SPAWN(8) System Manager's Manual SPAWN(8)
NAME
spawn - Postfix external command spawner
SYNOPSIS
spawn [generic Postfix daemon options] command_attributes...
DESCRIPTION
The spawn(8) daemon provides the Postfix equivalent of inetd. It listens on a port as specified in the Post‐
fix master.cf file and spawns an external command whenever a connection is established. The connection can be
made over local IPC (such as UNIX-domain sockets) or over non-local IPC (such as TCP sockets). The command´s
standard input, output and error streams are connected directly to the communication endpoint.
This daemon expects to be run from the master(8) process manager.
COMMAND ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
The external command attributes are given in the master.cf file at the end of a service definition. The syn‐
tax is as follows:
user=username (required)
user=username:groupname
The external command is executed with the rights of the specified username. The software refuses to
execute commands with root privileges, or with the privileges of the mail system owner. If groupname is
specified, the corresponding group ID is used instead of the group ID of username.
argv=command... (required)
The command to be executed. This must be specified as the last command attribute. The command is exe‐
cuted directly, i.e. without interpretation of shell meta characters by a shell command interpreter.
BUGS
In order to enforce standard Postfix process resource controls, the spawn(8) daemon runs only one external
command at a time. As such, it presents a noticeable overhead by wasting precious process resources. The
spawn(8) daemon is expected to be replaced by a more structural solution.
DIAGNOSTICS
The spawn(8) daemon reports abnormal child exits. Problems are logged to syslogd(8).
SECURITY
This program needs root privilege in order to execute external commands as the specified user. It is therefore
security sensitive. However the spawn(8) daemon does not talk to the external command and thus is not vulner‐
able to data-driven attacks.
CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS
Changes to main.cf are picked up automatically as spawn(8) processes run for only a limited amount of time.
Use the command "postfix reload" to speed up a change.
The text below provides only a parameter summary. See postconf(5) for more details including examples.
In the text below, transport is the first field of the entry in the master.cf file.
RESOURCE AND RATE CONTROL
transport_time_limit ($command_time_limit)
The amount of time the command is allowed to run before it is terminated.
Postfix 2.4 and later support a suffix that specifies the time unit: s (seconds), m (minutes), h
(hours), d (days), w (weeks). The default time unit is seconds.
ipc_timeout (3600s)
The time limit for sending or receiving information over an internal communication channel.
mail_owner (postfix)
The UNIX system account that owns the Postfix queue and most Postfix daemon processes.
max_idle (100s)
The maximum amount of time that an idle Postfix daemon process waits for an incoming connection before
terminating voluntarily.
max_use (100)
The maximal number of incoming connections that a Postfix daemon process will service before terminat‐
ing voluntarily.
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)
The mail system name that is prepended to the process name in syslog records, so that "smtpd" becomes,
for example, "postfix/smtpd".
SEE ALSO
postconf(5), configuration parameters
master(8), process manager
syslogd(8), system logging
LICENSE
The Secure Mailer license must be distributed with this software.
AUTHOR(S)
Wietse Venema
IBM T.J. Watson Research
P.O. Box 704
Yorktown Heights, NY 10598, USA
SPAWN(8)
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