1.\" Copyright (c) 1988, 1991, 1993 2.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" %sccs.include.redist.man% 5.\" 6.\" @(#)sendmail.8 8.2 (Berkeley) 07/18/93 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.Ss Parameters 58.Bl -tag -width Fl 59.It Fl B Ns Ar type 60Set the body type to 61.Ar type . 62Current legal values 63.Li 7BIT 64or 65.Li 8BITMIME . 66.It Fl ba 67Go into 68.Tn ARPANET 69mode. 70All input lines must end with a CR-LF, 71and all messages will be generated with a CR-LF at the end. 72Also, 73the ``From:'' and ``Sender:'' 74fields are examined for the name of the sender. 75.It Fl bd 76Run as a daemon. This requires Berkeley 77.Tn IPC . 78.Nm Sendmail 79will fork and run in background 80listening on socket 25 for incoming 81.Tn SMTP 82connections. 83This is normally run from 84.Pa /etc/rc . 85.It Fl bi 86Initialize the alias database. 87.It Fl bm 88Deliver mail in the usual way (default). 89.It Fl bp 90Print a listing of the queue. 91.It Fl bs 92Use the 93.Tn SMTP 94protocol as described in 95.Tn RFC821 96on standard input and output. 97This flag implies all the operations of the 98.Fl ba 99flag that are compatible with 100.Tn SMTP . 101.It Fl bt 102Run in address test mode. 103This mode reads addresses and shows the steps in parsing; 104it is used for debugging configuration tables. 105.It Fl bv 106Verify names only \- do not try to collect or deliver a message. 107Verify mode is normally used for validating 108users or mailing lists. 109.It Fl bz 110Create the configuration freeze file. 111.It Fl C Ns Ar file 112Use alternate configuration file. 113.Nm Sendmail 114refuses to run as root if an alternate configuration file is specified. 115The frozen configuration file is bypassed. 116.It Fl d Ns Ar X 117Set debugging value to 118.Ar X . 119.It Fl F Ns Ar fullname 120Set the full name of the sender. 121.It Fl f Ns Ar name 122Sets the name of the ``from'' person 123(i.e., the sender of the mail). 124.Fl f 125can only be used 126by ``trusted'' users 127(normally 128.Em root , 129.Em daemon , 130and 131.Em network ) 132or if the person you are trying to become 133is the same as the person you are. 134.It Fl h Ns Ar N 135Set the hop count to 136.Ar N . 137The hop count is incremented every time the mail is 138processed. 139When it reaches a limit, 140the mail is returned with an error message, 141the victim of an aliasing loop. 142If not specified, 143``Received:'' lines in the message are counted. 144.It Fl n 145Don't do aliasing. 146.It Fl o Ns Ar x Em value 147Set option 148.Ar x 149to the specified 150.Em value . 151Options are described below. 152.It Fl p Ns Ar protocol 153Set the name of the protocol used to receive the message. 154This can be a simple protocol name such as ``UUCP'' 155or a protocol and hostname, such as ``UUCP:ucbvax''. 156.It Fl q Ns Bq Ar time 157Processed saved messages in the queue at given intervals. 158If 159.Ar time 160is omitted, 161process the queue once. 162.Xr Time 163is given as a tagged number, 164with 165.Ql s 166being seconds, 167.Ql m 168being minutes, 169.Ql h 170being hours, 171.Ql d 172being days, 173and 174.Ql w 175being weeks. 176For example, 177.Ql \-q1h30m 178or 179.Ql \-q90m 180would both set the timeout to one hour thirty minutes. 181If 182.Ar time 183is specified, 184.Nm sendmail 185will run in background. 186This option can be used safely with 187.Fl bd . 188.It Fl r Ns Ar name 189An alternate and obsolete form of the 190.Fl f 191flag. 192.It Fl t 193Read message for recipients. 194To:, Cc:, and Bcc: lines will be scanned for recipient addresses. 195The Bcc: line will be deleted before transmission. 196Any addresses in the argument list will be suppressed, 197that is, 198they will 199.Em not 200receive copies even if listed in the message header. 