Local aliases problem?

[Peter Serwe-3]

I've recently converted a sendmail outbound relay and backup MX box to postfix,
and while I have a bit of experience with qmail, exim, sendmail, and a
few other MTA's,
postfix is being somewhat elusive for this one particular issue.

I send mail to the localhost from various cron'd applications that
need to report status
and send the mail out to a small distribution list.  In the sendmail
world, I used /etc/aliases
to accomplish this and it worked fairly smoothly.

Now, however, I have sendmail complaining that those aliases loop back
to itself, and
refuses to parse the aliases and distribute the mail to the
recipients.  It seems like it's
not actually parsing /etc/aliases at all, and I've tried every means I
could figure out to
make it perform this behavior.

Towards that end, I configured my /etc/postfix/main.cf thusly:

# 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

# The alias_database parameter specifies the alias database(s) that
# are built with "newaliases" or "sendmail -bi".  This is a separate
# configuration parameter, because alias_maps (see above) may specify
# tables that are not necessarily all under control by Postfix.
#
#alias_database = dbm:/etc/aliases
#alias_database = dbm:/etc/mail/aliases
alias_database = hash:/etc/aliases
#alias_database = hash:/etc/aliases, hash:/opt/majordomo/aliases

And have run postalias innumerable times, still without the result I'm
expecting.

Instead, I get these messages which I'm assuming indicates correct behavior
on the part of postfix according to the way I'm unfortunately configured:

May  1 15:31:16 testbed sendmail[2224]: m41MVGfD002224: from=rancid,
size=258, class=-60, nrcpts=1,
msgid=<[hidden email]>,
relay=rancid@localhost
May  1 15:31:16 testbed postfix/smtpd[1967]: connect from
localhost.localdomain[127.0.0.1]
May  1 15:31:16 testbed postfix/smtpd[1967]: D6D92CA0034:
client=localhost.localdomain[127.0.0.1]
May  1 15:31:16 testbed postfix/cleanup[2228]: D6D92CA0034:
message-id=<[hidden email]>
May  1 15:31:16 testbed sendmail[2224]: m41MVGfD002224:
to=rancid-admin-cpe, ctladdr=rancid (200/500), delay=00:00:00,
xdelay=00:00:00, mailer=relay, pri=138258, relay=[127.0.0.1]
[127.0.0.1], dsn=2.0.0, stat=Sent (Ok: queued as D6D92CA0034)
May  1 15:31:16 testbed postfix/qmgr[3071]: D6D92CA0034:
from=<[hidden email]>, size=790, nrcpt=1 (queue active)
May  1 15:31:16 testbed postfix/smtpd[1967]: disconnect from
localhost.localdomain[127.0.0.1]
May  1 15:31:16 testbed postfix/smtp[2229]: D6D92CA0034:
to=<[hidden email]>, relay=none, delay=0,
status=bounced (mail for testbed.my.domain loops back to myself)
May  1 15:31:16 testbed postfix/cleanup[2228]: F2789714001:
message-id=<[hidden email]>
May  1 15:31:16 testbed postfix/qmgr[3071]: F2789714001: from=<>,
size=2581, nrcpt=1 (queue active)
May  1 15:31:17 testbed postfix/qmgr[3071]: D6D92CA0034: removed
May  1 15:31:17 testbed postfix/smtp[2229]: F2789714001:
to=<[hidden email]>, relay=none, delay=1, status=bounced
(mail for testbed.my.domain loops back to myself)
May  1 15:31:17 testbed postfix/qmgr[3071]: F2789714001: removed

Postfix is performing flawlessly in it's roles as a backup MX and a
local relay for hosts here on my networks,
just not for this seemingly trivial, yet important local alias-style
distribution list functionality.

Peter

--
ピーター

[Wietse Venema]

> May  1 15:31:16 testbed postfix/smtp[2229]: D6D92CA0034:
> to=<[hidden email]>, relay=none, delay=0,
> status=bounced (mail for testbed.my.domain loops back to myself)

Where should testbed.my.domain be delivered?  What main.cf
parameter is responsible for this decision?

        Wietse

[Peter Serwe-3]

I think, apparently incorrectly, that it should be delivered via
/etc/aliases to the external email aliases I specify.

The main.cf parameter I think, again apparently incorrectly, is the
line that says:

alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases

Peter

On Thu, May 1, 2008 at 4:04 PM, Wietse Venema <[hidden email]> wrote:
>> May  1 15:31:16 testbed postfix/smtp[2229]: D6D92CA0034:
>> to=<[hidden email]>, relay=none, delay=0,
>> status=bounced (mail for testbed.my.domain loops back to myself)
>
> Where should testbed.my.domain be delivered?  What main.cf
> parameter is responsible for this decision?
>
>        Wietse
>



--
ピーター

[Victor Duchovni]

On Thu, May 01, 2008 at 07:11:53PM -0700, Peter Serwe wrote:

> I think, apparently incorrectly, that it should be delivered via
> /etc/aliases to the external email aliases I specify.
>
> The main.cf parameter I think, again apparently incorrectly, is the
> line that says:
>
> alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases

See ADDRESS_REWRITING_README, aliases(5) only applies to *local*
deliveries.  You are sending the mail via smtp to yourself.

http://www.postfix.org/ADDRESS_REWRITING_README.html#delivering
http://www.postfix.org/BASIC_CONFIGURATION_README.html#mydestination

--
        Viktor.

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[Peter Serwe-3]

Great, problem identified ;)

Problem still exists however, in that I still can't get the behavior I
want, probably because
I still don't understand how to communicate that to the MTA.

What's the right way to accomplish what I'm trying to do?  Is there a
way to route this through
the local delivery agent, or a way to accomplish this through smtp?  I
understand a few different
MTA's, but essentially I'm trying to get the behavior I had from
sendmail, which didn't care how the
message arrived, but ran it through /etc/aliases irrespective.  I
still don't quite understand what
postfix wants me to do.

Peter





On Thu, May 1, 2008 at 7:17 PM, Victor Duchovni
<[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> See ADDRESS_REWRITING_README, aliases(5) only applies to *local*
> deliveries.  You are sending the mail via smtp to yourself.
>
> http://www.postfix.org/ADDRESS_REWRITING_README.html#delivering
> http://www.postfix.org/BASIC_CONFIGURATION_README.html#mydestination
>
> --
>        Viktor.
--
ピーター

[mouss-2]

Peter Serwe wrote:

> Great, problem identified ;)
>
> Problem still exists however, in that I still can't get the behavior I
> want, probably because
> I still don't understand how to communicate that to the MTA.
>
> What's the right way to accomplish what I'm trying to do?  Is there a
> way to route this through
> the local delivery agent, or a way to accomplish this through smtp?  I
> understand a few different
> MTA's, but essentially I'm trying to get the behavior I had from
> sendmail, which didn't care how the
> message arrived, but ran it through /etc/aliases irrespective.  I
> still don't quite understand what
> postfix wants me to do.
>  

if you want /etc/aliases to have any effect, put the domain in
mydestination.

do read the docs suggested by Viktor to learn more.