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 8.1 (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.El 205.Ss Options 206There are also a number of processing options that may be set. 207Normally these will only be used by a system administrator. 208Options may be set either on the command line 209using the 210.Fl o 211flag 212or in the configuration file. 213This is a partial list; 214for a complete list (and details), consult the 215.%T "Sendmail Installation and Operation Guide" . 216The options are: 217.Bl -tag -width Fl 218.It Li A Ns Ar file 219Use alternate alias file. 220.It Li b Ns Ar nblocks 221The minimum number of free blocks needed on the spool filesystem. 222.It Li c 223On mailers that are considered ``expensive'' to connect to, 224don't initiate immediate connection. 225This requires queueing. 226.It Li C Ar N 227Checkpoint the queue file after every 228.Ar N 229successful deliveries (default 10). 230This avoids excessive duplicate deliveries 231when sending to long mailing lists 232interrupted by system crashes. 233.It Li d Ns Ar x 234Set the delivery mode to 235.Ar x . 236Delivery modes are 237.Ql i 238for interactive (synchronous) delivery, 239.Ql b 240for background (asynchronous) delivery, 241and 242.Ql q 243for queue only \- i.e., 244actual delivery is done the next time the queue is run. 245.It Li D 246Try to automatically rebuild the alias database 247if necessary. 248.It Li e Ns Ar x 249Set error processing to mode 250.Ar x . 251Valid modes are 252.Ql m 253to mail back the error message, 254.Ql w 255to ``write'' back the error message 256(or mail it back if the sender is not logged in), 257.Ql p 258to print the errors on the terminal 259(default), 260.Ql q 261to throw away error messages 262(only exit status is returned), 263and 264.Ql e 265to do special processing for the BerkNet. 266If the text of the message is not mailed back 267by 268modes 269.Ql m 270or 271.Ql w 272and if the sender is local to this machine, 273a copy of the message is appended to the file 274.Pa dead.letter 275in the sender's home directory. 276.It Li f 277Save 278.Tn UNIX Ns \-style 279From lines at the front of messages. 280.It Li G 281Match local mail names against the GECOS portion of the password file. 282.It Li g Ar N 283The default group id to use when calling mailers. 284.It Li H Ns Ar file 285The 286.Tn SMTP 287help file. 288.It Li h Ar N 289The maximum number of times a message is allowed to ``hop'' 290before we decide it is in a loop. 291.It Li i 292Do not take dots on a line by themselves 293as a message terminator. 294.It Li j 295Send error messages in MIME format. 296.It Li K Ns Ar timeout 297Set connection cache timeout. 298.It Li k Ns Ar N 299Set connection cache size. 300.It Li L Ns Ar n 301The log level. 302.It Li l 303Pay attention to the Errors-To: header. 304.It Li m 305Send to ``me'' (the sender) also if I am in an alias expansion. 306.It Li n 307Validate the right hand side of aliases during a 308.Xr newaliases 1 309command. 310.It Li o 311If set, this message may have 312old style headers. 313If not set, 314this message is guaranteed to have new style headers 315(i.e., commas instead of spaces between addresses). 316If set, an adaptive algorithm is used that will correctly 317determine the header format in most cases. 318.It Li Q Ns Ar queuedir 319Select the directory in which to queue messages. 320.It Li S Ns Ar file 321Save statistics in the named file. 322.It Li s 323Always instantiate the queue file, 324even under circumstances where it is not strictly necessary. 325This provides safety against system crashes during delivery. 