BSD 4_1c_2 release

[unix-history] / usr / src / usr.lib / sendmail / doc / sendmail.8

.TH SENDMAIL 8
.\"	@(#)sendmail.8	3.8		12/14/82
.UC 5
.SH NAME
sendmail \- send mail over the internet
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B /usr/lib/sendmail
[ flags
] [ address ... ]
.PP
.B newaliases
.PP
.B mailq
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I Sendmail
sends a message to one or more people,
routing the message over whatever networks
are necessary.
.I Sendmail
does internetwork forwarding as necessary
to deliver the message to the correct place.
.PP
.I Sendmail
is not intended as a user interface routine;
other programs provide user-friendly
front ends;
.I sendmail
is used only to deliver pre-formatted messages.
.PP
With no flags,
.I sendmail
reads its standard input
up to a control-D
or a line with a single dot
and sends a copy of the letter found there
to all of the addresses listed.
It determines the network to use
based on the syntax and contents of the addresses.
.PP
Local addresses are looked up in a file
and aliased appropriately.
Aliasing can be prevented by preceding the address
with a backslash.
Normally the sender is not included in any alias
expansions, e.g.,
if `john' sends to `group',
and `group' includes `john' in the expansion,
then the letter will not be delivered to `john'.
.PP
Flags are:
.TP 1.2i
\-ba
Go into \s-1ARPANET\s0 mode.
All input lines must end with a CR-LF,
and all messages will be generated with a CR-LF at the end.
Also,
the ``From:'' and ``Sender:''
fields are examined for the name of the sender.
.TP 1.2i
\-bd
Run as a daemon.  This requires Berkeley IPC.
.TP 1.2i
\-bi
Initialize the alias database.
.TP 1.2i
\-bm
Deliver mail in the usual way (default).
.TP 1.2i
\-bs
Use the \s-2SMTP\s0 protocol as described in RFC821.
This flag implies all the operations of the
.B \-ba
flag that are compatible with \s-2SMTP\s0.
.TP 1.2i
\-bt
Run in address test mode.
This mode reads addresses and shows the steps in parsing;
it is used for debugging configuration tables.
.TP 1.2i
\-bv
Verify names only \- do not try to collect or deliver a message.
Verify mode is normally used for validating
users or mailing lists.
.TP 1.2i
\-bz
Create the configuration freeze file.
.TP 1.2i
.RI \-C file
Use alternate configuration file.
.TP 1.2i
.RI \-d X
Set debugging value to
.I X.
.TP 1.2i
.RI \-F fullname
Set the full name of the sender.
.TP 1.2i
.RI \-f name
Sets the name of the ``from'' person
(i.e., the sender of the mail).
.B \-f
can only be used
by the special users
.I root,
.I daemon,
and
.I network,
or if the person you are trying to become
is the same as the person you are.
.TP 1.2i
.RI \-h N
Set the hop count to
.I N.
The hop count is incremented every time the mail is
processed.
When it reaches a limit,
the mail is returned with an error message,
the victim of an aliasing loop.
.TP 1.2i
\-n
Don't do aliasing.
.TP 1.2i
.RI \-o x\|value
Set option
.I x
to the specified
.I value.
Options are described below.
.TP 1.2i
.RI \-q[ time ]
Processed saved messages in the queue at given intervals.
If
.IT time
is omitted,
process the queue once.
.IT Time
is given as a tagged number,
with `s' being seconds,
`m' being minutes,
`h' being hours,
`d' being days,
and
`w' being weeks.
For example,
``\-q1h30m'' or ``\-q90m''
would both set the timeout to one hour thirty minutes.
.TP 1.2i
.RI \-r name
An alternate and obsolete form of the \-f flag.
.TP 1.2i
\-t
Read message for recipients.
To:, Cc:, and Bcc: lines will be scanned for people to send to.
The Bcc: line will be deleted before transmission.
Any addresses in the argument list will be suppressed.
.TP 1.2i
\-v
Go into verbose mode.
Alias expansions will be announced, etc.
.PP
There are also a number of processing options that may be set.
Normally these will only be used by a system administrator.
Options may be set either on the command line
using the
.B \-o
flag
or in the configuration file.
These are described in detail in the
.ul
Installation and Operation Guide.
The options are:
.TP 1.2i
.RI A file
Use alternate alias file.
.TP 1.2i
c
On mailers that are considered ``expensive'' to connect to,
don't initiate immediate connection.
This requires queueing.
.TP 1.2i
.RI d x
Set the delivery mode to
.I x.
Delivery modes are
`i' for interactive (synchronous) delivery,
`b' for background (asynchronous) delivery,
and
`q' for queue only \- i.e.,
actual delivery is done the next time the queue is run.
.TP 1.2i
D
Try to automatically rebuild the alias database
if necessary.
