POSTMULTI(1)		    General Commands Manual		  POSTMULTI(1)



NAME
       postmulti - Postfix multi-instance manager

SYNOPSIS
       postmulti -l [-aRv] [-g group] [-i name]

       postmulti -p [-av] [-g group] [-i name] command...

       postmulti -x [-aRv] [-g group] [-i name] command...

       postmulti -e init [-v]

       postmulti -e create [-av] [-g group] [-i name] [-G group] [-I name]
       [param=value ...]

       postmulti -e import [-av] [-g group] [-i name] [-G group] [-I name]
       [config_directory=/path]

       postmulti -e destroy [-v] -i name

       postmulti -e deport [-v] -i name

       postmulti -e enable [-v] -i name

       postmulti -e disable [-v] -i name

       postmulti -e assign [-v] -i name [-I name] [-G group]

DESCRIPTION
       The  postmulti(1) command allows a Postfix administrator to manage mul-
       tiple Postfix instances on a single host.

       postmulti(1) implements two fundamental modes of operation.  In	itera-
       tor  mode, it executes the same command for multiple Postfix instances.
       In life-cycle management mode, it adds  or  deletes  one	 instance,  or
       changes the multi-instance status of one instance.

       Each  mode  of  operation  has its own command syntax. For this reason,
       each mode is documented in separate sections below.

BACKGROUND
       A  multi-instance  configuration	 consists  of  one   primary   Postfix
       instance,  and  one  or	more  secondary	 instances whose configuration
       directory pathnames are recorded	 in  the  primary  instance's  main.cf
       file. Postfix instances share program files and documentation, but have
       their own configuration, queue and data directories.

       Currently, only the default Postfix instance can	 be  used  as  primary
       instance	 in  a	multi-instance configuration. The postmulti(1) command
       does not currently support a -c option to select an alternative primary
       instance,  and  exits with a fatal error if the MAIL_CONFIG environment
       variable is set to a non-default configuration directory.

       See the MULTI_INSTANCE_README tutorial for a more  detailed  discussion
       of multi-instance management with postmulti(1).

ITERATOR MODE
       In  iterator mode, postmulti performs the same operation on all Postfix
       instances in turn.

       If multi-instance support is not enabled, the requested command is per-
       formed just for the primary instance.

       Iterator mode implements the following command options:

Instance selection
       -a     Perform the operation on all instances. This is the default.

       -g group
	      Perform the operation only for members of the named group.

       -i name
	      Perform  the  operation only for the instance with the specified
	      name.  You can specify either the instance name or the  absolute
	      pathname of the instance's configuration directory.  Specify "-"
	      to select the primary Postfix instance.

       -R     Reverse the iteration order. This may be appropriate when updat-
	      ing  a multi-instance system, where "sink" instances are started
	      before "source" instances.

	      This option cannot be used with -p.

List mode
       -l     List Postfix instances with their instance name, instance	 group
	      name, enable/disable status and configuration directory.

Postfix-wrapper mode
       -p     Invoke postfix(1) to execute the specified command.  This option
	      implements the postfix-wrapper(5) interface.

	      o	     With "start"-like commands, "postfix check"  is  executed
		     for instances that are not enabled. The full list of com-
		     mands  is	specified  with	 the  postmulti_start_commands
		     parameter.

	      o	     With   "stop"-like	  commands,  the  iteration  order  is
		     reversed, and disabled instances are  skipped.  The  full
		     list   of	 commands   is	 specified   with   the	 post-
		     multi_stop_commands parameter.

	      o	     With "reload" and other commands that require  a  started
		     instance,	disabled  instances are skipped. The full list
		     of commands is specified with the	postmulti_control_com-
		     mands parameter.

	      o	     With  "status"  and  other	 commands that don't require a
		     started  instance,	 the  command  is  executed  for   all
		     instances.

	      The  -p option can also be used interactively to start/stop/etc.
	      a named instance or instance group. For example, to  start  just
	      the  instances  in  the group "msa", invoke postmulti(1) as fol-
	      lows:

		     # postmulti -g msa -p start

Command mode
       -x     Execute the specified command for all  Postfix  instances.   The
	      command runs with appropriate environment settings for MAIL_CON-
	      FIG,  command_directory,	 daemon_directory,   config_directory,
	      queue_directory,	     data_directory,	  multi_instance_name,
	      multi_instance_group and multi_instance_enable.

