Linux in a Nutshell, Third Edition

Name

sendmail

Synopsis

sendmail [flags] [address...]

Description

System administration command. sendmail is a mail transfer agent (MTA) or, more simply, a mail router. It accepts mail from a user’s mail program, interprets the mail address, rewrites the address into the proper form for the delivery program, and routes the mail to the correct delivery program.

Command-line flags

-b x

Set operation mode to x. Operation modes are:

a

Run in ARPAnet mode.

d

Run as a daemon.

i

Initialize the alias database.

m

Deliver mail (default).

p

Print the mail queue.

s

Speak SMTP on input side.

t

Run in test mode.

v

Verify addresses; do not collect or deliver.

-C file

Use configuration file file.

-d level

Set debugging level.

-F name

Set full name of user to name.

-f name

Sender’s name is name.

-h cnt

Set hop count (number of times message has been processed by sendmail) to cnt.

-n

Do not alias or forward.

-o x value

Set option x to value value. Options are described below.

-p protocol

Receive messages via the protocol protocol.

-q [time]

Process queued messages immediately, or at intervals indicated by time (for example, -q30m for every half hour).

-r name

Obsolete form of -f.

-t

Read head for To:, Cc:, and Bcc: lines, and send to everyone on those lists.

-v

Verbose.

-X file

Log all traffic to file. Not to be used for normal logging.

Configuration options

The following options can be set with the -o flag on the command line or the O line in the configuration file:

7

Format all incoming messages in 7 ...