Forum OpenACS Q&A: Guide to configuring OpenACS to use Postfix

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1: Guide to configuring OpenACS to use Postfix
Posted by Nick Carroll on 10/05/04 07:02 AM
I've written some notes on how to configure OpenACS to use Postfix instead of qmail. This is useful if you'd like to send email notifications, or receive forum replies via email.

In my opinion postfix is so much more easier to use than qmail. It also comes installed by default on Macos X 10.3 (Panther). The documentation can be found here.

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2: Re: Guide to configuring OpenACS to use Postfix (response to 1)
Posted by Steve Manning on 10/05/04 10:58 AM
Nick

Will this handle dynamically created reply addresses such as those created by notifications and mail-lite's bounce messages (e.g the reply-to is set to 'mailto:bounces--xxxxxx-xxx-xxxxxx@thisdomain.com';) and if they bounce from the recipient you have to handle them?

I know that out of the box Exim will not handle this address and complains that the recipient is unknown.

    Steve

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3: Re: Guide to configuring OpenACS to use Postfix (response to 2)
Posted by Nick Carroll on 10/05/04 01:44 PM
Hi Steve,

The bounce daemon in postfix is enabled by default.  Postfix will reject mail for unknown recipients in local domains.  You could set a regular expression in /etc/postfix/virtual to catch such bounce messages and pass them off to another address.

I'm not sure if I've answered your question, so here are a few resources to look through.

Check out http://www.postfix.org/LOCAL_RECIPIENT_README.html

This site explains why it is better to reject rather than bounce... http://spamlinks.ntek.tk/filter-bounce.htm

As well as postfix configuration parameters... http://www.postfix.org/postconf.5.html

Nick.

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4: Re: Guide to configuring OpenACS to use Postfix (response to 3)
Posted by Steve Manning on 10/05/04 03:49 PM
Nick

Bouncing emails for unknown recipient in the local domain is the default for Exim (and probably most MTA's). It sounds as if your postfix/virtual file might be the answer - you need to direct all mail sent to bounce--* to the mailbox configured in mail-lite.

Exims' equivalent of this - the alias file can't handle wildcards in the same way so I think in Exim I need to define a new transport to direct the email for local delivery.  I will have to get my hands dirty in the config to work this out.

    Steve

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5: Re: Guide to configuring OpenACS to use Postfix (response to 4)
Posted by Nick Carroll on 10/06/04 06:08 AM
Hi Steve,

For handling the bounce emails, you just need to add the following regexp to the postfix/virtual file...

/^bounce-(.*)@hostname\.mydomain\.tld/ service0

Emails that match that regexp will be directed to the Maildir directory for the service0 user.  I believe Mail Lite will scan that directory for bounce- emails.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
Nick.