sendmail(8)sendmail(8)Name
sendmail, newaliases, mailq - send mail over the internet
Syntax
/usr/lib/sendmail [ flags ] [ address ... ]
newaliases
mailqDescription
The command sends a message to one or more people, routing the message
over whatever networks are necessary. The command does internetwork
forwarding as necessary to deliver the message to the correct place.
The command is not intended as a user interface routine. Other pro‐
grams provide user-friendly front ends, while is used only to deliver
preformatted messages.
With no flags, reads its standard input up to a Ctrl/D 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.
The program looks up local addresses in a file and aliases them appro‐
priately. Aliasing can be prevented by preceding the address with a
backslash. Normally the sender is not included in any alias expan‐
sions, for example, if `john' sends to `group', and `group' includes
`john' in the expansion, then the letter will not be delivered to
`john'.
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 from suppressing
the blanks from between arguments.
returns an exit status describing what it did. The codes are defined
in <sysexits.h> header file:
EX_OK Successful completion on all addresses
EX_NOUSER Username 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
EX_NOHOST Host name not recognized
EX_TEMPFAIL Message could not be sent immediately, but was
queued
If invoked as will rebuild the alias database If invoked as will print
the contents of the mail queue.
Flags-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.
-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 RFC 821. 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 an alternate configuration file.
-Ffullname Set the full name of the sender.
-fname Sets the name of the from person, that is, the sender of
the mail. The flag can only be used by the users and or
when you are sending the mail and use your name.
-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.
-n Do not do aliasing.
-ox value Set the x option 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. The time
argument is given as a tagged number, with `s' seconds,
`m' minutes, `h' hours, `d' days, and `w' weeks. For
example, `-q1h30m' or `-q90m' will both set the timeout
to one hour thirty minutes.
-rname An alternate and obsolete form of the flag.
-t Read message for recipients. To:, Cc:, and Bcc: lines
are scanned for people to send to. The Bcc: line is
deleted before transmission. Any addresses in the argu‐
ment list are suppressed.
-v Go into verbose mode. For example, alias expansions are
announced.
Options
A number of processing options that may be set. Normally, these are
only used by a system administrator. Options may be set either on the
command line using the flag or in the configuration file.
Afile Use an alternate alias file.
c Do not initiate immediate connection to mailers that are
considered expensive to connect to. 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 Try to automatically rebuild the alias database if nec‐
essary.
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
in the sender's home directory.
Fmode The mode to use when creating temporary files.
f Save UNIX From lines at the front of messages.
gN The default group id to use when calling mailers.
G{T|t|Y|y} A Boolean argument used to turn on/off the fuzzy fea‐
ture. By default, the option is true. The first letter
of the Boolean argument, if it is present, is compared
to the four letters T, t, Y, y. If the first letter
matches any of those four, the option is set to true;
otherwise it is set to false. The option defaults to
true if the Boolean argument is absent.
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 my nameis 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 head‐
ers (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, will wait for a
mailer.
Sfile Save statistics in the named file.
s Always instantiate the queue file, even under circum‐
stances 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.
Restrictions
converts blanks in addresses to dots. This is incorrect according to
the old ARPANET mail protocol RFC 733 (NIC 41952), but is consistent
with the new protocols (RFC 822).
Files
Except for these pathnames are all specified in Thus, these values are
approximations.
Raw data for alias names.
Database of alias names.
Raw data for alias names.
Yellow Pages alias database. DOMAINNAME is the YP
domainname for the local area network.
Yellow Pages alias database. DOMAINNAME is the YP
domainname for the local area network.
Raw data for alias names.
BIND/Hesiod alias database.
Configuration file.
Frozen configuration.
Help file.
Collected statistics.
To deliver mail.
To deliver ARPANET mail.
Temp files.
See Alsobiff(1), binmail(1), mail(1), rmail(1), aliases(5), mailaddr(7)
DARPA Internet Request For Comments: RFC 819, RFC 821, RFC 822
Sendmail - An Internetwork Mail Router
sendmail(8)
