--- title: "Postfix" lastUpdated: 2025-08-20 slug: ispmail-trixie/postfix sidebar: order: 160 --- import { Aside } from "@astrojs/starlight/components"; import { Steps } from "@astrojs/starlight/components"; import Box from "../../../components/Box.astro"; import StepListReceive from "../../../components/StepListReceive.astro"; Now that other mail servers can locate your mail server, the next step is to make sure it can receive and process incoming emails. This task is handled by Postfix, which communicates using the SMTP protocol. Postfix knows if an email address is valid by checking for… - **Virtual Domains** (am I responsible for this domain?) - **Virtual Aliases** (do I have to redirect this address to another address?) - **Virtual Mailboxes** (do I have a valid mailbox to store the email to?) ### Virtual Domains There are different ways for Postfix to get that information. From text files, LDAP, MongoDB or PostgreSQL. Or via MariaDB – which is what we will use. But whatever kind of data source you configure, Postfix needs the information as a _mapping_. Consider it as a _question_ and an _answer_. - Question: is `example.org` one of our virtual domains? - Answer: yes If the information is **not** available you just get no answer: - Question: is `example.net` one of our virtual domains? - Answer: _(no answer)_ In SQL language Postfix has to ask MariaDB the question: ```sql SELECT "yes" FROM virtual_domains WHERE name='example.net' ``` Run the following code in your shell to create a configuration file creating that mapping: ```sh cat > /etc/postfix/mariadb-virtual-mailbox-domains.cf << EOF user = mailserver password = SECOND-PASSWORD-HERE hosts = 127.0.0.1 dbname = mailserver query = SELECT 1 FROM virtual_domains WHERE name='%s' EOF ``` This has created a configuration file called `/etc/postfix/virtual-mailbox-domains.cf`. The `user`, `password`, `hosts` and `dbname` definitions tell Postfix how to connect to the database. And the `query` asks the _question_ if a certain domain is present in the database table `virtual_domains`. Using `SELECT 1` we return just the number 1 if such an entry was found. In fact it does not matter what we return. Any _answer_ is fine. Don't forget to replace the `SECOND-PASSWORD-HERE` by your own password for the `mailserver` user. ### Virtual Aliases Now let's deal with aliases. As shown earlier an alias redirects an email to another email address. So the _question_ and _answer_ game goes like this: - Question: is there an alias for `jack@example.org`? - Answer: `john@example.org` Postfix would then check if there are further aliases: - Question: is there an alias for `john@example.org`? - Answer: _(no answer)_ Apparently, there aren't any more. So the email will go to `john@example.org`. Run this code to create the appropriate mapping file: ```sh cat > /etc/postfix/mariadb-virtual-alias-maps.cf << EOF user = mailserver password = SECOND-PASSWORD-HERE hosts = 127.0.0.1 dbname = mailserver query = SELECT destination FROM virtual_aliases WHERE source='%s' EOF ``` The query now gets all the `destination` email addresses from the database for a certain `source` email address. ### Virtual Mailboxes The last mapping we need is a query to find valid mailboxes. Without further ado: ```sh cat > /etc/postfix/mariadb-virtual-mailbox-maps.cf << EOF user = mailserver password = SECOND-PASSWORD-HERE hosts = 127.0.0.1 dbname = mailserver query = SELECT 1 FROM virtual_users WHERE email='%s' EOF ``` Just the same story as with virtual domains. The database returns `1` if there is a `virtual_users` record matching that specific email address. Actually the _answer_ is usually not `1` but the path to the mailbox on disk. But that applies only if Postfix would be saving the email to disk on its own. In our setup the email will be passed on to Dovecot in a later step. Dovecot will then handle the files on disk. Postfix just has to know is whether a mailbox exists. And that's why **any** _answer_ is sufficient here. ### Tell Postfix You have created the config files for the three mappings. Now you just need to tell Postfix to use them: ```sh postconf virtual_mailbox_domains=mysql:/etc/postfix/mariadb-virtual-mailbox-domains.cf postconf virtual_mailbox_maps=mysql:/etc/postfix/mariadb-virtual-mailbox-maps.cf postconf virtual_alias_maps=mysql:/etc/postfix/mariadb-virtual-alias-maps.cf chown root:postfix /etc/postfix/mariadb-*.cf chmod o= /etc/postfix/mariadb-*.cf ``` `postconf` is a command that changes configuration in `/etc/postfix/main.cf` and applies them instantly. You don't have to restart Postfix. The last two lines set the owner of the config files (_user=root, group=postfix_) and make sure that _others_ have no access. After all a database password is found in these files.