sendmail (Postfix)
The Postfix sendmail command implements the Postfix to Sendmail compatibility interface. For the sake of compatibility with existing applications, some Sendmail command-line options are recognized but silently ignored.[1]
By default, Postfix sendmail reads a message from standard input until EOF or until it reads a line with only a . character, and arranges for delivery. Postfix sendmail relies on the postdrop command to create a queue file in the maildrop directory.[1]
- mailq
- List the mail queue. Each entry shows the queue file ID, message size, arrival time, sender, and the recipients that still need to be delivered. If mail could not be delivered upon the last attempt, the reason for failure is shown.[1]
- This mode of operation is implemented by executing the postqueue command.[1]
- newaliases
- Initialize the alias database. If no input file is specified (with the -oA option, see below), the program processes the file(s) specified with the alias_database configuration parameter. If no alias database type is specified, the program uses the type specified with the default_database_type configuration parameter. This mode of operation is implemented by running the postalias command.[1]
Documentation
- man 1 'sendmail' [EN]
Syntax
sendmail [PARAMETER ...] [RECIPIENT ...]
Parameters
- -bd
- Go into daemon mode. This mode of operation is implemented by executing the postfix start command.
- -bi
- Initialize alias database. See the newaliases command above.
- -bp
- List the mail queue. See the mailq command above.
- -bs
- Stand-alone SMTP server mode. Read SMTP commands from standard input, and write responses to standard output. In stand-alone SMTP server mode, mail relaying and other access controls are disabled by default. To enable them, run the process as the mail_owner user.
- -bv
- Do not collect or deliver a message. Instead, send an email report after verifying each recipient address. This is useful for testing address rewriting and routing configurations.
- -q
- Attempt to deliver all queued mail. This is implemented by executing the postqueue command.
- -t
- Extract recipients from message headers. These are added to any recipients specified on the command line.