BOUNCE(5)		      File Formats Manual		     BOUNCE(5)



NAME
       bounce - Postfix bounce message template format

SYNOPSIS
       bounce_template_file = /etc/postfix/bounce.cf

       postconf -b [template_file]

DESCRIPTION
       The  Postfix  bounce(8)	server	produces  delivery status notification
       (DSN) messages for undeliverable mail, delayed mail, successful	deliv-
       ery or address verification requests.

       By  default,  these notifications are generated from built-in templates
       with message headers and message text. Sites can override the  built-in
       information  by	specifying a bounce template file with the bounce_tem-
       plate_file configuration parameter.

       This document describes the general procedure to create a  bounce  tem-
       plate  file,  followed  by the specific details of bounce template for-
       mats.

GENERAL PROCEDURE
       To create a customized bounce template file, create a temporary copy of
       the  file  /usr/share/doc/postfix-2.6.6/bounce.cf.default  and edit the
       temporary file.

       To preview the results of $name expansions in the  template  text,  use
       the command

	   postconf -b temporary_file

       Errors  in  the	template will be reported to the standard error stream
       and to the syslog daemon.

       While previewing the text, be sure to pay particular attention  to  the
       expansion  of  time  value  parameters  that appear in the delayed mail
       notification text.

       Once the result is satisfactory, copy the template to the Postfix  con-
       figuration directory and specify in main.cf something like:

       /etc/postfix/main.cf:
	   bounce_template_file = /etc/postfix/bounce.cf

TEMPLATE FILE FORMAT
       The  template file can specify templates for failed mail, delayed mail,
       successful delivery or for address verification.	 These	templates  are
       named   failure_template,  delay_template,  success_template  and  ver-
       ify_template, respectively.  You can but do not	have  to  specify  all
       four templates in a bounce template file.

       Each  template starts with "template_name = <<EOF" and ends with a line
       that contains the word "EOF" only. You can change the word EOF, but you
       can't  enclose  it  in  quotes  as  with	 the  shell or with Perl (tem-
       plate_name = <<'EOF'). Here is an example:

	   # The failure template is used for undeliverable mail.

	   failure_template = <<EOF
	   Charset: us-ascii
	   From: MAILER-DAEMON (Mail Delivery System)
	   Subject: Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender
	   Postmaster-Subject: Postmaster Copy: Undelivered Mail

	   This is the mail system at host $myhostname.

	   I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not
	   be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below.

	   For further assistance, please send mail to postmaster.

	   If you do so, please include this problem report. You can
	   delete your own text from the attached returned message.

			      The mail system
	   EOF

       The usage and specification of bounce templates is subject to the  fol-
       lowing restrictions:

       o      No  special  meaning  is	given to the backslash character or to
	      leading whitespace; these are always taken literally.

       o      Inside the << context, the "$" character is special. To  produce
	      a "$" character as output, specify "$$".

       o      Outside the << context, lines beginning with "#" are ignored, as
	      are empty lines, and lines consisting of whitespace only.

       Examples of all templates can be found in the file bounce.cf.default in
       the Postfix configuration directory.

TEMPLATE HEADER FORMAT
       The  first  portion  of a bounce template consists of optional template
       headers.	 Some become message headers in the delivery status  notifica-
       tion;  some  control  the  formatting of that notification. Headers not
       specified in a template will be left at their default value.

       The following headers are supported:

       Charset:
	      The MIME character set of the template message  text.   See  the
	      "TEMPLATE MESSAGE TEXT FORMAT" description below.

       From:  The  sender address in the message header of the delivery status
	      notification.

       Subject:
	      The subject in the message header of the delivery status notifi-
	      cation that is returned to the sender.

       Postmaster-Subject:
	      The subject that will be used in Postmaster copies of undeliver-
	      able or delayed mail notifications. These copies are sent	 under
	      control of the notify_classes configuration parameter.

       The  usage  and specification of template message headers is subject to
       the following restrictions:

       o      Template message header names can be specified  in  upper	 case,
	      lower case or mixed case. Postfix always produces bounce message
	      header labels of the form "From:" and "Subject:".

       o      Template message headers must not span multiple lines.

       o      Template message headers do not support $parameter expansions.

       o      Template message headers must contain ASCII characters only, and
	      must not contain ASCII null characters.

TEMPLATE MESSAGE TEXT FORMAT
       The  second  portion  of a bounce template consists of message text. As
       the above example shows, template  message  text	 may  contain  main.cf
       $parameters.  Besides  the  parameters that are defined in main.cf, the
       following parameters are treated specially depending on the suffix that
       is appended to their name.

       delay_warning_time_suffix
	      Expands  into  the  value	 of  the delay_warning_time parameter,
	      expressed in the time unit specified by suffix, which is one  of
	      seconds, minutes, hours, days, or weeks.

       maximal_queue_lifetime_suffix
	      Expands  into the value of the maximal_queue_lifetime parameter,
	      expressed in the time unit specified by suffix.  See above under
	      delay_warning_time for possible suffix values.

       The  usage and specification of template message text is subject to the
       following restrictions:

       o      The template message text is not sent in	Postmaster  copies  of
	      delivery status notifications.

       o      If  the  template	 message  text	contains non-ASCII characters,
	      Postfix requires that the Charset: template header  is  updated.
	      Specify  an  appropriate	superset  of  US-ASCII.	 A superset is
	      needed because Postfix appends ASCII text after the message tem-
	      plate when it sends a delivery status notification.

SEE ALSO
       bounce(8), Postfix delivery status notifications
       postconf(5), configuration parameters

LICENSE
       The Secure Mailer license must be distributed with this software.

HISTORY
       The  Postfix bounce template format was originally developed by Nicolas
       Riendeau.

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



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