sendmail(8) CLIX sendmail(8)
NAME
sendmail - Sends mail over the Internet
SYNOPSIS
/usr/lib/sendmail [flags] [address ... ]
FLAGS
-? Displays usage message.
-ba Changes to Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET)
mode. All input lines must end with a <Return> or <Line Feed>
and all messages will be generated with a <Return> or
<Line Feed> at the end of the text. Also, the From: and
Sender: headers are examined for the name of the sender.
-bd Executes as a daemon. The sendmail router will fork and run
in the background listening on Transmission Control Protocol
(TCP) socket 25 for incoming Simple Message Transfer Protocol
(SMTP) connections.
-bi Initializes the alias database.
-bm Delivers a mail message. If a -bx flag is not specified, this
mode is used by default. If this flag is specified after
another -bx flag, this flag overrides the other flag. One or
more addresses should be specified with this flag.
-bp Displays a listing of the queue contents.
-bs Uses the SMTP protocol as described in RFC821 on stdin and
output. All input lines must end with a <Return> or
<Line Feed> and all messages will be generated with a <Return>
or <Line Feed> at the end.
-bt Executes in address test mode. This mode reads addresses and
shows the steps taken as they are being parsed. This test
mode is used for debugging configuration files.
-bv Verifies addresses only. Does not try to collect or deliver a
message. The verify mode is normally used for validating
addresses or mailing lists. One or more addresses should be
specified with this flag.
-c Does not connect immediately if an outgoing mailer is marked
as ``expensive.'' Messages are deferred in the mail queue
until the next queue run. This flag is the same as the -oc
flag.
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-Cfile Specifies file as the configuration file. The sendmail
command will not run as root if an alternate configuration
file is specified.
-d[list] Sets the debugging level to list. If list is not specified, a
list of 0-99.1 is used by default, which sets debug flags 0-99
to level 1.
-e Same as -oe.
-Ffname Sets the full name of the sender to fname.
-fname Sets the name of the mail message sender to name. This flag
can be used only by trusted users or by users specifying their
own usernames. Normally, sendmail is configured to define
root, daemon, uucp, and network as trusted users.
-hcount Sets the hop count to count. The hop count is incremented
every time the mail is sent by sendmail. When it reaches a
limit, the mail is returned with an error message. If the -h
flag is not specified, the Received: lines in the message are
counted to determine the hop count.
-i Ignores a dot on a line by itself as a message terminator.
This flag is the same as the -oi flag.
-I Initializes the alias database.
-lfile Writes logging information to file. The default is
/dev/console. This flag is effective only when messages are
sent.
-m Sends to the sender of the message, even if the sender is an
alias expansion. This flag is the same as the -om flag.
-n Does not look up local addresses in the alias file.
-q[time] Processes saved messages in the queue at the interval
specified by time. If time is omitted, processes the queue
once. If time is specified, sendmail runs as a background
process. The time must be specified as a number followed by a
character specifying the unit of time. The following
characters are valid: s for seconds, m for minutes, h for
hours, d for days, and w for weeks.
For example, -q1h30m or -q90m would both set the interval to
one hour and thirty minutes. This flag is often used with the
-bd flag.
-rname Specifies an alternate and obsolete form of the -f flag.
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-s Same as -of.
-t Reads the message for recipients. The To:, Cc:, and Bcc:
lines are scanned for recipient addresses. The Bcc: line is
deleted before transmission. Any addresses in the argument
list will be suppressed. That is, they will not receive
copies even if they are listed in the message header.
-T Sets the length of time that undelivered messages will remain
in the queue. The time must be specified as a number followed
by a character specifying the unit of time. The following
characters are valid: s for seconds, m for minutes, h for
hours, d for days, and w for weeks. For example, -T1h30m or
-T90m sets the timeout to one hour and thirty minutes. If a
message cannot be delivered within this time (because of a
host being down), failed messages will be returned to the
sender. The default is three days.
-v Sets the verbose mode. Alias expansions are displayed.
-oopt arg Sets the option opt to the specified arg. Options can be set
either on the command line using the -o flag or in the
configuration file. These options are described in detail in
the CLIX Sendmail Administrator's Guide. The options are as
follows:
Afile Uses an alternate alias file. The default is
/usr/lib/aliases.
amin Waits a maximum of min minutes for an @:@ entry to
exist in the alias database before starting. If
the entry does not appear in min minutes, this
option rebuilds the database (if the D option is
also set) or issues a warning. If no min is
specified, the default maximum is five minutes.
Bchar Sets the blank substitution character to char.
Unquoted spaces in addresses are replaced by this
character.
c Does not connect immediately if an outgoing mailer
is marked as ``expensive.'' Messages are deferred
in the mail queue until the next queue run.
dmode Sets the delivery mode to mode. Valid modes are i
for interactive (synchronous) delivery, b for
background (asynchronous) delivery, and q for
queue only. If the queue only mode is specified,
actual delivery occurs the next time the queue is
processed.
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D Rebuilds the alias database if changes have been
made to /usr/lib/aliases.
emode Sets error processing mode to mode. 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 (and only an exit status is returned),
and e to mail back the error messages and return a
zero exit status (for Berknet). If the message
text is not mailed back by mode 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 Sets the access mode for creating temporary files
to mode. This default is 644.
f Saves UNIX-style From: lines at the front of
messages.
ggid Sets the default group ID (GID) for mailers to
gid. Mailers without the S option in their mailer
definition will run as this GID. The default is
GID 1.
Hfile Specifies the SMTP help file to be file. The
default is /usr/lib/sendmail.hf.
i Ignores a dot on a line by itself as a message
terminator.
Llevel Sets the log level to level. Level must be
between 0 and 22. The default is 0, which means
logging is disabled.
lfile Writes logging information to file. The default
is /dev/console.
