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POSTSUPER(1) General Commands Manual POSTSUPER(1)

📝 NAME

postsuper - Postfix superintendent

🚀 Quick Reference

Use Case	Command	Description
Delete a message	postsuper -d queue_id	🔴 Delete one message with the given queue ID
Delete all deferred messages	postsuper -d ALL deferred	🔴 Remove all messages from the deferred queue
Force expire a message	postsuper -e queue_id	⏳ Return message to sender on next delivery attempt
Force expire and release held message	postsuper -f queue_id	⏳ Release and expire a message currently on hold
Hold a message	postsuper -h queue_id	⏸️ Prevent delivery of a message
Release a held message	postsuper -H queue_id	▶️ Move held message back to deferred queue
Purge old temporary files	postsuper -p	🧹 Clean up after crashes
Requeue a message	postsuper -r queue_id	🔄 Move message to maildrop for reprocessing
Structure check/repair	postsuper -s	🔧 Fix queue directory structure and file names
Verbose logging	postsuper -v	📢 Enable debug output

📋 SYNOPSIS

postsuper [-psSv]
        [-c config_dir] [-d queue_id]
        [-e queue_id] [-f queue_id]
        [-h queue_id] [-H queue_id]
        [-r queue_id] [directory ...]

📖 DESCRIPTION

The postsuper(1) command does maintenance jobs on the Postfix queue. Use of the command is restricted to the superuser. See the postqueue(1) command for unprivileged queue operations such as listing or flushing the mail queue.

By default, postsuper(1) performs the operations requested with the -s and -p command-line options on all Postfix queue directories - this includes the incoming, active, deferred, and hold directories with message files and the bounce, defer, trace and flush directories with log files.

🔧 Options

• -c config_dir — 📁 The main.cf configuration file is in the named directory instead of the default configuration directory. See also the MAIL_CONFIG environment setting below.
• -d queue_id — 🗑️ Delete one message with the named queue ID from the named mail queue(s) (default: hold, incoming, active and deferred).
  To delete multiple files, specify the -d option multiple times, or specify a queue_id of - to read queue IDs from standard input. For example, to delete all mail with exactly one recipient user AT example.com:
  

  postqueue -j | jq '
      # See JSON OBJECT FORMAT section in the postqueue(1) manpage
      select(.recipients[0].address == "user AT example.com")
      | select(.recipients[1].address == null)
      | .queue_id
   ' | postsuper -d -

  Or the historical form:
  

  mailq | tail -n +2 | grep -v '^ *(' | awk  'BEGIN { RS = "" }
      # $7=sender, $8=recipient1, $9=recipient2
      { if ($8 == "user AT example.com" && $9 == "")
            print $1 }
   ' | tr -d '*!' | postsuper -d -

