How does Postfix get started?

[Jerry LeVan]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Jerry LeVan <jerry.levan at eku.edu>
> Date: June 23, 2007 8:11:10 PM EDT
> To: xadmin Admin <macosx-admin at omnigroup.com>
> Subject: How does Postfix get started?
>
> Hi,
>
> I just bought a Mac Book Pro, regrettably the Migration Assistant
> was not able to function with my setup).
>
> I have most of the stuff that I need moved to the MPB via
> brute force...
>
> One thing I found sorta mysterious was how the Postfix mail
> transfer agent actually got started.
>
> On my old G4, to the best of my knowledge, the critical
> step was to set:
>     MAILSERVER=-YES-
> in /etc/hostconfig. ( And do some stuff with the config files...)
>
> When I tried to do the same on the MBP and rebooted, I found that
> postfix was not started.
>
> I went back and tried to find exactly where postfix gets started on  
> the G4
> during the boot process and could find no trace of how it get
> kicked off! ( I browsed the rc stuff in /etc and peeked at the
> startup items in /System/Library and /Library...)
>
> Of course I have spent the better part of two days getting the
> new MBP config'ed so fatigue might be playing a factor...
>
> The only way I could get postfix running on the MBP was to
> create a rc.local and stick the command:
>      /usr/sbin/postfix start
> into the file.
>
> Can anyone enlighten me ie hit me with a clue stick on how
> postfix is supposed to be started?

I think I have the problem solved...It turns out that the files
in /System/Library/LaunchDaemons are invisible in the finder.

Navigating to the folder revealed and large number of launchd type
files including org.postfix.master.plist.

I edited org.postfix.master.plist on the MBP so that it matched the
one on my G4. I commmented out the entry in the rc.local file
and reboot

On reboot the postfix "pickup" program was running and everything
seems to be working...