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 6.5 (Berkeley) 03/16/91 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 n 139Don't do aliasing. 140.It Fl o Ns Ar x Em value 141Set option 142.Ar x 143to the specified 144.Em value . 145Options are described below. 146.It Fl q Ns Bq Ar time 147Processed saved messages in the queue at given intervals. 148If 149.Ar time 150is omitted, 151process the queue once. 152.Xr Time 153is given as a tagged number, 154with 155.Ql s 156being seconds, 157.Ql m 158being minutes, 159.Ql h 160being hours, 161.Ql d 162being days, 163and 164.Ql w 165being weeks. 166For example, 167.Ql \-q1h30m 168or 169.Ql \-q90m 170would both set the timeout to one hour thirty minutes. 171If 172.Ar time 173is specified, 174.Nm sendmail 175will run in background. 176This option can be used safely with 177.Fl bd . 178.It Fl r Ns Ar name 179An alternate and obsolete form of the 180.Fl f 181flag. 182.It Fl t 183Read message for recipients. 184To:, Cc:, and Bcc: lines will be scanned for recipient addresses. 185The Bcc: line will be deleted before transmission. 186Any addresses in the argument list will be suppressed, 187that is, 188they will 189.Em not 190receive copies even if listed in the message header. 191.It Fl v 192Go into verbose mode. 193Alias expansions will be announced, etc. 194.El 195.Pp 196There are also a number of processing options that may be set. 197Normally these will only be used by a system administrator. 198Options may be set either on the command line 199using the 200.Fl o 201flag 202or in the configuration file. 203These are described in detail in the 204.%T Sendmail Installation and Operation Guide. 205The options are: 206.Bl -tag -width Fl 207.It Li A Ns Ar file 208Use alternate alias file. 209.It Li c 210On mailers that are considered ``expensive'' to connect to, 211don't initiate immediate connection. 212This requires queueing. 213.It Li d Ns Ar x 214Set the delivery mode to 215.Ar x . 216Delivery modes are 217.Ql i 218for interactive (synchronous) delivery, 219.Ql b 220for background (asynchronous) delivery, 221and 222.Ql q 223for queue only \- i.e., 224actual delivery is done the next time the queue is run. 225.It Li D 226Try to automatically rebuild the alias database 227if necessary. 228.It Li e Ns Ar x 229Set error processing to mode 230.Ar x . 231Valid modes are 232.Ql m 233to mail back the error message, 234.Ql w 235to ``write'' back the error message 236(or mail it back if the sender is not logged in), 237.Ql p 238to print the errors on the terminal 239(default), 240.Ql q 241to throw away error messages 242(only exit status is returned), 243and 244.Ql e 245to do special processing for the BerkNet. 246If the text of the message is not mailed back 247by 248modes 249.Ql m 250or 251.Ql w 252and if the sender is local to this machine, 253a copy of the message is appended to the file 254.Pa dead.letter 255in the sender's home directory. 256.It Li F Ns Ar mode 257The mode to use when creating temporary files. 258.It Li f 259Save 260.Tn UNIX Ns \-style 261From lines at the front of messages. 262.It Li g Ar N 263The default group id to use when calling mailers. 264.It Li H Ns Ar file 265The 266.Tn SMTP 267help file. 268.It Li i 269Do not take dots on a line by themselves 270as a message terminator. 271.It Li L Ns Ar n 272The log level. 273.It Li m 274Send to ``me'' (the sender) also if I am in an alias expansion. 275.It Li o 276If set, this message may have 277old style headers. 278If not set, 279this message is guaranteed to have new style headers 280(i.e., commas instead of spaces between addresses). 281If set, an adaptive algorithm is used that will correctly 282determine the header format in most cases. 283.It Li Q Ns Ar queuedir 284Select the directory in which to queue messages. 