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<title>Postfix before-queue Milter support </title>

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<h1><img src="postfix-logo.jpg" width="203" height="98" ALT="">Postfix before-queue Milter support </h1>

<hr>

<h2>Introduction</h2>

<p> Postfix implements support for the Sendmail version 8 Milter
(mail filter) protocol. This protocol is used by applications that
run outside the MTA to inspect SMTP events (CONNECT, DISCONNECT),
SMTP commands (HELO, MAIL FROM, etc.) as well as mail content
(headers and body).  All this happens before mail is queued.  </p>

<p> The reason for adding Milter support to Postfix is that there
exists a large collection of applications, not only to block unwanted
mail, but also to verify authenticity (examples: <a
href="http://www.opendkim.org/">OpenDKIM</a> and <a
href="http://www.trusteddomain.org/opendmarc/">DMARC </a>)
or to digitally sign mail (example: <a
href="http://www.opendkim.org/">OpenDKIM</a>).
Having yet another Postfix-specific version of all that software
is a poor use of human and system resources. </p>

<p> The Milter protocol has evolved over time, and different Postfix
versions implement different feature sets.  See the <a
href="#workarounds">workarounds</a> and <a
href="#limitations">limitations</a> sections at the end of this
document for differences between Postfix and Sendmail implementations.
</p>

<p> This document provides information on the following topics: </p>

<ul>

<li><a href="#plumbing">How Milter applications plug into Postfix </a>

<li><a href="#when-inspect">When Postfix and Milters inspect an
SMTP session </a>

<li><a href="#building">Building Milter applications</a>

<li><a href="#running">Running Milter applications</a>

<li><a href="#config">Configuring Postfix</a>

<li><a href="#workarounds">Workarounds</a>

<li><a href="#limitations">Limitations</a>

</ul>

<h2><a name="plumbing">How Milter applications plug into Postfix </a> </h2>

<p> The Postfix Milter implementation uses two different lists of
mail filters: one list of filters for SMTP mail only,
and one list of filters for non-SMTP mail. The two
lists have different capabilities, which is unfortunate.  Avoiding
this would require major restructuring of Postfix. </p>

<ul>

<li> <p> The SMTP-only filters handle mail that arrives via the
Postfix smtpd(8) server. They are typically used to filter unwanted
mail and to sign mail from authorized SMTP clients. You specify
SMTP-only Milter applications with the smtpd_milters parameter as
described in a later section.  Mail that arrives via the Postfix
smtpd(8) server is not filtered by the non-SMTP filters that are
described next. </p>

<li> <p> The non-SMTP filters handle mail that arrives via the
Postfix sendmail(1) command-line or via the Postfix qmqpd(8) server.
They are typically used to digitally sign mail only. Although
non-SMTP filters can be used to filter unwanted mail, they have
limitations compared to the SMTP-only filters. You specify non-SMTP
Milter applications with the non_smtpd_milters parameter as described
in a later section.  </p>

</ul>

<p> For those who are familiar with the Postfix architecture, the
figure below shows how Milter applications plug into Postfix.  Names
followed by a number are Postfix commands or server programs, while
unnumbered names inside shaded areas represent Postfix queues.  To
avoid clutter, the path for local submission is simplified (the
OVERVIEW document has a more complete description of the Postfix
architecture).  </p>

<blockquote>

<table>

<tr> 

<td colspan="2"> </td> 

<td align="center"> SMTP-only <br> filters </td> 

<td> </td> 

<td align="center"> non-SMTP <br> filters </td> 

</tr>

<tr> 

<td colspan="2"> </td> 

<td align="center"> <table> <tr> <td align="center">
^<br> <tt> | </tt> </td> <td align="center"> <tt> |<br> v </tt>
</td> </tr> </table> </td>

<td rowspan="2"> </td>

<td rowspan="3" align="center"> <table> <tr> <td align="center">
^<br> <tt> |<br> |<br> | </tt> </td> <td align="center"> <tt> |<br>
|<br> |<br> v </tt> </td> </tr> </table> </td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td> Network </td> <td> <tt> -&gt; </tt> </td>

<td bgcolor="#f0f0ff" align="center" valign="middle"> smtpd(8)
</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td colspan="3"> </td> <td> <tt> \ </tt> </td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td> Network </td> <td> <tt> -&gt; </tt> </td>

