NAME

mail_pipe − invoke recipient command for incoming mail

SYNOPSIS

mail_pipe [ −x debug_level ] −r recipient −R path_to_sender −c content_type
−S subject

DESCRIPTION

When a new mail message arrives, the mail command first checks if the recipient’s mailbox indicates that the message is to be forwarded elsewhere (to some other recipient or as the input to some command).  If the message is to be piped into a recipient-specified command, mail invokes mail_pipe to do some validation and then execute the command in the context of the recipient. 

Command-line arguments are:

−x debug_level Turn on debugging for this invocation.  See the description of the −x option for the mail command for details. 

−r recipient The recipient’s login id. 

−R path_to_sender
The return address to the message’s originator.

−c content_type The value of the Content-Type: header line in the message. 

−S subject The value of the Subject: header line in the message if present. 

mail_pipe is installed as a setuid-to-root process, thus enabling itself to change it’s user and group ids to that of the recipient as necessary. 

When invoked, mail_pipe performs the following steps (if a step fails, the exit code is noted as [N]):

− Validate invocation arguments [1]. 

− Verify that recipient name is ≤ 14 characters long [2]. 

− Verify that the setgid flag for the recipient mailbox is set [3]. 

− Open /var/mail/recipient [4]. 

− Verify that recipient’s mailbox starts with the string Forward to [5]. 

− Find pipe symbol indicating start of command string in recipient mailbox [6]. 

− Find entry for recipient in /etc/passwd [7]. 

− Set gid to recipient’s gid [8]. 

− Set uid to recipient’s uid [9]. 

− Change current directory to recipient’s login directory [10]. 

− Allocate space to hold newly exec’ed environment for recipient command [11]. 

− Parse the recipient command, performing any %keyword expansions required.  See the ‘Forwarding mail’ section of mail(1), for more information regarding %keyword substitutions [12]. 

− Execute recipient command [13 if exec fails, otherwise exit code from recipient command itself]. 

FILES

/etc/passwd to identify sender and locate recipients

/var/mail/recipient incoming mail for recipient; that is, the mail file

/tmp/MLDBG∗ debug trace file

/usr/lib/mail/mail_pipe
mail_pipe program

SEE ALSO

mail(1), notify(1), vacation(1)

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