POSTSUPER(1) General Commands Manual POSTSUPER(1)
NAME
postsuper - Postfix superintendent
SYNOPSIS
postsuper [-psv] [-d queue_id] [-r queue_id] [directory ...]
DESCRIPTION
The postsuper command does maintenance jobs on the Postfix queue. Use of the command is restricted to the super-user.
By default, postsuper performs the operations requested with the -s and -p command-line options on all Postfix queue directories - this
includes the incoming, active and deferred directories with mail files and the bounce, defer and flush directories with log files.
Options:
-d queue_id
Delete one message with the named queue ID from the named mail queue(s) (default: incoming, active and deferred). If a queue_id of
- is specified, the program reads queue IDs from standard input.
Specify -d ALL to remove all messages; for example, specify -d ALL deferred to delete mail in the deferred queue. As a safety mea-
sure, the word ALL must be specified in upper case.
Postfix queue IDs are reused. There is a very small possibility that postsuper deletes the wrong message file when it is executed
while the Postfix mail system is running.
The scenario is as follows:
1) The Postfix queue manager deletes the message that postsuper is supposed to delete, because Postfix is finished with the mes-
sage.
2) New mail arrives, and the new message is given the same queue ID as the message that postsuper is supposed to delete. The
probability for reusing a deleted queue ID is about 1 in 2**15 (the number of different microsecond values that the system
clock can distinguish within a second).
3) postsuper deletes the new message, instead of the old message that it should have deleted.
-p Purge old temporary files that are left over after system or software crashes.
-r queue_id
Requeue the message with the named queue ID from the named mail queue(s) (default: incoming, active and deferred). To requeue mul-
tiple messages, specify multiple -r command-line options. Alternatively, if a queue_id of - is specified, the program reads queue
IDs from standard input.
Specify -r ALL to requeue all messages. As a safety measure, the word ALL must be specified in upper case.
A requeued message is moved to the maildrop queue, from where it is copied by the pickup daemon to a new file whose name is guaran-
teed to match the new queue file inode number. The new queue file is subjected again to mail address rewriting and substitution.
This is useful when rewriting rules or virtual mappings have changed.
Postfix queue IDs are reused. There is a very small possibility that postsuper requeues the wrong message file when it is executed
while the Postfix mail system is running, but no harm should be done.
-s Structure check and structure repair. It is highly recommended to perform this operation once before Postfix startup.
o Rename files whose name does not match the message file inode number. This operation is necessary after restoring a mail
queue from a different machine, or from backup media.
o Move queue files that are in the wrong place in the file system hierarchy and remove subdirectories that are no longer
needed. File position rearrangements are necessary after a change in the hash_queue_names and/or hash_queue_depth configura-
tion parameters.
-v Enable verbose logging for debugging purposes. Multiple -v options make the software increasingly verbose.
DIAGNOSTICS
Problems are reported to the standard error stream and to syslogd.
postsuper reports the number of messages deleted with -d, the number of messages requeued with -r, and the number of messages whose queue
file name was fixed with -s. The report is written to the standard error stream and to syslogd.
CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS
See the Postfix main.cf file for syntax details and for default values.
hash_queue_depth
Number of subdirectory levels for hashed queues.
hash_queue_names
The names of queues that are organized into multiple levels of subdirectories.
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
POSTSUPER(1)