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SENDMAIL(8)		OpenBSD System Manager's Manual		   SENDMAIL(8)

NAME
     sendmail - an electronic mail transport agent

SYNOPSIS
     sendmail [flags] [address ...] [-v]
     hoststat
     purgestat

DESCRIPTION
     sendmail sends a message to one or more recipients, routing the message
     over whatever networks are necessary.  sendmail does internetwork
     forwarding as necessary to deliver the message to the correct place.

     sendmail is not intended as a user interface routine; other programs
     provide user-friendly front ends; sendmail is used only to deliver pre-
     formatted messages.

     With no flags, sendmail reads its standard input up to an end-of-file or
     a line consisting only of a single dot and sends a copy of the message
     found there to all of the addresses listed.  It determines the network(s)
     to use based on the syntax and contents of the addresses.

     Local addresses are looked up in a file and aliased appropriately.
     Aliasing can be prevented by preceding the address with a backslash.
     Beginning with 8.10, the sender is included in any alias expansions,
     e.g., if `john' sends to `group', and `group' includes `john' in the
     expansion, then the letter will also be delivered to `john'.

     sendmail can be made to conduct ESMTP transactions over TLS circuits to
     increase the security of mail server transactions if TLS/SSL is enabled.
     See starttls(8) for more information.

   Parameters
     -Ac	 Use submit.cf even if the operation mode does not indicate an
		 initial mail submission.

     -Am	 Use sendmail.cf even if the operation mode indicates an
		 initial mail submission.

     -Btype	 Set the body type to type.  Current legal values are 7BIT or
		 8BITMIME.

     -ba	 Go into ARPANET 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.

     -bd	 Run as a daemon.  sendmail will fork and run in the
		 background listening on socket 25 for incoming SMTP
		 connections.  By default, sendmail will also listen on socket
		 587 for RFC 2476 message submission.  This is normally run
		 from /etc/rc.

     -bD	 Same as -bd except runs in foreground.

     -bh	 Print the persistent host status database.

     -bH	 Purge expired entries from the persistent host status
		 database.

     -bi	 Initialize the alias database.

     -bm	 Deliver mail in the usual way (default).

     -bp	 Print a listing of the queue(s).

     -bP	 Print number of entries in the queue(s); only available with
		 shared memory support.

     -bs	 Use the SMTP protocol as described in RFC 821 on standard
		 input and output.  This flag implies all the operations of
		 the -ba flag that are compatible with SMTP.

     -bt	 Run in address test mode.  This mode reads addresses and
		 shows the steps in parsing; it is used for debugging
		 configuration tables.

     -bv	 Verify names only - do not try to collect or deliver a
		 message.  Verify mode is normally used for validating users
		 or mailing lists.

     -Cfile	 Use alternate configuration file.  sendmail gives up any
		 enhanced (set-user-ID or set-group-ID) privileges if an
		 alternate configuration file is specified.

     -D logfile	 Send debugging output to the indicated log file instead of
		 stdout.

     -dcategory.level
		 Set the debugging flag for category to level.	The category
		 is either an integer or a name specifying the topic; the
		 level is an integer specifying the level of debugging output
		 desired.  Higher levels generally mean more output.  More
		 than one flag may be specified by separating flags with
		 commas.  A list of numeric debugging categories can be found
		 in the TRACEFLAGS file in the sendmail source distribution.
		 The option -d0.1 prints the version of sendmail and the
		 options it was compiled with.
		 Most other categories are only useful with, and documented
		 in, sendmail's source code.

     -Ffullname	 Set the full name of the sender.

     -fname	 Sets the name of the ``from'' person (i.e., the envelope
		 sender of the mail).  This address may also be used in the
		 From: header if that header is missing during initial
		 submission.  The envelope sender address is used as the
		 recipient for delivery status notifications and may also
		 appear in a Return-Path: header.  -f should only be used by
		 ``trusted'' users (normally root, daemon, and network) or if
		 the person you are trying to become is the same as the person
		 you are.  Otherwise, an X-Authentication-Warning header will
		 be added to the message.

     -G		 Relay (gateway) submission of a message, e.g., when rmail
		 calls sendmail.

     -hN	 Set the hop count to 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.	 If not specified, ``Received:'' lines in the
		 message are counted.

     -i		 Ignore dots alone on lines by themselves in incoming
		 messages.  This should be set if you are reading data from a
		 file.

     -L tag	 Set the identifier used in syslog messages to the supplied
		 tag.

     -N dsn	 Set delivery status notification conditions to dsn, which can
		 be `never' for no notifications or a comma separated list of
		 the values `failure' to be notified if delivery failed,
		 `delay' to be notified if delivery is delayed, and `success'
		 to be notified when the message is successfully delivered.

     -n		 Don't do aliasing.

     -O option=value
		 Set option option to the specified value.  This form uses
		 long names.  See below for more details.

     -ox value	 Set option x to the specified value.  This form uses single
		 character names only.	The short names are not described in
		 this manual page; see the Sendmail Installation and Operation
		 Guide for details.

