DISCARD(8) | System Manager's Manual | DISCARD(8)

# NAME

discard - Postfix discard mail delivery agent

# SYNOPSIS

    discard [generic Postfix daemon options]

# DESCRIPTION

The Postfix discard(8) delivery agent processes delivery requests from the queue manager. Each request specifies a queue file, a sender address, a next-hop destination that is treated as the reason for discarding the mail, and recipient information. The reason may be prefixed with an RFC 3463-compatible detail code. This program expects to be run from the master(8) process manager.

The discard(8) delivery agent pretends to deliver all recipients in the delivery request, logs the "next-hop" destination as the reason for discarding the mail, updates the queue file, and either marks recipients as finished or informs the queue manager that delivery should be tried again at a later time.

Delivery status reports are sent to the trace(8) daemon as appropriate.

# SECURITY

The discard(8) mailer is not security-sensitive. It does not talk to the network, and can be run chrooted at fixed low privilege.

# STANDARDS

    RFC 3463 (Enhanced Status Codes)

# DIAGNOSTICS

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

Depending on the setting of the notify_classes parameter, the postmaster is notified of bounces and of other trouble.

# CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS

Changes to main.cf are picked up automatically as discard(8) processes run for only a limited amount of time. Use the command "postfix reload" to speed up a change.

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

config_directory (see 'postconf -d' output)
  The default location of the Postfix main.cf and master.cf configuration files.
daemon_timeout (18000s)
  How much time a Postfix daemon process may take to handle a request before it is terminated by a built-in watchdog timer.
delay_logging_resolution_limit (2)
  The maximal number of digits after the decimal point when logging sub-second delay values.
double_bounce_sender (double-bounce)
  The sender address of postmaster notifications that are generated by the mail system.
ipc_timeout (3600s)
  The time limit for sending or receiving information over an internal communication channel.
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.

# SEE ALSO

    qmgr(8), queue manager
    bounce(8), delivery status reports
    error(8), Postfix error delivery 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.

# HISTORY

This service was introduced with Postfix version 2.2.

# AUTHOR(S)

    Victor Duchovni
    Morgan Stanley
    Based on code by:
    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