Configure Custom Postfix Bounce Messages

The postconf -n command shows the settings that are currently configured in /etc/postfix/main.cf, whereas the postconf -d command shows the default settings that are valid unless something else is set in /etc/postfix/main.cf.

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To find out about the current value of maximal_queue_lifetime, you can run

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{{{postconf -d | grep maximal_queue_lifetime

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postconf -n | grep maximal_queue_lifetime}}}

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If postconf -n doesn't display anything, this means the value from postconf -d is currently being used:

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{{{server2:~# postconf -d | grep maximal_queue_lifetime

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maximal_queue_lifetime = 5d

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server2:~# postconf -n | grep maximal_queue_lifetime

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server2:~#}}}

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The same goes for delay_warning_time:

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{{{postconf -d | grep delay_warning_time

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postconf -n | grep delay_warning_time}}}

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{{{server2:~# postconf -d | grep delay_warning_time

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delay_warning_time = 0h

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server2:~# postconf -n | grep delay_warning_time

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server2:~#}}}

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If you want to modify these settings, you can use the postconf -e command. It will write the settings to /etc/postfix/main.cf, e.g. like this:

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{{{postconf -e 'maximal_queue_lifetime = 1d'

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postconf -e 'delay_warning_time = 0h'}}}

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Restart Postfix afterwards:

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{{{service postfix restart}}}

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The reason that we care about these two settings is that their values can be used in the custom bounce messages.

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=== 3 Create A Custom Bounce Message ===

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From [[http:~~/~~/www.postfix.org/bounce.5.html>>url:http://www.postfix.org/bounce.5.html]]:

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//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.//

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//Each template starts with "template_name = <<EOF" and ends with a line that contains the word "EOF"//

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We can now create the file /etc/postfix/bounce.cf which contains the templates like this (I'm using all four templates here, but you can leave out the ones you don't need). It is absolutely important that the file ends with an empty line!

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{{{nano /etc/postfix/bounce.cf}}}

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{{{#

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# The failure template is used when mail is returned to the sender;

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# either the destination rejected the message, or the destination

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# could not be reached before the message expired in the queue.

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#

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failure_template = <<EOF

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Charset: us-ascii

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From: MAILER-DAEMON (Mail Delivery System)

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Subject: Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender

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Postmaster-Subject: Postmaster Copy: Undelivered Mail

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This is the mail system at host $myhostname.

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I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not

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be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below.

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For further assistance, please send mail to <postmaster>

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If you do so, please include this problem report. You can

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delete your own text from the attached returned message.

The mail system

EOF

#

# The delay template is used when mail is delayed. Note a neat trick:

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# the default template displays the delay_warning_time value as hours

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# by appending the _hours suffix to the parameter name; it displays

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# the maximal_queue_lifetime value as days by appending the _days

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# suffix.

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#

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# Other suffixes are: _seconds, _minutes, _weeks. There are no other

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# main.cf parameters that have this special behavior.

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#

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# You need to adjust these suffixes (and the surrounding text) if

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# you have very different settings for these time parameters.

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#

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delay_template = <<EOF

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Charset: us-ascii

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From: MAILER-DAEMON (Mail Delivery System)

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Subject: Delayed Mail (still being retried)

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Postmaster-Subject: Postmaster Warning: Delayed Mail

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This is the mail system at host $myhostname.

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####################################################################

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# THIS IS A WARNING ONLY. YOU DO NOT NEED TO RESEND YOUR MESSAGE. #

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####################################################################

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Your message could not be delivered for more than $delay_warning_time_hours hour(s).

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It will be retried until it is $maximal_queue_lifetime_days day(s) old.

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For further assistance, please send mail to <postmaster>

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If you do so, please include this problem report. You can

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delete your own text from the attached returned message.

The mail system

EOF

#

# The success template is used when mail is delivered to mailbox,

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# when an alias or list is expanded, or when mail is delivered to a

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# system that does not announce DSN support. It is an error to specify

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# a Postmaster-Subject: here.

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#

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success_template = <<EOF

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Charset: us-ascii

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From: MAILER-DAEMON (Mail Delivery System)

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Subject: Successful Mail Delivery Report

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This is the mail system at host $myhostname.

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Your message was successfully delivered to the destination(s)

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listed below. If the message was delivered to mailbox you will

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receive no further notifications. Otherwise you may still receive

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notifications of mail delivery errors from other systems.

The mail system

EOF

#

# The verify template is used for address verification (sendmail -bv

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# address...). or for verbose mail delivery (sendmail -v address...).

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# It is an error to specify a Postmaster-Subject: here.

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#

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verify_template = <<EOF

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Charset: us-ascii

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From: MAILER-DAEMON (Mail Delivery System)

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Subject: Mail Delivery Status Report

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This is the mail system at host $myhostname.

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Enclosed is the mail delivery report that you requested.

The mail system

EOF

}}}

You can customize the messages to your liking. In the messages, you can use all main.cf variables (e.g. $myhostname). If you take a look at the delay_template, you'll see that I use the additional variables $delay_warning_time_hours and $maximal_queue_lifetime_days. You could as well use $delay_warning_time_seconds, $delay_warning_time_minutes, $delay_warning_time_days, $delay_warning_time_weekes resp. $maximal_queue_lifetime_seconds, $maximal_queue_lifetime_minutes, $maximal_queue_lifetime_hours, $maximal_queue_lifetime_weeks, but keep in mind what [[http:~~/~~/www.postfix.org/bounce.5.html>>url:http://www.postfix.org/bounce.5.html]] explains about these variables:

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//delay_warning_time_suffix: Expands into the value of the delay_warning_time parameter, expressed in the time unit specified by a suffix, which is one of seconds, minutes, hours, days, or weeks.//

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//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.//

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So if you use the variable $delay_warning_time_minutes instead of $delay_warning_time_hours in your template, you should follow it by the word "minutes" instead of "hours".

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Next, we configure Postfix to use the custom templates:

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{{{postconf -e 'bounce_template_file = /etc/postfix/bounce.cf'}}}

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To check what the templates look like when all variables are replaced with their real values, and to make sure that there are no errors in your templates (e.g. a missing newline at the end of /etc/postfix/bounce.cf), run:

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{{{postconf -b /etc/postfix/bounce.cf}}}

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{{{server2:~# postconf -b /etc/postfix/bounce.cf

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expanded_failure_text = <<EOF

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This is the mail system at host server2.example.com.

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