<td bgcolor="#f0f0ff" align="center" valign="middle"> qmqpd(8)
</td>

<td> <tt> -&gt; </tt> </td>

<td bgcolor="#f0f0ff" align="center" valign="middle"> cleanup(8)
</td>

<td> <tt> -&gt; </tt> </td>

<td bgcolor="#f0f0ff" align="center" valign="middle"> <a
href="QSHAPE_README.html#incoming_queue"> incoming </a> </td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td colspan="3"> </td> <td> <tt> / </tt> </td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td colspan="2"> </td>

<td bgcolor="#f0f0ff" align="center" valign="middle"> pickup(8)
</td>

</tr>

<tr> <td colspan="2"> </td> <td align="center"> : </td> </tr>

<tr>

<td> Local </td> <td> <tt> -&gt; </tt> </td>

<td bgcolor="#f0f0ff" align="center" valign="middle"> sendmail(1)
</td>

</tr>

</table>

</blockquote>

<h2><a name="when-inspect">When Postfix and Milters inspect an SMTP
session </a></h2>

<p> Generally, Postfix inspects information first, then the first
configured Milter, the second configured Milter, and so on. </p>

<ul>

<li><p> With most SMTP commands: Postfix reviews one SMTP command,
and if Postfix does not reject it, Postfix passes the command to
the first configured Milter. If the first Milter does not reject
the command, Postfix passes it to the second configured Milter, and
so on. This includes commands with an envelope sender (MAIL FROM)
or envelope recipient (RCPT TO). Postfix stores the same envelope
records in a queue file as when no Milters are configured, including
rewritten envelope addresses, expanded virtual aliases, BCC addresses
from sender/recipient_bcc_maps, and so on. </p>

<li><p> With header/body content: Postfix may rewrite or reject
header/body content before it stores that content in the queue file;
Postfix stores the same header/body content as when no Milters are
configured.  If Postfix does not reject the header/body content,
Postfix passes it to the first configured Milter which may modify
or reject that content or may modify the stored envelope. If the
first Milter does not reject the header/body content, Postfix passes
it to the second configured Milter, and so on. </p>

</ul>

<p> Details: </p>

<ul>

<li><p> Postfix hides its own Postfix-prepended Received: header, for
compatibility with Sendmail. Postfix does not hide other headers that
Postfix or Milters added or modified. </p>


<li><p> When the Postfix SMTP server receives a sequence of one or
more valid BDAT commands, it generates one DATA command for the
Milters.  </p>

<li><p> The Milter API does not support inspection of SMTP commands
such as QUIT, NOOP, or VRFY; the API supports only commands that are
needed for email delivery. <p>

</ul>

<h2><a name="building">Building Milter applications</a></h2>

<p> Milter applications have been written in C, Haskell, Java, Perl,
Python, Rust, and more, but
this document covers C applications only. For these, you need
an object library that implements the Sendmail 8 Milter protocol.
Postfix currently does not provide such a library, but Sendmail
does. </p>

<p> Some
systems install the Sendmail libmilter library by default.  With
other systems, libmilter may be provided by a package (called
"sendmail-devel" on some Linux systems).  </p>

<p> Once libmilter is installed, applications such as <a
href="http://www.opendkim.org/">OpenDKIM</a> and
<a href="http://www.trusteddomain.org/opendmarc/">OpenDMARC</a>
build out of the box without requiring any tinkering:</p>

<blockquote>
<pre>
$ <b>gzcat opendkim-<i>x.y.z</i>.tar.gz | tar xf -</b>
$ <b>cd opendkim-<i>x.y.z</i></b>
$ <b>./configure ...<i>options</i>...</b>
$ <b>make</b>
[...<i>lots of output omitted</i>...]
$ <b>make install</b>
</pre>
</blockquote>

<h2><a name="running">Running Milter applications</a></h2>

<p> To run a Milter application, see the documentation of the filter
for options.  A typical command looks like this:</p>

<blockquote>
<pre>
# <b>/some/where/opendkim -l -u <i>userid</i> -p inet:<i>portnumber</i>@localhost ...<i>other options</i>...</b>
</pre>
</blockquote>

<p> Please specify a <i>userid</i> value that isn't used for other
applications (not "postfix", not "www", etc.). </p>

<h2><a name="config">Configuring Postfix</a></h2>

<p> Like Sendmail, Postfix has a lot of configuration options that
control how it talks to Milter applications. Besides global options
that apply to all Milter applications, Postfix 3.0 and later
support per-Milter timeouts, per-Milter error handling, etc. </p>