Other options
       -v     Enable verbose  logging  for  debugging  purposes.  Multiple  -v
	      options make the software increasingly verbose.

LIFE-CYCLE MANAGEMENT MODE
       With  the -e option postmulti(1) can be used to add or delete a Postfix
       instance, and to	 manage	 the  multi-instance  status  of  an  existing
       instance.

       The following options are implemented:

Existing instance selection
       -a     When  creating  or importing an instance, place the new instance
	      at the front of the secondary instance list.

       -g group
	      When creating or importing an instance, place the	 new  instance
	      before  the  first  secondary  instance  that is a member of the
	      specified group.

       -i name
	      When creating or importing an instance, place the	 new  instance
	      before the matching secondary instance.

	      With  other  life-cycle  operations,  apply the operation to the
	      named existing instance.	Specify	 "-"  to  select  the  primary
	      Postfix instance.

New or existing instance name assignment
       -I name
	      Assign  the  specified  instance	name  to an existing instance,
	      newly-created instance, or imported  instance.   Instance	 names
	      other  than "-" (which makes the instance "nameless") must start
	      with "postfix-".	This restriction  reduces  the	likelihood  of
	      name collisions with system files.

       -G group
	      Assign  the specified group name to an existing instance or to a
	      newly created or imported instance.

Instance creation/deletion/status change
       -e action
	      "Edit" managed instances. The following actions are supported:

	      init   This command is required before postmulti(1) can be  used
		     to	 manage	 Postfix  instances.   The "postmulti -e init"
		     command updates the primary instance's  main.cf  file  by
		     setting:

			    multi_instance_wrapper =
				    ${command_directory}/postmulti -p --
			    multi_instance_enable = yes

		     You can set these by other means if you prefer.

	      create Create   a	 new  Postfix  instance	 and  add  it  to  the
		     multi_instance_directories	 parameter  of	 the   primary
		     instance.	 The  "-I  name" option is recommended to give
		     the instance a short  name	 that  is  used	 to  construct
		     default  values  for  the	private directories of the new
		     instance. The "-G	group"	option	may  be	 specified  to
		     assign  the  instance  to	a  group,  otherwise,  the new
		     instance is not a member of any groups.

		     The new instance main.cf is the stock  main.cf  with  the
		     parameters	 that  specify	the  locations of shared files
		     cloned  from  the	primary	 instance.    For   "nameless"
		     instances,	 you  should  manually adjust "syslog_name" to
		     yield a unique "logtag"  starting	with  "postfix-"  that
		     will  uniquely identify the instance in the mail logs. It
		     is simpler to assign the instance a short name  with  the
		     "-I name" option.

		     Optional "name=value" arguments specify the instance con-
		     fig_directory, queue_directory and	 data_directory.   For
		     example:

			    # postmulti -I postfix-mumble \
				    -G mygroup -e create \
				    config_directory=/my/config/dir \
				    queue_directory=/my/queue/dir \
				    data_directory=/my/data/dir

		     If	 any  of  these pathnames is not supplied, the program
		     attempts to generate the pathname by  taking  the	corre-
		     sponding  primary instance pathname, and by replacing the
		     last pathname component by the value of the -I option.

		     If the instance configuration directory  already  exists,
		     and  contains  both  a main.cf and master.cf file, create
		     will "import" the instance as-is. For existing instances,
		     create and import are identical.

	      import Import  an	 existing  instance into the list of instances
		     managed by the postmulti(1) multi-instance manager.  This
		     adds  the instance to the multi_instance_directories list
		     of the primary instance.  If the "-I name" option is pro-
		     vided  it	specifies the new name for the instance and is
		     used to define a default location for the	instance  con-
		     figuration	 directory  (as	 with  create above).  The "-G
		     group" option may be used to assign  the  instance	 to  a
		     group.  Add  a "config_directory=/path" argument to over-
		     ride a default pathname based on "-I name".

	      destroy
		     Destroy a secondary Postfix instance. To be  a  candidate
		     for destruction an instance must be disabled, stopped and
		     its queue must not	 contain  any  messages.  Attempts  to
		     destroy  the  primary  Postfix  instance  trigger a fatal
		     error, without destroying the instance.

		     The instance is removed from the primary instance main.cf
		     file's  alternate_config_directories  parameter  and  its
		     data, queue and configuration directories are cleaned  of
		     files  and directories created by the Postfix system. The
		     main.cf and master.cf files are removed from the configu-
		     ration  directory	even  if they have been modified since
		     initial creation. Finally,	 the  instance	is  "deported"
		     from the list of managed instances.

