postfix vs. sendmail

[Chris Devers]

This isn't exactly a Linux question, but close enough.

I run my personal mail on my home machine -- an OSX box. Over the weekend
I upgraded that machine from 10.2 to 10.3, and one of the changes that
meant was a switch from Sendmail to Postfix as the stock SMTP engine.

For the most part the conversion to Postfix seems to have gone smoothly,
and the config seems to be *much* easier than Sendmail. However, two areas
don't seem to be working under Postfix: mail aliases, and Procmail.

The relevant lines from my /etc/postfix/main.cf follow:

    # ALIAS DATABASE
    #
    # The alias_maps parameter specifies the list of alias databases used
    # by the local delivery agent. The default list is system dependent.
    #
    # On systems with NIS, the default is to search the local alias
    # database, then the NIS alias database. See aliases(5) for syntax
    # details.
    #
    # If you change the alias database, run "postalias /etc/aliases" (or
    # wherever your system stores the mail alias file), or simply run
    # "newaliases" to build the necessary DBM or DB file.
    #
    # It will take a minute or so before changes become visible.  Use
    # "postfix reload" to eliminate the delay.
    #
    #alias_maps = dbm:/etc/aliases
    #alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases
    #alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases, nis:mail.aliases
    #alias_maps = netinfo:/aliases
    alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases, netinfo:/aliases


    # The mailbox_command parameter specifies the optional external
    # command to use instead of mailbox delivery. The command is run as
    # the recipient with proper HOME, SHELL and LOGNAME environment settings.
    # Exception:  delivery for root is done as $default_user.
    #
    # Other environment variables of interest: USER (recipient username),
    # EXTENSION (address extension), DOMAIN (domain part of address),
    # and LOCAL (the address localpart).
    #
    # Unlike other Postfix configuration parameters, the mailbox_command
    # parameter is not subjected to $parameter substitutions. This is to
    # make it easier to specify shell syntax (see example below).
    #
    # Avoid shell meta characters because they will force Postfix to run
    # an expensive shell process. Procmail alone is expensive enough.
    #
    # IF YOU USE THIS TO DELIVER MAIL SYSTEM-WIDE, YOU MUST SET UP AN
    # ALIAS THAT FORWARDS MAIL FOR ROOT TO A REAL USER.
    #
    mailbox_command = /usr/bin/procmail
    #mailbox_command = /some/where/procmail -a "$EXTENSION"


Neither of these directives seems to be active. Tailing the log file at
/var/log/mail.log isn't turning up anything obviously useful. As far as I
can tell, the two likes seem to be correct, but any mail to my mail
aliases is bouncing, and procmail isn't being spawned on incoming mail.

Does anyone here know enough Postfix to debug things? I'm assuming that
the fact that this is OSX shouldn't change anything from any given Linux,
*BSD, or *nix based Postfix installation, but the Google hits I've been
able to turn up haven't been especially useful so far.

Thanks :)



-- 
Chris Devers      cdevers at pobox.com
http://devers.homeip.net:8080/blog/

np: 'Spare Parts II And Closing'
     by Tom Waits
     from 'Nighthawks At The Diner'