sendmail(1M-BSD) MISC. REFERENCE MANUAL PAGES sendmail(1M-BSD)
NAME
sendmail - send mail over the internet
SYNOPSIS
/usr/ucblib/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 con-
tains. 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 main-
tained 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).
-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.
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sendmail(1M-BSD) MISC. REFERENCE MANUAL PAGES sendmail(1M-BSD)
-bt Run in address test mode. This mode reads addresses
and shows the steps in parsing; it is used for debug-
ging 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 inter-
vals. 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.
-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
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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 adminis-
trator. 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.
gN The default group ID to use when calling mailers.
Hfile
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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 cir-
cumstances where it is not strictly necessary.
Ttime
Set the timeout on messages in the queue to the speci-
fied 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.
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sendmail(1M-BSD) MISC. REFERENCE MANUAL PAGES sendmail(1M-BSD)
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 immedi-
ately, 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 /usr/ucblib/sendmail.cf, these pathnames are all
specified in /usr/ucblib/sendmail.cf. Thus, these values
are only approximations.
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 Interna-
tional, Menlo Park, Calif., August 1982.
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