postfix-logwatch - Man Page

The options listed below affect the operation of postfix-logwatch. Options specified later on the command line override earlier ones. Any option may be abbreviated to an unambiguous length.

-f config_file

--config_file config_file

Use an alternate configuration file config_file instead of the default. This option may be used more than once. Multiple configuration files will be processed in the order presented on the command line. See Configuration File below.

--debug keywords

Output debug information during the operation of postfix-logwatch. The parameter keywords is one or more comma or space separated keywords. To obtain the list of valid keywords, use --debug xxx where xxx is any invalid keyword.

--[no]delays

Enables (disables) output of the message delays percentiles report. The delays percentiles report shows percentiles for each of the 4 delivery latency times reported by Postfix (available in version 2.3 and later) in the form delays=a/b/c/d, where a is the amount of time before the active queue (includes time for previous delivery attempts and time in the deferred queue), b is the amount of time in the active queue up to delivery agent handoff, c is the amount of time spent making connections (including DNS, HELO and TLS) and d is the amount of time spent delivering the message. The total delay shown comes from the delay= field in a message delivery log line.

Note: This report may consume a large amount of memory; if you have no use for it, disable the delays report.

--delays_percentiles p1 [p2 ...]

Specifies the percentiles to be used in the message delays percentiles report. The percentiles p1, p2, ... range from 0 to 100, inclusively. The order of the list is not sorted - the report will output the percentiles columns in the order you specify.

--detail level

Sets the maximum detail level for postfix-logwatch to level. This option is global, overriding any other output limiters described below.

The postfix-logwatch utility produces a Summary section, a Detailed section, and additional report sections. With level less than 5, postfix-logwatch will produce only the Summary section. At level 5 and above, the Detailed section, and any additional report sections are candidates for output. Each incremental increase in level generates one additional hierarchical sub-level of output in the Detailed section of the report. At level 10, all levels are output. Lines that exceed the maximum report width (specified with  max_report_width) will be cut. Setting level to 11 will prevent lines in the report from being cut (see also --line_style).

--help

Print usage information and a brief description about command line options.

--ignore_service pattern

Ignore log lines that contain the postfix service name postfix/service. The parameter service is a regular expression.

Note: if you use parenthesis in your regular expression, be sure they are cloistering and not capturing: use  (?:pattern) instead of (pattern).

--ipaddr_width width

Specifies that IP addresses in address/hostname pairs should be printed with a field width of width characters. Increasing the default may be useful for systems using long IPv6 addresses.

-l limiter=levelspec

--limit limiter=levelspec

Sets the level limiter limiter with the specification levelspec.

--line_style style

Specifies how to handle long report lines. Three styles are available: full, truncate, and wrap. Setting style to full will prevent cutting lines to max_report_width;  this is what occurs when detail is 11 or higher. When style is truncate (the default),  long lines will be truncated according to max_report_width. Setting style to wrap will wrap lines longer than max_report_width such that left column hit counts are not obscured. This option takes precedence over the line style implied by the detail level. The options --full, --truncate, and --wrap are synonyms.

--[no]long_queue_ids

Enables (disables) interpretation of long queue IDs in Postfix (>= 2.9) logs.

--nodetail

Disables the Detailed section of the report, and all supplemental reports. This option provides a convenient mechanism to quickly disable all sections under the Detailed report, where subsequent command line options may re-enable one or more sections to create specific reports.

--[no]summary

--show_summary

Enables (disables) displaying of the the Summary section of the report. The variable postfix_Show_Summary in used in a configuration file.

--recipient_delimiter delimiter

Split email delivery addresses using the recipient delimiter character delimiter. This should generally match the recipient_delimiter specified in the Postfix parameter file main.cf, or the default value indicated in postconf -d recipient_delimiter. This is very useful for obtaining per-alias statistics when a recipient delimiter is used for mail delivery.

--reject_reply_patterns r1 [r2 ...]

Specifies the list of reject reply patterns used to create reject groups. Each entry in the list r1 [r2 ...] must be either a three character regular expression reply code of the form [45][0-9.][0-9.], or the word "Warn". The "." in the regular expression is a literal dot which matches any reject reply subcode; this wildcarding allows creation of broad rejects groups. List order is preserved, in that reject reports will be output in the same order as the entries in the list. Specific reject reply codes will take priority over wildcard patterns, regardless of the list order.

The default list is "5.. 4.. Warn", which creates three groups of rejects:  permanent rejects, temporary reject failures, and reject warnings (as in warn_if_reject).

