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 multiple Postfix instances on a single host.

       postmulti(1) implements two fundamental modes of operation.  In iterator 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 environ-
       ment 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 performed 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 path-
	      name of the instance's configuration directory.  Specify "-" to select the primary Postfix instance.

       -R     Reverse  the  iteration  order.  This  may  be appropriate when updating 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  commands	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 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_commands 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 follows:

		     # 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_CONFIG,
	      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 config_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 corresponding  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 provided it specifies
		     the new name for the instance and is used to define a default location for the instance configuration directory (as with cre-
		     ate  above).  The "-G group" option may be used to assign the instance to a group. Add a "config_directory=/path" argument to
		     override 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 configuration 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 directories, 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 create 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  configu-
		     ration 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 directory from the
		     primary instance's multi_instance_directories 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", "post-
		     multi -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 configuration 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 directories; 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, "postfix/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)