verify - Postfix address verification server
verify [generic Postfix daemon options]
The verify(8) address verification server maintains a record of what
recipient addresses are known to be deliverable or undeliverable.
Addresses are verified by injecting probe messages into the
Postfix queue. Probe messages are run through all the routing and rewriting
machinery except for final delivery, and are discarded rather than being
deferred or bounced.
Address verification relies on the answer from the nearest MTA for
the specified address, and will therefore not detect all undeliverable
addresses.
The verify(8) server is designed to run under control by
the Postfix master server. It maintains an optional persistent database. To
avoid being interrupted by "postfix stop" in the middle of a
database update, the process runs in a separate process group.
The verify(8) server implements the following requests:
- update address status text
- Update the status and text of the specified address.
- query address
- Look up the status and text for the specified
address. If the status is unknown, a probe is sent and an "in
progress" status is returned.
The address verification server is not security-sensitive. It does not talk to
the network, and it does not talk to local users. The verify server can run
chrooted at fixed low privilege.
The address verification server can be coerced to store unlimited
amounts of garbage. Limiting the cache expiry time trades one problem (disk
space exhaustion) for another one (poor response time to client
requests).
With Postfix version 2.5 and later, the verify(8) server no
longer uses root privileges when opening the address_verify_map cache
file. The file should now be stored under the Postfix-owned
data_directory. As a migration aid, an attempt to open a cache file
under a non-Postfix directory is redirected to the Postfix-owned
data_directory, and a warning is logged.
Problems and transactions are logged to syslogd(8) or postlogd(8).
Address verification probe messages add additional traffic to the mail queue.
Recipient verification may cause an increased load on down-stream servers in
the case of a dictionary attack or a flood of backscatter bounces. Sender
address verification may cause your site to be denylisted by some providers.
If the persistent database ever gets corrupted then the world
comes to an end and human intervention is needed. This violates a basic
Postfix principle.
Changes to main.cf are not picked up automatically, as verify(8)
processes are long-lived. Use the command "postfix reload"
after a configuration change.
The text below provides only a parameter summary. See
postconf(5) for more details including examples.
- address_verify_sender ($double_bounce_sender)
- The sender address to use in address verification probes; prior to Postfix
2.5 the default was "postmaster".
Available with Postfix 2.9 and later:
- address_verify_sender_ttl (0s)
- The time between changes in the time-dependent portion of address
verification probe sender addresses.
- address_verify_map (see 'postconf -d' output)
- Lookup table for persistent address verification status storage.
- address_verify_positive_expire_time (31d)
- The time after which a successful probe expires from the address
verification cache.
- address_verify_positive_refresh_time (7d)
- The time after which a successful address verification probe needs to be
refreshed.
- address_verify_negative_cache (yes)
- Enable caching of failed address verification probe results.
- address_verify_negative_expire_time (3d)
- The time after which a failed probe expires from the address verification
cache.
- address_verify_negative_refresh_time (3h)
- The time after which a failed address verification probe needs to be
refreshed.
Available with Postfix 2.7 and later:
- address_verify_cache_cleanup_interval (12h)
- The amount of time between verify(8) address verification database
cleanup runs.
By default, probe messages are delivered via the same route as regular messages.
The following parameters can be used to override specific message routing
mechanisms.
- address_verify_relayhost ($relayhost)
- Overrides the relayhost parameter setting for address verification
probes.
- address_verify_transport_maps ($transport_maps)
- Overrides the transport_maps parameter setting for address verification
probes.
- address_verify_local_transport ($local_transport)
- Overrides the local_transport parameter setting for address verification
probes.
- address_verify_virtual_transport ($virtual_transport)
- Overrides the virtual_transport parameter setting for address verification
probes.
- address_verify_relay_transport ($relay_transport)
- Overrides the relay_transport parameter setting for address verification
probes.
- address_verify_default_transport ($default_transport)
- Overrides the default_transport parameter setting for address verification
probes.
Available in Postfix 2.3 and later:
- address_verify_sender_dependent_relayhost_maps
($sender_dependent_relayhost_maps)
- Overrides the sender_dependent_relayhost_maps parameter setting for
address verification probes.
Available in Postfix 2.7 and later:
- address_verify_sender_dependent_default_transport_maps
($sender_dependent_default_transport_maps)
- Overrides the sender_dependent_default_transport_maps parameter setting
for address verification probes.
Preliminary SMTPUTF8 support is introduced with Postfix 3.0.
- smtputf8_autodetect_classes (sendmail, verify)
- Detect that a message requires SMTPUTF8 support for the specified mail
origin classes.
Available in Postfix version 3.2 and later:
- enable_idna2003_compatibility (no)
- Enable 'transitional' compatibility between IDNA2003 and IDNA2008, when
converting UTF-8 domain names to/from the ASCII form that is used for DNS
lookups.
- config_directory (see 'postconf -d' output)
- The default location of the Postfix main.cf and master.cf configuration
files.
- daemon_timeout (18000s)
- How much time a Postfix daemon process may take to handle a request before
it is terminated by a built-in watchdog timer.
- ipc_timeout (3600s)
- The time limit for sending or receiving information over an internal
communication channel.
- process_id (read-only)
- The process ID of a Postfix command or daemon process.
- process_name (read-only)
- The process name of a Postfix command or daemon process.
- queue_directory (see 'postconf -d' output)
- The location of the Postfix top-level queue directory.
- syslog_facility (mail)
- The syslog facility of Postfix logging.
- syslog_name (see 'postconf -d' output)
- A prefix that is prepended to the process name in syslog records, so that,
for example, "smtpd" becomes "prefix/smtpd".
Available in Postfix 3.3 and later:
- service_name (read-only)
- The master.cf service name of a Postfix daemon process.
smtpd(8), Postfix SMTP server
cleanup(8), enqueue Postfix message
postconf(5), configuration parameters
postlogd(8), Postfix logging
syslogd(8), system logging
Use "postconf readme_directory" or "postconf
html_directory" to locate this information.
ADDRESS_VERIFICATION_README, address verification howto
The Secure Mailer license must be distributed with this software.
This service was introduced with Postfix version 2.1.
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