x SuSE Linux 13.1-RELEASE x
x SuSE Linux 13.1-RELEASEx
SENDMAIL(8) System Manager's Manual SENDMAIL(8)
1mNAME0m
sendmail - an electronic mail transport agent
1mSYNOPSIS0m
1msendmail 22m[4mflags24m] [4maddress24m 4m...24m]
1mnewaliases0m
1mmailq 22m[1m-v22m]
1mhoststat0m
1mpurgestat0m
1msmtpd0m
1mDESCRIPTION0m
1mSendmail 22msends a message to one or more 4mrecipients,24m routing the message
over whatever networks are necessary. 1mSendmail 22mdoes internetwork for-
warding as necessary to deliver the message to the correct place.
1mSendmail 22mis not intended as a user interface routine; other programs
provide user-friendly front ends; 1msendmail 22mis used only to deliver pre-
formatted messages.
With no flags, 1msendmail 22mreads its standard input up to an end-of-file
or a line consisting only of a single dot and sends a copy of the mes-
sage 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.
Beginning with 8.10, the sender is included in any alias expansions,
e.g., if `john' sends to `group', and `group' includes `john' in the
expansion, then the letter will also be delivered to `john'.
1mParameters0m
1m-Ac 22mUse submit.cf even if the operation mode does not indicate an
initial mail submission.
1m-Am 22mUse sendmail.cf even if the operation mode indicates an initial
mail submission.
1m-B4m22mtype24m Set the body type to 4mtype24m. Current legal values are 7BIT or
8BITMIME.
1m-ba 22mGo 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.
1m-bC 22mCheck the configuration file.
1m-bd 22mRun as a daemon. 1mSendmail 22mwill fork and run in background lis-
tening on socket 25 for incoming SMTP connections. This is nor-
mally run from /etc/rc.
1m-bD 22mSame as 1m-bd 22mexcept runs in foreground.
1m-bh 22mPrint the persistent host status database.
1m-bH 22mPurge expired entries from the persistent host status database.
1m-bi 22mInitialize the alias database.
1m-bm 22mDeliver mail in the usual way (default).
1m-bp 22mPrint a listing of the queue(s).
1m-bP 22mPrint number of entries in the queue(s); only available with
shared memory support.
1m-bs 22mUse the SMTP protocol as described in RFC821 on standard input
and output. This flag implies all the operations of the 1m-ba0m
flag that are compatible with SMTP.
1m-bt 22mRun in address test mode. This mode reads addresses and shows
the steps in parsing; it is used for debugging configuration
tables.
1m-bv 22mVerify names only - do not try to collect or deliver a message.
Verify mode is normally used for validating users or mailing
lists.
1m-C4m22mfile24m Use alternate configuration file. 1mSendmail 22mgives up any
enhanced (set-user-ID or set-group-ID) privileges if an alter-
nate configuration file is specified.
1m-D 4m22mlogfile0m
Send debugging output to the indicated log file instead of std-
out.
1m-d4m22mcategory24m1m.4m22mlevel...0m
Set the debugging flag for 4mcategory24m to 4mlevel24m. 4mCategory24m is
either an integer or a name specifying the topic, and 4mlevel24m an
integer specifying the level of debugging output desired.
Higher levels generally mean more output. More than one flag
can be specified by separating them with commas. A list of
numeric debugging categories can be found in the TRACEFLAGS file
in the sendmail source distribution.
The option 1m-d0.1 22mprints the version of 1msendmail 22mand the options
it was compiled with.
Most other categories are only useful with, and documented in,
1msendmail22m's source code.
1m-F4m22mfullname0m
Set the full name of the sender.
1m-f4m22mname24m Sets the name of the ``from'' person (i.e., the envelope sender
of the mail). This address may also be used in the From: header
if that header is missing during initial submission. The enve-
lope sender address is used as the recipient for delivery status
notifications and may also appear in a Return-Path: header. 1m-f0m
should only be used by ``trusted'' users (normally 4mroot24m, 4mdaemon24m,
and 4mnetwork24m) or if the person you are trying to become is the
same as the person you are. Otherwise, an X-Authentication-
Warning header will be added to the message.
1m-G 22mRelay (gateway) submission of a message, e.g., when 1mrmail 22mcalls
1msendmail .0m
1m-h4m22mN24m Set the hop count to 4mN24m. 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.
1m-i 22mDo not strip a leading dot from lines in incoming messages, and
do not treat a dot on a line by itself as the end of an incoming
message. This should be set if you are reading data from a
file.
1m-L 4m22mtag24m Set the identifier used in syslog messages to the supplied 4mtag24m.
1m-N 4m22mdsn24m Set delivery status notification conditions to 4mdsn24m, which can be
`never' for no notifications or a comma separated list of the
values `failure' to be notified if delivery failed, `delay' to
be notified if delivery is delayed, and `success' to be notified
when the message is successfully delivered.
1m-n 22mDon't do aliasing.
1m-O 4m22moption24m=4mvalue0m
Set option 4moption24m to the specified 4mvalue24m. This form uses long
names. See below for more details.