Mmvalue Sets macro m to value. This option is intended
only for use from the command line. The macro m
may be any alphabetic character.
m Sends to the sender of the message, even if the
sender is in an alias expansion.
Nnetname Specifies the name of the home network (ARPA by
default). The argument of an SMTP and HELO
command is checked against hostname.netname, where
hostname is requested from the kernel for the
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current connection. If they do not match, the
Received: lines are augmented by the name that is
determined in this manner so that messages can be
traced accurately.
n Validates the right-hand side of aliases when
running newaliases(1).
o Indicates that this message might have old style
headers (spaces between addresses). If this
option is not set, the message will have new style
headers (commas between addresses). If this
option is set, an adaptive algorithm is used to
determine which style is used.
Paddr Sets the postmaster copy address for returned mail
to addr.
Qqueuedir Selects the directory in which to queue messages
to queuedir. The default is /usr/spool/mqueue.
q fact Uses fact as the multiplier in the map function to
decide when to just queue up jobs rather than run
them. This value is divided by the difference
between the current load average and the load
average limit to determine the maximum message
priority that will be sent. Defaults to 10000.
rtimeout Sets the timeout on reads to timeout. The timeout
must be specified as a number followed by a
character specifying the unit of time. The
following characters are valid: s for seconds, m
for minutes, h for hours, d for days, and w for
weeks. For example, -or1h30m or -or90m would both
set the timeout to one hour and thirty minutes.
If this option is not specified, timeout is set to
0, meaning that sendmail will wait indefinitely
for a mailer.
Sfile Saves statistics in file. The default file is
/usr/lib/sendmail.st.
s Always puts messages in temporary files in the
queue directory, even when it is not necessary.
This ensures that messages are not lost during a
system crash.
Ttime Sets the length of time that undelivered messages
will remain in the queue. The time must be
specified as a number followed by a character
specifying the unit of time. The following
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characters are valid: s for seconds, m for
minutes, h for hours, d for days, and w for weeks.
For example, -oT1h30m or -oT90m set the timeout to
one hour and thirty minutes. If a message cannot
be delivered within this time (because of a host
being down), failed messages will be returned to
the sender. The default is three days.
Ufile Specifies the file that contains a list of UUCP
hosts. The default is /usr/lib/sendmail.uf.
uuid Sets the default user ID (UID) for mailers to uid.
Mailers without the S option in their mailer
definition will run as this UID. The default is
UID 1.
v Sets verbose mode.
yfact Adds the indicated fact to the priority (thus
lowering the job priority) for each recipient.
This value penalizes messages with large numbers
of addresses. The default is 1000.
Y Delivers each job that is run from the queue in a
separate process. This option should be used when
memory is limited, because the default consumes
large amounts of memory while the queue is being
processed.
zfact Multiplies the indicated fact by the message class
(determined by the Precedence: header in the
message and the P lines in the configuration file)
and subtract from the priority. Thus, messages
with a higher priority will be favored. The
default is 1800.
Zfact Adds the indicated fact to the priority every time
a job is processed. Thus, each time a job is
processed, its priority will be decreased by the
indicated value. In most environments this value
should be positive, since hosts that are down are
often down for a long time. The default is 9000.
DESCRIPTION
The sendmail command sends a message to one or more addresses, routing the
message over the necessary networks. The sendmail command can forward the
message to other hosts as necessary to deliver the message to the correct
destination.
The sendmail command is not intended as a user interface utility. Other
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utilities provide user-friendly front-ends; sendmail is used only to
deliver preformatted messages (see rmail(8)).
With no flags, sendmail reads its stdin until an end-of-file or a line
consisting only of a single dot is reached and sends a copy of the message
to all of the addresses listed. The sendmail command determines how to
deliver a message by parsing its addresses. If an address has a domain-
style syntax as described in mailaddr(7), sendmail attempts to send the
message over a TCP connection to a remote sendmail daemon. Otherwise,
sendmail sends the message to another mailer program.
Local addresses are checked in an alias file for the appropriate alias.
The translation of local addresses can be prevented by preceding the
address with a backslash (\). By default, the sender is not included in
any alias expansions. For example, if john sends to group and group
includes john in the expansion, the letter will not be delivered to john.
FILES
Except for /usr/lib/sendmail.cf itself, the following pathnames are
specified in the configuration file /usr/lib/sendmail.cf. Thus, these
paths are only approximations.
/usr/lib/aliases Raw data for alias names.
/usr/lib/aliases.pag Database of alias names.
/usr/lib/aliases.dir Database of alias names.
/usr/lib/sendmail.cf Configuration file.
/usr/lib/sendmail.hf Help file.
/usr/lib/sendmail.uf The UUCP host file.
/usr/lib/sendmail.st Collected statistics.
/usr/spool/mqueue/* Temporary files.
EXIT VALUES
The sendmail command returns an exit status code describing its action.
The codes are defined as follows:
EX_OK All addresses completed successfully.
EX_USAGE
The sendmail command was invoked with incorrect flags or arguments.
EX_NOUSER
Username was not recognized.
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EX_NOHOST
Hostname was not recognized.
EX_UNAVAILABLE
Necessary resources were not available.
EX_SOFTWARE
Internal software error, including bad arguments, has occurred.
EX_OSERR
Temporary operating system error, such as cannot fork() a child
process, has occurred.
EX_OSFILE
Critical system file is missing.
EX_CANTCREAT
Cannot create (user) output file.
EX_IOERR
An I/O error has occurred.
EX_TEMPFAIL
Message could not be sent immediately, but was queued.
EX_PROTOCOL
Remote error has occurred in protocol.
RELATED INFORMATION
Commands: hconv(8), rmail(8)
Files: aliases(4), mailaddr(7)
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