201.It Fl v 202Go into verbose mode. 203Alias expansions will be announced, etc. 204.It Fl X Ar logfile 205Log all traffic in and out of mailers in the indicated log file. 206This should only be used as a last resort 207for debugging mailer bugs. 208It will log a lot of data very quickly. 209.El 210.Ss Options 211There are also a number of processing options that may be set. 212Normally these will only be used by a system administrator. 213Options may be set either on the command line 214using the 215.Fl o 216flag 217or in the configuration file. 218This is a partial list; 219for a complete list (and details), consult the 220.%T "Sendmail Installation and Operation Guide" . 221The options are: 222.Bl -tag -width Fl 223.It Li A Ns Ar file 224Use alternate alias file. 225.It Li b Ns Ar nblocks 226The minimum number of free blocks needed on the spool filesystem. 227.It Li c 228On mailers that are considered ``expensive'' to connect to, 229don't initiate immediate connection. 230This requires queueing. 231.It Li C Ar N 232Checkpoint the queue file after every 233.Ar N 234successful deliveries (default 10). 235This avoids excessive duplicate deliveries 236when sending to long mailing lists 237interrupted by system crashes. 238.It Li d Ns Ar x 239Set the delivery mode to 240.Ar x . 241Delivery modes are 242.Ql i 243for interactive (synchronous) delivery, 244.Ql b 245for background (asynchronous) delivery, 246and 247.Ql q 248for queue only \- i.e., 249actual delivery is done the next time the queue is run. 250.It Li D 251Try to automatically rebuild the alias database 252if necessary. 253.It Li e Ns Ar x 254Set error processing to mode 255.Ar x . 256Valid modes are 257.Ql m 258to mail back the error message, 259.Ql w 260to ``write'' back the error message 261(or mail it back if the sender is not logged in), 262.Ql p 263to print the errors on the terminal 264(default), 265.Ql q 266to throw away error messages 267(only exit status is returned), 268and 269.Ql e 270to do special processing for the BerkNet. 271If the text of the message is not mailed back 272by 273modes 274.Ql m 275or 276.Ql w 277and if the sender is local to this machine, 278a copy of the message is appended to the file 279.Pa dead.letter 280in the sender's home directory. 281.It Li f 282Save 283.Tn UNIX Ns \-style 284From lines at the front of messages. 285.It Li G 286Match local mail names against the GECOS portion of the password file. 287.It Li g Ar N 288The default group id to use when calling mailers. 289.It Li H Ns Ar file 290The 291.Tn SMTP 292help file. 293.It Li h Ar N 294The maximum number of times a message is allowed to ``hop'' 295before we decide it is in a loop. 296.It Li i 297Do not take dots on a line by themselves 298as a message terminator. 299.It Li j 300Send error messages in MIME format. 301.It Li K Ns Ar timeout 302Set connection cache timeout. 303.It Li k Ns Ar N 304Set connection cache size. 305.It Li L Ns Ar n 306The log level. 307.It Li l 308Pay attention to the Errors-To: header. 309.It Li m 310Send to ``me'' (the sender) also if I am in an alias expansion. 311.It Li n 312Validate the right hand side of aliases during a 313.Xr newaliases 1 314command. 315.It Li o 316If set, this message may have 317old style headers. 318If not set, 319this message is guaranteed to have new style headers 320(i.e., commas instead of spaces between addresses). 321If set, an adaptive algorithm is used that will correctly 322determine the header format in most cases. 323.It Li Q Ns Ar queuedir 324Select the directory in which to queue messages. 325.It Li S Ns Ar file 326Save statistics in the named file. 327.It Li s 328Always instantiate the queue file, 329even under circumstances where it is not strictly necessary. 330This provides safety against system crashes during delivery. 