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7POSTALIAS(1)                                                      POSTALIAS(1)
8
9<b>NAME</b>
10       postalias - Postfix alias database maintenance
11
12<b>SYNOPSIS</b>
13       <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>]
14               [<i>file</i><b>_</b><i>type</i>:]<i>file</i><b>_</b><i>name</i> ...
15
16<b>DESCRIPTION</b>
17       The  <a href="postalias.1.html"><b>postalias</b>(1)</a>  command  creates or queries one or more
18       Postfix alias databases, or updates an existing  one.  The
19       input  and output file formats are expected to be compati-
20       ble with Sendmail version 8, and are expected to be  suit-
21       able for the use as NIS alias maps.
22
23       If the result files do not exist they will be created with
24       the same group and other read permissions as their  source
25       file.
26
27       While a database update is in progress, signal delivery is
28       postponed, and an exclusive, advisory, lock is  placed  on
29       the  entire database, in order to avoid surprises in spec-
30       tator processes.
31
32       The format of Postfix alias input files  is  described  in
33       <a href="aliases.5.html"><b>aliases</b>(5)</a>.
34
35       By  default  the lookup key is mapped to lowercase to make
36       the lookups case insensitive; as of Postfix 2.3 this  case
37       folding  happens  only  with  tables whose lookup keys are
38       fixed-case strings such as btree:,  dbm:  or  hash:.  With
39       earlier  versions,  the  lookup  key  is  folded even with
40       tables where a lookup field can match both upper and lower
41       case  text,  such  as  <a href="regexp_table.5.html">regexp</a>: and <a href="pcre_table.5.html">pcre</a>:. This resulted in
42       loss of information with $<i>number</i> substitutions.
43
44       Options:
45
46       <b>-c</b> <i>config</i><b>_</b><i>dir</i>
47              Read the <a href="postconf.5.html"><b>main.cf</b></a> configuration file  in  the  named
48              directory  instead  of  the  default  configuration
49              directory.
50
51       <b>-d</b> <i>key</i> Search the specified maps for <i>key</i>  and  remove  one
52              entry  per  map.   The exit status is zero when the
53              requested information was found.
54
55              If a key value of <b>-</b> is specified, the program reads
56              key values from the standard input stream. The exit
57              status is zero when at least one of  the  requested
58              keys was found.
59
60       <b>-f</b>     Do not fold the lookup key to lower case while cre-
61              ating or querying a table.
62
63              With Postfix version 2.3 and later, this option has
64              no  effect  for  regular  expression tables. There,
65              case folding is controlled by appending a flag to a
66              pattern.
67
68       <b>-i</b>     Incremental  mode. Read entries from standard input
69              and  do  not  truncate  an  existing  database.  By
70              default,  <a href="postalias.1.html"><b>postalias</b>(1)</a>  creates a new database from
71              the entries in <i>file</i><b>_</b><i>name</i>.
72
73       <b>-N</b>     Include the terminating null character that  termi-
74              nates  lookup  keys and values. By default, <b>postal-</b>
75              <b>ias</b>(1) does whatever is the default  for  the  host
76              operating system.
77
78       <b>-n</b>     Don't  include  the terminating null character that
79              terminates lookup  keys  and  values.  By  default,
80              <a href="postalias.1.html"><b>postalias</b>(1)</a>  does  whatever is the default for the
81              host operating system.
82
83       <b>-o</b>     Do not release root privileges  when  processing  a
84              non-root input file. By default, <a href="postalias.1.html"><b>postalias</b>(1)</a> drops
85              root privileges and runs as the source  file  owner
86              instead.
87
88       <b>-p</b>     Do not inherit the file access permissions from the
89              input file when creating a new file.  Instead, cre-
90              ate  a  new  file  with  default access permissions
91              (mode 0644).
92
93       <b>-q</b> <i>key</i> Search the specified maps for  <i>key</i>  and  write  the
94              first  value  found  to the standard output stream.
95              The exit status is zero when the requested informa-
96              tion was found.
97
98              If a key value of <b>-</b> is specified, the program reads
99              key values  from  the  standard  input  stream  and
100              writes  one  line of <i>key: value</i> output for each key
101              that was found. The exit status  is  zero  when  at
102              least one of the requested keys was found.
103
104       <b>-r</b>     When  updating  a  table,  do  not  complain  about
105              attempts to update existing entries, and make those
106              updates anyway.
107
108       <b>-s</b>     Retrieve  all database elements, and write one line
109              of <i>key: value</i> output for each element. The elements
110              are  printed in database order, which is not neces-
111              sarily the same as the original input order.   This
112              feature  is  available  in  Postfix version 2.2 and
113              later, and is not available for all database types.
114
115       <b>-v</b>     Enable verbose logging for debugging purposes. Mul-
116              tiple <b>-v</b> options  make  the  software  increasingly
117              verbose.
118
119       <b>-w</b>     When  updating  a  table,  do  not  complain  about
120              attempts to update  existing  entries,  and  ignore
121              those attempts.
122
123       Arguments:
124
125       <i>file</i><b>_</b><i>type</i>
126              The  database type. To find out what types are sup-
127              ported, use the "<b>postconf -m</b>" command.
