2.11BSD/man/cat8/sendmail.0

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SENDMAIL(8) UNIX Programmer's Manual SENDMAIL(8)

NAME
sendmail - send mail over the internet

SYNOPSIS
/usr/sbin/sendmail [ flags ] [ address ... ]

newaliases

mailq [ -v ]

DESCRIPTION
_S_e_n_d_m_a_i_l sends a message to one or more _r_e_c_i_p_i_e_n_t_s, routing
the message over whatever networks are necessary. _S_e_n_d_m_a_i_l
does internetwork forwarding as necessary to deliver the
message to the correct place.

_S_e_n_d_m_a_i_l is not intended as a user interface routine; other
programs provide user-friendly front ends; _s_e_n_d_m_a_i_l is used
only to deliver pre-formatted messages.

With no flags, _s_e_n_d_m_a_i_l reads its standard input up to an
end-of-file or a line consisting only of a single dot and
sends a copy of the message found there to all of the
addresses listed. It determines the network(s) to use based
on the syntax and contents of the addresses.

Local addresses are looked up in a file and aliased
appropriately. Aliasing can be prevented by preceding the
address with a backslash. Normally the sender is not
included in any alias expansions, e.g., if `john' sends to
`group', and `group' includes `john' in the expansion, then
the letter will not be delivered to `john'.

Flags are:

-ba Go into ARPANET mode. All input lines must end
with a CR-LF, and all messages will be generated
with a CR-LF at the end. Also, the ``From:''
and ``Sender:'' fields are examined for the name
of the sender.

-bd Run as a daemon. This requires Berkeley IPC.
_S_e_n_d_m_a_i_l will fork and run in background listen-
ing on socket 25 for incoming SMTP connections.
This is normally run from /_e_t_c/_r_c.

-bi Initialize the alias database.

-bm Deliver mail in the usual way (default).

-bp Print a listing of the queue.

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-bs Use the SMTP protocol as described in RFC821 on
standard input and output. This flag implies
all the operations of the -ba flag that are com-
patible with SMTP.

-bt Run in address test mode. This mode reads
addresses and shows the steps in parsing; it is
used for debugging configuration tables.

-bv Verify names only - do not try to collect or
deliver a message. Verify mode is normally used
for validating users or mailing lists.

-bz Create the configuration freeze file.

-C_f_i_l_e Use alternate configuration file. _S_e_n_d_m_a_i_l
refuses to run as root if an alternate confi-
guration file is specified. The frozen confi-
guration file is bypassed.

-d_X Set debugging value to _X.

-F_f_u_l_l_n_a_m_e Set the full name of the sender.

-f_n_a_m_e Sets the name of the ``from'' person (i.e., the
sender of the mail). -f can only be used by
``trusted'' users (normally _r_o_o_t, _d_a_e_m_o_n, and
_n_e_t_w_o_r_k) or if the person you are trying to
become is the same as the person you are.

-h_N Set the hop count to _N. The hop count is incre-
mented every time the mail is processed. When
it reaches a limit, the mail is returned with an
error message, the victim of an aliasing loop.
If not specified, ``Received:'' lines in the
message are counted.

-n Don't do aliasing.

-o_x_v_a_l_u_e Set option _x to the specified _v_a_l_u_e. Options are
described below.

-q[_t_i_m_e] Processed saved messages in the queue at given
intervals. If _t_i_m_e is omitted, process the
queue once. _T_i_m_e is given as a tagged number,
with `s' being seconds, `m' being minutes, `h'
being hours, `d' being days, and `w' being
weeks. For example, ``-q1h30m'' or ``-q90m''
would both set the timeout to one hour thirty
minutes. If _t_i_m_e is specified, _s_e_n_d_m_a_i_l will
run in background. This option can be used
safely with -bd.

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-r_n_a_m_e An alternate and obsolete form of the -f flag.

-t Read message for recipients. To:, Cc:, and Bcc:
lines will be scanned for recipient addresses.
The Bcc: line will be deleted before transmis-
sion. Any addresses in the argument list will
be suppressed, that is, they will _n_o_t receive
copies even if listed in the message header.

-v Go into verbose mode. Alias expansions will be
announced, etc.

There are also a number of processing options that may be
set. Normally these will only be used by a system adminis-
trator. Options may be set either on the command line using
the -o flag or in the configuration file. These are
described in detail in the _S_e_n_d_m_a_i_l _I_n_s_t_a_l_l_a_t_i_o_n _a_n_d _O_p_e_r_a_-
_t_i_o_n _G_u_i_d_e. The options are:

A_f_i_l_e Use alternate alias file.

c On mailers that are considered ``expensive'' to
connect to, don't initiate immediate connection.
This requires queueing.

d_x Set the delivery mode to _x. Delivery modes are
`i' for interactive (synchronous) delivery, `b'
for background (asynchronous) delivery, and `q'
for queue only - i.e., actual delivery is done
the next time the queue is run.