285.It Li r Ns Ar timeout 286The timeout on reads; 287if none is set, 288.Nm sendmail 289will wait forever for a mailer. 290This option violates the word (if not the intent) of the 291.Tn SMTP 292specification, 293show the timeout should probably be fairly large. 294.It Li S Ns Ar file 295Save statistics in the named file. 296.It Li s 297Always instantiate the queue file, 298even under circumstances where it is not strictly necessary. 299This provides safety against system crashes during delivery. 300.It Li T Ns Ar time 301Set the timeout on undelivered messages in the queue to the specified time. 302After delivery has failed 303(e.g., because of a host being down) 304for this amount of time, 305failed messages will be returned to the sender. 306The default is three days. 307.It Li t Ns Ar stz , Ar dtz 308Set the name of the time zone. 309.It Li u Ns Ar N 310Set the default user id for mailers. 311.El 312.Pp 313In aliases, 314the first character of a name may be 315a vertical bar to cause interpretation of 316the rest of the name as a command 317to pipe the mail to. 318It may be necessary to quote the name 319to keep 320.Nm sendmail 321from suppressing the blanks from between arguments. 322For example, a common alias is: 323.Pp 324.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact 325msgs: "|/usr/bin/msgs -s" 326.Ed 327.Pp 328Aliases may also have the syntax 329.Dq :include: Ns Ar filename 330to ask 331.Xr sendmail 332to read the named file for a list of recipients. 333For example, an alias such as: 334.Pp 335.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact 336poets: ":include:/usr/local/lib/poets.list" 337.Ed 338.Pp 339would read 340.Pa /usr/local/lib/poets.list 341for the list of addresses making up the group. 342.Pp 343.Nm Sendmail 344returns an exit status 345describing what it did. 346The codes are defined in 347.Aq Pa sysexits.h : 348.Bl -tag -width EX_UNAVAILABLE -compact -offset indent 349.It Dv EX_OK 350Successful completion on all addresses. 351.It Dv EX_NOUSER 352User name not recognized. 353.It Dv EX_UNAVAILABLE 354Catchall meaning necessary resources 355were not available. 356.It Dv EX_SYNTAX 357Syntax error in address. 358.It Dv EX_SOFTWARE 359Internal software error, 360including bad arguments. 361.It Dv EX_OSERR 362Temporary operating system error, 363such as 364.Dq cannot fork . 365.It Dv EX_NOHOST 366Host name not recognized. 367.It Dv EX_TEMPFAIL 368Message could not be sent immediately, 369but was queued. 370.El 371.Pp 372If invoked as 373.Nm newaliases , 374.Nm sendmail 375will rebuild the alias database. 376If invoked as 377.Nm mailq , 378.Nm sendmail 379will print the contents of the mail queue. 380.Sh FILES 381Except for the file 382.Pa /etc/sendmail.cf 383itself, 384the following pathnames are all specified in 385.Pa /etc/sendmail.cf. 386Thus, 387these values are only approximations. 388.Pp 389.Bl -tag -width /usr/lib/sendmail.fc -compact 390.It Pa /etc/aliases 391raw data for alias names 392.It Pa /etc/aliases.pag 393.It Pa /etc/aliases.dir 394data base of alias names 395.It Pa /etc/sendmail.cf 396configuration file 397.It Pa /etc/sendmail.fc 398frozen configuration 399.It Pa /etc/sendmail.hf 400help file 401.It Pa /var/log/sendmail.st 402collected statistics 403.It Pa /var/spool/mqueue/* 404temp files 405.El 406.Sh SEE ALSO 407.Xr binmail 1 , 408.Xr mail 1 , 409.Xr rmail 1 , 410.Xr syslog 3 , 411.Xr aliases 5 , 412.Xr mailaddr 7 , 413.Xr rc 8 ; 414.Pp 415DARPA 416Internet Request For Comments 417.%T RFC819 , 418.%T RFC821 , 419.%T RFC822 . 420.Rs 421.%T Sendmail \- An Internetwork Mail Router 422.%V SMM 423.%N \&No. 9 424.Re 425.Rs 426.%T Sendmail Installation and Operation Guide 427.%V SMM 428.%N \&No. 8 429.Re 430.Sh HISTORY 431The 432.Nm 433command appeared in 434.Bx 4.2 . 435