Purpose of this document
========================
This document describes the purpose of the Postfix fast ETRN service,
how the service works, and how it can be tested.
Other documents with information on this subject:
- conf/sample-flush.cf, sample configuration file
- conf/main.cf, sample configuration file
- flush(8), flush service implementation
The Postfix fast ETRN service
=============================
The SMTP ETRN command was designed for sites that have intermittent
Internet connectivity. With ETRN, a site can tell the mail server
of its provider to "Please deliver all my mail now".
Postfix versions before 20001005 implemented the ETRN command in
a lame manner: they simply attempted to deliver all queued mail.
This is slow on mail servers that queue mail for many customers.
As of version 20001005, Postfix has a fast ETRN implementation that
does not require Postfix to examine every queue file. The command
"sendmail -qR" is now implemented by sending an ETRN command to
the local SMTP server.
Postfix "fast ETRN/sendmail -qR" speeds up deliveries by attempting
to deliver only mail that is queued for a given destination site.
The old Postfix "slow ETRN" is still used as a fall-back method.
How Postfix fast ETRN works
===========================
The "fast ETRN" service uses the new "flush" daemon which maintains
per-destination logfiles of queued mail. These logfiles are kept
below /var/spool/postfix/flush. Each logfile is named after its
destination domain name. Only destinations with syntactically valid
domain names can have per-destination logfiles.
The behavior of the new "flush" daemon is controlled by parameters
in the main.cf configuration file.
By default, Postfix "fast ETRN/sendmail -qR" service is available
only for destinations that Postfix is willing to relay mail to:
fast_flush_domains = $relay_domains
The "relay_domains" parameter specifies what destinations Postfix
will relay to.
For destinations that are not eligible for the new "fast ETRN/sendmail
-qR" service, Postfix falls back to the old "slow ETRN" method
which attempts to deliver all queued mail.
To enable "fast ETRN/sendmail -qR" for some other destination, specify:
fast_flush_domains = $relay_domains, some.other.domain
To disable "fast ETRN/sendmail -qR", so that Postfix always uses
the old "slow ETRN" which delivers all queued mail, specify:
fast_flush_domains =
Testing the fast ETRN service
=============================
If you run Postfix with "fast ETRN" service for the very first
time, you need to run "sendmail -q" to populate the per-site deferred
mail logfiles. If you omit this step, the logfiles will eventually
become populated as Postfix routinely attempts to deliver delayed
mail, but that will take a couple hours.
After the "sendmail -q" has completed all delivery attempts (that
can take a while), you're ready to test the "fast ETRN" service.
Telnet to the Postfix SMTP server from a client that is allowed to
execute ETRN commands (by default, that's every client), and type:
helo my.client.tld
etrn some.customer.domain
where "some.customer.domain" is the name of a domain that has a
non-empty logfile somewhere under /var/spool/postfix/flush.
In the maillog file, you should immediately see a couple of logfile
records, as evidence that the queue manager has opened queue files:
Oct 2 10:51:19 localhost postfix/qmgr[51999]: 682E8440A4:
from=<whatever>, size=12345, nrcpt=1 (queue active)
Oct 2 10:51:19 localhost postfix/qmgr[51999]: 02249440B7:
from=<whatever>, size=4711, nrcpt=1 (queue active)
What happens next depends on whether the destination is reachable.
If it's not reachable, the mail queue IDs will be added back to
the some.customer.domain logfile under /var/spool/postfix/flush.
Repeat the exercise with another domain that your server is willing
to relay to (domain listed in "relay_domains"), but that has no mail
queued.
helo my.client.tld
etrn some.other.customer.domain
This time, the "etrn" command should trigger NO mail deliveries at
all. If this triggers delivery of all mail, then you used the wrong
domain name, or "fast ETRN" service is turned off.
Finally, repeat the exercise with a destination that your mail
server is not willing to relay to. It does not matter if your
server has mail queued for that destination.
helo my.client.tld
etrn not.a.customer.domain
If your "fast ETRN" caching policy is left at its default setting,
then the "etrn" command should trigger delivery of all queued mail.