qmgr(8)
- NetBSD Manual Pages
QMGR(8) QMGR(8)
NAME
qmgr - Postfix queue manager
SYNOPSIS
qmgr [generic Postfix daemon options]
DESCRIPTION
The qmgr daemon awaits the arrival of incoming mail and arranges for
its delivery via Postfix delivery processes. The actual mail routing
strategy is delegated to the trivial-rewrite(8) daemon. This program
expects to be run from the master(8) process manager.
Mail addressed to the local double-bounce address is silently dis-
carded. This stops potential loops caused by undeliverable bounce
notifications.
MAIL QUEUES
The qmgr daemon maintains the following queues:
incoming
Inbound mail from the network, or mail picked up by the local
pickup agent from the maildrop directory.
active Messages that the queue manager has opened for delivery. Only a
limited number of messages is allowed to enter the active queue
(leaky bucket strategy, for a fixed delivery rate).
deferred
Mail that could not be delivered upon the first attempt. The
queue manager implements exponential backoff by doubling the
time between delivery attempts.
corrupt
Unreadable or damaged queue files are moved here for inspection.
hold Messages that are kept "on hold" are kept here until someone
sets them free.
DELIVERY STATUS REPORTS
The qmgr daemon keeps an eye on per-message delivery status reports in
the following directories. Each status report file has the same name as
the corresponding message file:
bounce Per-recipient status information about why mail is bounced.
These files are maintained by the bounce(8) daemon.
defer Per-recipient status information about why mail is delayed.
These files are maintained by the defer(8) daemon.
The qmgr daemon is responsible for asking the bounce(8) or defer(8)
daemons to send non-delivery reports.
STRATEGIES
The queue manager implements a variety of strategies for either opening
queue files (input) or for message delivery (output).
leaky bucket
This strategy limits the number of messages in the active queue
and prevents the queue manager from running out of memory under
heavy load.
fairness
When the active queue has room, the queue manager takes one mes-
sage from the incoming queue and one from the deferred queue.
This prevents a large mail backlog from blocking the delivery of
new mail.
slow start
This strategy eliminates "thundering herd" problems by slowly
adjusting the number of parallel deliveries to the same destina-
tion.
round robin
The queue manager sorts delivery requests by destination.
Round-robin selection prevents one destination from dominating
deliveries to other destinations.
exponential backoff
Mail that cannot be delivered upon the first attempt is
deferred. The time interval between delivery attempts is dou-
bled after each attempt.
destination status cache
The queue manager avoids unnecessary delivery attempts by main-
taining a short-term, in-memory list of unreachable destina-
tions.
TRIGGERS
On an idle system, the queue manager waits for the arrival of trigger
events, or it waits for a timer to go off. A trigger is a one-byte mes-
sage. Depending on the message received, the queue manager performs
one of the following actions (the message is followed by the symbolic
constant used internally by the software):
D (QMGR_REQ_SCAN_DEFERRED)
Start a deferred queue scan. If a deferred queue scan is
already in progress, that scan will be restarted as soon as it
finishes.
I (QMGR_REQ_SCAN_INCOMING)
Start an incoming queue scan. If an incoming queue scan is
already in progress, that scan will be restarted as soon as it
finishes.
A (QMGR_REQ_SCAN_ALL)
Ignore deferred queue file time stamps. The request affects the
next deferred queue scan.
F (QMGR_REQ_FLUSH_DEAD)
Purge all information about dead transports and destinations.
W (TRIGGER_REQ_WAKEUP)
Wakeup call, This is used by the master server to instantiate
servers that should not go away forever. The action is to start
an incoming queue scan.
The qmgr daemon reads an entire buffer worth of triggers. Multiple
identical trigger requests are collapsed into one, and trigger requests
are sorted so that A and F precede D and I. Thus, in order to force a
deferred queue run, one would request A F D; in order to notify the
queue manager of the arrival of new mail one would request I.
STANDARDS
None. The qmgr daemon does not interact with the outside world.
SECURITY
The qmgr daemon is not security sensitive. It reads single-character
messages from untrusted local users, and thus may be susceptible to
denial of service attacks. The qmgr daemon does not talk to the outside
world, and it can be run at fixed low privilege in a chrooted environ-
ment.
DIAGNOSTICS
Problems and transactions are logged to the syslog daemon. Corrupted
message files are saved to the corrupt queue for further inspection.
Depending on the setting of the notify_classes parameter, the postmas-
ter is notified of bounces and of other trouble.
BUGS
A single queue manager process has to compete for disk access with mul-
tiple front-end processes such as smtpd. A sudden burst of inbound mail
can negatively impact outbound delivery rates.
CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS
The following main.cf parameters are especially relevant to this pro-
gram. See the Postfix main.cf file for syntax details and for default
values. Use the postfix reload command after a configuration change.
Miscellaneous
allow_min_user
Do not bounce recipient addresses that begin with '-'.
queue_directory
Top-level directory of the Postfix queue.
Active queue controls
qmgr_clog_warn_time
Minimal delay between warnings that a specific destination is
clogging up the active queue. Specify 0 to disable.
qmgr_message_active_limit
Limit the number of messages in the active queue.
qmgr_message_recipient_limit
Limit the number of in-memory recipients.
This parameter also limits the size of the short-term, in-memory
destination cache.
Timing controls
minimal_backoff_time
Minimal time in seconds between delivery attempts of a deferred
message.
This parameter also limits the time an unreachable destination
is kept in the short-term, in-memory destination status cache.
maximal_backoff_time
Maximal time in seconds between delivery attempts of a deferred
message.
maximal_queue_lifetime
Maximal time in days a message is queued before it is sent back
as undeliverable.
queue_run_delay
Time in seconds between deferred queue scans. Queue scans do not
overlap.
transport_retry_time
Time in seconds between attempts to contact a broken delivery
transport.
Concurrency controls
In the text below, transport is the first field in a master.cf entry.
qmgr_fudge_factor (valid range: 10..100)
The percentage of delivery resources that a busy mail system
will use up for delivery of a large mailing list message. With
100%, delivery of one message does not begin before the previous
message has been delivered. This results in good performance for
large mailing lists, but results in poor response time for one-
to-one mail. With less than 100%, response time for one-to-one
mail improves, but large mailing list delivery performance suf-
fers. In the worst case, recipients near the beginning of a
large list receive a burst of messages immediately, while recip-
ients near the end of that list receive that same burst of mes-
sages a whole day later.
initial_destination_concurrency
Initial per-destination concurrency level for parallel delivery
to the same destination.
default_destination_concurrency_limit
Default limit on the number of parallel deliveries to the same
destination.
transport_destination_concurrency_limit
Limit on the number of parallel deliveries to the same destina-
tion, for delivery via the named message transport.
Recipient controls
default_destination_recipient_limit
Default limit on the number of recipients per message transfer.
transport_destination_recipient_limit
Limit on the number of recipients per message transfer, for the
named message transport.
SEE ALSO
master(8), process manager
syslogd(8) system logging
trivial-rewrite(8), address routing
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
QMGR(8)
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