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+<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
+ "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
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+<html>
+
+<head>
+
+<title>Guidelines for Package Builders</title>
+
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
+
+</head>
+
+<body>
+
+<h1><img src="postfix-logo.jpg" width="203" height="98" ALT="">Guidelines for Package Builders</h1>
+
+<hr>
+
+<h2>Purpose of this document</h2>
+
+<p> This document has hints and tips for those who manage their
+own Postfix binary distribution for internal use, and for those who
+maintain Postfix binary distributions for general use. </p>
+
+<h2>General distributions: please provide a small default main.cf
+file</h2>
+
+<p> The installed <a href="postconf.5.html">main.cf</a> file must be small. PLEASE resist the
+temptation to list all parameters in the <a href="postconf.5.html">main.cf</a> file. Postfix
+is supposed to be easy to configure. Listing all parameters in <a href="postconf.5.html">main.cf</a>
+defeats the purpose. It is an invitation for hobbyists to make
+random changes without understanding what they do, and gets them
+into endless trouble. </p>
+
+<h2>General distributions: please include README or HTML files</h2>
+
+<p> Please provide the applicable README or HTML files. They are
+referenced by the Postfix manual pages and by other files. Without
+README or HTML files, Postfix will be difficult if not impossible
+to configure. </p>
+
+<h2>Postfix Installation parameters</h2>
+
+<p> Postfix installation is controlled by a dozen installation
+parameters. See the postfix-install and post-install files for
+details. Most parameters have system-dependent default settings
+that are configurable at compile time, as described in the <a href="INSTALL.html">INSTALL</a>
+file. </p>
+
+<h2>Preparing a pre-built package for distribution to other
+systems</h2>
+
+<p> You can build a Postfix package on a machine that does not have
+Postfix installed on it. All you need is Postfix source code and
+a compilation environment that is compatible with the target system.
+</p>
+
+<p> You can build a pre-built Postfix package as an unprivileged
+user. </p>
+
+<p> First compile Postfix. After successful compilation, execute:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote> <pre> % <b>make package</b> </pre>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p> With Postfix versions before 2.2 you must invoke the post-install
+script directly (<tt>% <b>sh post-install</b></tt>). </p>
+
+<p> You will be prompted for installation parameters. Specify an
+install_root directory other than /. The <a href="postconf.5.html#mail_owner">mail_owner</a> and <a href="postconf.5.html#setgid_group">setgid_group</a>
+installation parameter settings will be recorded in the <a href="postconf.5.html">main.cf</a>
+file, but they won't take effect until the package is unpacked and
+installed on the destination machine. </p>
+
+<p> If you want to fully automate this process, specify all the
+non-default installation parameters on the command line: </p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<pre> % <b>make non-interactive-package install_root=/some/where</b>...
+</pre> </blockquote>
+
+<p> With Postfix versions before 2.2 you must invoke the post-install
+script directly (<tt>% <b>sh post-install -non-interactive
+install_root...</b></tt>). </p>
+
+<p> With Postfix 3.0 and later, the command "make package name=value
+..." will replace the string MAIL_VERSION in a configuration parameter
+value with the Postfix release version. Do not try to specify
+something like $<a href="postconf.5.html#mail_version">mail_version</a> on this command line. This produces
+inconsistent results with different versions of the make(1) command.
+</p>
+
+<h2>Begin Security Alert</h2>
+
+<p> <b> When building an archive for distribution, be sure to
+archive only files and symbolic links, not their parent directories.
+Otherwise, unpacking a pre-built Postfix package may mess up
+permission and/or ownership of system directories such as / /etc
+/usr /usr/bin /var /var/spool and so on. This is especially an
+issue if you executed postfix-install (see above) as an unprivileged
+user. </b> </p>
+
+<h2>End Security Alert</h2>
+
+<p> Thus, to tar up the pre-built package, take the following steps:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote> <pre>
+% cd INSTALL_ROOT
+% rm -f SOMEWHERE/outputfile
+% find . \! -type d -print | xargs tar rf SOMEWHERE/outputfile
+% gzip SOMEWHERE/outputfile </pre> </blockquote>
+
+<p>This way you will not include any directories that might cause
+trouble upon extraction. </p>
+
+<h2>Installing a pre-built Postfix package</h2>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li> <p> To unpack a pre-built Postfix package, execute the equivalent
+of: </p>
+
+<pre>
+# umask 022
+# gzip -d &lt;outputfile.tar.gz | (cd / ; tar xvpf -) </pre>
+
+<p> The umask command is necessary for getting the correct permissions
+on non-Postfix directories that need to be created in the process.
+</p>
+
+<li> <p> Create the necessary <a href="postconf.5.html#mail_owner">mail_owner</a> account and <a href="postconf.5.html#setgid_group">setgid_group</a>
+group for exclusive use by Postfix. </p>
+
+<li> <p> Execute the postfix command to set ownership and permission
+of Postfix files and directories, and to update Postfix configuration
+files. If necessary, specify any non-default settings for <a href="postconf.5.html#mail_owner">mail_owner</a>
+or <a href="postconf.5.html#setgid_group">setgid_group</a> on the postfix command line: </p>
+
+<pre>
+# postfix set-permissions upgrade-configuration \
+ <a href="postconf.5.html#setgid_group">setgid_group</a>=xxx <a href="postconf.5.html#mail_owner">mail_owner</a>=yyy
+</pre>
+
+<p> With Postfix versions before 2.1 you achieve the same result
+by invoking the post-install script directly. </p>
+
+</ul>
+
+</body>
+
+</html>