		     If	 other	files are present in instance private directo-
		     ries, the directories may not be fully removed, a warning
		     is logged to alert the administrator. It is expected that
		     an instance built using "fresh" directories via the  cre-
		     ate  action  will	be fully removed by the destroy action
		     (if first disabled). If the  instance  configuration  and
		     queue  directories	 are  populated	 with additional files
		     (access and rewriting tables, chroot jail content,	 etc.)
		     the instance directories will not be fully removed.

		     The  destroy  action  triggers potentially dangerous file
		     removal operations. Make sure the instance's data,	 queue
		     and  configuration	 directories  are set correctly and do
		     not contain any valuable files.

	      deport Deport a secondary instance  from	the  list  of  managed
		     instances. This deletes the instance configuration direc-
		     tory from the primary instance's  multi_instance_directo-
		     ries list, but does not remove any files or directories.

	      assign Assign  a	new  instance  name or a new group name to the
		     selected instance.	 Use "-G -" to specify "no group"  and
		     "-I  -"  to  specify "no name".  If you choose to make an
		     instance "nameless", set a suitable  syslog_name  in  the
		     corresponding main.cf file.

	      enable Mark the selected instance as enabled. This just sets the
		     multi_instance_enable   parameter	 to   "yes"   in   the
		     instance's main.cf file.

	      disable
		     Mark  the	selected instance as disabled. This means that
		     the instance will	not  be	 started  etc.	with  "postfix
		     start",  "postmulti -p start" and so on. The instance can
		     still be started etc. with "postfix  -c  config-directory
		     start".

Other options
       -v     Enable  verbose  logging	for  debugging	purposes.  Multiple -v
	      options make the software increasingly verbose.

ENVIRONMENT
       The postmulti(1) command exports the  following	environment  variables
       before executing the requested command for a given instance:

       MAIL_VERBOSE
	      This is set when the -v command-line option is present.

       MAIL_CONFIG
	      The location of the configuration directory of the instance.

CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS
       config_directory (see 'postconf -d' output)
	      The  default  location of the Postfix main.cf and master.cf con-
	      figuration files.

       daemon_directory (see 'postconf -d' output)
	      The directory with Postfix support programs and daemon programs.

       import_environment (see 'postconf -d' output)
	      The list of environment parameters that a Postfix	 process  will
	      import from a non-Postfix parent process.

       multi_instance_directories (empty)
	      An  optional  list of non-default Postfix configuration directo-
	      ries; these directories belong to additional  Postfix  instances
	      that  share  the Postfix executable files and documentation with
	      the default Postfix instance, and	 that  are  started,  stopped,
	      etc., together with the default Postfix instance.

       multi_instance_group (empty)
	      The optional instance group name of this Postfix instance.

       multi_instance_name (empty)
	      The optional instance name of this Postfix instance.

       multi_instance_enable (no)
	      Allow  this  Postfix instance to be started, stopped, etc., by a
	      multi-instance manager.

       postmulti_start_commands (start)
	      The postfix(1) commands that the postmulti(1)  instance  manager
	      treats as "start" commands.

       postmulti_stop_commands (see 'postconf -d' output)
	      The  postfix(1)  commands that the postmulti(1) instance manager
	      treats as "stop" commands.

       postmulti_control_commands (reload flush)
	      The postfix(1) commands that the postmulti(1)  instance  manager
	      treats as "control" commands, that operate on running instances.

       syslog_facility (mail)
	      The syslog facility of Postfix logging.

       syslog_name (see 'postconf -d' output)
	      The  mail	 system	 name that is prepended to the process name in
	      syslog records, so that "smtpd"  becomes,	 for  example,	"post-
	      fix/smtpd".

FILES
       $daemon_directory/main.cf, stock configuration file
       $daemon_directory/master.cf, stock configuration file
       $daemon_directory/postmulti-script, life-cycle helper program

SEE ALSO
       postfix(1), Postfix control program
       postfix-wrapper(5), Postfix multi-instance API

README FILES
       Use "postconf readme_directory" or "postconf
       html_directory" to locate this information.
       MULTI_INSTANCE_README, Postfix multi-instance management

HISTORY
       The postmulti(1) command was introduced with Postfix version 2.6.

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

AUTHOR(S)
       Victor Duchovni
       Morgan Stanley

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



								  POSTMULTI(1)