sendmail, 4th Edition

Command-Line Switches

Command-line switches are command-line arguments that begin with a - character, and precede the list of recipients (if any). The forms for command-line switches, where X is a single letter, are:

-X            ← Boolean switch
-Xarg         ← switch with argument

All switches are single letters. The complete list is shown in Table 6-2.

Table 6-2. Command-line switches

Switch	§	Version	Description
-A	-A on page 231	V8.12 and later	Specify sendmail.cf versus submit.cf.
-B	-B on page 232	V8.1 and later	Specify message body type.
-b	-b on page 233	All versions	Set operating mode.
-ba	-ba on page 233	Not V8.1- V8.6	Use ARPAnet/Grey Book protocols.
-bD	-bD on page 233	V8.8 and later	Run as a daemon, but don’t fork.
-bd	-bd on page 234	All versions	Run as a daemon.
-bH	-bH on page 234	V8.8 and later	Purge persistent host status.
-bh	-bh on page 235	V8.8 and later	Print persistent host status.
-bi	Rebuild the Alias Database on page 478	All versions	Initialize alias database.
-bm	-bm on page 235	All versions	Be a mail sender (the default).
-bP	-bP on page 236	V8.12 and later	Print number of messages in the queue.
-bp	Printing the Queue on page 422	All versions	Print the queue.
-bs	-bs on page 236	All versions	Run SMTP on standard input.
-bt	Chapter 8 on page 299	All versions	Rule-testing mode.
-bv	-bv on page 237	All versions	Verify: don’t collect or deliver.
-bz	-bz on page 238	Not V8	Freeze the configuration file.
-C