POSTSUPER(1)                                         POSTSUPER(1)

NAME
       postsuper - Postfix superintendent

SYNOPSIS
       postsuper [-psv] [-d queue_id] [-r queue_id] [directory
       ...]

DESCRIPTION
       The postsuper command does maintenance jobs on the Postfix
       queue.  Use of the command is restricted to the superuser.

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

       Options:

       -d queue_id
              Delete one message with the named queue ID from the
              named  mail queue(s) (default: incoming, active and
              deferred).  If a queue_id of -  is  specified,  the
              program reads queue IDs from standard input.

              Specify -d ALL to remove all messages; for example,
              specify -d ALL  deferred  to  delete  mail  in  the
              deferred  queue.  As a safety measure, the word ALL
              must be specified in upper case.

              Postfix queue IDs are  reused.   There  is  a  very
              small  possibility that postsuper deletes the wrong
              message file when it is executed while the  Postfix
              mail system is running.

              The scenario is as follows:

              1)     The  Postfix  queue manager deletes the mes-
                     sage that postsuper is supposed  to  delete,
                     because  Postfix  is  finished with the mes-
                     sage.

              2)     New mail arrives, and  the  new  message  is
                     given  the same queue ID as the message that
                     postsuper is supposed to delete.  The proba-
                     bility  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 deletes the new  message,  instead
                     of  the  old  message  that  it  should have
                     deleted.

       -p     Purge old temporary files that are left over  after
              system or software crashes.

       -r queue_id
              Requeue  the  message  with the named queue ID from
              the named mail queue(s) (default: incoming,  active
              and deferred).  To requeue multiple messages, spec-
              ify multiple  -r  command-line  options.   Alterna-
              tively,  if  a queue_id of - is specified, the pro-
              gram reads 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 daemon to a
              new file whose name is guaranteed to match the  new
              queue file inode number. The new queue file is sub-
              jected again to mail address rewriting and  substi-
              tution. This is useful when rewriting rules or vir-
              tual mappings have changed.

              Postfix queue IDs are  reused.   There  is  a  very
              small possibility that postsuper requeues the wrong
              message file when it is executed while the  Postfix
              mail system is running, but no harm should be done.

       -s     Structure check and structure repair.  It is highly
              recommended  to  perform this operation once before
              Postfix startup.

              o      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 media.

              o      Move queue files that are in the wrong place
                     in the file system hierarchy and remove sub-
                     directories 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.

       -v     Enable verbose logging for debugging purposes. Mul-
              tiple  -v  options  make  the software increasingly
              verbose.

DIAGNOSTICS
       Problems are reported to the standard error stream and  to
       syslogd.

       postsuper  reports the number of messages deleted with -d,
       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 sys-
       logd.

CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS
       See  the  Postfix  main.cf file for syntax details and for
       default values.

       hash_queue_depth
              Number of subdirectory levels for hashed queues.

       hash_queue_names
              The names of queues that are organized into  multi-
              ple levels of subdirectories.

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

                                                     POSTSUPER(1)