D Try to automatically rebuild the alias database
if necessary.

e_x Set error processing to mode _x. Valid modes are
`m' to mail back the error message, `w' to
``write'' back the error message (or mail it
back if the sender is not logged in), `p' to
print the errors on the terminal (default), `q'
to throw away error messages (only exit status
is returned), and `e' to do special processing
for the BerkNet. If the text of the message is
not mailed back by modes `m' or `w' and if the
sender is local to this machine, a copy of the
message is appended to the file ``dead.letter''
in the sender's home directory.

F_m_o_d_e The mode to use when creating temporary files.

f Save UNIX-style From lines at the front of mes-
sages.

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g_N The default group id to use when calling
mailers.

H_f_i_l_e The SMTP help file.

i Do not take dots on a line by themselves as a
message terminator.

L_n The log level.

m Send to ``me'' (the sender) also if I am in an
alias expansion.

o If set, this message may have old style headers.
If not set, this message is guaranteed to have
new style headers (i.e., commas instead of
spaces between addresses). If set, an adaptive
algorithm is used that will correctly determine
the header format in most cases.

Q_q_u_e_u_e_d_i_r Select the directory in which to queue messages.

r_t_i_m_e_o_u_t The timeout on reads; if none is set, _s_e_n_d_m_a_i_l
will wait forever for a mailer. This option
violates the word (if not the intent) of the
SMTP specification, show the timeout should
probably be fairly large.

S_f_i_l_e Save statistics in the named file.

s Always instantiate the queue file, even under
circumstances where it is not strictly neces-
sary. This provides safety against system
crashes during delivery.

T_t_i_m_e Set the timeout on undelivered messages in the
queue to the specified time. After delivery has
failed (e.g., because of a host being down) for
this amount of time, failed messages will be
returned to the sender. The default is three
days.

t_s_t_z,_d_t_z Set the name of the time zone.

u_N Set the default user id for mailers.

In aliases, the first character of a name may be a vertical
bar to cause interpretation of the rest of the name as a
command to pipe the mail to. It may be necessary to quote
the name to keep _s_e_n_d_m_a_i_l from suppressing the blanks from
between arguments. For example, a common alias is:

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msgs: "|/usr/ucb/msgs -s"

Aliases may also have the syntax ``:include:_f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e'' to
ask _s_e_n_d_m_a_i_l to read the named file for a list of reci-
pients. For example, an alias such as:

poets: ":include:/usr/local/lib/poets.list"

would read /_u_s_r/_l_o_c_a_l/_l_i_b/_p_o_e_t_s._l_i_s_t for the list of
addresses making up the group.

_S_e_n_d_m_a_i_l returns an exit status describing what it did. The
codes are defined in <_s_y_s_e_x_i_t_s._h>
EX_OK Successful completion on all addresses.
EX_NOUSER User name not recognized.
EX_UNAVAILABLE Catchall meaning necessary resources
were not available.
EX_SYNTAX Syntax error in address.
EX_SOFTWARE Internal software error, including bad
arguments.
EX_OSERR Temporary operating system error, such
as "cannot fork".
EX_NOHOST Host name not recognized.
EX_TEMPFAIL Message could not be sent immediately,
but was queued.

If invoked as _n_e_w_a_l_i_a_s_e_s, _s_e_n_d_m_a_i_l will rebuild the alias
database. If invoked as _m_a_i_l_q, _s_e_n_d_m_a_i_l will print the con-
tents of the mail queue.

FILES
Except for /etc/sendmail.cf, these pathnames are all speci-
fied in /etc/sendmail.cf. Thus, these values are only
approximations.

/etc/aliases raw data for alias names
/etc/aliases.pag
/etc/aliases.dir data base of alias names
/etc/sendmail.cf configuration file
/etc/sendmail.fc frozen configuration
/usr/share/misc/sendmail.hf help file
/var/log/sendmail.st collected statistics
/usr/spool/mqueue/* temp files

SEE ALSO
mail(1), rmail(1), syslog(3), aliases(5), sendmail.cf(5),
mailaddr(7), rc(8);
DARPA Internet Request For Comments RFC819, RFC821, RFC822;
_S_e_n_d_m_a_i_l - _A_n _I_n_t_e_r_n_e_t_w_o_r_k _M_a_i_l _R_o_u_t_e_r (SMM:16);
_S_e_n_d_m_a_i_l _I_n_s_t_a_l_l_a_t_i_o_n _a_n_d _O_p_e_r_a_t_i_o_n _G_u_i_d_e (SMM:7)

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