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] command...

       postmulti -x [-aRv] [-g group] [-i name] 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
       instance,  and  one  or  more  secondary  instances whose configuration
       directory 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
       instance  in  a  multi-instance configuration. The postmulti(1) command
       does not currently support a -c option to select an alternative primary
       instance,  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     Invoke postfix(1) to execute the specified command.  This option
              implements 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
                     parameter.

              o      With   "stop"-like   commands,  the  iteration  order  is
                     reversed, and disabled instances are  skipped.  The  full
                     list   of   commands   is   specified   with   the  post-
                     multi_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
                     instances.

              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     Execute the specified command for all  Postfix  instances.   The
              command runs with appropriate environment settings for MAIL_CON-
              FIG,  command_directory,   daemon_directory,   config_directory,
              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
              options 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
       instance.

       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_instance_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"
                     instances,  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
                     destroy  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
                     instances. 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
                     selected 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
                     instance'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
              options 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 Postfix  process  will
              import from a non-Postfix parent process.

       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)
              The  mail  system  name that is prepended to the process name in
              syslog records, so that "smtpd"  becomes,  for  example,  "post-
              fix/smtpd".

FILES
       $daemon_directory/main.cf, stock configuration file
       $daemon_directory/master.cf, 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



                                                                  POSTMULTI(1)
