POSTSUPER(1) 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 measure, 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 mes-
sage 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 proba-
bility 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 multiple messages, spec-
ify multiple -r command-line options. Alterna-
tively, if a queue_id of - is specified, the pro-
gram 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 guaranteed to match the new
queue file inode number. The new queue file is sub-
jected again to mail address rewriting and substi-
tution. This is useful when rewriting rules or vir-
tual 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 sub-
directories that are no longer needed. File
position rearrangements are necessary after
a change in the hash_queue_names and/or
hash_queue_depth configuration parameters.
-v Enable verbose logging for debugging purposes. Mul-
tiple -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 sys-
logd.
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 multi-
ple 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
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