     -pprotocol	 Set the name of the protocol used to receive the message.
		 This can be a simple protocol name such as ``UUCP'' or a
		 protocol and hostname, such as ``UUCP:ucbvax''.

     -Q [reason]
		 Quarantine a normal queue items with the given reason or
		 unquarantine quarantined queue items if no reason is given.
		 This should only be used with some sort of item matching
		 using as described above.

     -q[time]	 Process saved messages in the queue at given intervals.  If
		 time is omitted, process the queue once.  time is given as a
		 tagged number, with `s' being seconds, `m' being minutes
		 (default), `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.  By default, sendmail
		 will run in the background.  This option can be used safely
		 with -bd.

     -qp[time]	 Similar to -qtime, except that instead of periodically
		 forking a child to process the queue, sendmail forks a single
		 persistent child for each queue that alternates between
		 processing the queue and sleeping.  The sleep time is given
		 as the argument; it defaults to 1 second.  The process will
		 always sleep at least 5 seconds if the queue was empty in the
		 previous queue run.

     -qf	 Process saved messages in the queue once and do not fork(),
		 but run in the foreground.

     -qG name	 Process jobs in queue group called name only.

     -q[!] Isubstr
		 Limit processed jobs to those containing substr as a
		 substring of the queue ID or not when ! is specified.

     -q[!] Qsubstr
		 Limit processed jobs to quarantined jobs containing substr as
		 a substring of the quarantine reason or not when ! is
		 specified.

     -q[!] Rsubstr
		 Limit processed jobs to those containing substr as a
		 substring of one of the recipients or not when ! is
		 specified.

     -q[!] Ssubstr
		 Limit processed jobs to those containing substr as a
		 substring of the sender or not when ! is specified.

     -R return	 Set the amount of the message to be returned if the message
		 bounces.  The return parameter can be `full' to return the
		 entire message or `hdrs' to return only the headers.  In the
		 latter case also local bounces return only the headers.

     -rname	 An alternate and obsolete form of the -f flag.

     -t		 Read message for recipients.  To:, Cc:, and Bcc: lines will
		 be scanned for recipient addresses.  The Bcc: line will be
		 deleted before transmission.

     -V envid	 Set the original envelope id.	This is propagated across SMTP
		 to servers that support DSNs and is returned in DSN-compliant
		 error messages.

     -v		 Go into verbose mode.	Alias expansions will be announced,
		 etc.

     -X logfile	 Log all traffic in and out of mailers in the indicated log
		 file.	This should only be used as a last resort for
		 debugging mailer bugs.	 It will log a lot of data very
		 quickly.

     --		 Stop processing command flags and use the rest of the
		 arguments as addresses.

   Options
     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 -o flag (for short names), the -O
     flag (for long names), or in the configuration file.  This is a partial
     list limited to those options that are likely to be useful on the command
     line and only shows the long names; for a complete list (and details),
     consult the Sendmail Installation and Operation Guide. The options are:

     AliasFile=file
		 Use alternate alias file.

     HoldExpensive
		 On mailers that are considered ``expensive'' to connect to,
		 don't initiate immediate connection.  This requires queueing.

     CheckpointInterval=N
		 Checkpoint the queue file after every N successful deliveries
		 (default 10).	This avoids excessive duplicate deliveries
		 when sending to long mailing lists interrupted by system
		 crashes.

     DeliveryMode=x
		 Set the delivery mode to x.  Delivery modes are `i' for
		 interactive (synchronous) delivery, `b' for background
		 (asynchronous) delivery, `q' for queue only - i.e., actual
		 delivery is done the next time the queue is run, and `d' for
		 deferred - the same as `q' except that database lookups for
		 maps which have set the -D option (default for the host map)
		 are avoided.

     ErrorMode=x
		 Set error processing to mode 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.

     SaveFromLine
		 Save UNIX-style From lines at the front of messages.

     MaxHopCount=N
		 The maximum number of times a message is allowed to ``hop''
		 before we decide it is in a loop.

     IgnoreDots	 Do not take dots on a line by themselves as a message
		 terminator.

     SendMimeErrors
		 Send error messages in MIME format.  If not set, the DSN
		 (Delivery Status Notification) SMTP extension is disabled.

     ConnectionCacheTimeout=timeout
		 Set connection cache timeout.

     ConnectionCacheSize=N
		 Set connection cache size.

     LogLevel=n	 The log level.

     MeToo=False
		 Don't send to ``me'' (the sender) if I am in an alias
		 expansion.

     CheckAliases
		 Validate the right hand side of aliases during a
		 newaliases(8) command.

     OldStyleHeaders
		 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.

     QueueDirectory=queuedir
		 Select the directory in which to queue messages.

     StatusFile=file
		 Save statistics in the named file.