<p> Information in this section: </p>

<ul>

<li><a href="#smtp-only-milters">SMTP-Only Milter applications </a>

<li><a href="#non-smtp-milters">Non-SMTP Milter applications </a>

<li><a href="#errors">Milter error handling </a>

<li><a href="#version">Milter protocol version</a>

<li><a href="#timeouts">Milter protocol timeouts</a>

<li><a href="#per-milter">Different settings for different Milter
applications </a>

<li><a href="#per-client">Different settings for different SMTP
clients </a>

<li><a href="#macros">Sendmail macro emulation</a>

<li><a href="#send-macros">What macros will Postfix send to Milters?</a>

</ul>

<h3><a name="smtp-only-milters">SMTP-Only Milter applications</a></h3>

<p>  The SMTP-only Milter applications handle mail that arrives via
the Postfix smtpd(8) server. They are typically used to filter
unwanted mail, and to sign mail from authorized SMTP clients.  Mail
that arrives via the Postfix smtpd(8) server is not filtered by the
non-SMTP filters that are described in the next section. </p>

<blockquote> NOTE for Postfix versions that have a mail_release_date
before 20141018: do not use the header_checks(5) IGNORE action to remove
Postfix's own Received: message header. This causes problems with
mail signing filters. Instead, keep Postfix's own Received: message
header and use the header_checks(5) REPLACE action to sanitize
information. </blockquote>

<p> You specify SMTP-only Milter applications (there can be more
than one) with the smtpd_milters parameter.  Each Milter application
is identified by the name of its listening socket; other Milter
configuration options will be discussed in later sections. Postfix
sends commands to each Milter application in the order as configured
with smtpd_milters. When a Milter application rejects a command,
that will override responses from other Milter applications. </p>

<blockquote>
<pre>
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
    # Milters for mail that arrives via the smtpd(8) server.
    # See below for socket address syntax.
    smtpd_milters = inet:localhost:<i>portnumber</i> ...<i>other filters</i>...
</pre>
</blockquote>

<p> The general syntax for listening sockets is as follows: </p>

<blockquote>

<dl>

<dt> <b>unix:</b><i>pathname</i> </dt> <dd><p>Connect to the local
UNIX-domain server that is bound to the specified pathname. If the
smtpd(8) or cleanup(8) process runs chrooted, an absolute pathname
is interpreted relative to the Postfix queue directory. On many
systems, <b>local</b> is a synonym for <b>unix</b></p> </dd>

<dt> <b> inet:</b><i>host</i><b>:</b><i>port</i> </dt> <dd> <p>
Connect to the specified TCP port on the specified local or remote
host.  The host and port can be specified in numeric or symbolic
form.</p>

<p> NOTE: Postfix syntax differs from Milter syntax which has the
form <b>inet:</b><i>port</i><b>@</b><i>host</i>. </p>  </dd>

</dl>

</blockquote>

<p> For advanced configuration see "<a href="#per-client">Different
settings for different SMTP clients</a>" and "<a
href="#per-milter">Different settings for different Milter
applications</a>". </p>

<h3> <a name="non-smtp-milters">Non-SMTP Milter applications </a> </h3>

<p> The non-SMTP Milter applications handle mail that arrives via
the Postfix sendmail(1) command-line or via the Postfix qmqpd(8)
server. They are typically used to digitally sign mail. Although
non-SMTP filters can be used to filter unwanted mail, there are
limitations as discussed later in this section.  Mail that arrives
via the Postfix smtpd(8) server is not filtered by the non-SMTP
filters.  </p>

<p> NOTE: Do not use the header_checks(5) IGNORE action to remove
Postfix's own Received: message header. This causes problems with
mail signing filters. Instead, keep Postfix's own Received: message
header and use the header_checks(5) REPLACE action to sanitize
information. </p>

<p> You specify non-SMTP Milter applications with the non_smtpd_milters
parameter. This parameter uses the same syntax as the smtpd_milters
parameter in the previous section. As with the SMTP-only filters,
you can specify more than one Milter application. Postfix sends
commands to each Milter application in the order as configured with
non_smtpd_milters. When a Milter application rejects a command,
that will override responses from other Milter applications. </p>

<blockquote>
<pre>
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
    # Milters for non-SMTP mail.
    # See below for socket address syntax.
    non_smtpd_milters = inet:localhost:<i>portnumber</i> ...<i>other filters</i>...
</pre>
</blockquote>

<p> There's one small complication when using Milter applications
for non-SMTP mail: there is no SMTP session.  To keep Milter
applications happy, the Postfix cleanup(8) server actually has to
simulate the SMTP client CONNECT and DISCONNECT events, and the
SMTP client EHLO, MAIL FROM, RCPT TO and DATA commands. </p>

