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POSTALIAS(1)                                                      POSTALIAS(1)

<b>NAME</b>
       postalias - Postfix alias database maintenance

<b>SYNOPSIS</b>
       <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>]
               [<i>file</i><b>_</b><i>type</i>:]<i>file</i><b>_</b><i>name</i> ...

<b>DESCRIPTION</b>
       The  <a href="postalias.1.html"><b>postalias</b>(1)</a>  command creates or queries one or more Postfix alias
       databases, or updates an existing one. The input and output  file  for-
       mats  are  expected  to  be compatible with Sendmail version 8, and are
       expected to be suitable for the use as NIS alias maps.

       If the result files do not exist they will be  created  with  the  same
       group and other read permissions as their source file.

       While  a  database update is in progress, signal delivery is postponed,
       and an exclusive, advisory, lock is placed on the entire  database,  in
       order to avoid surprises in spectator processes.

       The format of Postfix alias input files is described in <a href="aliases.5.html"><b>aliases</b>(5)</a>.

       By  default  the  lookup key is mapped to lowercase to make the lookups
       case insensitive; as of Postfix 2.3 this case folding happens only with
       tables whose lookup keys are fixed-case strings such as <a href="DATABASE_README.html#types">btree</a>:, <a href="DATABASE_README.html#types">dbm</a>: or
       <a href="DATABASE_README.html#types">hash</a>:. With earlier versions, the lookup key is folded even with tables
       where  a lookup field can match both upper and lower case text, such as
       <a href="regexp_table.5.html">regexp</a>: and <a href="pcre_table.5.html">pcre</a>:. This resulted in loss of  information  with  $<i>number</i>
       substitutions.

       Options:

       <b>-c</b> <i>config</i><b>_</b><i>dir</i>
              Read  the  <a href="postconf.5.html"><b>main.cf</b></a>  configuration  file  in  the named directory
              instead of the default configuration directory.

       <b>-d</b> <i>key</i> Search the specified maps for <i>key</i> and remove one entry per  map.
              The  exit  status  is  zero  when  the requested information was
              found.

              If a key value of <b>-</b> is specified, the program reads  key  values
              from  the standard input stream. The exit status is zero when at
              least one of the requested keys was found.

       <b>-f</b>     Do not fold the lookup key  to  lower  case  while  creating  or
              querying a table.

              With  Postfix  version  2.3 and later, this option has no effect
              for regular expression tables. There, case folding is controlled
              by appending a flag to a pattern.

       <b>-i</b>     Incremental  mode.  Read  entries from standard input and do not
              truncate an existing database. By default, <a href="postalias.1.html"><b>postalias</b>(1)</a>  creates
              a new database from the entries in <i>file</i><b>_</b><i>name</i>.

       <b>-N</b>     Include  the  terminating  null character that terminates lookup
              keys and values. By default, <a href="postalias.1.html"><b>postalias</b>(1)</a> does whatever  is  the
              default for the host operating system.

       <b>-n</b>     Don't  include  the  terminating  null character that terminates
              lookup keys and values. By default, <a href="postalias.1.html"><b>postalias</b>(1)</a>  does  whatever
              is the default for the host operating system.

       <b>-o</b>     Do  not release root privileges when processing a non-root input
              file. By default, <a href="postalias.1.html"><b>postalias</b>(1)</a> drops root privileges and runs as
              the source file owner instead.

       <b>-p</b>     Do  not  inherit the file access permissions from the input file
              when creating a new file.   Instead,  create  a  new  file  with
              default access permissions (mode 0644).

       <b>-q</b> <i>key</i> Search  the  specified  maps  for  <i>key</i> and write the first value
              found to the standard output stream. The  exit  status  is  zero
              when the requested information was found.

              If  a  key value of <b>-</b> is specified, the program reads key values
              from the standard input stream and writes one line of <i>key: value</i>
              output for each key that was found. The exit status is zero when
              at least one of the requested keys was found.

       <b>-r</b>     When updating a table, do not complain about attempts to  update
              existing entries, and make those updates anyway.

       <b>-s</b>     Retrieve all database elements, and write one line of <i>key: value</i>
              output for each element. The elements are  printed  in  database
              order,  which  is not necessarily the same as the original input
              order.  This feature is available in  Postfix  version  2.2  and
              later, and is not available for all database types.

       <b>-v</b>     Enable  verbose  logging  for  debugging  purposes.  Multiple <b>-v</b>
              options make the software increasingly verbose.

       <b>-w</b>     When updating a table, do not complain about attempts to  update
              existing entries, and ignore those attempts.

       Arguments:

       <i>file</i><b>_</b><i>type</i>
              The database type. To find out what types are supported, use the
              "<b>postconf -m</b>" command.

              The <a href="postalias.1.html"><b>postalias</b>(1)</a> command can query any supported file type,  but
              it can create only the following file types:

              <b>btree</b>  The  output is a btree file, named <i>file</i><b>_</b><i>name</i><b>.db</b>.  This is
                     available on systems with support for <b>db</b> databases.

