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 8.4 (Berkeley) 12/11/93 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 C Ns Ar file 110Use alternate configuration file. 111.Nm Sendmail 112refuses to run as root if an alternate configuration file is specified. 113.It Fl d Ns Ar X 114Set debugging value to 115.Ar X . 116.ne 1i 117.It Fl F Ns Ar fullname 118Set the full name of the sender. 119.It Fl f Ns Ar name 120Sets the name of the ``from'' person 121(i.e., the sender of the mail). 122.Fl f 123can only be used 124by ``trusted'' users 125(normally 126.Em root , 127.Em daemon , 128and 129.Em network ) 130or if the person you are trying to become 131is the same as the person you are. 132.It Fl h Ns Ar N 133Set the hop count to 134.Ar N . 135The hop count is incremented every time the mail is 136processed. 137When it reaches a limit, 138the mail is returned with an error message, 139the victim of an aliasing loop. 140If not specified, 141``Received:'' lines in the message are counted. 142.It Fl n 143Don't do aliasing. 144.It Fl o Ns Ar x Em value 145Set option 146.Ar x 147to the specified 148.Em value . 149Options are described below. 150.It Fl p Ns Ar protocol 151Set the name of the protocol used to receive the message. 152This can be a simple protocol name such as ``UUCP'' 153or a protocol and hostname, such as ``UUCP:ucbvax''. 154.It Fl q Ns Bq Ar time 155Processed saved messages in the queue at given intervals. 156If 157.Ar time 158is omitted, 159process the queue once. 160.Xr Time 161is given as a tagged number, 162with 163.Ql s 164being seconds, 165.Ql m 166being minutes, 167.Ql h 168being hours, 169.Ql d 170being days, 171and 172.Ql w 173being weeks. 174For example, 175.Ql \-q1h30m 176or 177.Ql \-q90m 178would both set the timeout to one hour thirty minutes. 179If 180.Ar time 181is specified, 182.Nm sendmail 183will run in background. 184This option can be used safely with 185.Fl bd . 186.It Fl r Ns Ar name 187An alternate and obsolete form of the 188.Fl f 189flag. 190.It Fl t 191Read message for recipients. 192To:, Cc:, and Bcc: lines will be scanned for recipient addresses. 193The Bcc: line will be deleted before transmission. 194Any addresses in the argument list will be suppressed, 195that is, 196they will 197.Em not 198receive copies even if listed in the message header. 199.It Fl v 200Go into verbose mode. 201Alias expansions will be announced, etc. 202.It Fl X Ar logfile 203Log all traffic in and out of mailers in the indicated log file. 204This should only be used as a last resort 205for debugging mailer bugs. 206It will log a lot of data very quickly. 207.El 208.Ss Options 209There are also a number of processing options that may be set. 210Normally these will only be used by a system administrator. 211Options may be set either on the command line 212using the 213.Fl o 214flag 215or in the configuration file. 216This is a partial list; 217for a complete list (and details), consult the 218.%T "Sendmail Installation and Operation Guide" . 219The options are: 220.Bl -tag -width Fl 221.It Li A Ns Ar file 222Use alternate alias file. 223.It Li b Ns Ar nblocks 224The minimum number of free blocks needed on the spool filesystem. 225.It Li c 226On mailers that are considered ``expensive'' to connect to, 227don't initiate immediate connection. 228This requires queueing. 229.It Li C Ar N 230Checkpoint the queue file after every 231.Ar N 232successful deliveries (default 10). 233This avoids excessive duplicate deliveries 234when sending to long mailing lists 235interrupted by system crashes. 236.It Li d Ns Ar x 237Set the delivery mode to 238.Ar x . 239Delivery modes are 240.Ql i 241for interactive (synchronous) delivery, 242.Ql b 243for background (asynchronous) delivery, 244and 245.Ql q 246for queue only \- i.e., 247actual delivery is done the next time the queue is run. 248.It Li D 249Try to automatically rebuild the alias database 250if necessary. 251.It Li e Ns Ar x 252Set error processing to mode 253.Ar x . 254Valid modes are 255.Ql m 256to mail back the error message, 257.Ql w 258to ``write'' back the error message 259(or mail it back if the sender is not logged in), 260.Ql p 261to print the errors on the terminal 262(default), 263.Ql q 264to throw away error messages 265(only exit status is returned), 266and 267.Ql e 268to do special processing for the BerkNet. 269If the text of the message is not mailed back 270by 271modes 272.Ql m 273or 274.Ql w 275and if the sender is local to this machine, 276a copy of the message is appended to the file 277.Pa dead.letter 278in the sender's home directory. 279.It Li f 280Save 281.Tn UNIX Ns \-style 282From lines at the front of messages. 283.It Li G 284Match local mail names against the GECOS portion of the password file. 285.It Li g Ar N 286The default group id to use when calling mailers. 