This feature allows, for example, distinguishing 421 transmission  channel closures from 45x errors (eg. 450 mailbox unavailable, 451 local processing errors, 452 insufficient storage). Such a grouping would be configured with the list: "421 4.. 5.. Warn". See RFC 2821 for more information about reply codes.

See also Configuration File regarding using reject_reply_patterns within a configuration file.

--[no]sect_vars

--show_sect_vars boolean

Enables (disables) supplementing each Detailed section title with the name of that section's level limiter. The name displayed is the command line option (or configuration file variable) used to limit that section's output. With the large number of level limiters available in postfix-logwatch, this a convenient mechanism for determining exactly which level limiter affects a section.

--syslog_name namepat

Specifies the syslog service name that postfix-logwatch uses to match syslog lines. Only log lines whose service name matches the perl regular expression namepat will be used by postfix-logwatch; all non-matching lines are silently ignored. This is useful when a pre-installed Postfix package uses a name other than the default (postfix), or when multiple Postfix  instances are in use and per-instance reporting is desired.

The pattern namepat should match the syslog_name configuration parameter specified in the Postfix parameter file main.cf, the master control file master.cf, or the default value as indicated by the output of postconf -d syslog_name.

Note: if you use parenthesis in your regular expression, be sure they are cloistering and not capturing: use  (?:pattern) instead of (pattern).

--[no]unknown

--show_unknown boolean

Enables (disables) display of the postfix-generated name of 'unknown' in formated IP/hostname pairs in Detailed reports. Default: enabled.

--version

Print postfix-logwatch version information.

The output of every section in the Detailed report is controlled by a level limiter. The name of the level limiter variable will be output when the sect_vars option is set. Level limiters are set either via command line in standalone mode with --limit limiter=levelspec option, or via configuration file variable $postfix_limiter=levelspec. Each limiter requires a levelspec argument, which is described below in Level Control.

The list of level limiters is shown below.

There are several level limiters that control reject sub-sections (eg. rejectbody, rejectsender, etc.). Because the list of reject variants is not known until runtime after reject_reply_patterns is seen, these reject limiters are shown below generically, with the prefix ###. To use one of these reject limiters, substitute ### with one of the reject reply codes in effect, replacing each dot with an x character. For example, using the default reject_reply_patterns list of "5.. 4.. Warn", three rejectbody variants are valid:  --limit 5xxrejectbody, --limit 4xxrejectbody and --limit warnrejectbody. As a convenience, you may entirely eliminate the ### prefix, and instead use the bare rejectXXX option, and all reject level limiter variations will be auto-generated based on the reject_reply_patterns list. For example, the command line segment:

    ... --reject_reply_patterns "421 5.." \
            --limit rejectrbl="1:10:"

would automatically become:

    ... --reject_reply_patterns "421 5.." \
            --limit 421rejectrbl="1:10:" --limit 5xxrejectrbl="1:10:"

See reject_reply_patterns above, and comments in the configuration file postfix-logwatch.conf.

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AttrError

Errors obtaining attribute data from service.

BCCed

Messages that triggered access, header_checks or body_checks BCC action. (postfix 2.6 experimental branch)

BounceLocal

BounceRemote

Local and remote bounces. A bounce is considered a local bounce if the relay was one of none, local, virtual, avcheck, maildrop or 127.0.0.1.

ByIpRejects

Regrouping by client host IP address of all 5xx (permanent) reject variants.

CommunicationError

Postfix errors talking to one of its services.

Anvil

Anvil rate or concurrency limits.

ConnectionInbound

Connections made to the smtpd server.

ConnectionLostInbound

Connections lost to the smtpd server.

ConnectionLostOutbound

Connections lost during smtp communications with remote MTA.

ConnectToFailure

Failures reported by smtp when connecting to remote MTA.

DatabaseGeneration

Warnings noted when binary database map file requires postmap update from newer source file.

Deferrals

Deferred

Message delivery deferrals. A single deferred message will have one or more deferrals many times.

Deliverable

Address verification indicates recipient address is deliverable.

Delivered

Number of messages handed-off to a delivery agent such as local or virtual.

Discarded

Messages that triggered access, header_checks or body_checks DISCARD action.

DNSError

Any one of several errors encountered during DNS lookups.

EnvelopeSenderDomains

List of sending domains.  (2 levels: envelope sender domain, localpart)

EnvelopeSenders

List of envelope senders.  (1 level: envelope sender)

Error

Postfix general error messages.

FatalConfigError

Fatal main.cf or master.cf configuration errors.

FatalError

Postfix general fatal messages.

Filtered

Messages that triggered access, header_checks or body_checks FILTER action.

Forwarded

Messages forwarded by MDA for one address class to another (eg. local -> virtual).

