postfix-wrapper(5) interface.

              o      With "start"-like commands, "postfix check"  is  executed
                     for instances that are not enabled. The full list of com-
                     mands is specified with the postmulti_start_commands  pa-
                     rameter.

              o      With  "stop"-like  commands,  the  iteration order is re-
                     versed, and disabled instances are skipped. The full list
                     of commands is specified with the postmulti_stop_commands
                     parameter.

              o      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_com-
                     mands parameter.

              o      With  "status"  and  other  commands that don't require a
                     started instance, the command is  executed  for  all  in-
                     stances.

              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 fol-
              lows:

                     # 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_direc-
              tory,   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  op-
              tions 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  in-
       stance.

       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_in-
                     stance_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"  in-
                     stances,  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 con-
                     fig_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  corre-
                     sponding  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 pro-
                     vided  it  specifies the new name for the instance and is
                     used to define a default location for the  instance  con-
                     figuration  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 over-
                     ride 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  de-
                     stroy 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 configu-
                     ration  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 directo-
                     ries, 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  cre-
                     ate  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  in-
                     stances.  This  deletes the instance configuration direc-
                     tory from the primary instance's  multi_instance_directo-
                     ries list, but does not remove any files or directories.

              assign Assign a new instance name or a new group name to the se-
                     lected 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  in-
                     stance'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 op-
              tions 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 con-
              figuration 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  directo-
              ries;  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 mul-
              tiple Postfix instances, such as postfix-files,  dynamicmaps.cf,
              and  the  multi-instance  template  files main.cf.proto and mas-
              ter.cf.proto.

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

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | BACKGROUND | ITERATOR MODE | Instance selection | List mode | Postfix-wrapper mode | Command mode | Other options | LIFE-CYCLE MANAGEMENT MODE | Existing instance selection | New or existing instance name assignment | Instance creation/deletion/status change | Other options | ENVIRONMENT | CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS | FILES | SEE ALSO | README FILES | HISTORY | LICENSE | AUTHOR(S)