Postfix local only problem

Synopsis

When you are running multiples vservers on a same physical box, it may be useful to allow box daemons (like cron) to send mail for debugging purpose or just seeing if a problem occurs. Debian GNU/Linux provides a good way to configure packages like Postfix. You can use

# dpkg-reconfigure postfix

to start configuring (this script is also called when installing Postfix)

The problem is that, the local-only mode (which in this instance is the most useful) doesn't work 'out of the box' (Postfix starts without any messages, but doesn't appear in process list (ps)).

A few fixes are needed for Postfix to run properly:

/etc/hosts additions

Add a line in /etc/hosts with:

nano /etc/hosts

ip.of.the.host nameofhost

You can also add:

ip.of.the.host localhost

(the "localhost" hostname is used by some other daemons and normally points to 127.0.0.1.)

Modify postfix configuration

# nano /etc/postfix/main.cf

Replace

inet_interfaces = loopback-only

with

inet_interfaces = name_of_host_entered_in__etc_hosts

or

inet_interfaces = localhost

Restart Postfix

Restart Postfix with

/etc/init.d/postfix restart

and check it run with "ps".

That's all folks ;)