              <b>cdb</b>    The output is one  file  named  <i>file</i><b>_</b><i>name</i><b>.cdb</b>.   This  is
                     available on systems with support for <b>cdb</b> databases.

              <b>dbm</b>    The output consists of two files, named <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 available on systems with support
                     for <b>dbm</b> databases.

              <b>hash</b>   The output is a hashed file, named <i>file</i><b>_</b><i>name</i><b>.db</b>.  This is
                     available on systems with support for <b>db</b> databases.

              <b>fail</b>   A table that reliably fails all requests. The lookup  ta-
                     ble  name  is used for logging only. This table exists to
                     simplify Postfix error tests.

              <b>sdbm</b>   The output consists of two files, named <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 available on systems with support
                     for <b>sdbm</b> databases.

              When no <i>file</i><b>_</b><i>type</i> is specified, the software uses  the  database
              type   specified  via  the  <b><a href="postconf.5.html#default_database_type">default_database_type</a></b>  configuration
              parameter.  The default value for this parameter depends on  the
              host environment.

       <i>file</i><b>_</b><i>name</i>
              The name of the alias database source file when creating a data-
              base.

<b>DIAGNOSTICS</b>
       Problems are logged to the standard error stream and to <b>syslogd</b>(8).  No
       output  means  that  no  problems  were detected. Duplicate entries are
       skipped and are flagged with a warning.

       <a href="postalias.1.html"><b>postalias</b>(1)</a> terminates with  zero  exit  status  in  case  of  success
       (including  successful  "<b>postalias -q</b>" lookup) and terminates with non-
       zero exit status in case of failure.

<b>ENVIRONMENT</b>
       <b>MAIL_CONFIG</b>
              Directory with Postfix configuration files.

       <b>MAIL_VERBOSE</b>
              Enable verbose logging for debugging purposes.

<b>CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS</b>
       The following <a href="postconf.5.html"><b>main.cf</b></a> parameters are especially relevant to  this  pro-
       gram.

       The  text  below provides only a parameter summary. See <a href="postconf.5.html"><b>postconf</b>(5)</a> for
       more details including examples.

       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#alias_database">alias_database</a> (see 'postconf -d' output)</b>
              The alias databases for <a href="local.8.html"><b>local</b>(8)</a> delivery that are updated  with
              "<b>newaliases</b>" or with "<b>sendmail -bi</b>".

       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#config_directory">config_directory</a> (see 'postconf -d' output)</b>
              The  default  location of the Postfix <a href="postconf.5.html">main.cf</a> and <a href="master.5.html">master.cf</a> con-
              figuration files.

       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#berkeley_db_create_buffer_size">berkeley_db_create_buffer_size</a> (16777216)</b>
              The per-table I/O buffer size for programs that create  Berkeley
              DB hash or btree tables.

       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#berkeley_db_read_buffer_size">berkeley_db_read_buffer_size</a> (131072)</b>
              The per-table I/O buffer size for programs that read Berkeley DB
              hash or btree tables.

       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#default_database_type">default_database_type</a> (see 'postconf -d' output)</b>
              The default database type for use in <a href="newaliases.1.html"><b>newaliases</b>(1)</a>, <a href="postalias.1.html"><b>postalias</b>(1)</a>
              and <a href="postmap.1.html"><b>postmap</b>(1)</a> commands.

       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#syslog_facility">syslog_facility</a> (mail)</b>
              The syslog facility of Postfix logging.

       <b><a href="postconf.5.html#syslog_name">syslog_name</a> (see 'postconf -d' output)</b>
              The  mail  system  name that is prepended to the process name in
              syslog records, so that "smtpd"  becomes,  for  example,  "post-
              fix/smtpd".

<b>STANDARDS</b>
       <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc822">RFC 822</a> (ARPA Internet Text Messages)

<b>SEE ALSO</b>
       <a href="aliases.5.html">aliases(5)</a>, format of alias database input file.
       <a href="local.8.html">local(8)</a>, Postfix local delivery agent.
       <a href="postconf.1.html">postconf(1)</a>, supported database types
       <a href="postconf.5.html">postconf(5)</a>, configuration parameters
       <a href="postmap.1.html">postmap(1)</a>, create/update/query lookup tables
       <a href="newaliases.1.html">newaliases(1)</a>, Sendmail compatibility interface.
       syslogd(8), system logging

<b>README FILES</b>
       <a href="DATABASE_README.html">DATABASE_README</a>, Postfix lookup table overview

<b>LICENSE</b>
       The Secure Mailer license must be distributed with this software.

<b>AUTHOR(S)</b>
       Wietse Venema
       IBM T.J. Watson Research
       P.O. Box 704
       Yorktown Heights, NY 10598, USA

                                                                  POSTALIAS(1)
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