326.It Li T Ns Ar time 327Set the timeout on undelivered messages in the queue to the specified time. 328After delivery has failed 329(e.g., because of a host being down) 330for this amount of time, 331failed messages will be returned to the sender. 332The default is three days. 333.It Li t Ns Ar stz , Ar dtz 334Set the name of the time zone. 335.It Li U Ns Ar userdatabase 336If set, a user database is consulted to get forwarding information. 337You can consider this an adjunct to the aliasing mechanism, 338except that the database is intended to be distributed; 339aliases are local to a particular host. 340This may not be available if your sendmail does not have the 341.Dv USERDB 342option compiled in. 343.It Li u Ns Ar N 344Set the default user id for mailers. 345.It Li Y 346Fork each job during queue runs. 347May be convenient on memory-poor machines. 348.It Li 7 349Strip incoming messages to seven bits. 350.El 351.Pp 352In aliases, 353the first character of a name may be 354a vertical bar to cause interpretation of 355the rest of the name as a command 356to pipe the mail to. 357It may be necessary to quote the name 358to keep 359.Nm sendmail 360from suppressing the blanks from between arguments. 361For example, a common alias is: 362.Pp 363.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact 364msgs: "|/usr/bin/msgs -s" 365.Ed 366.Pp 367Aliases may also have the syntax 368.Dq :include: Ns Ar filename 369to ask 370.Xr sendmail 371to read the named file for a list of recipients. 372For example, an alias such as: 373.Pp 374.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact 375poets: ":include:/usr/local/lib/poets.list" 376.Ed 377.Pp 378would read 379.Pa /usr/local/lib/poets.list 380for the list of addresses making up the group. 381.Pp 382.Nm Sendmail 383returns an exit status 384describing what it did. 385The codes are defined in 386.Aq Pa sysexits.h : 387.Bl -tag -width EX_UNAVAILABLE -compact -offset indent 388.It Dv EX_OK 389Successful completion on all addresses. 390.It Dv EX_NOUSER 391User name not recognized. 392.It Dv EX_UNAVAILABLE 393Catchall meaning necessary resources 394were not available. 395.It Dv EX_SYNTAX 396Syntax error in address. 397.It Dv EX_SOFTWARE 398Internal software error, 399including bad arguments. 400.It Dv EX_OSERR 401Temporary operating system error, 402such as 403.Dq cannot fork . 404.It Dv EX_NOHOST 405Host name not recognized. 406.It Dv EX_TEMPFAIL 407Message could not be sent immediately, 408but was queued. 409.El 410.Pp 411If invoked as 412.Nm newaliases , 413.Nm sendmail 414will rebuild the alias database. 415If invoked as 416.Nm mailq , 417.Nm sendmail 418will print the contents of the mail queue. 419.Sh FILES 420Except for the file 421.Pa /etc/sendmail.cf 422itself, 423the following pathnames are all specified in 424.Pa /etc/sendmail.cf. 425Thus, 426these values are only approximations. 427.Pp 428.Bl -tag -width /usr/lib/sendmail.fc -compact 429.It Pa /etc/aliases 430raw data for alias names 431.It Pa /etc/aliases.db 432data base of alias names 433.It Pa /etc/sendmail.cf 434configuration file 435.It Pa /etc/sendmail.fc 436frozen configuration 437.It Pa /etc/sendmail.hf 438help file 439.It Pa /var/log/sendmail.st 440collected statistics 441.It Pa /var/spool/mqueue/* 442temp files 443.It Pa /var/run/sendmail.pid 444The process id of the daemon 445.El 446.Sh SEE ALSO 447.Xr binmail 1 , 448.Xr mail 1 , 449.Xr rmail 1 , 450.Xr syslog 3 , 451.Xr aliases 5 , 452.Xr mailaddr 7 , 453.Xr rc 8 ; 454.Pp 455DARPA 456Internet Request For Comments 457.%T RFC819 , 458.%T RFC821 , 459.%T RFC822 . 460.Rs 461.%T "Sendmail \- An Internetwork Mail Router" 462.%V SMM 463.%N \&No. 9 464.Re 465.Rs 466.%T "Sendmail Installation and Operation Guide" 467.%V SMM 468.%N \&No. 8 469.Re 470.Sh HISTORY 471The 472.Nm 473command appeared in 474.Bx 4.2 . 475