Hi,

After installing Postfix on Mac OS X, I ran into two separate issues. I've
used postfix 2.0.2, I have not checked it for 2.0.3. This mail describes one
issue, another mail the other (I like to avoid having two topics in one
thread).

First of all, I ran into trouble trying to use Maildirs. The local program
gave me the following problem:

postfix/local[1001]: warning: valid_hostname: misplaced delimiter:
dagobert.local.
postfix/local[1001]: fatal: unable to use my own hostname

The obvious culprit is the ridiculous hostname MacOSX (I'm using 10.2.3)
gives to my host: "dagobert.local." (the dagobert is what I entered in the
preferences, ".local." is added by the system).

This is the same problem that was previously discussed on the list. [1]
However, that discussion was about the program "postalias", which made the
call to get_hostname(). Apparently, the "local" program does so, too.
I've experienced that it only makes this call when using Maildirs (folder
with files as the mailbox), not when using a file as a mailbox.

I expect it is due to the fact that local needs the hostname to make a
unique name for a file to put into a Maildir upon delivery. Indeed, setting
myhostname in main.cf does NOT help, as was discussed earlier by

I was able to fix it by altering the /etc/hostconfig file, and change the
line with "HOSTNAME=-AUTOMATIC-" to:
HOSTNAME=dagobert.macfreek.nl

(any valid hostname will do).

I STRONGLY suggest that the file README-INSTALL.OSX is altered to include a
note telling users to set a valid hostname in /etc/hostconfig

This was suggested earlier, but not changed. Please, please, do so now! It
would have saved me quite a few hours!

Regards,
Freek

References:
For previous discussions, go to one of the postfix-users archives, for
example http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&group=mailing.postfix.users
And look for these threads (in october and november 2002):
"Postfix - MacOSX - aliases"
"MacOSX and aliases get_hostname() call in postalias.c:333"
(Search for "MacOSX aliases" "only in mailing.postfix.users" and click on
"view Thread" in the results)

In case someone wants to dig into the problem, this is my relevant
configuration:
[dagobert:~] freek% postconf -n | grep -E "^(my|home)"
home_mailbox = Library/Maildir/
mydestination = $myhostname, $mydomain, localhost.$mydomain
mydomain = home.macfreek.nl
myhostname = dagobert.macfreek.nl
mynetworks_style = subnet
myorigin = $myhostname

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