<ul>

<li> <p> When new mail arrives via the sendmail(1) command line,
the Postfix cleanup(8) server pretends that the mail arrives with
ESMTP from "localhost" with IP address "127.0.0.1". The result is
very similar to what happens with command line submissions in
Sendmail version 8.12 and later, although Sendmail uses a different
mechanism to achieve this result.  </p>

<li> <p> When new mail arrives via the qmqpd(8) server, the Postfix
cleanup(8) server pretends that the mail arrives with ESMTP, and
uses the QMQPD client hostname and IP address. </p>

<li> <p> When old mail is re-injected into the queue with "postsuper
-r", the Postfix cleanup(8) server uses the same client information
that was used when the mail arrived as new mail. </p>

</ul>

<p> This generally works as expected, with only one exception:
non-SMTP filters must not REJECT or TEMPFAIL simulated RCPT TO
commands.  When a non_smtpd_milters application REJECTs or TEMPFAILs
a recipient, Postfix will report a configuration error, and mail
will stay in the queue.  </p>

<h4> Signing internally-generated bounce messages </h4>

<p> Postfix normally does not apply content filters to mail
that is generated internally such as bounces or Postmaster
notifications. Filtering internally-generated bounces would result
in loss of mail when a filter rejects a message, as the resulting
double-bounce message would almost certainly also be blocked. </p>

<p>  To sign Postfix's own bounce messages, enable filtering of
internally-generated bounces (line 2 below), and don't reject any
internally-generated bounces with non_smtpd_milters, header_checks
or body_checks (lines 3-5 below).  </p>

<blockquote>
<pre>
1 /etc/postfix/main.cf:
2     internal_mail_filter_classes = bounce
3     non_smtpd_milters = <i>don't reject internally-generated bounces</i>
4     header_checks = <i>don't reject internally-generated bounces</i>
5     body_checks = <i>don't reject internally-generated bounces</i>
</pre>
</blockquote>

<h3><a name="errors">Milter error handling</a></h3>

<p> The milter_default_action parameter specifies how Postfix handles
Milter application errors. The default action is to respond with a
temporary error status, so that the client will try again later.
Specify "accept" if you want to receive mail as if the filter does
not exist, and "reject" to reject mail with a permanent status.
The "quarantine" action is like "accept" but freezes the message
in the "hold" queue, and is available with Postfix 2.6 or later.
</p>

<blockquote>
<pre>
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
    # What to do in case of errors? Specify accept, reject, tempfail,
    # or quarantine (Postfix 2.6 or later).
    milter_default_action = tempfail
</pre>
</blockquote>

<p> See "<a href="#per-milter">Different settings for different
Milter applications</a>" for advanced configuration options. </p>

<h3><a name="version">Milter protocol version</a></h3>

<p> As Postfix is not built with the Sendmail libmilter library,
you may need to configure the Milter protocol version that Postfix
should use.  The default version is 6 (before Postfix 2.6 the default
version is 2). </p>

<blockquote>
<pre>
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
    # Postfix &ge; 2.6
    milter_protocol = 6
    # 2.3 &le; Postfix &le; 2.5
    milter_protocol = 2
</pre>
</blockquote>

<p> If the Postfix milter_protocol setting specifies a too low
version, the libmilter library will log an error message like this:
</p>

<blockquote>
<pre>
<i>application name</i>: st_optionneg[<i>xxxxx</i>]: 0x<i>yy</i> does not fulfill action requirements 0x<i>zz</i>
</pre>
</blockquote>

<p> The remedy is to increase the Postfix milter_protocol version
number.  See, however, the <a href="#limitations">limitations</a>
section below for features that aren't supported by Postfix. </p>

<p> With Postfix 2.7 and earlier, if the Postfix milter_protocol
setting specifies a too high
version, the libmilter library simply hangs up without logging a
warning, and you see a Postfix warning message like one of the
following: </p>

<blockquote>
<pre>
warning: milter inet:<i>host</i>:<i>port</i>: can't read packet header: Unknown error : 0
warning: milter inet:<i>host</i>:<i>port</i>: can't read packet header: Success
warning: milter inet:<i>host</i>:<i>port</i>: can't read SMFIC_DATA reply packet header: No such file or directory
</pre>
</blockquote>

<p> The remedy is to lower the Postfix milter_protocol version
number. Postfix 2.8 and later will automatically turn off protocol
features that the application's libmilter library does not expect.
</p>