1m-o4m22mx24m 4mvalue0m
Set option 4mx24m to the specified 4mvalue24m. This form uses single
character names only. The short names are not described in this
manual page; see the 4mSendmail24m 4mInstallation24m 4mand24m 4mOperation24m 4mGuide0m
for details.
1m-p4m22mprotocol0m
Set the name of the protocol used to receive the message. This
can be a simple protocol name such as ``UUCP'' or a protocol and
hostname, such as ``UUCP:ucbvax''.
1m-q22m[4mtime24m]
Process saved messages in the queue at given intervals. If 4mtime0m
is omitted, process the queue once. 4mTime24m is given as a tagged
number, with `s' being seconds, `m' being minutes (default), `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. By default, 1msendmail 22mwill run in the back-
ground. This option can be used safely with 1m-bd22m.
1m-qp22m[4mtime24m]
Similar to 1m-q4m22mtime24m, except that instead of periodically forking a
child to process the queue, sendmail forks a single persistent
child for each queue that alternates between processing the
queue and sleeping. The sleep time is given as the argument; it
defaults to 1 second. The process will always sleep at least 5
seconds if the queue was empty in the previous queue run.
1m-q22mf Process saved messages in the queue once and do not fork(), but
run in the foreground.
1m-q22mG4mname0m
Process jobs in queue group called 4mname24m only.
1m-q22m[4m!24m]I4msubstr0m
Limit processed jobs to those containing 4msubstr24m as a substring
of the queue id or not when 4m!24m is specified.
1m-q22m[4m!24m]Q4msubstr0m
Limit processed jobs to quarantined jobs containing 4msubstr24m as a
substring of the quarantine reason or not when 4m!24m is specified.
1m-q22m[4m!24m]R4msubstr0m
Limit processed jobs to those containing 4msubstr24m as a substring
of one of the recipients or not when 4m!24m is specified.
1m-q22m[4m!24m]S4msubstr0m
Limit processed jobs to those containing 4msubstr24m as a substring
of the sender or not when 4m!24m is specified.
1m-Q22m[reason]
Quarantine a normal queue items with the given reason or unquar-
antine quarantined queue items if no reason is given. This
should only be used with some sort of item matching using as
described above.
1m-R 4m22mreturn0m
Set the amount of the message to be returned if the message
bounces. The 4mreturn24m parameter can be `full' to return the
entire message or `hdrs' to return only the headers. In the
latter case also local bounces return only the headers.
1m-r4m22mname24m An alternate and obsolete form of the 1m-f 22mflag.
1m-t 22mRead message for recipients. To:, Cc:, and Bcc: lines will be
scanned for recipient addresses. The Bcc: line will be deleted
before transmission.
1m-U 22mIf a mail submission via the command line requires the use of
the 1mSMTPUTF8 22margument for the 1mMAIL 22mcommand, e.g., because a
header uses UTF-8 encoding, but the addresses on the command
line are all ASCII, then this option must be used. Only avail-
able if 1mEAI 22msupport is enabled, and the 1mSMTPUTF8 22moption is set.
1m-V 4m22menvid0m
Set the original envelope id. This is propagated across SMTP to
servers that support DSNs and is returned in DSN-compliant error
messages.
1m-v 22mGo into verbose mode. Alias expansions will be announced, etc.
1m-X 4m22mlogfile0m
Log all traffic in and out of mailers in the indicated log file.
This should only be used as a last resort for debugging mailer
bugs. It will log a lot of data very quickly.
1m-- 22mStop processing command flags and use the rest of the arguments
as addresses.
1mOptions0m
There are also a number of processing options that may be set. Nor-
mally these will only be used by a system administrator. Options may
be set either on the command line using the 1m-o 22mflag (for short names),
the 1m-O 22mflag (for long names), or in the configuration file. This is a
partial list limited to those options that are likely to be useful on
the command line and only shows the long names; for a complete list
(and details), consult the 4mSendmail24m 4mInstallation24m 4mand24m 4mOperation24m 4mGuide24m.
The options are:
AliasFile=4mfile0m
Use alternate alias file.
HoldExpensive
On mailers that are considered ``expensive'' to connect to,
don't initiate immediate connection. This requires queueing.
CheckpointInterval=4mN0m
Checkpoint the queue file after every 4mN24m successful deliveries
(default 10). This avoids excessive duplicate deliveries when
sending to long mailing lists interrupted by system crashes.
DeliveryMode=4mx0m
Set the delivery mode to 4mx24m. Delivery modes are `i' for interac-
tive (synchronous) delivery, `b' for background (asynchronous)
delivery, `q' for queue only - i.e., actual delivery is done the
next time the queue is run, and `d' for deferred - the same as
`q' except that database lookups for maps which have set the -D
option (default for the host map) are avoided.
ErrorMode=4mx0m
Set error processing to mode 4mx24m. 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
4mdead.letter24m in the sender's home directory.
SaveFromLine
Save UNIX-style From lines at the front of messages.
MaxHopCount=4mN0m
The maximum number of times a message is allowed to ``hop''
before we decide it is in a loop.
