1.\" Copyright (c) 1988, 1991 The Regents of the University of California. 2.\" All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" %sccs.include.redist.man% 5.\" 6.\" @(#)sendmail.8 6.7 (Berkeley) 04/26/91 7.\" 8.Dd 9.Dt SENDMAIL 8 10.Os BSD 4 11.Sh NAME 12.Nm sendmail 13.Nd send mail over the internet 14.Sh SYNOPSIS 15.Nm sendmail 16.Op Ar flags 17.Op Ar address ... 18.Nm newaliases 19.Nm mailq 20.Op Fl v 21.Sh DESCRIPTION 22.Nm Sendmail 23sends a message to one or more 24.Em recipients , 25routing the message over whatever networks 26are necessary. 27.Nm Sendmail 28does internetwork forwarding as necessary 29to deliver the message to the correct place. 30.Pp 31.Nm Sendmail 32is not intended as a user interface routine; 33other programs provide user-friendly 34front ends; 35.Nm sendmail 36is used only to deliver pre-formatted messages. 37.Pp 38With no flags, 39.Nm sendmail 40reads its standard input 41up to an end-of-file 42or a line consisting only of a single dot 43and sends a copy of the message found there 44to all of the addresses listed. 45It determines the network(s) to use 46based on the syntax and contents of the addresses. 47.Pp 48Local addresses are looked up in a file 49and aliased appropriately. 50Aliasing can be prevented by preceding the address 51with a backslash. 52Normally the sender is not included in any alias 53expansions, e.g., 54if `john' sends to `group', 55and `group' includes `john' in the expansion, 56then the letter will not be delivered to `john'. 57.Pp 58Flags are: 59.Bl -tag -width Fl 60.It Fl ba 61Go into 62.Tn ARPANET 63mode. 64All input lines must end with a CR-LF, 65and all messages will be generated with a CR-LF at the end. 66Also, 67the ``From:'' and ``Sender:'' 68fields are examined for the name of the sender. 69.It Fl bd 70Run as a daemon. This requires Berkeley 71.Tn IPC . 72.Nm Sendmail 73will fork and run in background 74listening on socket 25 for incoming 75.Tn SMTP 76connections. 77This is normally run from 78.Pa /etc/rc . 79.It Fl bi 80Initialize the alias database. 81.It Fl bm 82Deliver mail in the usual way (default). 83.It Fl bp 84Print a listing of the queue. 85.It Fl bs 86Use the 87.Tn SMTP 88protocol as described in 89.Tn RFC821 90on standard input and output. 91This flag implies all the operations of the 92.Fl ba 93flag that are compatible with 94.Tn SMTP . 95.It Fl bt 96Run in address test mode. 97This mode reads addresses and shows the steps in parsing; 98it is used for debugging configuration tables. 99.It Fl bv 100Verify names only \- do not try to collect or deliver a message. 101Verify mode is normally used for validating 102users or mailing lists. 103.It Fl bz 104Create the configuration freeze file. 105.It Fl C Ns Ar file 106Use alternate configuration file. 107.Nm Sendmail 108refuses to run as root if an alternate configuration file is specified. 109The frozen configuration file is bypassed. 110.It Fl d Ns Ar X 111Set debugging value to 112.Ar X . 113.It Fl F Ns Ar fullname 114Set the full name of the sender. 115.It Fl f Ns Ar name 116Sets the name of the ``from'' person 117(i.e., the sender of the mail). 118.Fl f 119can only be used 120by ``trusted'' users 121(normally 122.Em root , 123.Em daemon , 124and 125.Em network ) 126or if the person you are trying to become 127is the same as the person you are. 128.It Fl h Ns Ar N 129Set the hop count to 130.Ar N . 131The hop count is incremented every time the mail is 132processed. 133When it reaches a limit, 134the mail is returned with an error message, 135the victim of an aliasing loop. 136If not specified, 137``Received:'' lines in the message are counted. 138.It Fl k Ar N 139Checkpoint the queue file after every 140.Ar N 141successful deliveries (default 10). 