<p> See "<a href="#per-milter">Different settings for different
Milter applications</a>" for advanced configuration options. </p>

<h3><a name="timeouts">Milter protocol timeouts</a></h3>

<p> Postfix uses different time limits at different Milter protocol
stages. The table shows the timeout settings and the corresponding
protocol stages
(EOH = end of headers; EOM = end of message).  </p>

<blockquote>

<table border="1">

<tr> <th> Postfix parameter </th> <th> Time limit </th> <th> Milter
protocol stage</th> </tr>

<tr> <td> milter_connect_timeout </td> <td> 30s </td> <td> CONNECT
</td> </tr>

<tr> <td> milter_command_timeout </td> <td> 30s </td> <td> HELO,
MAIL, RCPT, DATA, UNKNOWN </td> </tr>

<tr> <td> milter_content_timeout </td> <td> 300s </td> <td> HEADER,
EOH, BODY, EOM </td> </tr>

</table>

</blockquote>

<p> Beware: 30s may be too short for Milter applications that do
lots of DNS lookups.  However, if you increase the above timeouts
too much, remote SMTP clients may hang up and mail may be delivered
multiple times. This is an inherent problem with before-queue
filtering. </p>

<p> See "<a href="#per-milter">Different settings for different
Milter applications</a>" for advanced configuration options. </p>

<h3><a name="per-milter">Different settings for different Milter
applications </a></h3>

<p> The previous sections list a number of Postfix main.cf parameters
that control time limits and other settings for all Postfix Milter
clients. This is sufficient for simple configurations. With more
complex configurations it becomes desirable to have different
settings for different Milter clients. This is supported with Postfix
3.0 and later. </p>

<p> The following example shows a "non-critical" Milter client with
a short connect timeout, and with "accept" as default action when
the service is unvailable. </p>

<blockquote>
<pre>
1 /etc/postfix/main.cf:
2     smtpd_milters = { inet:host:port,
3         connect_timeout=10s, default_action=accept }
</pre>
</blockquote>

<p> Instead of a server endpoint, we now have a list enclosed in {}. </p>

<ul>

<li> <p> Line 2: The first item in the list is the server endpoint.
This supports the exact same "inet" and "unix" syntax as described
earlier. </p>

<li> <p> Line 3: The remainder of the list contains per-Milter
settings. These settings override global main.cf parameters, and
have the same name as those parameters, without the "milter_" prefix.
The per-Milter settings that are supported as of Postfix 3.0 are
command_timeout, connect_timeout, content_timeout, default_action,
and protocol.  </p>

</ul>

<p> Inside the list, syntax is similar to what we already know from
main.cf: items separated by space or comma. There is one difference:
<b>you must enclose a setting in parentheses, as in "{ name = value
}", if you want to have space or comma within a value or around
"="</b>.  </p>

<h3><a name="per-client">Different settings for different SMTP
clients </a></h3>

<p> The smtpd_milter_maps feature supports different Milter settings
for different client IP addresses. Lookup results override the
global smtpd_milters setting, and have the same syntax. For example,
to disable Milter settings for local address ranges: </p>

<pre>
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
    smtpd_milter_maps = cidr:/etc/postfix/smtpd_milter_map
    smtpd_milters = inet:host:port, { inet:host:port, ... }, ...

/etc/postfix/smtpd_milter_map:
    # Disable Milters for local clients.
    127.0.0.0/8    DISABLE
    192.168.0.0/16 DISABLE
    ::/64          DISABLE
    2001:db8::/32  DISABLE
</pre>

<p> This feature is available with Postfix 3.2 and later. </p>

<h3><a name="macros">Sendmail macro emulation</a></h3>

<p> Postfix emulates a limited number of Sendmail macros, as shown
in the table. Some macro values depend on whether a recipient is
rejected (rejected recipients are available on request by the Milter
application). Different macros are available at different Milter
protocol stages (EOH = end-of-header, EOM = end-of-message); their
availability is not
always the same as in Sendmail. See the <a
href="#workarounds">workarounds</a> section below for solutions.
</p>

<blockquote>

<table border="1">

<tr> <th> Sendmail macro </th> <th> Milter protocol stage </th>
<th> Description </th> </tr>

<tr> <td> i </td> <td> DATA, EOH, EOM </td> <td> Queue ID, also
Postfix queue file name </td> </tr>

<tr> <td> j </td> <td> Always </td> <td> Value of myhostname </td>
</tr>

<tr> <td> _ </td> <td> Always </td> <td> The validated client name
and address </td> </tr>

