Updated: 2022/Sep/29

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PICKUP(8)                   System Manager's Manual                  PICKUP(8)




NAME
       pickup - Postfix local mail pickup

SYNOPSIS
       pickup [generic Postfix daemon options]

DESCRIPTION
       The pickup(8) daemon waits for hints that new mail has been dropped
       into the maildrop directory, and feeds it into the cleanup(8) daemon.
       Ill-formatted files are deleted without notifying the originator.  This
       program expects to be run from the master(8) process manager.

STANDARDS
       None. The pickup(8) daemon does not interact with the outside world.

SECURITY
       The pickup(8) daemon is moderately security sensitive. It runs with
       fixed low privilege and can run in a chrooted environment.  However,
       the program reads files from potentially hostile users.  The pickup(8)
       daemon opens no files for writing, is careful about what files it opens
       for reading, and does not actually touch any data that is sent to its
       public service endpoint.

DIAGNOSTICS
       Problems and transactions are logged to syslogd(8) or postlogd(8).

BUGS
       The pickup(8) daemon copies mail from file to the cleanup(8) daemon.
       It could avoid message copying overhead by sending a file descriptor
       instead of file data, but then the already complex cleanup(8) daemon
       would have to deal with unfiltered user data.

CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS
       As the pickup(8) daemon is a relatively long-running process, up to an
       hour may pass before a main.cf change takes effect.  Use the command
       "postfix reload" command to speed up a change.

       The text below provides only a parameter summary. See postconf(5) for
       more details including examples.

CONTENT INSPECTION CONTROLS

       content_filter (empty)
              After the message is queued, send the entire message to the
              specified transport:destination.

       receive_override_options (empty)
              Enable or disable recipient validation, built-in content
              filtering, or address mapping.

MISCELLANEOUS CONTROLS

       config_directory (see 'postconf -d' output)
              The default location of the Postfix main.cf and master.cf
              configuration files.

       ipc_timeout (3600s)
              The time limit for sending or receiving information over an
              internal communication channel.

       line_length_limit (2048)
              Upon input, long lines are chopped up into pieces of at most
              this length; upon delivery, long lines are reconstructed.

       max_idle (100s)
              The maximum amount of time that an idle Postfix daemon process
              waits for an incoming connection before terminating voluntarily.

       max_use (100)
              The maximal number of incoming connections that a Postfix daemon
              process will service before terminating voluntarily.

       process_id (read-only)
              The process ID of a Postfix command or daemon process.

       process_name (read-only)
              The process name of a Postfix command or daemon process.

       queue_directory (see 'postconf -d' output)
              The location of the Postfix top-level queue directory.

       syslog_facility (mail)
              The syslog facility of Postfix logging.

       syslog_name (see 'postconf -d' output)
              A prefix that is prepended to the process name in syslog
              records, so that, for example, "smtpd" becomes "prefix/smtpd".

       Available in Postfix 3.3 and later:

       service_name (read-only)
              The master.cf service name of a Postfix daemon process.

       Available in Postfix 3.5 and later:

       info_log_address_format (external)
              The email address form that will be used in non-debug logging
              (info, warning, etc.).

SEE ALSO
       cleanup(8), message canonicalization
       sendmail(1), Sendmail-compatible interface
       postdrop(1), mail posting agent
       postconf(5), configuration parameters
       master(5), generic daemon options
       master(8), process manager
       postlogd(8), Postfix logging
       syslogd(8), system logging

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

       Wietse Venema
       Google, Inc.
       111 8th Avenue
       New York, NY 10011, USA



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