Managing the postmaster Alias

Every system must be able to send mail to a postmaster mailbox. You can create an NIS or NIS+ alias for postmaster, or you can create the alias in each local /etc/mail/aliases file. Refer to these procedures.

• How to Create a postmaster Alias in Each Local /etc/mail/aliases File

• How to Create a Separate Mailbox for postmaster

• How to Add the postmaster Mailbox to the Aliases in the /etc/mail/aliases File

How to Create a postmaster Alias in Each Local /etc/mail/aliases File

If you are creating the postmaster alias in each local /etc/mail/aliases file, follow these instructions.

1. Become superuser on each local system or assume an equivalent role.

   For information about roles, refer to "Using Privileged Applications" in System Administration Guide: Security Services.

2. View the /etc/mail/aliases entry.

   # cat /etc/mail/aliases # Following alias is required by the mail protocol, RFC 2821 # Set it to the address of a HUMAN who deals with this system's # mail problems. Postmaster: root

   
   

3. Edit each system's /etc/mail/aliases file.

   Change root to the mail address of the person who is designated as the postmaster.

   Postmaster: mail_address

   
   

   mail_address

   Use the assigned address for the person who is designated as the postmaster.

4. (Optional) Create a separate mailbox for the postmaster.

   You can create a separate mailbox for the postmaster to keep postmaster mail separate from personal mail. If you create a separate mailbox, use the mailbox address instead of the postmaster's personal mail address when you edit the /etc/mail/aliases files. For details, refer to How to Create a Separate Mailbox for postmaster.

How to Create a Separate Mailbox for postmaster

If you are creating a separate mailbox for postmaster, follow these instructions.

1. Become root on the mail server or assume an equivalent role.

   For information about roles, refer to "Using Privileged Applications" in System Administration Guide: Security Services.

2. Create a user account for the person who is designated as postmaster. Put an asterisk (*) in the password field.

   For details about adding a user account, refer to "Managing User Accounts and Groups (Tasks)" in System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.

3. After mail has been delivered, enable the mail program to read and write to the mailbox name.

   # mail -f postmaster

   
   

   postmaster

   Use the assigned address.

How to Add the postmaster Mailbox to the Aliases in the /etc/mail/aliases File

If you are adding a postmaster mailbox to the aliases in the /etc/mail/aliases file, follow these instructions.

1. Become root on each system or assume an equivalent role.

   For information about roles, refer to "Using Privileged Applications" in System Administration Guide: Security Services.

2. Add an alias for root. Use the mail address of the person who is designated as the postmaster.

   # cat /etc/mail/aliases .. root: user@host.domain.com

   
   

   user@host.domain.com

   Use the assigned address of the person who is designated as postmaster.

3. On the postmaster's local system, create an entry in the /etc/mail/aliases file that defines the name of the alias. sysadmin is an example. Also, include the path to the local mailbox.

   # cat /etc/mail/aliases .. sysadmin: /usr/somewhere/somefile

   
   

   sysadmin	Create a name for a new alias.
   /usr/somewhere/somefile	Use the path to the local mailbox.

4. Rebuild the alias database.

   # newaliases

   
   

Administering the Queue Directories (Task Map)

The following table describes the procedures for administering the mail queue.

Administering the Queue Directories (Tasks)

This section describes some helpful tasks for queue administration. For information about the client-only queue, refer to New Configuration File, submit.cf. For other related information, you can refer to New Queue Features.

How to Display the Contents of the Mail Queue, /var/spool/mqueue

Use this procedure to see how many messages are in the queue and how fast they are being cleared from the queue.

Use the following command to display this information.

• The queue IDs

• The size of the message

• The date that the message entered the queue

• The message status

• The sender and the recipients

# /usr/bin/mailq | more

This command now checks for the authorization attribute, solaris.admin.mail.mailq. If the check is successful, the equivalent of specifying the -bp flag with sendmail is executed. If the check fails, an error message is printed. By default, this authorization attribute is enabled for all users. The authorization attribute can be disabled by modifying the user entry in prof_attr. For more information, refer to the man pages for prof_attr(4) and mailq(1).