sendmail(1M) (BSD Compatibility Package) sendmail(1M)
NAME
sendmail - send mail over the internet
SYNOPSIS
/usr/ucb/sendmail [ -ba ] [ -bd ] [ -bi ] [ -bm ] [ -bp ] [ -bs ] [
-bt ] [ -bv ]
[ -bz ] [ -Cfile ] [ -dX ] [ -Ffullname ] [ -fname ] [ -hN ] [
-n ] [ -o xvalue ]
[ -q[ time ] ] [ -rname ] [ -t ] [ -v ] [ address ...]
DESCRIPTION
sendmail sends a message to one or more people, routing the message
over whatever networks are necessary. sendmail does internetwork
forwarding as necessary to deliver the message to the correct place.
sendmail is not intended as a user interface routine; other programs
provide user-friendly front ends; sendmail is used only to deliver
pre-formatted messages.
With no flags, sendmail reads its standard input up to an EOF, or a
line with a single dot and sends a copy of the letter found there to
all of the addresses listed. It determines the network to use based
on the syntax and contents of the addresses.
Local addresses are looked up in the local aliases(4) file, or by
using the YP name service, and aliased appropriately. In addition,
if there is a file in a recipient's home directory, sendmail
forwards a copy of each message to the list of recipients that file
contains. Aliasing can be prevented by preceding the address with a
backslash. Normally the sender is not included in alias expansions,
for example, if `john' sends to `group', and `group' includes `john'
in the expansion, then the letter will not be delivered to `john'.
sendmail will also route mail directly to other known hosts in a
local network. The list of hosts to which mail is directly sent is
maintained in the file /usr/lib/mailhosts.
The following options are available:
-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, waiting for incoming SMTP connections.
-bi Initialize the alias database.
-bm Deliver mail in the usual way (default).
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sendmail(1M) (BSD Compatibility Package) sendmail(1M)
-bp Print a summary of the mail queue.
-bs Use the SMTP protocol as described in RFC 821. This flag
implies all the operations of the -ba flag that are compatible
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.
-Cfile
Use alternate configuration file.
-dX Set debugging value to X.
-Ffullname
Set the full name of the sender.
-fname
Sets the name of the ``from'' person (that is, the sender of
the mail). -f can only be used by ``trusted'' users (who are
listed in the config file).
-hN Set the hop count to N. The hop count is incremented 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.
-Mid Attempt to deliver the queued message with message-id id.
-n Do not do aliasing.
-oxvalue
Set option x to the specified value. Options are described
below.
-q[time]
Processed saved messages in the queue at given intervals. If
time is omitted, process the queue once. Time 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.
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sendmail(1M) (BSD Compatibility Package) sendmail(1M)
-rname
An alternate and obsolete form of the -f flag.
-Rstring
Go through the queue of pending mail and attempt to deliver any
message with a recipient containing the specified string. This
is useful for clearing out mail directed to a machine which has
been down for awhile.
-t Read message for recipients. ``To:'', ``Cc:'', and ``Bcc:''
lines will be scanned for people to send to. The ``Bcc:'' line
will be deleted before transmission. Any addresses in the
argument list will be suppressed.
-v Go into verbose mode. Alias expansions will be announced, etc.
PROCESSING OPTIONS
There are also a number of processing options that may be set.
Normally these will only be used by a system administrator. Options
may be set either on the command line using the -o flag or in the
configuration file. The options are:
Afile Use alternate alias file.
c On mailers that are considered ``expensive'' to connect to, do
not initiate immediate connection. This requires queueing.
dx Set the delivery mode to x. Delivery modes are i for
interactive (synchronous) delivery, b for background
(asynchronous) delivery, and q for queue only - that is, actual
delivery is done the next time the queue is run.
D Run newaliases(1M) to automatically rebuild the alias database,
if necessary.
ex 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.
Fmode The mode to use when creating temporary files.
f Save UNIX-system-style ``From'' lines at the front of messages.
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sendmail(1M) (BSD Compatibility Package) sendmail(1M)
gN The default group ID to use when calling mailers.
Hfile The SMTP help file.
i Do not take dots on a line by themselves as a message
terminator.
Ln 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 (that is,
commas instead of spaces between addresses). If set, an
adaptive algorithm is used that will correctly determine the
header format in most cases.
Qqueuedir
Select the directory in which to queue messages.
rtimeout
The timeout on reads; if none is set, sendmail will wait
forever for a mailer.
Sfile Save statistics in the named file.
s Always instantiate the queue file, even under circumstances
where it is not strictly necessary.
Ttime Set the timeout on messages in the queue to the specified time.
After sitting in the queue for this amount of time, they will
be returned to the sender. The default is three days.
tstz,dtz
Set the name of the time zone.
uN Set the default user id for mailers.
If the first character of the user name is a vertical bar, the rest
of the user name is used as the name of a program to pipe the mail
to. It may be necessary to quote the name of the user to keep
sendmail from suppressing the blanks from between arguments.
sendmail returns an exit status describing what it did. The codes
are defined in <sysexits.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.
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sendmail(1M) (BSD Compatibility Package) sendmail(1M)
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 newaliases, sendmail rebuilds the alias database. If
invoked as mailq, sendmail prints the contents of the mail queue.
FILES
Except for /etc/sendmail.cf, these pathnames are all specified in
/etc/sendmail.cf. Thus, these values are only approximations.
/usr/bin/uux to deliver uucp mail
/usr/bin/mail to deliver local mail
/var/spool/mqueue/* temp files and queued mail
~/.forward list of recipients for forwarding messages
SEE ALSO
biff(1), aliases(4).
Su, Zaw-Sing, and Jon Postel, The Domain Naming Convention for
Internet User Applications, RFC 819, Network Information Center, SRI
International, Menlo Park, Calif., August 1982.
Postel, Jon, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, RFC 821, Network
Information Center, SRI International, Menlo Park, Calif., August
1982.
Crocker, Dave, Standard for the Format of ARPA-Internet Text
Messages, RFC 822, Network Information Center, SRI International,
Menlo Park, Calif., August 1982.
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