IgnoreDots
Do not take dots on a line by themselves as a message termina-
tor.
SendMimeErrors
Send error messages in MIME format. If not set, the DSN (Deliv-
ery Status Notification) SMTP extension is disabled.
ConnectionCacheTimeout=4mtimeout0m
Set connection cache timeout.
ConnectionCacheSize=4mN0m
Set connection cache size.
LogLevel=4mn0m
The log level.
MeToo=4mFalse0m
Don't send to ``me'' (the sender) if I am in an alias expansion.
CheckAliases
Validate the right hand side of aliases during a newaliases(1)
command.
OldStyleHeaders
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.
QueueDirectory=4mqueuedir0m
Select the directory in which to queue messages.
StatusFile=4mfile0m
Save statistics in the named file.
Timeout.queuereturn=4mtime0m
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 five days.
UserDatabaseSpec=4muserdatabase0m
If set, a user database is consulted to get forwarding informa-
tion. You can consider this an adjunct to the aliasing mecha-
nism, except that the database is intended to be distributed;
aliases are local to a particular host. This may not be avail-
able if your sendmail does not have the USERDB option compiled
in.
ForkEachJob
Fork each job during queue runs. May be convenient on memory-
poor machines.
SevenBitInput
Strip incoming messages to seven bits.
EightBitMode=4mmode0m
Set the handling of eight bit input to seven bit destinations to
4mmode24m: m (mimefy) will convert to seven-bit MIME format, p (pass)
will pass it as eight bits (but violates protocols), and s
(strict) will bounce the message.
MinQueueAge=4mtimeout0m
Sets how long a job must ferment in the queue between attempts
to send it.
DefaultCharSet=4mcharset0m
Sets the default character set used to label 8-bit data that is
not otherwise labelled.
NoRecipientAction=4maction0m
Set the behaviour when there are no recipient headers (To:, Cc:
or Bcc:) in the message to 4maction24m: none leaves the message
unchanged, add-to adds a To: header with the envelope recipi-
ents, add-apparently-to adds an Apparently-To: header with the
envelope recipients, add-bcc adds an empty Bcc: header, and add-
to-undisclosed adds a header reading `To: undisclosed-recipi-
ents:;'.
MaxDaemonChildren=4mN0m
Sets the maximum number of children that an incoming SMTP daemon
will allow to spawn at any time to 4mN24m.
ConnectionRateThrottle=4mN0m
Sets the maximum number of connections per second to the SMTP
port to 4mN24m.
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 1msendmail 22mfrom
suppressing the blanks from between arguments. For example, a common
alias is:
msgs: "|/usr/bin/msgs -s"
Aliases may also have the syntax ``:include:4mfilename24m'' to ask 1msendmail0m
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 4m/usr/local/lib/poets.list24m for the list of addresses making
up the group.
1mSendmail 22mreturns an exit status describing what it did. The codes are
defined in <4msysexits.h24m>:
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 1mnewaliases22m, 1msendmail 22mwill rebuild the alias database. If
invoked as 1mmailq22m, 1msendmail 22mwill print the contents of the mail queue.
If invoked as 1mhoststat22m, 1msendmail 22mwill print the persistent host status
database. If invoked as 1mpurgestat22m, 1msendmail 22mwill purge expired entries
from the persistent host status database. If invoked as 1msmtpd22m, 1msend-0m
1mmail 22mwill act as a daemon, as if the 1m-bd 22moption were specified.
1mNOTES0m
1msendmail 22moften gets blamed for many problems that are actually the
result of other problems, such as overly permissive modes on directo-
ries. For this reason, 1msendmail 22mchecks the modes on system directories
and files to determine if they can be trusted. Although these checks
can be turned off and your system security reduced by setting the 1mDont-0m
1mBlameSendmail 22moption, the permission problems should be fixed. For
more information, see the 4mSendmail24m 4mInstallation24m 4mand24m 4mOperation24m 4mGuide0m
1mFILES0m
Except for the file 4m/etc/mail/sendmail.cf24m itself the following path-
names are all specified in 4m/etc/mail/sendmail.cf24m. Thus, these values
are only approximations.
/etc/mail/aliases
raw data for alias names
/etc/mail/aliases.db
data base of alias names
/etc/mail/sendmail.cf
configuration file
/etc/mail/helpfile
help file
/etc/mail/statistics
collected statistics
/var/spool/mqueue/*
temp files
1mSEE ALSO0m
binmail(1), mail(1), rmail(1), syslog(3), aliases(5), mailaddr(7),
rc(8)
DARPA Internet Request For Comments 4mRFC81924m, 4mRFC82124m, 4mRFC82224m. 4mSendmail0m
4mInstallation24m 4mand24m 4mOperation24m 4mGuide24m, No. 8, SMM.
http://www.sendmail.org/
US Patent Numbers 6865671, 6986037.
1mHISTORY0m
The 1msendmail 22mcommand appeared in 4.2BSD.
$Date: 2013-11-22 20:51:56 $ SENDMAIL(8)
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