---
name: "policyd-weight"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "policyd-weight"
version: "0.1.15.2-13"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/policyd-weight"
---

# policyd-weight(8)

weighted SMTP policy daemon

## NAME

policyd-weight - weighted SMTP policy daemon

## STATUS

Beta, Documentation incomplete

## SYNOPSIS

```

```

**policyd-weight** \[**-option**\] \[**-option2 \<arg\>**\] *command*

## DESCRIPTION

[**policyd-weight**(8)](/policyd-weight/8.md) is a SMTP policy daemon written in [**perl**(1)](/perl/1.md) for  [**postfix**(1)](/postfix/1.md). It evaluates based on RBL/RHSBL results, HELO and MAIL FROM domain and subdomain arguments and the client IP address the possibility of forgery or SPAM. It is designed to be called before the SMTP DATA command at the RCPT TO stage.  This way it is a) possible to reject a mail attempt before the body has been received and b) to keep multirecipient mail intact, i.e. provide the functionality of selective usage based on recipients.

To make [**policyd-weight**(8)](/policyd-weight/8.md) work with [**postfix**(1)](/postfix/1.md), it is required to  add a system  account for $USER (default: polw)

Policyd-weight can operate in master.cf **or** daemon mode. In master.cf mode it uses postfix' [**spawn**(8)](/spawn/8.md), which results in number of simultaneous requests perl instances. In daemon mode it uses shared memory and forks on  load, and only if all child processes are busy.

At the time of writing the man-pages for policyd-weight assume a postfix installation. It has been reported that policyd-weight works with other MTAs like Exim, too.

## SETUP

## master.cf mode:

- **master.cf:**

  policy   unix   -   n   n   -   -   spawn   user=polw    \
      argv=/usr/bin/perl /usr/local/bin/policyd-weight

- **main.cf:**

  smtpd\_recipient\_restrictions =\
      permit\_mynetworks, \
      ... authenticated permits ...\
      reject\_unauth\_destination,\
      ... whitelists, role accounts, clients ...\
      check\_policy\_service unix:private/policy\

## daemon mode:

start the daemon with **policyd-weight start**. Poliyd-weight then listens on $TCP\_PORT (default: 12525)  for policy requests. To make postfix talk to that port do following changes to main.cf:

- **main.cf:**

  smtpd\_recipient\_restrictions =\
      permit\_mynetworks,\
      ... authenticated permits ...\
      reject\_unauth\_destination,\
      ... whitelists, role accounts, clients ...\
      check\_policy\_service inet:127.0.0.1:12525\

  It is possible to have more than one postfix server talk to the  **daemonized** policyd-weight by configuring each postfix machine to query the policy server with check\_policy\_service inet:IP:12525 where IP is the host on which policyd-weight runs.

  Please note that **check\_policy\_service** should come at last, or at least **after** reject\_unauth\_destination, or else you may become an open relay.

## COMMANDS

Following commands exist and are reserved for daemon mode only:

- **start** start the policy server

  - **stop** stop the policy server

  - **restart** restart the policy server

  - **reload** tells the policy server to reload its configuration

  - **defaults** prints the default settings to STDOUT and exits

  ## OPTIONS

- **-d** operate in debug mode

  **Not for use in master.cf**. In debug mode everything is reported on STDOUT instead of [**syslog**(3)](/syslog/3.md). Also an own debug cache daemon will be spawned. The socket-file is named after the value of $SPATH with ".debug" as suffix.

- **-f** /path/to/file

  Pass a configuration file to policyd-weight

- **-h** show help

  - **-k** kill cache daemon

  **Not for use in master.cf**. Together with **-d** this kills the debug cache daemon. Without **-d** it kills the global running cache daemon.

- **-s** show cache entries

  **Not for use in master.cf**.

- **-v** show version

  ## LOGGING

Logging is done via [**syslog**(3)](/syslog/3.md) with facility "mail" and priority  "info". For a complete list of log entries and their correspondending configuration parameters refer to [**policyd-weight.conf**(5)](/policyd-weight.conf/5.md).

## BUGS

```
Please report bugs to r.felber@ek-muc.de
```

## HISTORY

- March 2005

  Ralf Hildebrandt (Author of the Book of Postfix) is the spiritual father of policyd-weight. It was his idea to have a scored RBL evaluation, I've added the weighted MAIL FROM/HELO DNS-evaluation. For that purpose I used Meng Wong's spf.pl which was shipped with the postfix source as example.

## FILES

```
/etc/policyd-weight.conf, Policyd-weight configuration file
/etc/postfix/main.cf, Postfix configuration parameters
/etc/postfix/master.cf, Postfix daemon processes
```

## SEE ALSO

```
policyd-weight.conf(5), Policyd-weight configuration file
master(5), Postfix master.cf file syntax
postconf(5), Postfix main.cf file syntax
access(5), Postfix SMTP access control table
```

## LICENSE

```
GNU General Public License
```

## AUTHOR

```
Robert Felber <r.felber@ek-muc.de>
Autohaus Erich Kuttendreier
81827 Munich, Germany
```