<tr> <td> {auth_authen} </td> <td> MAIL, DATA, EOH, EOM </td> <td> SASL
login name </td> </tr>

<tr> <td> {auth_author} </td> <td> MAIL, DATA, EOH, EOM </td> <td> SASL
sender </td> </tr>

<tr> <td> {auth_type} </td> <td> MAIL, DATA, EOH, EOM </td> <td> SASL
login method </td> </tr>

<tr> <td> {client_addr} </td> <td> Always </td> <td> Remote client
IP address </td> </tr>

<tr> <td> {client_connections} </td> <td> CONNECT </td> <td>
Connection concurrency for this client (zero if the client is
excluded from all smtpd_client_* limits). </td> </tr>

<tr> <td> {client_name} </td> <td> Always </td> <td> Remote client
hostname <br> When address &rarr; name lookup or name &rarr; address
verification fails: "unknown" </td> </tr>

<tr> <td> {client_port} </td> <td> Always (Postfix &ge;2.5) </td>
<td> Remote client TCP port </td> </tr>

<tr> <td> {client_ptr} </td> <td> CONNECT, HELO, MAIL, DATA </td>
<td> Client name from address &rarr; name lookup <br> When address
&rarr; name lookup fails: "unknown" </td> </tr>

<tr> <td> {cert_issuer} </td> <td> HELO, MAIL, DATA, EOH, EOM </td> <td>
TLS client certificate issuer </td> </tr>

<tr> <td> {cert_subject} </td> <td> HELO, MAIL, DATA, EOH, EOM </td>
<td> TLS client certificate subject </td> </tr>

<tr> <td> {cipher_bits} </td> <td> HELO, MAIL, DATA, EOH, EOM </td> <td>
TLS session key size </td> </tr>

<tr> <td> {cipher} </td> <td> HELO, MAIL, DATA, EOH, EOM </td> <td> TLS
cipher </td> </tr>

<tr> <td> {daemon_addr} </td> <td> Always (Postfix &ge;3.2) </td>
<td> Local server IP address </td> </tr>

<tr> <td> {daemon_name} </td> <td> Always </td> <td> value of
milter_macro_daemon_name </td> </tr>

<tr> <td> {daemon_port} </td> <td> Always (Postfix &ge;3.2) </td>
<td> Local server TCP port </td> </tr>

<tr> <td> {mail_addr} </td> <td> MAIL </td> <td> Sender address
</td> </tr>

<tr> <td> {mail_host} </td> <td> MAIL (Postfix &ge; 2.6, only with
smtpd_milters) </td> <td> Sender next-hop destination </td> </tr>

<tr> <td> {mail_mailer} </td> <td> MAIL (Postfix &ge; 2.6, only with
smtpd_milters) </td> <td> Sender mail delivery transport </td> </tr>

<tr> <td> {rcpt_addr} </td> <td> RCPT </td> <td> Recipient address
<br> With rejected recipient: descriptive text </td> </tr>

<tr> <td> {rcpt_host} </td> <td> RCPT (Postfix &ge; 2.6, only with
smtpd_milters) </td> <td> Recipient next-hop destination <br> With
rejected recipient: enhanced status code </td> </tr>

<tr> <td> {rcpt_mailer} </td> <td> RCPT (Postfix &ge; 2.6, only with
smtpd_milters) </td> <td> Recipient mail delivery transport <br>
With rejected recipient: "error" </td> </tr>

<tr> <td> {tls_version} </td> <td> HELO, MAIL, DATA, EOH, EOM </td>
<td> TLS protocol version </td> </tr>

<tr> <td> v </td> <td> Always </td> <td> value of milter_macro_v
</td> </tr>

</table>

</blockquote>

<h3><a name="send-macros">What macros will Postfix send to Milters?</a></h3>

<p> Postfix sends specific sets of macros at different Milter protocol
stages. The names of these macros are configured with the parameters
shown in the table below (EOH = end of headers; EOM = end of message).
Some lists require a minimum Milter protocol version.  </p>

<p> As of Sendmail 8.14.0, Milter applications can specify what
macros they want to receive at different Milter protocol stages.
An application-specified list takes precedence over a Postfix-specified
list. </p>

<blockquote>

<table border="1">

<tr> <th> Postfix parameter </th> <th> Milter protocol version </th>
<th> Milter protocol stage </th> </tr>

<tr> <td> milter_connect_macros </td> <td> 2 or higher </td> <td>
CONNECT </td> </tr>

