Global directive
postmaster
Define the administrative postmaster address used by the MTA.
PowerMTAv4.1 frameworkProduction reference
Production caution: The mailbox must be monitored and able to receive operational notices.
Purpose
Define the administrative postmaster address used by the MTA. This reference focuses on operational intent, placement, validation, and failure modes rather than presenting a value as universally safe.
Example syntax
postmaster [email protected]Placement and scope
The effective scope depends on where the directive is placed: global, source, SMTP user, virtual MTA, pool, or destination domain. Keep related controls together and comment the business purpose of each override.
Verification procedure
- Back up the active configuration and included files.
- Confirm the directive is supported by the installed PowerMTA release.
- Validate every referenced VMTA, pool, file, hostname, IP address, selector, and pattern list.
- Reload safely and watch the main log for parser or runtime errors.
- Send a controlled test and inspect the exact source IP, EHLO, headers, TLS state, and SMTP response.
Common failure modes
- Placing the directive in a scope where it is ignored or overridden.
- Referencing an object that is misspelled or not defined.
- Copying syntax from a different PowerMTA version.
- Using aggressive values without measuring provider acceptance and queue age.