331.It Li T Ns Ar time 332Set the timeout on undelivered messages in the queue to the specified time. 333After delivery has failed 334(e.g., because of a host being down) 335for this amount of time, 336failed messages will be returned to the sender. 337The default is three days. 338.It Li t Ns Ar stz , Ar dtz 339Set the name of the time zone. 340.It Li U Ns Ar userdatabase 341If set, a user database is consulted to get forwarding information. 342You can consider this an adjunct to the aliasing mechanism, 343except that the database is intended to be distributed; 344aliases are local to a particular host. 345This may not be available if your sendmail does not have the 346.Dv USERDB 347option compiled in. 348.It Li u Ns Ar N 349Set the default user id for mailers. 350.It Li Y 351Fork each job during queue runs. 352May be convenient on memory-poor machines. 353.It Li 7 354Strip incoming messages to seven bits. 355.El 356.Pp 357In aliases, 358the first character of a name may be 359a vertical bar to cause interpretation of 360the rest of the name as a command 361to pipe the mail to. 362It may be necessary to quote the name 363to keep 364.Nm sendmail 365from suppressing the blanks from between arguments. 366For example, a common alias is: 367.Pp 368.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact 369msgs: "|/usr/bin/msgs -s" 370.Ed 371.Pp 372Aliases may also have the syntax 373.Dq :include: Ns Ar filename 374to ask 375.Xr sendmail 376to read the named file for a list of recipients. 377For example, an alias such as: 378.Pp 379.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact 380poets: ":include:/usr/local/lib/poets.list" 381.Ed 382.Pp 383would read 384.Pa /usr/local/lib/poets.list 385for the list of addresses making up the group. 386.Pp 387.Nm Sendmail 388returns an exit status 389describing what it did. 390The codes are defined in 391.Aq Pa sysexits.h : 392.Bl -tag -width EX_UNAVAILABLE -compact -offset indent 393.It Dv EX_OK 394Successful completion on all addresses. 395.It Dv EX_NOUSER 396User name not recognized. 397.It Dv EX_UNAVAILABLE 398Catchall meaning necessary resources 399were not available. 400.It Dv EX_SYNTAX 401Syntax error in address. 402.It Dv EX_SOFTWARE 403Internal software error, 404including bad arguments. 405.It Dv EX_OSERR 406Temporary operating system error, 407such as 408.Dq cannot fork . 409.It Dv EX_NOHOST 410Host name not recognized. 411.It Dv EX_TEMPFAIL 412Message could not be sent immediately, 413but was queued. 414.El 415.Pp 416If invoked as 417.Nm newaliases , 418.Nm sendmail 419will rebuild the alias database. 420If invoked as 421.Nm mailq , 422.Nm sendmail 423will print the contents of the mail queue. 424.Sh FILES 425Except for the file 426.Pa /etc/sendmail.cf 427itself, 428the following pathnames are all specified in 429.Pa /etc/sendmail.cf. 430Thus, 431these values are only approximations. 432.Pp 433.Bl -tag -width /usr/lib/sendmail.fc -compact 434.It Pa /etc/aliases 435raw data for alias names 436.It Pa /etc/aliases.db 437data base of alias names 438.It Pa /etc/sendmail.cf 439configuration file 440.It Pa /etc/sendmail.fc 441frozen configuration 442.It Pa /etc/sendmail.hf 443help file 444.It Pa /var/log/sendmail.st 445collected statistics 446.It Pa /var/spool/mqueue/* 447temp files 448.It Pa /var/run/sendmail.pid 449The process id of the daemon 450.El 451.Sh SEE ALSO 452.Xr binmail 1 , 453.Xr mail 1 , 454.Xr rmail 1 , 455.Xr syslog 3 , 456.Xr aliases 5 , 457.Xr mailaddr 7 , 458.Xr rc 8 ; 459.Pp 460DARPA 461Internet Request For Comments 462.%T RFC819 , 463.%T RFC821 , 464.%T RFC822 . 465.Rs 466.%T "Sendmail \- An Internetwork Mail Router" 467.%V SMM 468.%N \&No. 9 469.Re 470.Rs 471.%T "Sendmail Installation and Operation Guide" 472.%V SMM 473.%N \&No. 8 474.Re 475.Sh HISTORY 476The 477.Nm 478command appeared in 479.Bx 4.2 . 480