.TP 1.2i
.RI e x
Set error processing to mode
.I x.
Valid modes are
`m' to mail back the error message,
`w' to ``write'' back the error message
(or mail it back if the sender is not logged in),
`p' to print the errors on the terminal
(default),
`q' to throw away error messages
(only exit status is returned),
and `e'
to do special processing for the BerkNet.
If the text of the message is not mailed back
by
modes `m' or `w'
and if the sender is local to this machine,
a copy of the message is appended to the file
``dead.letter''
in the sender's home directory.
.TP 1.2i
.RI F mode
The mode to use when creating temporary files.
.TP 1.2i
f
Save UNIX-style From lines at the front of messages.
.TP 1.2i
.RI g N
The default group id to use when calling mailers.
.TP 1.2i
.RI H file
The SMTP help file.
.TP 1.2i
i
Do not take dots on a line by themselves
as a message terminator.
.TP 1.2i
.RI L n
The log level.
.TP 1.2i
m
Send to ``me'' (the sender) also if I am in an alias expansion.
.TP 1.2i
o
If set, this message may have
old style headers.
If not set,
this message is guaranteed to have new style headers
(i.e., commas instead of spaces between addresses).
If set, an adaptive algorithm is used that will correctly
determine the header format in most cases.
.TP 1.2i
.RI Q queuedir
Select the directory in which to queue messages.
.TP 1.2i
.RI r timeout
The timeout on reads;
if none is set,
.I sendmail
will wait forever for a mailer.
.TP 1.2i
.RI S file
Save statistics in the named file.
.TP 1.2i
s
Always instantiate the queue file,
even under circumstances where it is not strictly necessary.
.TP 1.2i
.RI T time
Set the timeout on messages in the queue to the specified time.
After sitting in the queue for this amount of time,
they will be returned to the sender.
The default is three days.
.TP 1.2i
.RI t stz,dtz
Set the name of the time zone.
.TP 1.2i
.RI u N
Set the default user id for mailers.
.PP
If the first character of the user name
is a vertical bar,
the rest of the user name is used as the name of a program
to pipe the mail to.
It may be necessary to quote the name of the user
to keep
.I sendmail
from suppressing the blanks from between arguments.
.PP
.I Sendmail
returns an exit status
describing what it did.
The codes are defined in <sysexits.h>
.ta 3n +\w'EX_UNAVAILABLE'u+3n
.de XX
.ti \n(.iu
..
.in +\w'EX_UNAVAILABLE'u+6n
.XX
 	EX_OK	Successful completion on all addresses.
.XX
 	EX_NOUSER	User name not recognized.
.XX
 	EX_UNAVAILABLE	Catchall meaning necessary resources
were not available.
.XX
 	EX_SYNTAX	Syntax error in address.
.XX
 	EX_SOFTWARE	Internal software error,
including bad arguments.
.XX
 	EX_OSERR	Temporary operating system error,
such as \*(lqcannot fork\*(rq.
.XX
 	EX_NOHOST	Host name not recognized.
.XX
	EX_TEMPFAIL	Message could not be sent immediately,
but was queued.
.PP
If invoked as
.I newaliases,
.I sendmail
will rebuild the alias database.
If invoked as
.I mailq,
.I sendmail
will print the contents of the mail queue.
.SH FILES
Except for
/usr/lib/sendmail.cf,
these pathnames are all specified in
/usr/lib/sendmail.cf.
Thus,
these values are only approximations.
.PP
.if t .ta 2i
.if n .ta 3i
/usr/lib/aliases	raw data for alias names
.br
/usr/lib/aliases.pag
.br
/usr/lib/aliases.dir	data base of alias names
.br
/usr/lib/sendmail.cf	configuration file
.br
/usr/lib/sendmail.fc	frozen configuration
.br
/usr/lib/sendmail.hf	help file
.br
/usr/lib/sendmail.st	collected statistics
.br
/usr/bin/uux	to deliver uucp mail
.br
/usr/net/bin/v6mail	to deliver local mail
.br
/usr/net/bin/sendberkmail	to deliver Berknet mail
.br
/usr/lib/mailers/arpa	to deliver ARPANET mail
.br
/usr/spool/mqueue/*	temp files
.br
.SH SEE\ ALSO
biff(1), binmail(1), mail(1), aliases(5), sendmail.cf(5),
rmail(1),
RFC819, RFC821, RFC822,
.ul
Sendmail \- An Internetwork Mail Router,
.ul
Sendmail Installation and Operation Guide.
.SH BUGS
.I Sendmail
converts blanks in addresses to dots.
This is incorrect according to the
old
.SM ARPANET
mail protocol RFC733 (NIC 41952),
but is consistent with the
new protocols
(RFC822).