<tr> <td> milter_helo_macros </td> <td> 2 or higher </td> <td>
HELO/EHLO </td> </tr>

<tr> <td> milter_mail_macros </td> <td> 2 or higher </td> <td> MAIL
FROM </td> </tr>

<tr> <td> milter_rcpt_macros </td> <td> 2 or higher </td> <td> RCPT
TO </td> </tr>

<tr> <td> milter_data_macros </td> <td> 4 or higher </td> <td> DATA
</td> </tr>

<tr> <td> milter_end_of_header_macros </td> <td> 6 or higher </td>
<td> EOH </td> </tr>

<tr> <td> milter_end_of_data_macros </td> <td> 2 or higher </td>
<td> EOM </td> </tr>

<tr> <td> milter_unknown_command_macros </td> <td> 3 or higher </td>
<td> unknown command </td> </tr>

</table>

</blockquote>

<p> By default, Postfix will send only macros whose values have been
updated with information from main.cf or master.cf, from an SMTP session
(for example; SASL login, or TLS certificates) or from a Mail delivery
transaction (for example; queue ID, sender, or recipient). </p>

<p> To force a macro to be sent even when its value has not been updated,
you may specify macro default values with the milter_macro_defaults
parameter. Specify zero or more <i>name=value</i> pairs separated by
comma or whitespace; you may even specify macro names that Postfix does
not know about! </p>

<h2><a name="workarounds">Workarounds</a></h2>

<ul>

<li> <p> To avoid breaking DKIM etc. signatures with an SMTP-based
content filter, update the before-filter SMTP client in master.cf,
and add a line with "-o disable_mime_output_conversion=yes" (note:
no spaces around the "="). For details, see the <a
href="FILTER_README.html#advanced_filter">advanced content filter</a>
example. </p>

<pre>
/etc/postfix/master.cf:
    # =============================================================
    # service type  private unpriv  chroot  wakeup  maxproc command
    #               (yes)   (yes)   (yes)   (never) (100)
    # =============================================================
    scan      unix  -       -       n       -       10      smtp
        -o smtp_send_xforward_command=yes
        -o disable_mime_output_conversion=yes
        -o smtp_generic_maps=
</pre>

<li> <p> Some Milter applications use the "<tt>{if_addr}</tt>" macro
to recognize local mail; this macro does not exist in Postfix.
Workaround: use the "<tt>{daemon_addr}</tt>" (Postfix &ge; 3.2) or
"<tt>{client_addr}</tt>" macro instead. </p>

<li> <p> Some Milter applications log a warning that looks like
this: </p>

<blockquote> <pre>
sid-filter[36540]: WARNING: sendmail symbol 'i' not available
</pre>
</blockquote>

<p> And they may insert an ugly message header with "unknown-msgid"
like this: </p>

<blockquote>
<pre>
X-SenderID: Sendmail Sender-ID Filter vx.y.z host.example.com &lt;unknown-msgid&gt;
</pre>
</blockquote>

<p> The problem is that Milter applications expect that the queue
ID is known <i>before</i> the MTA accepts the MAIL FROM (sender)
command.  Postfix does not choose a queue ID, which is used as the
queue file name, until <i>after</i> it accepts the first valid RCPT
TO (recipient) command. </p>

<p> If you experience the ugly header problem, see if a recent
version of the Milter application fixes it. For example, current
versions of dkim-filter and dk-filter already have code that looks
up the Postfix queue ID at a later protocol stage, and sid-filter
version 1.0.0 no longer includes the queue ID in the message header.
</p>

<p> To fix the ugly message header, you will need to add code that
looks up the Postfix queue ID at some later point in time. The
example below adds the lookup after the end-of-message.  </p>

<ul>

<li> <p> Edit the filter source file (typically named
<tt>xxx-filter/xxx-filter.c</tt> or similar). </p>

<li> <p> Look up the <tt>mlfi_eom()</tt> function and add code near
the top shown as <b>bold</b> text below: </p>

</ul>

<blockquote>
<pre>
dfc = cc->cctx_msg;
assert(dfc != NULL);
<b>
/* Determine the job ID for logging. */
if (dfc->mctx_jobid == 0 || strcmp(dfc->mctx_jobid, JOBIDUNKNOWN) == 0) {
        char *jobid = smfi_getsymval(ctx, "i");
        if (jobid != 0)
                dfc->mctx_jobid = jobid;
}</b>
</pre>
</blockquote>

