diff --git a/cdist/conf/type/__postfix_master/gencode-remote b/cdist/conf/type/__postfix_master/gencode-remote
index a4d6462b..51edc668 100755
--- a/cdist/conf/type/__postfix_master/gencode-remote
+++ b/cdist/conf/type/__postfix_master/gencode-remote
@@ -42,6 +42,8 @@ remove_entry() {
    suffix="#/cdist:$__object_name"
    cat << DONE
 tmpfile=\$(mktemp ${config}.cdist.XXXXXXXXXX)
+# preserve ownership and permissions of existing file
+cp -p "$config" "\$tmpfile"
 awk -v prefix="$prefix" -v suffix="$suffix" '
 {
    if (index(\$0,prefix)) {