SYNOPSIS

       verify [generic Postfix daemon options]

DESCRIPTION

       The  Postfix  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.

       This  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.

       This 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.

SECURITY

       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 size trades one problem (disk
       space exhaustion)  for  another  one  (poor  response  time  to  client
       requests).

DIAGNOSTICS

       Problems and transactions are logged to syslogd(8).

BUGS

       The address verification service is suitable only for sites that handle
       a low mail volume. Verification probes add additional  traffic  to  the
       mail  queue  and perform poorly under high load.  Servers may blacklist
       sites that probe excessively, or that probe excessively  for  non-exis-
       tent recipient addresses.

       If  the persistent database ever gets corrupted then the world comes to
              storage.

       address_verify_sender (postmaster)
              The sender address to use in address verification probes.

       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.

PROBE MESSAGE ROUTING CONTROLS

       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 verifica-
              tion probes.

       address_verify_transport_maps ($transport_maps)
              Overrides the transport_maps parameter setting for address veri-
              fication probes.

       address_verify_local_transport ($local_transport)
              Overrides the local_transport parameter setting for address ver-
              ification 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 ver-
              ification probes.

       address_verify_default_transport ($default_transport)
              Overrides the default_transport parameter  setting  for  address
              verification probes.

       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 (postfix)
              The mail system name that is prepended to the  process  name  in
              syslog  records,  so  that  "smtpd" becomes, for example, "post-
              fix/smtpd".

SEE ALSO

       smtpd(8), Postfix SMTP server
       cleanup(8), enqueue Postfix message
       postconf(5), configuration parameters
       syslogd(5), system logging

README FILES

       Use "postconf readme_directory" or "postconf html_directory" to  locate
       this information.
       ADDRESS_VERIFICATION_README, address verification howto

LICENSE

       The Secure Mailer license must be distributed with this software.

HISTORY

       This service was introduced with Postfix version 2.1.

AUTHOR(S)

       Wietse Venema
       IBM T.J. Watson Research
       P.O. Box 704
       Yorktown Heights, NY 10598, USA



                                                                     VERIFY(8)