Beginner Question

[Glenn Steen]

On 21/11/2007, UxBoD <uxbod at splatnix.net> wrote:
> Andreas,
>
> 1) As part of the installation for Postfix and MailScanner the main.cf file is changed so that a header check is performed on every email that is processed.  As "Received" appears in all messages, RFC compliance, then the message is put into a hold queue.  MailScanner monitors this directory and when it sees messages it will process them, and on successfully processing, will the deliver them into the outbound queue for Postfix to deliver.  If MailScanner was to die half way through processing a message it would still be safe, as it does not remove the message from the hold queue until such time successful processing has taken place.
>
.... That is: A properly set up MailScanner will _never_ touch an
active Postfix queue _other_ than the "incoming" queue, where it will
place the scanned message after successful completion. The Postfix
"incoming queue" is the MailScanner "outbound queue". The Postfix
"hold queue" is the MailScanner "inbound queue"... And The only time
Postfix touches the hold queue is if you (as an admin) use the
postsuper command to "unhold" a message.... Don't do that and you'll
be fine;-).

> 2) Yes the queue file structure is their "own internal thing", but we are talking about OSS here so anybody is free to view the code and make the necessary changes to MailScanner.  Obviously when upgrading Postfix on a server you have to ensure that the revision being installed is compatible with MailScanner, so when they do/if change the structure wait until a suitable MailScanner revision has been released.
>
> This is purely my understanding, and I am sure somebody will correct my mistakes ;)

Quite OK summary IMO. The Since somewhere like version 4.62.x,
MailScanner should have a more or less complete support for the
current state of the (latest) queue file format... and any older
versions as well.

Cheers
-- 
-- Glenn
email: glenn < dot > steen < at > gmail < dot > com
work: glenn < dot > steen < at > ap1 < dot > se