128
129              The <a href="postalias.1.html"><b>postalias</b>(1)</a> command can  query  any  supported
130              file  type,  but  it  can create only the following
131              file types:
132
133              <b>btree</b>  The  output   is   a   btree   file,   named
134                     <i>file</i><b>_</b><i>name</i><b>.db</b>.   This is available on systems
135                     with support for <b>db</b> databases.
136
137              <b>cdb</b>    The output is one file named  <i>file</i><b>_</b><i>name</i><b>.cdb</b>.
138                     This  is  available  on systems with support
139                     for <b>cdb</b> databases.
140
141              <b>dbm</b>    The output  consists  of  two  files,  named
142                     <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
143                     available on systems with  support  for  <b>dbm</b>
144                     databases.
145
146              <b>hash</b>   The   output   is   a   hashed  file,  named
147                     <i>file</i><b>_</b><i>name</i><b>.db</b>.  This is available on  systems
148                     with support for <b>db</b> databases.
149
150              <b>sdbm</b>   The  output  consists  of  two  files, named
151                     <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
152                     available  on  systems with support for <b>sdbm</b>
153                     databases.
154
155              When no <i>file</i><b>_</b><i>type</i> is specified, the  software  uses
156              the  database  type specified via the <b><a href="postconf.5.html#default_database_type">default_data</a>-</b>
157              <b><a href="postconf.5.html#default_database_type">base_type</a></b>  configuration  parameter.   The  default
158              value  for this parameter depends on the host envi-
159              ronment.
160
161       <i>file</i><b>_</b><i>name</i>
162              The name of the alias  database  source  file  when
163              creating a database.
164
165<b>DIAGNOSTICS</b>
166       Problems  are  logged  to the standard error stream and to
167       <b>syslogd</b>(8).   No  output  means  that  no  problems   were
168       detected.  Duplicate  entries  are skipped and are flagged
169       with a warning.
170
171       <a href="postalias.1.html"><b>postalias</b>(1)</a> terminates with zero exit status in  case  of
172       success  (including  successful "<b>postalias -q</b>" lookup) and
173       terminates with non-zero exit status in case of failure.
174
175<b>ENVIRONMENT</b>
176       <b>MAIL_CONFIG</b>
177              Directory with Postfix configuration files.
178
179       <b>MAIL_VERBOSE</b>
180              Enable verbose logging for debugging purposes.
181
182<b>CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS</b>
183       The following <a href="postconf.5.html"><b>main.cf</b></a> parameters are  especially  relevant
184       to this program.
185
186       The  text  below  provides  only  a parameter summary. See
187       <a href="postconf.5.html"><b>postconf</b>(5)</a> for more details including examples.
188
189       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#alias_database">alias_database</a> (see 'postconf -d' output)</b>
190              The alias databases for <a href="local.8.html"><b>local</b>(8)</a> delivery that  are
191              updated with "<b>newaliases</b>" or with "<b>sendmail -bi</b>".
192
193       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#config_directory">config_directory</a> (see 'postconf -d' output)</b>
194              The  default  location  of  the Postfix <a href="postconf.5.html">main.cf</a> and
195              <a href="master.5.html">master.cf</a> configuration files.
196
197       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#berkeley_db_create_buffer_size">berkeley_db_create_buffer_size</a> (16777216)</b>
198              The per-table I/O buffer  size  for  programs  that
199              create Berkeley DB hash or btree tables.
200
201       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#berkeley_db_read_buffer_size">berkeley_db_read_buffer_size</a> (131072)</b>
202              The  per-table  I/O  buffer  size for programs that
203              read Berkeley DB hash or btree tables.
204
205       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#default_database_type">default_database_type</a> (see 'postconf -d' output)</b>
206              The default database type for use in <a href="newaliases.1.html"><b>newaliases</b>(1)</a>,
207              <a href="postalias.1.html"><b>postalias</b>(1)</a> and <a href="postmap.1.html"><b>postmap</b>(1)</a> commands.
208
209       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#syslog_facility">syslog_facility</a> (mail)</b>
210              The syslog facility of Postfix logging.
211
212       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#syslog_name">syslog_name</a> (see 'postconf -d' output)</b>
213              The  mail  system  name  that  is  prepended to the
214              process name in syslog  records,  so  that  "smtpd"
215              becomes, for example, "postfix/smtpd".
216
217<b>STANDARDS</b>
218       <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc822">RFC 822</a> (ARPA Internet Text Messages)
219
220<b>SEE ALSO</b>
221       <a href="aliases.5.html">aliases(5)</a>, format of alias database input file.
222       <a href="local.8.html">local(8)</a>, Postfix local delivery agent.
223       <a href="postconf.1.html">postconf(1)</a>, supported database types
224       <a href="postconf.5.html">postconf(5)</a>, configuration parameters
225       <a href="postmap.1.html">postmap(1)</a>, create/update/query lookup tables
226       <a href="newaliases.1.html">newaliases(1)</a>, Sendmail compatibility interface.
227       syslogd(8), system logging
228
229<b>README FILES</b>
230       <a href="DATABASE_README.html">DATABASE_README</a>, Postfix lookup table overview
231
232<b>LICENSE</b>
233       The Secure Mailer license must be  distributed  with  this
234       software.
235
236<b>AUTHOR(S)</b>
237       Wietse Venema
238       IBM T.J. Watson Research
239       P.O. Box 704
240       Yorktown Heights, NY 10598, USA
241
242                                                                  POSTALIAS(1)
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