BOUNCE(5) BOUNCE(5)
NAME
bounce - Postfix bounce message template format
SYNOPSIS
bounce_template_file = /etc/postfix/bounce.cf
postconf -b [template_file]
DESCRIPTION
The Postfix bounce(8) server produces delivery status notification (DSN) messages for undeliverable
mail, delayed mail, successful delivery or address verification requests.
By default, these notifications are generated from built-in templates with message headers and mes-sage message
sage text. Sites can override the built-in information by specifying a bounce template file with the
bounce_template_file configuration parameter.
This document describes the general procedure to create a bounce template file, followed by the spe-cific specific
cific details of bounce template formats.
GENERAL PROCEDURE
To create a customized bounce template file, create a temporary copy of the file /etc/post-fix/bounce.cf.default /etc/postfix/bounce.cf.default
fix/bounce.cf.default and edit the temporary file.
To preview the results of $name expansions in the template text, use the command
postconf -b temporary_file
Errors in the template will be reported to the standard error stream and to the syslog daemon.
While previewing the text, be sure to pay particular attention to the expansion of time value parame-ters parameters
ters that appear in the delayed mail notification text.
Once the result is satisfactory, copy the template to the Postfix configuration directory and specify
in main.cf something like:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
bounce_template_file = /etc/postfix/bounce.cf
TEMPLATE FILE FORMAT
The template file can specify templates for failed mail, delayed mail, successful delivery or for
address verification. These templates are named failure_template, delay_template, success_template
and verify_template, respectively. You can but do not have to specify all four templates in a bounce
template file.
Each template starts with "template_name = <<EOF" and ends with a line that contains the word "EOF"
only. You can change the word EOF, but you can't enclose it in quotes as with the shell or with Perl
(template_name = <<'EOF'). Here is an example:
# The failure template is used for undeliverable mail.
failure_template = <<EOF
Charset: us-ascii
From: MAILER-DAEMON (Mail Delivery System)
Subject: Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender
Postmaster-Subject: Postmaster Copy: Undelivered Mail
This is the mail system at host $myhostname.
I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not
be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below.
For further assistance, please send mail to postmaster.
If you do so, please include this problem report. You can
delete your own text from the attached returned message.
The mail system
EOF
The usage and specification of bounce templates is subject to the following restrictions:
No special meaning is given to the backslash character or to leading whitespace; these are
always taken literally.
Inside the << context, the "$" character is special. To produce a "$" character as output,
specify "$$".
Outside the << context, lines beginning with "#" are ignored, as are empty lines, and lines
consisting of whitespace only.
Examples of all templates can be found in the file bounce.cf.default in the Postfix configuration
directory.
TEMPLATE HEADER FORMAT
The first portion of a bounce template consists of optional template headers. These either become
message headers in the delivery status notification, or control the formatting of the notification.
Headers not specified in a template will be left at their default value.
The following headers are supported:
Charset:
The MIME character set of the template message text. See the "TEMPLATE MESSAGE TEXT FORMAT"
description below.
From: The sender address in the message header of the delivery status notification.
Subject:
The subject in the message header of the delivery status notification.
Postmaster-Subject:
The subject that will be used in Postmaster copies of undeliverable or delayed mail notifica-
tions. These copies are sent under control of the notify_classes configuration parameter.
The usage and specification of template message headers is subject to the following restrictions:
Template message header names can be specified in upper case, lower case or mixed case. Post-fix Postfix
fix always uses the spelling as shown in the example above.
Template message headers must not span multiple lines.
Template message headers must not contain main.cf $parameters.
Template message headers must contain ASCII characters only.
TEMPLATE MESSAGE TEXT FORMAT
The second portion of a bounce template consists of message text. As the above example shows, tem-plate template
plate message text may contain main.cf $parameters. Besides the parameters that are defined in
main.cf, the following parameters are treated specially depending on the suffix that is appended to
their name.
delay_warning_time_suffix
Expands into the value of the delay_warning_time parameter, expressed in the time unit speci-fied specified
fied by suffix, which is one of seconds, minutes, hours, days, or weeks.
maximal_queue_lifetime_suffix
Expands into the value of the maximal_queue_lifetime parameter, expressed in the time unit
specified by suffix. See above under delay_warning_time for possible suffix values.
The usage and specification of template message text is subject to the following restrictions:
The template message text is not sent in Postmaster copies of delivery status notifications.
If the template message text contains non-ASCII characters, Postfix requires that the Charset:
template header is updated. Specify an appropriate superset of US-ASCII. A superset is
needed because Postfix appends ASCII text after the message template when it sends a delivery
status notification.
SEE ALSO
bounce(8), Postfix delivery status notifications
postconf(5), configuration parameters
LICENSE
The Secure Mailer license must be distributed with this software.
HISTORY
The Postfix bounce template format was originally developed by Nicolas Riendeau.
AUTHOR(S)
Wietse Venema
IBM T.J. Watson Research
P.O. Box 704
Yorktown Heights, NY 10598, USA
BOUNCE(5)
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