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POSTALIAS(1)                                                      POSTALIAS(1)

<b>NAME</b>
       postalias - Postfix alias database maintenance

<b>SYNOPSIS</b>
       <b>postalias</b> [<b>-Nfinoprsvw</b>] [<b>-c</b> <i>config</i><b>_</b><i>dir</i>] [<b>-d</b> <i>key</i>] [<b>-q</b> <i>key</i>]
               [<i>file</i><b>_</b><i>type</i>:]<i>file</i><b>_</b><i>name</i> ...

<b>DESCRIPTION</b>
       The  <a href="postalias.1.html"><b>postalias</b>(1)</a>  command  creates or queries one or more
       Postfix alias databases, or updates an existing  one.  The
       input  and output file formats are expected to be compati-
       ble with Sendmail version 8, and are expected to be  suit-
       able 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 their  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 processes.

       The format of Postfix alias input files  is  described  in
       <a href="aliases.5.html"><b>aliases</b>(5)</a>.

       By  default  the lookup key is mapped to lowercase to make
       the lookups case insensitive; as of Postfix 2.3 this  case
       folding  happens  only  with  tables whose lookup keys are
       fixed-case strings such as btree:,  dbm:  or  hash:.  With
       earlier  versions,  the  lookup  key  is  folded even with
       tables where a lookup field can match both upper and lower
       case  text,  such  as  <a href="regexp_table.5.html">regexp</a>: and <a href="pcre_table.5.html">pcre</a>:. This resulted in
       loss of information with $<i>number</i> substitutions.

       Options:

       <b>-c</b> <i>config</i><b>_</b><i>dir</i>
              Read the <a href="postconf.5.html"><b>main.cf</b></a> configuration file  in  the  named
              directory  instead  of  the  default  configuration
              directory.

       <b>-d</b> <i>key</i> Search the specified maps for <i>key</i>  and  remove  one
              entry  per  map.   The exit status is zero when the
              requested information was found.

              If a key value of <b>-</b> 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.

       <b>-f</b>     Do not fold the lookup key to lower case while cre-
              ating or querying a table.

              With Postfix version 2.3 and later, this option has
              no  effect  for  regular  expression tables. There,
              case folding is controlled by appending a flag to a
              pattern.

       <b>-i</b>     Incremental  mode. Read entries from standard input
              and  do  not  truncate  an  existing  database.  By
              default,  <a href="postalias.1.html"><b>postalias</b>(1)</a>  creates a new database from
              the entries in <i>file</i><b>_</b><i>name</i>.

       <b>-N</b>     Include the terminating null character that  termi-
              nates  lookup  keys and values. By default, <b>postal-</b>
              <b>ias</b>(1) does whatever is the default  for  the  host
              operating system.

       <b>-n</b>     Don't  include  the terminating null character that
              terminates lookup  keys  and  values.  By  default,
              <a href="postalias.1.html"><b>postalias</b>(1)</a>  does  whatever is the default for the
              host operating system.

       <b>-o</b>     Do not release root privileges  when  processing  a
              non-root input file. By default, <a href="postalias.1.html"><b>postalias</b>(1)</a> drops
              root privileges and runs as the source  file  owner
              instead.

       <b>-p</b>     Do not inherit the file access permissions from the
              input file when creating a new file.  Instead, cre-
              ate  a  new  file  with  default access permissions
              (mode 0644).

       <b>-q</b> <i>key</i> Search the specified maps for  <i>key</i>  and  write  the
              first  value  found  to the standard output stream.
              The exit status is zero when the requested informa-
              tion was found.

              If a key value of <b>-</b> is specified, the program reads
              key values  from  the  standard  input  stream  and
              writes  one  line of <i>key: value</i> output for each key
              that was found. The exit status  is  zero  when  at
              least one of the requested keys was found.

       <b>-r</b>     When  updating  a  table,  do  not  complain  about
              attempts to update existing entries, and make those
              updates anyway.

       <b>-s</b>     Retrieve  all database elements, and write one line
              of <i>key: value</i> output for each element. The elements
              are  printed in database order, which is not neces-
              sarily the same as the original input order.   This
              feature  is  available  in  Postfix version 2.2 and
              later, and is not available for all database types.

       <b>-v</b>     Enable verbose logging for debugging purposes. Mul-
              tiple <b>-v</b> options  make  the  software  increasingly
              verbose.

       <b>-w</b>     When  updating  a  table,  do  not  complain  about
              attempts to update  existing  entries,  and  ignore
              those attempts.

       Arguments:

       <i>file</i><b>_</b><i>type</i>
              The  database type. To find out what types are sup-
              ported, use the "<b>postconf -m</b>" command.

              The <a href="postalias.1.html"><b>postalias</b>(1)</a> command can  query  any  supported
              file  type,  but  it  can create only the following
              file types:

              <b>btree</b>  The  output   is   a   btree   file,   named
                     <i>file</i><b>_</b><i>name</i><b>.db</b>.   This is available on systems
                     with support for <b>db</b> databases.

              <b>cdb</b>    The output is one file named  <i>file</i><b>_</b><i>name</i><b>.cdb</b>.
                     This  is  available  on systems with support
                     for <b>cdb</b> databases.

