POSTLOG(1) General Commands Manual POSTLOG(1)

# [NAME](#NAME)

postlog - Postfix-compatible logging utility

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

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**postlog** \[**-iv**] \[**-c config\_dir**] \[**-p priority**] \[**-t tag**] \[*text...*]

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

The [**postlog**(1)](/man/os/postfix/postlog.1) command implements a Postfix-compatible logging interface for use in, for example, shell scripts.

By default, [**postlog**(1)](/man/os/postfix/postlog.1) logs the *text* given on the command line as one record. If no *text* is specified on the command line, [**postlog**(1)](/man/os/postfix/postlog.1) reads from standard input and logs each input line as one record.

Logging is sent to [**syslogd**(8)](/man/os/postfix/syslogd.8) or [**postlogd**(8)](/man/os/postfix/postlogd.8), and to the standard error stream (with Postfix < 3.8, [**postlog**(1)](/man/os/postfix/postlog.1) writes to the standard error stream only if that stream is connected to a terminal).

The following options are implemented:

[**-c config\_dir**](#c)

The **main.cf** configuration file is in the named directory instead of the default configuration directory. See also the MAIL\_CONFIG environment setting below.

[**-i** (obsolete)](#i)

Include the process ID in the logging tag. This flag is ignored as of Postfix 3.4, where the PID is always included.

[**-p priority** (default: **info**)](#p)

Specifies the logging severity: **info**, **warn**, **error**, **fatal**, or **panic**. With Postfix 3.1 and later, the program will pause for 1 second after reporting a **fatal** or **panic** condition, just like other Postfix programs.

[**-t tag**](#t)

Specifies the logging tag, that is, the identifying name that appears at the beginning of each logging record. A default tag is used when none is specified.

[**-v**](#v)

Enable verbose logging for debugging purposes. Multiple **-v** options make the software increasingly verbose.

# [SECURITY](#SECURITY)

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The [**postlog**(1)](/man/os/postfix/postlog.1) command is designed to run with set-groupid privileges, so that it can connect to the [**postlogd**(8)](/man/os/postfix/postlogd.8) daemon process (Postfix 3.7 and later; earlier implementations of this command must not have set-groupid or set-userid permissions).

# [ENVIRONMENT](#ENVIRONMENT)

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[MAIL\_CONFIG](#MAIL_CONFIG)

Directory with the **main.cf** file. In order to avoid exploitation of set-group ID privileges, a non-default directory is allowed only if:

- The name is listed in the default **main.cf** file with the **alternate\_config\_directories** or **multi\_instance\_directories** configuration parameter.
- The command is invoked by the super-user.

# [CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS](#CONFIGURATION_PARAMETERS)

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The following **main.cf** parameters are especially relevant to this program.

The text below provides only a parameter summary. See [**postconf**(5)](/man/os/postfix/postconf.5) for more details including examples.

[**config\_directory (see 'postconf -d' output)**](#config_directory)

The default location of the Postfix main.cf and master.cf configuration files.

[**import\_environment (see 'postconf -d' output)**](#import_environment)

The list of environment variables that a privileged Postfix process will import from a non-Postfix parent process, or name=value environment overrides.

[**syslog\_facility (mail)**](#syslog_facility)

The syslog facility of Postfix logging.

[**syslog\_name (see 'postconf -d' output)**](#syslog_name)

A prefix that is prepended to the process name in syslog records, so that, for example, "smtpd" becomes "prefix/smtpd".

Available in Postfix 3.4 and later:

[**maillog\_file (empty)**](#maillog_file)

The name of an optional logfile that is written by the Postfix [**postlogd**(8)](/man/os/postfix/postlogd.8) service.

[**postlog\_service\_name (postlog)**](#postlog_service_name)

The name of the [**postlogd**(8)](/man/os/postfix/postlogd.8) service entry in master.cf.

Available in Postfix 3.9 and later:

[**maillog\_file\_permissions (0600)**](#maillog_file_permissions)

The file access permissions that will be set when the file $maillog\_file is created for the first time, or when the file is created after an existing file is rotated.

# [SEE ALSO](#SEE_ALSO)

```
postconf(5), configuration parameters
postlogd(8), Postfix logging
syslogd(8), system logging
```

# [LICENSE](#LICENSE)

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The Secure Mailer license must be distributed with this software.

# [HISTORY](#HISTORY)

The [**postlog**(1)](/man/os/postfix/postlog.1) command was introduced with Postfix version 3.4.

# [AUTHOR(S)](#AUTHOR%28S%29)

```
Wietse Venema
IBM T.J. Watson Research
P.O. Box 704
Yorktown Heights, NY 10598, USA
Wietse Venema
Google, Inc.
111 8th Avenue
New York, NY 10011, USA
```

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Document: postlog(1) from postfix 3.11.7-r3 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/vdukhovni/postfix