     Timeout.queuereturn=time
		 Set the timeout on undelivered messages in the queue to the
		 specified time.  After delivery has failed (e.g., because of
		 a host being down) for this amount of time, failed messages
		 will be returned to the sender.  The default is five days.

     UserDatabaseSpec=userdatabase
		 If set, a user database is consulted to get forwarding
		 information.  You can consider this an adjunct to the
		 aliasing mechanism, except that the database is intended to
		 be distributed; aliases are local to a particular host.  This
		 may not be available if your sendmail does not have the
		 USERDB option compiled in.

     ForkEachJob
		 Fork each job during queue runs.  May be convenient on
		 memory-poor machines.

     SevenBitInput
		 Strip incoming messages to seven bits.

     EightBitMode=mode
		 Set the handling of eight bit input to seven bit destinations
		 to mode: m (mimefy) will convert to seven-bit MIME format, p
		 (pass) will pass it as eight bits (but violates protocols),
		 and s (strict) will bounce the message.

     MinQueueAge=timeout
		 Sets how long a job must ferment in the queue between
		 attempts to send it.

     DefaultCharSet=charset
		 Sets the default character set used to label 8-bit data that
		 is not otherwise labelled.

     DialDelay=sleeptime
		 If opening a connection fails, sleep for sleeptime seconds
		 and try again.	 Useful on dial-on-demand sites.

     NoRecipientAction=action
		 Set the behaviour when there are no recipient headers (To:,
		 Cc: or Bcc:) in the message to action: none leaves the
		 message unchanged, add-to adds a To: header with the envelope
		 recipients, add-apparently-to adds an Apparently-To: header
		 with the envelope recipients, add-bcc adds an empty Bcc:
		 header, and add-to-undisclosed adds a header reading `To:
		 undisclosed-recipients:;'.

     MaxDaemonChildren=N
		 Sets the maximum number of children that an incoming SMTP
		 daemon will allow to spawn at any time to N.

     ConnectionRateThrottle=N
		 Sets the maximum number of connections per second to the SMTP
		 port to N.

     In aliases, the first character of a name may be a vertical bar to cause
     interpretation of the rest of the name as a command to pipe the mail to.
     It may be necessary to quote the name to keep sendmail from suppressing
     the blanks from between arguments.	 For example:

	   eric: "|/usr/bin/vacation -a allman eric"

     Aliases may also have the syntax ``:include:filename'' to ask sendmail to
     read the named file for a list of recipients.  For example, an alias such
     as:

	   poets: ":include:/usr/local/lib/poets.list"

     would read /usr/local/lib/poets.list for the list of addresses making up
     the group.

     If invoked as newaliases, sendmail will rebuild the alias database.  If
     invoked as mailq, sendmail will print the contents of the mail queue.  If
     invoked as hoststat, sendmail will print the persistent host status
     database.	If invoked as purgestat, sendmail will purge expired entries
     from the persistent host status database.

FILES
     Except for the file /etc/mail/sendmail.cf itself the following pathnames
     are all specified in /etc/mail/sendmail.cf.  Thus, these values are only
     approximations.

     /etc/mail/aliases	    raw data for alias names
     /etc/mail/aliases.db   data base of alias names
     /etc/mail/sendmail.cf  configuration file
     /etc/mail/sendmail.hf  help file
     /var/log/sendmail.st   collected statistics
     /var/spool/mqueue/*    temp files

EXIT STATUS
     sendmail returns an exit status describing what it did.  The codes are
     defined in <sysexits.h>:

	   EX_OK	   Successful completion on all addresses.
	   EX_NOUSER	   User name not recognized.
	   EX_UNAVAILABLE  Catchall meaning necessary resources were not
			   available.
	   EX_SYNTAX	   Syntax error in address.
	   EX_SOFTWARE	   Internal software error, including bad arguments.
	   EX_OSERR	   Temporary operating system error, such as ``cannot
			   fork''.
	   EX_NOHOST	   Host name not recognized.
	   EX_TEMPFAIL	   Message could not be sent immediately, but was
			   queued.

SEE ALSO
     mail(1), syslog(3), aliases(5), mailer.conf(5), mailaddr(7),
     mail.local(8), mailq(8), mailstats(8), newaliases(8), rc(8), rmail(8),
     starttls(8)

     DARPA Internet Request For Comments RFC 819, RFC 821, RFC 2822.

     "Filtering Mail with Sendmail",
     /usr/share/doc/html/milter/index.html.

     http://www.sendmail.org/

HISTORY
     The sendmail command appeared in 4.2BSD.

CAVEATS
     sendmail often gets blamed for many problems that are actually the result
     of other problems, such as overly permissive modes on directories.	 For
     this reason, sendmail checks the modes on system directories and files to
     determine if they can be trusted.	Although these checks can be turned
     off and your system security reduced by setting the DontBlameSendmail
     option, the permission problems should be fixed.  For more information,
     see:

     http://www.sendmail.org/tips/DontBlameSendmail.html

OpenBSD 4.9		       October 18, 2010			   OpenBSD 4.9
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