How long does postfix keep mails when relay host is down ?

Solution Unverified - Updated -

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux
  • postfix

Issue

  • How long does postfix keep mails when relay host is down ?

Resolution

postfix keeps trying periodically to relay mails during the relayhost is down.

But after maximal_queue_lifetime is passed, postfix stops retrying and sends a bounce mail to the sender.

The default value of maximal_queue_lifetime is 5 days.

# postconf | grep maximal_queue_lifetime
maximal_queue_lifetime = 5d

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