HeloError

XXXXXXXXXXX

Hold

Messages that were placed on hold by postsuper, or triggered by access, header_checks or body_checks HOLD action.

HostnameValidationError

Invalid hostname detected.

HostnameVerification

Lookup of hostname does not map back to the IP of the peer (ie. the remote system connecting to smtpd). Also known as forward-confirmed reverse DNS (FCRDNS). When the reverse name has no DNS entry, the message "host not found, try again" is included; otherwise, it is not (e.g. when the reverse has some IP address, but not the one Postfix expects).

IllegalAddrSyntax

Illegal syntax in an email address provided during the MAIL FROM or RCPT TO dialog.

LdapError

Any LDAP errors during LDAP lookup.

MailerLoop

An MX lookup for the best mailer to use to deliver mail would result in a sending to ourselves.

MapProblem

Problem with an access table map that needs correcting.

MessageWriteError

Postfix encountered an error when trying to create a message file somewhere in the spool directory.

NumericHostname

A hostname was found that was numeric, instead of alphabetic.

PanicError

Postfix general panic messages.

PixWorkaround

Workarounds were enabled to avoid remote Cisco PIX SMTP "fixups".

PolicydWeight

Summarization of policyweight/policydweight results.

PolicySpf

Summarization of PolicySPF results.

Postgrey

Summarization of Postgrey results.

Postscreen

Summarization of 2.7's postscreen and verify services.

DNSBLog

Summarization of 2.7's dnsblog service.

Prepended

Messages that triggered header_checks or body_checks PREPEND action.

ProcessExit

Postfix services that exited unexpectedly.

ProcessLimit

A Postfix service has reached or exceeded the maximum number of processes allowed.

QueueWriteError

Problems writing a Postfix queue file.

RblError

Lookup errors for RBLs.

Redirected

Messages that triggered access, header_checks or body_checks REDIRECT action.

###RejectBody

Messages that triggered body_checks REJECT action.

###RejectClient

Messages rejected by client access controls (smtpd_client_restrictions).

###RejectConfigError

Message rejected due to server configuration errors.

###RejectContent

Messages rejected by message_reject_characters.

###RejectData

Messages rejected at DATA stage in SMTP conversation (smtpd_data_restrictions).

###RejectEtrn

Messages rejected at ETRN stage in SMTP conversation (smtpd_etrn_restrictions).

###RejectHeader

Messages that triggered header_checks REJECT action.

###RejectHelo

Messages rejected at HELO/EHLO stage in SMTP conversation (smtpd_helo_restrictions).

###RejectInsufficientSpace

Messages rejected due to insufficient storage space.

###RejectLookupFailure

Messages rejected due to temporary DNS lookup failures.

###RejectMilter

Milter rejects.  No reject reply code is available for these rejects, but an extended 5.7.1 DSN is provided. These rejects are forced into the generic 5xx rejects group. If you redefine reject_reply_patterns such that it does not contain the pattern 5.., milter rejects will not be output.

###RejectRbl

Messages rejected by an RBL hit.

###RejectRecip

Messages rejected by recipient access controls (smtpd_recipient_restrictions).

###RejectRelay

Messages rejected by relay access controls.

###RejectSender

Messages rejected by sender access controls (smtpd_sender_restrictions).

###RejectSize

Messages rejected due to excessive message size.

###RejectUnknownClient

Messages rejected by unknown client access controls.

###RejectUnknownReverseClient

Messages rejected by unknown reverse client access controls.

###RejectUnknownUser

Messages rejected by unknown user access controls.

###RejectUnverifiedClient

Messages rejected by unverified client access controls.

###RejectVerify

Messages rejected dueo to address verification failures.

Replaced

Messages that triggered header_checks or body_checks REPLACE action.

ReturnedToSender

Messages returned to sender due to exceeding queue lifetime (maximal_queue_lifetime).

SaslAuth

SASL authentication successes, includes SASL method, username, and sender when present.

SaslAuthFail

SASL authentication failures.

Sent

Messages sent via the SMTP delivery agent.

SentLmtp

Messages sent via the LMTP delivery agent.

SmtpConversationError

Errors during the SMTP/ESMTP dialog.

SmtpProtocolViolation

Protocol violation during the SMTP/ESMTP dialog.

StartupError

Errors during Postfix server startup.

TimeoutInbound

Connections to smtpd that timed out.

TlsClientConnect

TLS client connections.

TlsOffered

TLS communication offered.

TlsServerConnect

TLS server connections.

TlsUnverified

Unverified TLS connections.

Undeliverable

Address verification indicates recipient address is undeliverable.

