mailcnfg(4) mailcnfg(4)
NAME
mailcnfg - initialization information for mail and rmail
DESCRIPTION
The /etc/mail/mailcnfg file contains initialization
information for the mail and rmail commands. This file must
be created initially by the administrator. Each entry in
mailcnfg consists of a line of the form
Keyword = Value
Leading whitespace, whitespace surrounding the equal sign, and
trailing whitespace is ignored. Keyword may not contain
embedded whitespace, but whitespace may appear within Value.
Undefined keywords or badly formed entries are silently
ignored. Lines beginning with ``#'' are ignored.
The mailcnfg file must be world readable.
Keyword Definitions
ADD_DATE If a message which originated on the local
machine does not have a Date: header, and
ADD_DATE does not have a value of no, a
Date: header will be added.
ADD_FROM If a message which originated on the local
machine does not have a From: header, and
ADD_FROM does not have a value of no, a
From: header will be added.
ADD_MESSAGE_ID If a message which originated on the local
machine does not have a Message-ID:
header, and ADD_MESSAGE_ID does not have a
value of no, a Message-ID: header will be
added.
ADD_RECEIVED If a message is received which has no
Received: header, and ADD_RECEIVED has a
value of yes, one will be added.
ADD_TO If a message which originated on the local
machine does not have a To: header, and
ADD_TO does not have a value of no, a To:
header will be added.
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mailcnfg(4) mailcnfg(4)
ARG_MAX The maximum size of the argument list and
environment to be used for surrogate
commands. This overrides the kernel-
settable ARG_MAX parameter. On most
systems, the maximum size will be 5120
bytes.
CLUSTER To identify a closely coupled set of
systems by one name to all other systems,
set Value to the cluster name. This
string is used in place of the local
system nodename returned by uname(2), such
as in the surrogate file processing or for
supplying the
CNFG_EXPORT A comma separated list of mail
configuration variables to be passed
through to surrogate commands as
environment variables.
DEBUG Takes the same values as the -x invocation
option of mail. This provides a way of
setting a system-wide debug/tracing level.
Typically DEBUG is set to a value of 2,
which provides minimal diagnostics useful
for debugging mail and rmail failures.
The value of the -x mail invocation option
will override any specification of DEBUG
in mailcnfg.
DEL_EMPTY_MFILE If not specified, the default action of
mail and rmail is to delete empty
mailfiles if the permissions are 0660 and
to retain empty mailfiles if the
permissions are anything else. If Value
is yes, or empty, empty mailfiles are
always deleted, regardless of file
permissions. If Value is no, empty
mailfiles are never deleted. If Value is
anything else, the default action will be
taken.
DOMAIN This string is used to supply the system
domain name in place of the domain name
returned by sysinfo(2).
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mailcnfg(4) mailcnfg(4)
FAILSAFE In the event that the /var/mail directory
is accessed via NFS within a cluster (see
CLUSTER above), provisions must be made to
allow for the directory not being
available when local mail is to be
delivered (remote system crash or NFS
problems, etc.). Value is a string that
indicates where to forward the current
message for delivery. Typically this is
the remote system that actually owns
/var/mail. In this way, the message is
queued for delivery to that system when it
becomes available. For example, assume a
cluster of systems (sysa, sysb, sysc)
where /var/mail is physically mounted on
sysc and made available to the other
machines via NFS. If sysc were to crash,
the NFS-accessible /var/mail would become
unavailable and local deliveries of mail
would go to /var/mail on the local system.
When /var/mail is re-mounted via NFS, all
messages deposited in the local directory
would be hidden and essentially lost. To
prevent this, if FAILSAFE is defined in
mailcnfg, mail and rmail check for the
existence of /var/mail/:saved, a required
subdirectory. If this subdirectory does
not exist, mail assumes that the NFS-
accessible /var/mail is not available and
invokes the failsafe mechanism of
automatically forwarding the message to
Value. In this example Value would be
sysc!%n. The %n keyword is expanded to be
the recipient name [see mail(1) for
details] and thus the message would be
forwarded to sysc!recipient_name. Because
sysc is not available, the message remains
on the local system until sysc is
available, and then sent there for
delivery.
FORCE_7BIT_HEADERS Unless FORCE_7BIT_HEADERS has a value of
no, mail will convert any 8-bit headers
into 7-bit format. Since 8-bit characters
are only allowed in the comment portions
of To:, Cc: and Bcc: headers, any such
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mailcnfg(4) mailcnfg(4)
headers found with 8-bit characters in
non-comment sections will be changed into
Illegal-To: (etc.) headers.
FORCE_7BIT_MIME When mail converts a non-MIME (Multi-
Purpose Internet Message Extensions) mail
message to MIME format (see FORCE_MIME),
and FORCE_7BIT_MIME has a value of yes, it
will convert an 8-bit message body to 7-
bit format using the quoted-printable or
base64 transfer encodings.
FORCE_MIME If a message is received which is not in
MIME format, mail will convert it to MIME
format unless FORCE_MIME has a value of
no.
NOCOMPILEDSURRFILE Normally, mail will create a compiled
version of the surrogate file, named
/etc/mail/Cmailsurr, whenever the
surrogate file or configuration file
changes, and then subsequently use the
compiled version. If this variable is set
to any value, mail will ignore the
compiled surrogate file.
REMOTEFROM This string may be set in the event that
you wish to use a slightly different
string in the ...remote from...
information on the From header line UNIX
postmark header line than either the
cluster name or system name.
SMARTERHOST This string may be set to a smarter host
which may be referenced within the mail
surrogate file via %X.
SURR_EXPORT A comma separated list of environment
variables to be passed through to
surrogate commands.
%mailsurr_keyletter As described in mailsurr(4), certain pre-
defined single letter keywords are
textually substituted in surrogate command
fields before they are executed. While
none of the predefined keyletters may be
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mailcnfg(4) mailcnfg(4)
changed in meaning, new ones may be
defined to provide a shorthand notation
for long strings (such as
/usr/lib/mail/surrcmd) which may appear
repeatedly within the mailsurr file.
Upper case letters are reserved for future
use and will be ignored if encountered
here.
FILES
/etc/mail/mailcnfg
/etc/mail/mailsurr
/etc/mail/Cmailsurr
/var/mail/:saved
/usr/lib/mail/surrcmd
REFERENCES
mail(1), mailsurr(4), mailcap(4), sysconf(3C), sysinfo(2),
uname(2)
NOTICES
If /var/mail is accessed via NFS and the subdirectory
/var/mail/:saved is not removed from the local system, the
FAILSAFE mechanism will be subverted.
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 5