142This avoids excessive duplicate deliveries 143when sending to long mailing lists 144interrupted by system crashes. 145.It Fl n 146Don't do aliasing. 147.It Fl o Ns Ar x Em value 148Set option 149.Ar x 150to the specified 151.Em value . 152Options are described below. 153.It Fl q Ns Bq Ar time 154Processed saved messages in the queue at given intervals. 155If 156.Ar time 157is omitted, 158process the queue once. 159.Xr Time 160is given as a tagged number, 161with 162.Ql s 163being seconds, 164.Ql m 165being minutes, 166.Ql h 167being hours, 168.Ql d 169being days, 170and 171.Ql w 172being weeks. 173For example, 174.Ql \-q1h30m 175or 176.Ql \-q90m 177would both set the timeout to one hour thirty minutes. 178If 179.Ar time 180is specified, 181.Nm sendmail 182will run in background. 183This option can be used safely with 184.Fl bd . 185.It Fl r Ns Ar name 186An alternate and obsolete form of the 187.Fl f 188flag. 189.It Fl t 190Read message for recipients. 191To:, Cc:, and Bcc: lines will be scanned for recipient addresses. 192The Bcc: line will be deleted before transmission. 193Any addresses in the argument list will be suppressed, 194that is, 195they will 196.Em not 197receive copies even if listed in the message header. 198.It Fl v 199Go into verbose mode. 200Alias expansions will be announced, etc. 201.El 202.Pp 203There are also a number of processing options that may be set. 204Normally these will only be used by a system administrator. 205Options may be set either on the command line 206using the 207.Fl o 208flag 209or in the configuration file. 210These are described in detail in the 211.%T "Sendmail Installation and Operation Guide" . 212The options are: 213.Bl -tag -width Fl 214.It Li A Ns Ar file 215Use alternate alias file. 216.It Li c 217On mailers that are considered ``expensive'' to connect to, 218don't initiate immediate connection. 219This requires queueing. 220.It Li d Ns Ar x 221Set the delivery mode to 222.Ar x . 223Delivery modes are 224.Ql i 225for interactive (synchronous) delivery, 226.Ql b 227for background (asynchronous) delivery, 228and 229.Ql q 230for queue only \- i.e., 231actual delivery is done the next time the queue is run. 232.It Li D 233Try to automatically rebuild the alias database 234if necessary. 235.It Li e Ns Ar x 236Set error processing to mode 237.Ar x . 238Valid modes are 239.Ql m 240to mail back the error message, 241.Ql w 242to ``write'' back the error message 243(or mail it back if the sender is not logged in), 244.Ql p 245to print the errors on the terminal 246(default), 247.Ql q 248to throw away error messages 249(only exit status is returned), 250and 251.Ql e 252to do special processing for the BerkNet. 253If the text of the message is not mailed back 254by 255modes 256.Ql m 257or 258.Ql w 259and if the sender is local to this machine, 260a copy of the message is appended to the file 261.Pa dead.letter 262in the sender's home directory. 263.It Li F Ns Ar mode 264The mode to use when creating temporary files. 265.It Li f 266Save 267.Tn UNIX Ns \-style 268From lines at the front of messages. 269.It Li g Ar N 270The default group id to use when calling mailers. 271.It Li H Ns Ar file 272The 273.Tn SMTP 274help file. 275.It Li i 276Do not take dots on a line by themselves 277as a message terminator. 278.It Li L Ns Ar n 279The log level. 280.It Li m 281Send to ``me'' (the sender) also if I am in an alias expansion. 282.It Li o 283If set, this message may have 284old style headers. 285If not set, 286this message is guaranteed to have new style headers 287(i.e., commas instead of spaces between addresses). 288If set, an adaptive algorithm is used that will correctly 289determine the header format in most cases. 290.It Li Q Ns Ar queuedir 291Select the directory in which to queue messages. 