  Specify "-d ALL" to remove all messages; for example, specify "-d ALL deferred" to delete all mail in the deferred queue. As a safety measure, the word ALL must be specified in upper case.
  ⚠️ Warning: Postfix queue IDs are reused (always with Postfix <= 2.8; and with Postfix >= 2.9 when enable_long_queue_ids=no). There is a very small possibility that postsuper deletes the wrong message file when it is executed while the Postfix mail system is delivering mail.
  The scenario is as follows:
  1. The Postfix queue manager deletes the message that postsuper(1) is asked to delete, because Postfix is finished with the message (it is delivered, or it is returned to the sender).
  2. New mail arrives, and the new message is given the same queue ID as the message that postsuper(1) is supposed to delete. The probability 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(1) deletes the new message, instead of the old message that it should have deleted.
• -e queue_id — ⏳ Request forced expiration for one message with the named queue ID in the named mail queue(s) (default: hold, incoming, active and deferred). The message will be returned to the sender when the queue manager attempts to deliver that message (note that Postfix will never deliver messages in the hold queue).
• -f queue_id — ⏳ Request forced expiration and release for one message with the named queue ID in the named mail queue(s) (default: hold, incoming, active and deferred). Both -e and -f request forced expiration. The difference is that -f will also release a message if it is in the hold queue. With -e, such a message would not be returned to the sender until it is released with -f or -H. When a deferred message is force-expired, the return message will state the reason for the delay. Otherwise, the reason will be "message is administratively expired".
  To expire multiple files, specify the -e or -f option multiple times, or specify a queue_id of - to read queue IDs from standard input (see the -d option above for an example, but be sure to replace -d in the example).
  Specify "-e ALL" or "-f ALL" to expire all messages; for example, specify "-e ALL deferred" to expire all mail in the deferred queue. As a safety measure, the word ALL must be specified in upper case.
  These features are available in Postfix 3.5 and later.
• -h queue_id — ⏸️ Put mail "on hold" so that no attempt is made to deliver it. Move one message with the named queue ID from the named mail queue(s) (default: incoming, active and deferred) to the hold queue.
  To hold multiple files, specify the -h option multiple times, or specify a queue_id of - to read queue IDs from standard input.
  Specify "-h ALL" to hold all messages; for example, specify "-h ALL deferred" to hold all mail in the deferred queue. As a safety measure, the word ALL must be specified in upper case.
  Note: while mail is "on hold" it will not expire when its time in the queue exceeds the maximal_queue_lifetime or bounce_queue_lifetime setting. It becomes subject to expiration after it is released from "hold".
  This feature is available in Postfix 2.0 and later.
• -H queue_id — ▶️ Release mail that was put "on hold". Move one message with the named queue ID from the named mail queue(s) (default: hold) to the deferred queue.
  To release multiple files, specify the -H option multiple times, or specify a queue_id of - to read queue IDs from standard input.
  Note: specify "postsuper -r" to release mail that was kept on hold for a significant fraction of $maximal_queue_lifetime or $bounce_queue_lifetime, or longer.
  Specify "-H ALL" to release all mail that is "on hold". As a safety measure, the word ALL must be specified in upper case.
  This feature is available in Postfix 2.0 and later.
• -p — 🧹 Purge old temporary files that are left over after system or software crashes. The -p, -s, and -S operations are done before other operations.
• -r queue_id — 🔄 Requeue the message with the named queue ID from the named mail queue(s) (default: hold, incoming, active and deferred).
  To requeue multiple files, specify the -r option multiple times, or specify a queue_id of - to read 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(8) and cleanup(8) daemons to a new queue file. In many respects its handling differs from that of a new local submission.
  • The message is not subjected to the smtpd_milters or non_smtpd_milters settings. When mail has passed through an external content filter, this would produce incorrect results with Milter applications that depend on original SMTP connection state information.
  • The message is subjected again to mail address rewriting and substitution. This is useful when rewriting rules or virtual mappings have changed. The address rewriting context (local or remote) is the same as when the message was received.
  • The message is subjected to the same content_filter settings (if any) as used for new local mail submissions. This is useful when content_filter settings have changed.
  ⚠️ Warning: Postfix queue IDs are reused (always with Postfix <= 2.8; and with Postfix >= 2.9 when enable_long_queue_ids=no). There is a very small possibility that postsuper(1) requeues the wrong message file when it is executed while the Postfix mail system is running, but no harm should be done.
  This feature is available in Postfix 1.1 and later.
• -s — 🔧 Structure check and structure repair. This should be done once before Postfix startup. The -p, -s, and -S operations are done before other operations.
  • 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, when queue files were created with Postfix <= 2.8 or with "enable_long_queue_ids = no".
  • Move queue files that are in the wrong place in the file system hierarchy and remove subdirectories 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.
  • Rename queue files created with "enable_long_queue_ids = yes" to short names, for migration to Postfix <= 2.8. The procedure is as follows:
    

    # postfix stop
    # postconf enable_long_queue_ids=no
    # postsuper

    Run postsuper(1) repeatedly until it stops reporting file name changes.
• -S — 🔧 A redundant version of -s that requires that long file names also match the message file inode number. This option exists for testing purposes, and is available with Postfix 2.9 and later. The -p, -s, and -S operations are done before other operations.
• -v — 📢 Enable verbose logging for debugging purposes. Multiple -v options make the software increasingly verbose.

📊 DIAGNOSTICS

Problems are reported to the standard error stream and to syslogd(8) or postlogd(8).

postsuper(1) reports the number of messages deleted with -d, the number of messages expired with -e, the number of messages expired or released with -f, the number of messages held or released with -h or -H, 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 syslogd(8) or postlogd(8).

🌐 ENVIRONMENT

MAIL_CONFIG — Directory with the main.cf file.

🐛 BUGS

Mail that is not sanitized by Postfix (i.e. mail in the maildrop queue) cannot be placed "on hold".

⚙️ CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS

The following main.cf parameters are especially relevant to this program. The text below provides only a parameter summary. See postconf(5) for more details including examples.

• config_directory (see 'postconf -d' output) — The default location of the Postfix main.cf and master.cf configuration files.
• hash_queue_depth (1) — The number of subdirectory levels for queue directories listed with the hash_queue_names parameter.
• hash_queue_names (deferred, defer) — The names of queue directories that are split across multiple subdirectory levels.
• import_environment (see 'postconf -d' output) — The list of environment parameters that a privileged Postfix process will import from a non-Postfix parent process, or name=value environment overrides.
• queue_directory (see 'postconf -d' output) — The location of the Postfix top-level queue directory.
• syslog_facility (mail) — The syslog facility of Postfix logging.
• syslog_name (see 'postconf -d' output) — A prefix that is prepended to the process name in syslog records, so that, for example, "smtpd" becomes "prefix/smtpd".
• Available in Postfix version 2.9 and later:
  enable_long_queue_ids (no) — Enable long, non-repeating, queue IDs (queue file names).

📚 SEE ALSO

• sendmail(1) — Sendmail-compatible user interface
• postqueue(1) — unprivileged queue operations
• postlogd(8) — Postfix logging
• syslogd(8) — system logging

📄 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

Wietse Venema
Google, Inc.
111 8th Avenue
New York, NY 10011, USA

POSTSUPER(1)

📝 NAME 🚀 Quick Reference 📋 SYNOPSIS 📖 DESCRIPTION 📊 DIAGNOSTICS 🌐 ENVIRONMENT 🐛 BUGS ⚙️ CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS 📚 SEE ALSO 📄 LICENSE 👤 AUTHOR(S)