SENDMAIL(8) System Manager's Manual SENDMAIL(8)
NAME
sendmail - send mail over the internet
SYNOPSIS
/usr/sbin/sendmail [ flags ] [ address ... ]
newaliases
mailq [ -v ]
DESCRIPTION
Sendmail sends a message to one or more recipients, 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 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 expan-
sion, 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. Sendmail will fork and run in background listening on socket 25 for incoming
SMTP connections. This is normally run from /etc/rc.
-bi Initialize the alias database.
-bm Deliver mail in the usual way (default).
-bp Print a listing of the queue.
-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 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. Sendmail refuses to run as root if an alternate configuration file is specified. The frozen
configuration file is bypassed.
-dX Set debugging value to X.
-Ffullname Set the full name of the sender.
-fname Sets the name of the ``from'' person (i.e., the sender of the mail). -f can only be used by ``trusted'' users (normally root,
daemon, and network) or if the person you are trying to become is the same as the person you are.
-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. If not specified, ``Received:'' lines in the message are
counted.
-n Don't 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. If time is specified, sendmail will run in
background. This option can be used safely with -bd.
-rname 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 transmission. Any addresses in the argument list will be suppressed, that is, they will not 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 administrator. 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 Sendmail Installation
and Operation Guide. The options are:
Afile Use alternate alias file.
c On mailers that are considered ``expensive'' to connect to, don't 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 - i.e., actual delivery is done the next time the queue is run.
D Try 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-style From lines at the front of messages.
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 (i.e., com-
mas instead of spaces between addresses). If set, an adaptive algorithm is used that will correctly determine the header for-
mat 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. This option violates the word (if not the
intent) of the SMTP specification, show the timeout should probably be fairly large.
Sfile Save statistics in the named file.
s Always instantiate the queue file, even under circumstances where it is not strictly necessary. This provides safety against
system crashes during delivery.
Ttime 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.
tstz,dtz Set the name of the time zone.
uN 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 sendmail from suppressing the blanks from between arguments. For example, a common
alias is:
msgs: "|/usr/ucb/msgs -s"
Aliases may also have the syntax ``:include:filename'' to ask sendmail to read the named file for a list of recipients. For example, an
alias such as:
poets: ":include:/usr/local/lib/poets.list"
would read /usr/local/lib/poets.list for the list of addresses making up the group.
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.
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 will rebuild the alias database. If invoked as mailq, sendmail will print 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.
/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;
Sendmail - An Internetwork Mail Router (SMM:16);
Sendmail Installation and Operation Guide (SMM:7)
4th Berkeley Distribution October 23, 1996 SENDMAIL(8)