POSTALIAS(1) POSTALIAS(1)
NAME
postalias - Postfix alias database maintenance
SYNOPSIS
postalias [-Nfinorvw] [-c config_dir] [-d key] [-q key]
[file_type:]file_name ...
DESCRIPTION
The postalias command creates or queries one or more Post-
fix alias databases, or updates an existing one. The input
and output file formats are expected to be compatible with
Sendmail version 8, and are expected to be suitable for
the use as NIS alias maps.
If the result files do not exist they will be created with
the same group and other read permissions as the source
file.
While a database update is in progress, signal delivery is
postponed, and an exclusive, advisory, lock is placed on
the entire database, in order to avoid surprises in spec-
tator programs.
Options:
-N Include the terminating null character that termi-
nates lookup keys and values. By default, Postfix
does whatever is the default for the host operating
system.
-c config_dir
Read the main.cf configuration file in the named
directory instead of the default configuration
directory.
-d key Search the specified maps for key and remove one
entry per map. The exit status is zero when the
requested information was found.
If a key value of - is specified, the program reads
key values from the standard input stream. The exit
status is zero when at least one of the requested
keys was found.
-f Do not fold the lookup key to lower case while cre-
ating or querying a map.
-i Incremental mode. Read entries from standard input
and do not truncate an existing database. By
default, postalias creates a new database from the
entries in file_name.
-n Don't include the terminating null character that
terminates lookup keys and values. By default,
Postfix does whatever is the default for the host
operating system.
-o Do not release root privileges when processing a
non-root input file. By default, postalias drops
root privileges and runs as the source file owner
instead.
-q key Search the specified maps for key and print the
first value found on the standard output stream.
The exit status is zero when the requested informa-
tion was found.
If a key value of - is specified, the program reads
key values from the standard input stream and
prints one line of key: value output for each key
that was found. The exit status is zero when at
least one of the requested keys was found.
-r When updating a table, do not warn about duplicate
entries; silently replace them.
-v Enable verbose logging for debugging purposes. Mul-
tiple -v options make the software increasingly
verbose.
-w When updating a table, do not warn about duplicate
entries; silently ignore them.
Arguments:
file_type
The type of database to be produced.
btree The output is a btree file, named
file_name.db. This is available only on
systems with support for db databases.
dbm The output consists of two files, named
file_name.pag and file_name.dir. This is
available only on systems with support for
dbm databases.
hash The output is a hashed file, named
file_name.db. This is available only on
systems with support for db databases.
Use the command postconf -m to find out what types
of database your Postfix installation can support.
When no file_type is specified, the software uses
the database type specified via the
default_database_type configuration parameter. The
default value for this parameter depends on the
host environment.
file_name
The name of the alias database source file when
creating a database.
DIAGNOSTICS
Problems are logged to the standard error stream. No out-
put means no problems were detected. Duplicate entries are
skipped and are flagged with a warning.
postalias terminates with zero exit status in case of suc-
cess (including successful postalias -q lookup) and termi-
nates with non-zero exit status in case of failure.
ENVIRONMENT
MAIL_CONFIG
Directory with Postfix configuration files.
MAIL_VERBOSE
Enable verbose logging for debugging purposes.
CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS
The following main.cf parameters are especially relevant
to this program. See the Postfix main.cf file for syntax
details and for default values.
default_database_type
Default database type. On many UNIX systems, the
default type is either dbm or hash.
berkeley_db_create_buffer_size
Amount of buffer memory to be used when creating a
Berkeley DB hash or btree lookup table.
berkeley_db_read_buffer_size
Amount of buffer memory to be used when reading a
Berkeley DB hash or btree lookup table.
STANDARDS
RFC 822 (ARPA Internet Text Messages)
SEE ALSO
aliases(5) format of alias database input file.
sendmail(1) mail posting and compatibility interface.
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
POSTALIAS(1)