# phpman > man > pickup(8) [PICKUP(8postfix)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/PICKUP/8postfix/markdown) [PICKUP(8postfix)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/PICKUP/8postfix/markdown) ## NAME pickup - Postfix local mail pickup ## SYNOPSIS **pickup** [generic Postfix daemon options] ## DESCRIPTION The [**pickup**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pickup/8/markdown) daemon waits for hints that new mail has been dropped into the **maildrop** direc‐ tory, and feeds it into the [**cleanup**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/cleanup/8/markdown) daemon. Ill-formatted files are deleted without noti‐ fying the originator. This program expects to be run from the [**master**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/master/8/markdown) process manager. ## STANDARDS None. The [**pickup**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pickup/8/markdown) daemon does not interact with the outside world. ## SECURITY The [**pickup**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pickup/8/markdown) daemon is moderately security sensitive. It runs with fixed low privilege and can run in a chrooted environment. However, the program reads files from potentially hostile users. The [**pickup**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pickup/8/markdown) daemon opens no files for writing, is careful about what files it opens for reading, and does not actually touch any data that is sent to its public service end‐ point. ## DIAGNOSTICS Problems and transactions are logged to [**syslogd**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/syslogd/8/markdown) or [**postlogd**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/postlogd/8/markdown). ## BUGS The [**pickup**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pickup/8/markdown) daemon copies mail from file to the [**cleanup**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/cleanup/8/markdown) daemon. It could avoid message copying overhead by sending a file descriptor instead of file data, but then the already com‐ plex [**cleanup**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/cleanup/8/markdown) daemon would have to deal with unfiltered user data. ## CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS As the [**pickup**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pickup/8/markdown) daemon is a relatively long-running process, up to an hour may pass before a **main.cf** change takes effect. Use the command "**postfix** **reload**" command to speed up a change. The text below provides only a parameter summary. See [**postconf**(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/postconf/5/markdown) for more details including examples. ## CONTENT INSPECTION CONTROLS **content**___**filter** **(empty)** After the message is queued, send the entire message to the specified _transport:desti__‐ _nation_. **receive**___**override**___**options** **(empty)** Enable or disable recipient validation, built-in content filtering, or address map‐ ping. ## MISCELLANEOUS CONTROLS **config**___**directory** **(see** **'postconf** **-d'** **output)** The default location of the Postfix main.cf and master.cf configuration files. **ipc**___**timeout** **(3600s)** The time limit for sending or receiving information over an internal communication channel. **line**___**length**___**limit** **(2048)** Upon input, long lines are chopped up into pieces of at most this length; upon deliv‐ ery, long lines are reconstructed. **max**___**idle** **(100s)** The maximum amount of time that an idle Postfix daemon process waits for an incoming connection before terminating voluntarily. **max**___**use** **(100)** The maximal number of incoming connections that a Postfix daemon process will service before terminating voluntarily. **process**___**id** **(read-only)** The process ID of a Postfix command or daemon process. **process**___**name** **(read-only)** The process name of a Postfix command or daemon process. **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 exam‐ ple, "smtpd" becomes "prefix/smtpd". Available in Postfix 3.3 and later: **service**___**name** **(read-only)** The master.cf service name of a Postfix daemon process. Available in Postfix 3.5 and later: **info**___**log**___**address**___**format** **(external)** The email address form that will be used in non-debug logging (info, warning, etc.). ## SEE ALSO [cleanup(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/cleanup/8/markdown), message canonicalization [sendmail(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/sendmail/1/markdown), Sendmail-compatible interface [postdrop(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/postdrop/1/markdown), mail posting agent [postconf(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/postconf/5/markdown), configuration parameters [master(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/master/5/markdown), generic daemon options [master(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/master/8/markdown), process manager [postlogd(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/postlogd/8/markdown), Postfix logging [syslogd(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/syslogd/8/markdown), 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 [PICKUP(8postfix)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/PICKUP/8postfix/markdown)