1BOUNCE(5) File Formats Manual BOUNCE(5)
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6 bounce - Postfix bounce message template format
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9 bounce_template_file = /etc/postfix/bounce.cf
10 postconf -b [template_file]
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14 The Postfix bounce(8) server produces delivery status notification
15 (DSN) messages for undeliverable mail, delayed mail, successful deliv‐
16 ery or address verification requests.
17 By default, these notifications are generated from built-in templates
19 with message headers and message text. Sites can override the built-in
20 information by specifying a bounce template file with the bounce_tem‐
21 plate_file configuration parameter.
22 This document describes the general procedure to create a bounce tem‐
24 plate file, followed by the specific details of bounce template for‐
25 mats.
26
28 To create a customized bounce template file, create a temporary copy of
29 the file /usr/share/doc/postfix-2.6.6/bounce.cf.default and edit the
30 temporary file.
31 To preview the results of $name expansions in the template text, use
33 the command
34 postconf -b temporary_file
36 Errors in the template will be reported to the standard error stream
38 and to the syslog daemon.
39 While previewing the text, be sure to pay particular attention to the
41 expansion of time value parameters that appear in the delayed mail
42 notification text.
43 Once the result is satisfactory, copy the template to the Postfix con‐
45 figuration directory and specify in main.cf something like:
46 /etc/postfix/main.cf:
48 bounce_template_file = /etc/postfix/bounce.cf
49
51 The template file can specify templates for failed mail, delayed mail,
52 successful delivery or for address verification. These templates are
53 named failure_template, delay_template, success_template and ver‐
54 ify_template, respectively. You can but do not have to specify all
55 four templates in a bounce template file.
56 Each template starts with "template_name = <<EOF" and ends with a line
58 that contains the word "EOF" only. You can change the word EOF, but you
59 can't enclose it in quotes as with the shell or with Perl (tem‐
60 plate_name = <<'EOF'). Here is an example:
61 # The failure template is used for undeliverable mail.
63 failure_template = <<EOF
65 Charset: us-ascii
66 From: MAILER-DAEMON (Mail Delivery System)
67 Subject: Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender
68 Postmaster-Subject: Postmaster Copy: Undelivered Mail
69 This is the mail system at host $myhostname.
71 I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not
73 be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below.
74 For further assistance, please send mail to postmaster.
76 If you do so, please include this problem report. You can
78 delete your own text from the attached returned message.
79 The mail system
81 EOF
82 The usage and specification of bounce templates is subject to the fol‐
84 lowing restrictions:
85 · No special meaning is given to the backslash character or to
87 leading whitespace; these are always taken literally.
88 · Inside the << context, the "$" character is special. To produce
90 a "$" character as output, specify "$$".
91 · Outside the << context, lines beginning with "#" are ignored, as
93 are empty lines, and lines consisting of whitespace only.
94 Examples of all templates can be found in the file bounce.cf.default in
96 the Postfix configuration directory.
97
99 The first portion of a bounce template consists of optional template
100 headers. Some become message headers in the delivery status notifica‐
101 tion; some control the formatting of that notification. Headers not
102 specified in a template will be left at their default value.
103 The following headers are supported:
105 Charset:
107 The MIME character set of the template message text. See the
108 "TEMPLATE MESSAGE TEXT FORMAT" description below.
109 From: The sender address in the message header of the delivery status
111 notification.
112 Subject:
114 The subject in the message header of the delivery status notifi‐
115 cation that is returned to the sender.
116 Postmaster-Subject:
118 The subject that will be used in Postmaster copies of undeliver‐
119 able or delayed mail notifications. These copies are sent under
120 control of the notify_classes configuration parameter.
121 The usage and specification of template message headers is subject to
123 the following restrictions:
124 · Template message header names can be specified in upper case,
126 lower case or mixed case. Postfix always produces bounce message
127 header labels of the form "From:" and "Subject:".
128 · Template message headers must not span multiple lines.
130 · Template message headers do not support $parameter expansions.
132 · Template message headers must contain ASCII characters only, and
134 must not contain ASCII null characters.
135
137 The second portion of a bounce template consists of message text. As
138 the above example shows, template message text may contain main.cf
139 $parameters. Besides the parameters that are defined in main.cf, the
140 following parameters are treated specially depending on the suffix that
141 is appended to their name.
142 delay_warning_time_suffix
144 Expands into the value of the delay_warning_time parameter,
145 expressed in the time unit specified by suffix, which is one of
146 seconds, minutes, hours, days, or weeks.
147 maximal_queue_lifetime_suffix
149 Expands into the value of the maximal_queue_lifetime parameter,
150 expressed in the time unit specified by suffix. See above under
151 delay_warning_time for possible suffix values.
152 The usage and specification of template message text is subject to the
154 following restrictions:
155 · The template message text is not sent in Postmaster copies of
157 delivery status notifications.
158 · If the template message text contains non-ASCII characters,
160 Postfix requires that the Charset: template header is updated.
161 Specify an appropriate superset of US-ASCII. A superset is
162 needed because Postfix appends ASCII text after the message tem‐
163 plate when it sends a delivery status notification.
164
166 bounce(8), Postfix delivery status notifications
167 postconf(5), configuration parameters
168
170 The Secure Mailer license must be distributed with this software.
171
173 The Postfix bounce template format was originally developed by Nicolas
174 Riendeau.
175
177 Wietse Venema
178 IBM T.J. Watson Research
179 P.O. Box 704
180 Yorktown Heights, NY 10598, USA
181 BOUNCE(5)