Sendmail, 3rd Edition

Overview

The following command runs sendmail in rule-testing mode:^[1]

% /usr/sbin/sendmail -bt

At first, the output produced by this command line prompts you like this:

ADDRESS TEST MODE (ruleset 3 NOT automatically invoked)
Enter <ruleset> <address>
>

The “ruleset 3” statement says that, beginning with V8 (and IDA) sendmail, the canonify rule set 3 is no longer automatically called when rule sets are listed at the prompt. We cover this property in detail in Section 8.6.2.

Prior to V8 sendmail, rule-testing mode could be used only to test addresses. But beginning with V8.7 sendmail new functions were added. To see a summary of those functions, enter a ? character followed by a RETURN at the > prompt. The output, which we reproduce next, lists and gives a brief description of each function. Note that the numbers to the right refer to sections in this chapter and are not a part of sendmail’s output:

> ?
Help for test mode:
?                :this help message.
.Dmvalue         :define macro `m' to `value'.                       ← Section 8.2.1 
.Ccvalue         :add `value' to class `c'.                          ← Section 8.2.2 
=Sruleset        :dump the contents of the indicated ruleset.        ← Section 8.4.1 
=M               :display the known mailers.                         ← Section 8.4.2 
-ddebug-spec     :equivalent to the command-line -d debug flag.
$m               :print the value of macro $m.                       ← Section 8.3.1 
$=c              :print the contents of class $=c.                   ← Section 8.3.2 
/mx host         :returns the MX records for `host'.                 ← Section 8.5.2 
/parse address   :parse address, returning the value of crackaddr, and   ← Section 8.5.5 the parsed address ...