Postfix Server should start a script when receiving email

Rahhh Man · 07-12-2012, 07:07 AM

hi.

ive searched long time for a working conclusion on the internet but i dont found anything.

i have a postfix server running with several restrictions. the only thing missing is that when an email arrives the sever a script should be started. for testing im just using a simple php script that writes to a file:

Code:

#!/usr/bin/php
<?php
$file = fopen("/tmp/postfixtest", "a");
fwrite($file, "Script successfully ran at ".date("Y-m-d H:i:s")."\n");
fclose($file);
?>

on the inet i found somthing like that for my master.cf:

Code:

smtp      inet  n       -       -       -       -       smtpd
       -o content_filter=myhook
...
...
procmail  unix  -       n       n       -       10       pipe
flags= user=mxr argv=/usr/bin/procmail -a ${user}

but that didnt work.

logfile:

Code:

fatal: /etc/postfix/master.cf: line 118: bad transport type: user=mxr

mxr is the user im sending the mail to.

what am i doing wrong?

acid_kewpie · 07-12-2012, 07:14 AM

you need the -o flag before the options are specified

Rahhh Man · 07-12-2012, 07:21 AM

as u can see there is the -o

Quote:

smtp inet n - - - - smtpd
-o content_filter=myhook

or do you mean somewhere else?

acid_kewpie · 07-12-2012, 07:24 AM

huh? The error is *VERY* clearly saying it's the procmail line that's wrong. What documentation are you following?

Rahhh Man · 07-12-2012, 07:29 AM

i used a bit of that : http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/pro...hp-script.html

and that: http://blog.thecodingmachine.com/con...-receives-mail

second one is what i used in this thread

ahh sry i copied the wrong line... thats the right one:

Code:

myhook unix    -       n       n       -       -       pipe
       flags=F user=mxr argv=/etc/postfix/postfix.php ${sender} ${size} ${recipient}

anyway i dont know what im doing wrong...

acid_kewpie · 07-12-2012, 08:16 AM

does the mxr user actually exist as a system user? That's the account that the procmail process will run as, not an email recipient.

Rahhh Man · 07-12-2012, 08:26 AM

yeah it does exist.
i made one more fault. i uncommented the wrong line in my master.cf (the one with the procmail entry) now:

Code:

smtp      inet  n       -       -       -       -       smtpd
        -o content_filter=myhook
...
...
...
myhook unix    -       n       n       -       -       pipe
       flags=F user=mxr argv=/etc/postfix/postfix.php ${sender} ${size} ${recipient}

these are uncommented.

i sent an email again and now the weird part. the log file says "relay=myhook, delay=0.07, delays=0.05/0/0/0.02, dsn=2.0.0, status=sent (delivered via myhook service)"

but theres no new mail and the script dont ran...

Rahhh Man · 07-13-2012, 12:50 AM

PUSH

has anyone any idea?

acid_kewpie · 07-13-2012, 01:38 AM

So if it's a script when a certain user recieves email, then that should be through a conventional procmail setup really. This other thing about a php script firing off would be non=-standard and ugly.

bathory · 07-13-2012, 03:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rahhh Man

PUSH

has anyone any idea?

Being a sendmail user, I would create an alias for that user to your script:

Code:

mxr: /etc/postfix/postfix.php

Another possibility is to use ~/.procmailrc to run the script, as already mentioned by acid_kewpie

Regards

whizzit · 07-14-2012, 10:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rahhh Man

PUSH

has anyone any idea?

Some food for thought.

Does the mxr user have access to read files under /etc/postfix?
Is the postfix.php executable?
Is /usr/bin/php the correct path to your php executable?
If the content of postfix.php is the same as in your first post - did the /tmp/postfixtest file get updated? Since the code doesn't read the standard input the email will be lost.
Can the mxr user write to /tmp/postfixtest?

Just to avoid some possible confusion, this is an extract from the pipe(8) man page:

Code:

       user=username:groupname
              Execute  the  external command with the user ID and group ID 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  speci‐
              fied, the corresponding group ID is used instead of the group ID of username.

So the mxr user is delivering the mail rather than accepting only mail for mxr. In which case your script would be executed for every email that the smtpd daemon receives (if I'm not mistaken). There will be performance implications if the mail server processes a lot of mail.

Other posters have recommended to use procmail (which can do file locking too...) and this is good advice but I can't say I understand the _real_ problem you are trying to solve.

Regards