How to Create a Catch-All Email Account in Postfix

If you’re managing a busy email inbox, you know how overwhelming it can be to keep up with the constant flow of messages. One way to streamline your email management process is to set up a catch-all email account using Postfix.

A catch-all email account is an email address that is set up to receive all emails that are sent to your domain, regardless of the recipient’s specified email address. This can be useful if you have multiple email addresses associated with your domain, but you don’t want to miss any important emails that may be sent to an address you haven’t explicitly set up.

Setting Up a Catch-All Email Account in Postfix

Here is the step by step instruction to create a catch-all email account in Postfix server.

1. Open the Postfix configuration file: Open the main Postfix configuration file, usually located at “/etc/postfix/main.cf”, using a text editor such as nano or vi.

   sudo nano /etc/postfix/virtual 
   

2. Set up the virtual_alias_maps parameter: Locate the “virtual_alias_maps” parameter in the configuration file and add the following line below it:

   
   virtual_alias_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/virtual
   
   

   This sets up a mapping between email addresses and their corresponding destinations.

3. Create the virtual file: Create a new file named “virtual” in the “/etc/postfix/” directory.

   sudo nano /etc/postfix/virtual
   

4. Add mapping: Add the catch-all mapping to the virtual file by adding the following entry:

   
   @example.com [email protected]
   
   

   Replace “example.com” with your actual domain name and “[email protected]” with the email address you want to use as your catch-all. This tells Postfix to deliver any email addressed to your domain that is not addressed to a specific email address to the catch-all email address.

5. Update the virtual database: Run the following command to update the Postfix virtual database:

   sudo postmap /etc/postfix/virtual
   

6. Restart Postfix: Restart the Postfix service by running the following command:

   sudo service postfix restart
   

Once you’ve completed these steps, any emails sent to your domain that aren’t specifically addressed to one of your configured email addresses will be routed to your catch-all email address.

Conclusion

That’s it! You have successfully created a catch-all email account in Postfix. From now on, any email sent to your domain that is not addressed to a specific email address will be delivered to the catch-all email address you specified. This can help you to better manage your inbox and ensure that you don’t miss any important messages.

To know more about catch-all account visit here.