Warn

Messages that triggered access, header_checks or body_checks WARN action.

WarnConfigError

Warnings regarding Postfix configuration errors.

WarningsOther

Postfix general warning messages.

Note: postfix-logwatch reads its log data from one or more named Postfix log files, or from STDIN. For brevity, where required, the examples below use the word file as the command line argument meaning /path/to/postfix.log. Obviously you will need to substitute file with the appropriate path.

To run postfix-logwatch in standalone mode, simply run:

postfix-logwatch file

A complete list of options and basic usage is available via:

postfix-logwatch --help

To print a summary only report of Postfix log data:

postfix-logwatch --detail 1 file

To produce a summary report and a one-level detail report for May 25th:

  grep 'May 25' file | postfix-logwatch --detail 5

To produce only a top 10 list of Sent email domains, the summary report and detailed reports are first disabled. Since commands line options are read and enabled left-to-right, the Sent section is re-enabled to level 1 with a level 1 top 10 limiter:

  postfix-logwatch --nosummary --nodetail --limit sent='1 1:10:' file

The following command and its sample output shows a more complex level limiter example. The command gives the top 3 Sent email addresses from the top 5 domains, in addition, all level 3 items with a hit count of 2 or less are suppressed (in the Sent sub-section, this happens to be email's Original To address). Ellipses indicate top N or threshold-limited data:

  postfix-logwatch --nosummary --nodetail \
          --limit sent '1:5: 2:3: 3::2' file

1762   Sent via SMTP -----------------------------------
 352      example.com
 310         joe
 255            joe.bob@virtdomain.example.com
   7            info@virtdomain.example.com
  21         pooryoda3
  11         hot93uh
             ...
 244      sample.net
  97         buzz
  26         leroyjones
  14         sally
             ...
 152      example.net
  40         jim_jameson
  23         sam_sampson
  19         paul_paulson
             ...
  83      sample.us
  44         root
  39         jenny1
  69      dom3.example.us
  10         kay
   7         ron
   6         mrsmith
             ...
          ...

The next command uses both reject_reply_patterns and level limiters to see 421 RBL rejects, threshold-limiting level 2 output to hits greater than 5 (level 2 in the Reject RBL sub-section is the client's IP address / hostname pair). This makes for a very nice RBL offenders list, shown in the sample output (note the use of the unambiguous, abbreviated command line option reject_reply_pat):

  postfix-logwatch --reject_reply_pat '421 4.. 5.. Warn' \
          --nosummary --nodetail --limit 421rejectrbl='2 2::5' file

300   421 Reject RBL ---------------------------------------
243      zen.spamhaus.org=127.0.0.2
106         10.0.0.129       129.0.0.example.com
 41         192.168.10.70    hostx10.sample.net
 40         192.168.42.39    hostz42.sample.net
 15         10.1.1.152       dsl-10-1-1-152.example.us
 14         10.10.10.122     mail122.sample.com
  7         192.168.3.44     smalltime-spammer.example.com
            ...
 48      zen.spamhaus.org=127.0.0.4
 17         10.29.124.92     10-29-124-92.adsl-static.sample.us
            ...
  8      zen.spamhaus.org=127.0.0.11
            ...
  1      zen.spamhaus.org=127.0.0.10
            ...

Note: Logwatch versions prior to 7.3.6, unless configured otherwise, required the --print option to print to STDOUT instead of sending reports via email. Since version 7.3.6, STDOUT is the default output destination, and the --print option has been replaced by --output stdout. Check your configuration to determine where report output will be directed, and add the appropriate option to the commands below.

To print a summary report for today's Postfix log data:

  logwatch --service postfix --range today --detail 1

To print a report for today's Postfix log data, with one level
of detail in the Detailed section:

logwatch --service postfix --range today --detail 5

To print a report for yesterday, with two levels of detail in the Detailed section:

  logwatch --service postfix --range yesterday --detail 6

To print a report from Dec 12th through Dec 14th, with four levels of detail in the Detailed section:

  logwatch --service postfix --range \
          'between 12/12 and 12/14' --detail 8

To print a report for today, with all levels of detail:

logwatch --service postfix --range today --detail 10

Same as above, but leaves long lines uncut:

  logwatch --service postfix --range today --detail 11

/usr/local/bin/postfix-logwatch

The postfix-logwatch program

/usr/local/etc/postfix-logwatch.conf

The postfix-logwatch configuration file in standalone mode

/etc/logwatch/scripts/services/postfix

The Logwatch postfix filter

/etc/logwatch/conf/services/postfix.conf

The Logwatch postfix filter configuration file