Knowledge base
postmaster
Globalcritical
The manual names this line among the two settings that must be set by hand for the engine to work (the other is relay control).
The advice there is categorical too: the address should always be specified. There are two reasons.
The watchdog writes here on its own. The internal supervisor pmtawatch sends reports to this address about engine crashes and upcoming license expiration. This is the only channel through which the node reports bad news about itself without your involvement.
Service mail is forwarded here too. Messages to the local postmaster and abuse go to the specified addresses by default.
The directive is repeated — one line per address.
The address must be elsewhere: at another provider, in other infrastructure — anywhere, just not behind this node.
The second half: service mail arrives here too. A mailbox nobody reads means that complaints to abuse@ and crash messages go into the same nowhere.
What is lost as a result is worth knowing. The pmtawatch watchdog sends engine crash and restart reports to the same address: without the line the node crashes and comes back up silently. And the Hub opens receiving for postmaster@ and abuse@ with a rule, but there is nowhere to forward the messages — the bounce processor picks them up and discards them. Whoever cares about this adds the line themselves.
What to set. There is one requirement for the address, and it is not about the format:
| Property | Why |
|---|---|
| a mailbox outside this node | a crash report is sent by the thing that crashed |
| a mailbox that is read | complaints and license expiration messages arrive here too |
| two addresses, not one | the line is repeatable; the second address backs up the first |
A mailbox at a third-party provider is more appropriate here than your own: it does not depend on your infrastructure at all.
# two addresses, and both outside this node postmaster ops@example.netpostmaster ops-backup@example.org
▲
Common mistakes and problems
what people get wrong and how it ends2 mistakes▶
Specifying an address on the same node
our experience
Not setting the line at all
§ 2.3
- Syntax
- postmaster <email-address>
- Values
- an email address; the line can be repeated
- Applying
- reload, no restart needed
- Queue
- will not touch what is already queued
- Where to write it
- Global
- How many times
- may be repeated
Related directives
3 relations
grep -n '^postmaster' /etc/pmta/config grep -n 'relay-address' /etc/pmta/config
What else to read
3 articles
◇Who is allowed to submit mail and for whom to accept itOut of the box, the node accepts submission only from the machine itself; two different questions — “who can send through us” and “for whose addresses we accept mail” — are answered by different directives.◇The group that grants management rightsMembership in the pmta group gives an unprivileged user the right to call the node’s commands and use submission.◇How the node selects a source and combines its settingsA connection falls under all source blocks whose addresses cover it, and they act merged — the narrow one overrides the wide one; named blocks are attached only by direct reference.
- Cost of a mistake
- safe: a wrong value breaks nothing
- Scenarios
- Receiving inbound mail · Node security
- Priority
- critical