---
name: "policyd-rate-limit"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "policyd-rate-limit"
version: "1.2.0-1.1+deb13u1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/policyd-rate-limit"
---

# policyd-rate-limit(8)

rate limiter SMTP policy daemon

## NAME

policyd-rate-limit - rate limiter SMTP policy daemon

## SYNOPSIS

**policyd-rate-limit** \[**-h**\] \[**--clean**\] \[**--get-config** *configname*\] \[**--file** *configpath*\]

## DESCRIPTION

[**policyd-rate-limit**(8)](/policyd-rate-limit/8.md) is a SMTP policy daemon written in [**python3**(1)](/python3/1.md) for [**postfix**(1)](/postfix/1.md). It keep track of the number of mails sent by sasl usernames and/or ip addresses over time sliding window. A configurable action (see [**access**(5)](/access/5.md)) is done then a user and/or ip address exceeds one or more configurable limits.

## SETUP

For example, for postfix 3.0 and later, you can set in postfix **/etc/postfix/main.cf** configuration file:

```
smtpd_data_restrictions =
  ...,
  check_policy_service { unix:ratelimit/policy, default_action=DUNNO },
  ...
```

Postfix will ask policyd-rate-limit what to do on mail reception (success or fail action) and will accept mail if policyd-rate-limit become unavailable.

On previous postfix versions, you must use:

```
smtpd_data_restrictions =
  ...,
  check_policy_service unix:ratelimit/policy,
  ...
```

## OPTIONS

- **-h, --help**

  show this help message and exit

- **--clean**

  clean old records from the database

- **--get-config *configname***

  return the value of the *configname* configuration parameter. You can get a value in a dictionary by using a dotted notation. For instance, for getting the key KEY in the dictionary DICT, you should use DICT.KEY for *configname*. You can call the configuration parameter *config\_file* to known which configuration file is used.

- **-f, --file**

  path to a policyd-rate-limit configuration file

## LOGGING

Logging is output to stderr and redirected to [**syslog**(3)](/syslog/3.md) by systemd. Logs are produced only if the **debug** configuration parameter is set to True.

## CONFIGURATION

If the option **--file** is not specified, [**policyd-rate-limit**(8)](/policyd-rate-limit/8.md) try to read its configuration from the following path and choose the first existing file:

```
~/.config/policyd-rate-limit.conf
~/.config/policyd-rate-limit.yaml
/etc/policyd-rate-limit.conf
/etc/policyd-rate-limit.yaml
```

The .conf are the old configuration format. It was a python module and should not be used. The .yaml are the new configuration format using the YAML syntax. See [YAML(3pm)](/YAML/3pm.md) for an overview of the format. See [**policyd-rate-limit.yaml**(5)](/policyd-rate-limit.yaml/5.md) for possible settings.

## EXIT VALUES

**0**   Normal exit.

**1**   Only return then the option **--get-config** is used. Configuration parameter not found.

**2**   User or group set in the configuration file do not exists.

**3**   Another instance is already running

**4**   The configuration parameter SOCKET is malformed

**5**   Configuration file not found

**6**   Some error was raised during runtime

**8**   Error during cleaning

## SEE ALSO

```
policyd-rate-limit.yaml(5): policyd-rate-limit configuration file
master(5), Postfix master.cf file syntax
access(5), Postfix SMTP access control table
```

## AUTHOR

Valentin Samir \<valentin.samir@crans.org\>

## COPYRIGHT

GPL-3