              <b>dbm</b>    The output  consists  of  two  files,  named
                     <i>file</i><b>_</b><i>name</i><b>.pag</b>  and  <i>file</i><b>_</b><i>name</i><b>.dir</b>.   This is
                     available on systems with  support  for  <b>dbm</b>
                     databases.

              <b>hash</b>   The   output   is   a   hashed  file,  named
                     <i>file</i><b>_</b><i>name</i><b>.db</b>.  This is available on  systems
                     with support for <b>db</b> databases.

              <b>fail</b>   A  table  that  reliably fails all requests.
                     The lookup table name is  used  for  logging
                     only.  This table exists to simplify Postfix
                     error tests.

              <b>sdbm</b>   The output  consists  of  two  files,  named
                     <i>file</i><b>_</b><i>name</i><b>.pag</b>  and  <i>file</i><b>_</b><i>name</i><b>.dir</b>.   This is
                     available on systems with support  for  <b>sdbm</b>
                     databases.

              When  no  <i>file</i><b>_</b><i>type</i> is specified, the software uses
              the database type specified via  the  <b><a href="postconf.5.html#default_database_type">default_data</a>-</b>
              <b><a href="postconf.5.html#default_database_type">base_type</a></b>  configuration  parameter.   The  default
              value for this parameter depends on the host  envi-
              ronment.

       <i>file</i><b>_</b><i>name</i>
              The  name  of  the  alias database source file when
              creating a database.

<b>DIAGNOSTICS</b>
       Problems are logged to the standard error  stream  and  to
       <b>syslogd</b>(8).    No  output  means  that  no  problems  were
       detected. Duplicate entries are skipped  and  are  flagged
       with a warning.

       <a href="postalias.1.html"><b>postalias</b>(1)</a>  terminates  with zero exit status in case of
       success (including successful "<b>postalias -q</b>"  lookup)  and
       terminates with non-zero exit status in case of failure.

<b>ENVIRONMENT</b>
       <b>MAIL_CONFIG</b>
              Directory with Postfix configuration files.

       <b>MAIL_VERBOSE</b>
              Enable verbose logging for debugging purposes.

<b>CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS</b>
       The  following  <a href="postconf.5.html"><b>main.cf</b></a> parameters are especially relevant
       to this program.

       The text below provides  only  a  parameter  summary.  See
       <a href="postconf.5.html"><b>postconf</b>(5)</a> for more details including examples.

       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#alias_database">alias_database</a> (see 'postconf -d' output)</b>
              The  alias databases for <a href="local.8.html"><b>local</b>(8)</a> delivery that are
              updated with "<b>newaliases</b>" or with "<b>sendmail -bi</b>".

       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#config_directory">config_directory</a> (see 'postconf -d' output)</b>
              The default location of  the  Postfix  <a href="postconf.5.html">main.cf</a>  and
              <a href="master.5.html">master.cf</a> configuration files.

       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#berkeley_db_create_buffer_size">berkeley_db_create_buffer_size</a> (16777216)</b>
              The  per-table  I/O  buffer  size for programs that
              create Berkeley DB hash or btree tables.

       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#berkeley_db_read_buffer_size">berkeley_db_read_buffer_size</a> (131072)</b>
              The per-table I/O buffer  size  for  programs  that
              read Berkeley DB hash or btree tables.

       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#default_database_type">default_database_type</a> (see 'postconf -d' output)</b>
              The default database type for use in <a href="newaliases.1.html"><b>newaliases</b>(1)</a>,
              <a href="postalias.1.html"><b>postalias</b>(1)</a> and <a href="postmap.1.html"><b>postmap</b>(1)</a> commands.

       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#syslog_facility">syslog_facility</a> (mail)</b>
              The syslog facility of Postfix logging.

       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#syslog_name">syslog_name</a> (see 'postconf -d' output)</b>
              The mail system  name  that  is  prepended  to  the
              process  name  in  syslog  records, so that "smtpd"
              becomes, for example, "postfix/smtpd".

<b>STANDARDS</b>
       <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc822">RFC 822</a> (ARPA Internet Text Messages)

<b>SEE ALSO</b>
       <a href="aliases.5.html">aliases(5)</a>, format of alias database input file.
       <a href="local.8.html">local(8)</a>, Postfix local delivery agent.
       <a href="postconf.1.html">postconf(1)</a>, supported database types
       <a href="postconf.5.html">postconf(5)</a>, configuration parameters
       <a href="postmap.1.html">postmap(1)</a>, create/update/query lookup tables
       <a href="newaliases.1.html">newaliases(1)</a>, Sendmail compatibility interface.
       syslogd(8), system logging

<b>README FILES</b>
       <a href="DATABASE_README.html">DATABASE_README</a>, Postfix lookup table overview

<b>LICENSE</b>
       The  Secure  Mailer  license must be distributed with this
       software.

<b>AUTHOR(S)</b>
       Wietse Venema
       IBM T.J. Watson Research
       P.O. Box 704
       Yorktown Heights, NY 10598, USA

                                                                  POSTALIAS(1)
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