mail_intro(7)						 Miscellaneous Information Manual					     mail_intro(7)

NAME

       mail_intro - Introductory information on the Tru64 UNIX mail system

DESCRIPTION

       The  Tru64  UNIX  mail system enables you to exchange mail with other users on your system, as well as with other systems connected to your
       local network and with users on other networks (provided your system and network are connected to other networks).

   Mail System Concepts
       Mail systems consist of the following components: User agent - The user agent provides the interface through which you  interact  with  the
       mail system.  Generally, the user interface enables you to create, send, receive, read, save, and manage your mail messages.

	      Tru64  UNIX  provides  the following user agents: CDE's Mailer - For further information, see the Common Desktop Environment: User's
	      Guide .  Mail or mailx - For further information, see the Command and Shell User's Guide .  The Rand Message Handling program (MH) -
	      For  further  information,  see  the mh(1) and xmh(1X) reference pages.  Transport agent - The transport agent provides an interface
	      between the user agents and the delivery agents.	The sendmail command is a transfer agent.  Delivery agent  -  The  delivery  agent
	      provides	the  mechanism for delivering the mail messages to end users, systems, and networks.  The binmail and deliver commands are
	      delivery agents for standard mail and IMAP mail, respectively.

       In Tru64 UNIX, the sendmail program acts as both the transport and delivery agent. It does so by implementing the Simple Mail Transfer Pro-
       tocol (SMTP), which is the specification for the Internet's delivery agent.

       Initially  standards  did  not exist for mail addresses and computer networks.  Many different address formats and network protocols exist.
       Mail programs must interact with different network protocols, as well as recognize and reformat different  mail	address  formats.   Fortu-
       nately,	these difficulties were recognized and standards, such as the Standard for the Format of ARPA Internet Text Messages (RFC 822) and
       The Domain Naming Convention for Internet User Applications (RFC 819), emerged.	A mail program still must recognize addresses  in  various
       formats	and  communicate with different network protocols.  The sendmail program addresses these issues through the use of the sendmail.cf
       configuration file.

   The Sendmail Configuration File
       The sendmail.cf configuration file provides the sendmail program with the information to  perform  the  following  tasks:  Choose  delivery
       agents Use address rewriting rules Define mail header information Perform some routing

       When  it  starts,  the  sendmail  program  reads the sendmail.cf configuration file.  The information in the sendmail.cf configuration file
       enables sendmail to rewrite the addresses of mail it receives into the address form expected by the mail delivery agent.  It  also  enables
       sendmail to set parameters and arguments to the mail delivery program.

       The  configuration  file  contains information that is used for the following functions: Define message precedence for mail delivery Define
       administrative IDs to override the sender's address Define message headings Define the mail program to use Set options used by the sendmail
       command

       The  default Tru64 UNIX configuration file (located in /var/adm/sendmail/sendmail.cf) is adequate for most standalone systems.  However, if
       you plan to connect your system to a network, you will have to modify the sendmail.cf file.

       Tru64 UNIX provides the mailconfig and mailsetup utilities, which you can use to create mail configuration files. If you prefer to  manipu-
       late the configuration file manually, you should use the m4 macros provided for this purpose. (See the sendmail.m4 reference page.)

       For more information on configuring mail, see the Network Administration manual.

RELATED INFORMATION

       Commands: binmail(1), mailconfig(8), mailsetup(8), mailx(1), sendmail(8), sendmail.m4(8)

       Files: sendmail.cf(4)

       Network Administration

       Standard for the Format of ARPA Internet Text Messages (RFC 822)
       The Domain Naming Convention for Internet User Applications (RFC 819)
       UNIX System Administration Handbook, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1989.	delim off

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