sendmail - send mail over the internet

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SYNOPSIS

newaliases

mailq [ -v ]

DESCRIPTION

The sendmail utility is not intended as a user interface routine; other programs provide user-friendly front ends; sendmail is used only to deliver pre-formatted messages.

If given 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 expansion, then the letter will not be delivered to ``john.''

Sendmail needs a configuration file which tells it how to rewrite addresses and where to deliver messages. The default configuration file is located in /etc/sendmail/sendmail.cf, but can be overridden by setting the sendmail.cf property of the /locations/sendmail directory in NetInfo to a different file name.

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. The sendmail daemon 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.

-Cfile

Use alternate configuration file. The sendmail utility refuses to run as root if an alternate configuration file is specified.

-dX.Y

Set the debugging flag X to level Y.

-Ffullname

Set the full name of the sender.

-fname

Sets the name of the ``from'' person (i.e., the sender of the mail). The -f flag 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.

-Mmessageid

Used together with the -q flag to only process messages with the specified ID.

-n

Don't do aliasing.

-oxvalue

Set option x to the specified value. Options are described below.

-q[time]

Process 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.

-Rrecipient

Used in combination with the -q flag to only process messages destined to the specified recipient.

-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.

aminutes

Maximum time to wait for aliases database to be rebuilt.

Bchar

Character to use instead of spaces (blanks) in addresses.

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 rebuild the alias database automatically 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.

kN

Checkpoint the queue files after every N deliveries. A gross hack to avoid sending duplicate messages if sendmail crashes when delivering a message to a very large list of recipients.

Ln

The log level.

Mxvalue

Set the macro x to the specified value.

m

Send to ``me'' (the sender) also if I am in an alias expansion.

n

Check that all aliases are deliverable when rebuilding the alias database.

o

If set, this message may have old style headers. If not set, this message is guaranteed to have new style headers (i.e., commas instead of spaces between addresses). If set, an adaptive algorithm is used that will correctly determine the header format in most cases.

pN

Be sure that no more than N processes are running on the local system before accepting a connection from the Internet. Deferred connections are serviced as soon as the process count falls to an acceptable level. This option provides a way to avoid thrashing if the mail server is subject to bursts of high load. It is useful only when running in daemon mode. Paddress Send a copy of the headers of each message that sendmail returns to the specified address (typically ``Postmaster'').

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, so 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.

v

Run in verbose mode.

xN

Start to automatically queue all messages when machine's the load average exceeds the specified number.

XN

Start to automatically reject any new SMTP connections when the machine's load average exceeds the specified number.

yN

Recipient priority factor. Each message's priority is increased with N points for each of its recipients.

Yaliasmap

Sets an alternate name for the NIS alias map.

zN

Class priority factor. Each message's priority is increased with N times its class value points.

ZN

Time priority factor. Each message's priority is increased with N points each time it's processed.

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 which to pipe the mail. 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.

The sendmail utility 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

SEE ALSO

Created by unroff & hp-tools. © somebody (See intro for details). All Rights Reserved. Last modified 11/5/97