287.It Li H Ns Ar file 288The 289.Tn SMTP 290help file. 291.It Li h Ar N 292The maximum number of times a message is allowed to ``hop'' 293before we decide it is in a loop. 294.It Li i 295Do not take dots on a line by themselves 296as a message terminator. 297.It Li j 298Send error messages in MIME format. 299.It Li K Ns Ar timeout 300Set connection cache timeout. 301.It Li k Ns Ar N 302Set connection cache size. 303.It Li L Ns Ar n 304The log level. 305.It Li l 306Pay attention to the Errors-To: header. 307.It Li m 308Send to ``me'' (the sender) also if I am in an alias expansion. 309.It Li n 310Validate the right hand side of aliases during a 311.Xr newaliases 1 312command. 313.It Li o 314If set, this message may have 315old style headers. 316If not set, 317this message is guaranteed to have new style headers 318(i.e., commas instead of spaces between addresses). 319If set, an adaptive algorithm is used that will correctly 320determine the header format in most cases. 321.It Li Q Ns Ar queuedir 322Select the directory in which to queue messages. 323.It Li S Ns Ar file 324Save statistics in the named file. 325.It Li s 326Always instantiate the queue file, 327even under circumstances where it is not strictly necessary. 328This provides safety against system crashes during delivery. 329.It Li T Ns Ar time 330Set the timeout on undelivered messages in the queue to the specified time. 331After delivery has failed 332(e.g., because of a host being down) 333for this amount of time, 334failed messages will be returned to the sender. 335The default is three days. 336.It Li t Ns Ar stz , Ar dtz 337Set the name of the time zone. 338.It Li U Ns Ar userdatabase 339If set, a user database is consulted to get forwarding information. 340You can consider this an adjunct to the aliasing mechanism, 341except that the database is intended to be distributed; 342aliases are local to a particular host. 343This may not be available if your sendmail does not have the 344.Dv USERDB 345option compiled in. 346.It Li u Ns Ar N 347Set the default user id for mailers. 348.It Li Y 349Fork each job during queue runs. 350May be convenient on memory-poor machines. 351.It Li 7 352Strip incoming messages to seven bits. 353.El 354.Pp 355In aliases, 356the first character of a name may be 357a vertical bar to cause interpretation of 358the rest of the name as a command 359to pipe the mail to. 360It may be necessary to quote the name 361to keep 362.Nm sendmail 363from suppressing the blanks from between arguments. 364For example, a common alias is: 365.Pp 366.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact 367msgs: "|/usr/bin/msgs -s" 368.Ed 369.Pp 370Aliases may also have the syntax 371.Dq :include: Ns Ar filename 372to ask 373.Xr sendmail 374to read the named file for a list of recipients. 375For example, an alias such as: 376.Pp 377.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact 378poets: ":include:/usr/local/lib/poets.list" 379.Ed 380.Pp 381would read 382.Pa /usr/local/lib/poets.list 383for the list of addresses making up the group. 384.Pp 385.Nm Sendmail 386returns an exit status 387describing what it did. 388The codes are defined in 389.Aq Pa sysexits.h : 390.Bl -tag -width EX_UNAVAILABLE -compact -offset indent 391.It Dv EX_OK 392Successful completion on all addresses. 393.It Dv EX_NOUSER 394User name not recognized. 395.It Dv EX_UNAVAILABLE 396Catchall meaning necessary resources 397were not available. 398.It Dv EX_SYNTAX 399Syntax error in address. 400.It Dv EX_SOFTWARE 401Internal software error, 402including bad arguments. 403.It Dv EX_OSERR 404Temporary operating system error, 405such as 406.Dq cannot fork . 407.It Dv EX_NOHOST 408Host name not recognized. 409.It Dv EX_TEMPFAIL 410Message could not be sent immediately, 411but was queued. 412.El 413.Pp 414If invoked as 415.Nm newaliases , 416.Nm sendmail 417will rebuild the alias database. 418If invoked as 419.Nm mailq , 420.Nm sendmail 421will print the contents of the mail queue. 422.Sh FILES 423Except for the file 424.Pa /etc/sendmail.cf 425itself, 426the following pathnames are all specified in 427.Pa /etc/sendmail.cf. 428Thus, 429these values are only approximations. 430.Pp 431.Bl -tag -width /usr/lib/sendmail.fc -compact 432.It Pa /etc/aliases 433raw data for alias names 434.It Pa /etc/aliases.db 435data base of alias names 436.It Pa /etc/sendmail.cf 437configuration file 438.It Pa /etc/sendmail.hf 439help file 440.It Pa /var/log/sendmail.st 441collected statistics 442.It Pa /var/spool/mqueue/* 443temp files 444.It Pa /var/run/sendmail.pid 445The process id of the daemon 446.El 447.Sh SEE ALSO 448.Xr binmail 1 , 449.Xr mail 1 , 450.Xr rmail 1 , 451.Xr syslog 3 , 452.Xr aliases 5 , 453.Xr mailaddr 7 , 454.Xr rc 8 ; 455.Pp 456DARPA 457Internet Request For Comments 458.%T RFC819 , 459.%T RFC821 , 460.%T RFC822 . 461.Rs 462.%T "Sendmail \- An Internetwork Mail Router" 463.%V SMM 464.%N \&No. 9 465.Re 466.Rs 467.%T "Sendmail Installation and Operation Guide" 468.%V SMM 469.%N \&No. 8 470.Re 471.Sh HISTORY 472The 473.Nm 474command appeared in 475.Bx 4.2 . 476