292.It Li r Ns Ar timeout 293The timeout on reads; 294if none is set, 295.Nm sendmail 296will wait forever for a mailer. 297This option violates the word (if not the intent) of the 298.Tn SMTP 299specification, 300show the timeout should probably be fairly large. 301.It Li S Ns Ar file 302Save statistics in the named file. 303.It Li s 304Always instantiate the queue file, 305even under circumstances where it is not strictly necessary. 306This provides safety against system crashes during delivery. 307.It Li T Ns Ar time 308Set the timeout on undelivered messages in the queue to the specified time. 309After delivery has failed 310(e.g., because of a host being down) 311for this amount of time, 312failed messages will be returned to the sender. 313The default is three days. 314.It Li t Ns Ar stz , Ar dtz 315Set the name of the time zone. 316.It Li u Ns Ar N 317Set the default user id for mailers. 318.El 319.Pp 320In aliases, 321the first character of a name may be 322a vertical bar to cause interpretation of 323the rest of the name as a command 324to pipe the mail to. 325It may be necessary to quote the name 326to keep 327.Nm sendmail 328from suppressing the blanks from between arguments. 329For example, a common alias is: 330.Pp 331.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact 332msgs: "|/usr/bin/msgs -s" 333.Ed 334.Pp 335Aliases may also have the syntax 336.Dq :include: Ns Ar filename 337to ask 338.Xr sendmail 339to read the named file for a list of recipients. 340For example, an alias such as: 341.Pp 342.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact 343poets: ":include:/usr/local/lib/poets.list" 344.Ed 345.Pp 346would read 347.Pa /usr/local/lib/poets.list 348for the list of addresses making up the group. 349.Pp 350.Nm Sendmail 351returns an exit status 352describing what it did. 353The codes are defined in 354.Aq Pa sysexits.h : 355.Bl -tag -width EX_UNAVAILABLE -compact -offset indent 356.It Dv EX_OK 357Successful completion on all addresses. 358.It Dv EX_NOUSER 359User name not recognized. 360.It Dv EX_UNAVAILABLE 361Catchall meaning necessary resources 362were not available. 363.It Dv EX_SYNTAX 364Syntax error in address. 365.It Dv EX_SOFTWARE 366Internal software error, 367including bad arguments. 368.It Dv EX_OSERR 369Temporary operating system error, 370such as 371.Dq cannot fork . 372.It Dv EX_NOHOST 373Host name not recognized. 374.It Dv EX_TEMPFAIL 375Message could not be sent immediately, 376but was queued. 377.El 378.Pp 379If invoked as 380.Nm newaliases , 381.Nm sendmail 382will rebuild the alias database. 383If invoked as 384.Nm mailq , 385.Nm sendmail 386will print the contents of the mail queue. 387.Sh FILES 388Except for the file 389.Pa /etc/sendmail.cf 390itself, 391the following pathnames are all specified in 392.Pa /etc/sendmail.cf. 393Thus, 394these values are only approximations. 395.Pp 396.Bl -tag -width /usr/lib/sendmail.fc -compact 397.It Pa /etc/aliases 398raw data for alias names 399.It Pa /etc/aliases.pag 400.It Pa /etc/aliases.dir 401data base of alias names 402.It Pa /etc/sendmail.cf 403configuration file 404.It Pa /etc/sendmail.fc 405frozen configuration 406.It Pa /etc/sendmail.hf 407help file 408.It Pa /var/log/sendmail.st 409collected statistics 410.It Pa /var/spool/mqueue/* 411temp files 412.El 413.Sh SEE ALSO 414.Xr binmail 1 , 415.Xr mail 1 , 416.Xr rmail 1 , 417.Xr syslog 3 , 418.Xr aliases 5 , 419.Xr mailaddr 7 , 420.Xr rc 8 ; 421.Pp 422DARPA 423Internet Request For Comments 424.%T RFC819 , 425.%T RFC821 , 426.%T RFC822 . 427.Rs 428.%T "Sendmail \- An Internetwork Mail Router" 429.%V SMM 430.%N \&No. 9 431.Re 432.Rs 433.%T "Sendmail Installation and Operation Guide" 434.%V SMM 435.%N \&No. 8 436.Re 437.Sh HISTORY 438The 439.Nm 440command appeared in 441.Bx 4.2 . 442