<p> NOTES: </p>

<ul>

<li> <p> Different mail filters use slightly different names for
variables. If the above code does not compile, look elsewhere in
the mail filter source file for code that looks up the "i" macro
value, and copy that code.  </p>

<li> <p> This change fixes only the ugly message header, but not
the WARNING message.  Fortunately, many Milters log that message
only once. </p>

</ul>

</ul>

<h2><a name="limitations">Limitations</a></h2>

<p> This section lists limitations of the Postfix Milter implementation.
Some limitations will be removed as the implementation is extended
over time. Of course the usual limitations of before-queue filtering
will always apply. See the CONTENT_INSPECTION_README document for
a discussion. </p>

<ul>

<li> <p> The Milter protocol has evolved over time. Therefore,
different Postfix versions implement different feature sets. </p>

<table border="1">

<tr> <th> Postfix </th> <th> Supported Milter requests </th>
</tr>

<tr> <td align="center"> 2.6 </td> <td> All Milter requests of
Sendmail 8.14.0 (see notes below).  </td> </tr>

<tr> <td align="center"> 2.5 </td> <td> All Milter requests of
Sendmail 8.14.0, except: <br> SMFIP_RCPT_REJ (report rejected
recipients to the mail filter), <br> SMFIR_CHGFROM (replace sender,
with optional ESMTP parameters), <br> SMFIR_ADDRCPT_PAR (add
recipient, with optional ESMTP parameters). </td> </tr>

<tr> <td align="center"> 2.4 </td> <td> All Milter requests of
Sendmail 8.13.0.  </td> </tr>

<tr> <td align="center"> 2.3 </td> <td> All Milter requests of
Sendmail 8.13.0, except: <br> SMFIR_REPLBODY (replace message body).

</table>

<li> <p> For Milter applications that are written in C, you need
to use the Sendmail libmilter library. </p>

<li> <p> Postfix has TWO sets of mail filters: filters that are used
for SMTP mail only (specified with the smtpd_milters parameter),
and filters for non-SMTP mail (specified with the non_smtpd_milters
parameter).  The non-SMTP filters are primarily for local submissions.
</p>

<p> When mail is filtered by non_smtpd_milters, the Postfix cleanup(8)
server has to simulate SMTP client requests.  This works as expected,
with only one exception: non_smtpd_milters must not REJECT or
TEMPFAIL simulated RCPT TO commands. When this rule is violated,
Postfix will report a configuration error, and mail will stay in
the queue.  </p>

<li> <p> When you use the before-queue content filter for incoming
SMTP mail (see SMTPD_PROXY_README), Milter applications have access
only to the SMTP command information; they have no access to the
message header or body, and cannot make modifications to the message
or to the envelope. </p>

<li> <p> Postfix 3.3 and later support the ESMTP parameters RET and
ENVID in requests to replace the envelope sender (SMFIR_CHGFROM).
Postfix logs a warning message when a Milter application supplies
other ESMTP parameters: </p>

<pre>
warning: <i>queue-id</i>: cleanup_chg_from: ignoring bad ESMTP
    parameter "<i>whatever</i>" in SMFI_CHGFROM request
</pre>

<li> <p> Postfix 3.0 and later support the ESMTP parameters NOTIFY
and ORCPT in requests to add an envelope recipient. Postfix logs a
warning message when a Milter application supplies other ESMTP
parameters: </p>

<pre>
warning: <i>queue-id</i>: cleanup_add_rcpt: ignoring ESMTP argument
    from Milter or header/body_checks: "<i>whatever</i>"
</pre>

<li> <p> Postfix 2.6 and later ignore optional ESMTP parameters in
requests to replace the sender (SMFIR_CHGFROM) or to append a
recipient (SMFIR_ADDRCPT_PAR). Postfix logs a warning message when
a Milter application supplies such ESMTP parameters: </p>

<pre>
warning: <i>queue-id</i>: cleanup_chg_from: ignoring ESMTP arguments "<i>whatever</i>"
warning: <i>queue-id</i>: cleanup_add_rcpt: ignoring ESMTP arguments "<i>whatever</i>"
</pre>

<li> <p> Postfix 2.3 does not implement requests to replace the
message body. Milter applications log a warning message when they
need this unsupported operation: </p>

<pre>
st_optionneg[134563840]: 0x3d does not fulfill action requirements 0x1e
</pre>

<p> The solution is to use Postfix version 2.4 or later. </p>

<li> <p> Postfix versions before 3.0 did not support per-Milter
timeouts, per-Milter error handling, etc. </p>

</ul>

</body>

</html>