Configuring Postfix on a dialup is extremely simple, and well documented in the Postfix FAQ, from which this is mostly a straight cut and paste job - just make changes in /etc/postfix/main.cf (or other files, as below).

Local Delivery of some addresses (while sending mail as user@domain), Masquerading etc

In order to send mail as user@domain.name, specify what domain is to be appended to addresses that do not have a domain. In main.cf change these values as below (assuming that your domain is example.com)

	myhostname = linuxbox.example.com
	mydomain = example.com
	myorigin = $mydomain

In order to receive some users locally, such as root, postmaster (or yourself), specify a virtual lookup table with the non-default destinations:

  /etc/postfix/main.cf:
	virtual_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/virtual
  /etc/postfix/virtual:
	root		root@linuxbox
	postmaster	postmaster@linuxbox
	suresh		suresh@linuxbox

Specify dbm instead of hash if your system uses dbm files instead of db files. To find out what map types Postfix supports, use the command postconf -m. Then, execute the command postmap /etc/postfix/virtual whenever you edit the the virtual table.

Route all outgoing mail to your provider.

If your machine is disconnected most of the time, there isn't a lot of opportunity for Postfix to deliver mail to hard-to-reach corners of the Internet. It's better to drop the mail to a machine that is connected all the time. Add this line to main.cf -

relayhost = your.isps.mail.server

Disable spontaneous SMTP mail delivery

Normally, Postfix attempts to deliver outbound mail at its convenience. If your machine uses dial on demand (instead of you manually dialing in using wvdial / kppp, this causes your system to place a telephone call whenever you submit new mail, and whenever Postfix retries to deliver delayed mail.

To prevent such telephone calls from being placed, disable spontaneous SMTP mail deliveries (and make postfix queue mails meant for the outside world. Add this line to main.cf -

defer_transports = smtp

Disable SMTP client DNS lookups

To avoid delays caused by Postfix performing sender and recipient domain DNS lookups (which are a waste of time when you are passing mail to a smarthost, and is anyway tough when you are offline), disable all SMTP client DNS lookups. Add this to main.cf -

disable_dns_lookups = yes

Note:

When you disable DNS lookups, you must specify the relayhost as either a numeric IP address, or as a hostname that resolves to one or more IP addresses (with DNS lookup disabled, Postfix does no MX lookup).

Flush the mail queue whenever the Internet link is established.

Put /usr/sbin/sendmail -q into your PPP or SLIP dialup scripts (on linux, it's /etc/ppp/ip-up.local). Postfix fits so out of the box into sendmail's place that it cheerfully accepts most sendmail commandline switches (-q, -f, -bs ...). You can also use this script (call it mailq.sh and call it from ip-up.local):

	#!/bin/sh
	# Start deliveries.
	/usr/sbin/sendmail -q 
	
	# Allow deliveries to start.
	sleep 10
	
	# Loop until all messages have been tried 
	# at least once.
	while mailq | grep '^[^ ]*\*' > /dev/null
	do
	sleep 10
	done

If you have disabled spontaneous SMTP mail delivery, you also need to run the above command every now and then while the dialup link is up, so that newly-posted mail is flushed from the queue.

$id:postfix.html$ $author:suresh$ $date:9 March 2001$ $version:1.0$