masqmail

view man/masqmail.8 @ 132:2685e59f6f43

small clarity improvement
author meillo@marmaro.de
date Tue, 06 Jul 2010 13:02:49 +0200
parents c85fbf7014b1
children 4aa6b6e18a13
line source
1 .TH masqmail 8 2010-06-21 masqmail-0.2.24 "Maintenance Commands"
3 .SH NAME
4 masqmail \- An offline Mail Transfer Agent
6 .SH SYNOPSIS
7 \fB/usr/sbin/masqmail \fR[\fB\-C \fIfile\fR] [\fB\-odq\fR] [\fB\-bd\fR] [\fB\-q\fIinterval\fR]
9 \fB/usr/sbin/masqmail \fR[\fB\-odq\fR] [\fB\-bs\fR]
11 \fB/usr/sbin/masqmail \fR[\fB\-bp\fR]
13 \fB/usr/sbin/masqmail \fR[\fB\-q\fR]
15 \fB/usr/sbin/masqmail \fR[\fB\-qo \fR[\fIname\fR]]
17 \fB/usr/sbin/masqmail \fR[\fB\-odq\fR] [\fB\-g \fR[\fIname\fR]]
19 \fB/usr/sbin/masqmail \fR[\fB\-odq\fR] [\fB\-go \fR[\fIname\fR]]
21 \fB/usr/sbin/masqmail \fR[\fB\-t\fR] [\fB\-oi\fR] [\fB\-f \fIaddress\fR] [\fB\-\-\fR] \fIaddress...
23 \fB/usr/sbin/mailq\fR
26 .SH DESCRIPTION
28 Masqmail is a mail server designed for hosts that do not have a permanent internet connection
29 e.g. a home network or a single host at home.
30 It has special support for connections to different ISPs.
31 It replaces sendmail or other MTAs such as qmail or exim.
32 It can also act as a pop3 client.
35 .SH OPTIONS
37 Since masqmail is intended to replace sendmail, it uses the same command line options,
38 but not all are implemented.
39 There are also two additional options, which are unique to masqmail
40 (\fB\-qo \fIconnection\fR and \fB\-g\fR)
42 .TP
43 \fB\-\-\fR
45 Not a `real' option, it means that all following arguments are to be understood
46 as arguments and not as options even if they begin with a leading dash `\-'.
47 Mutt is known to call sendmail with this option.
49 .TP
50 \fB\-bd\fR
52 Run as daemon, accepting connections, usually on port 25 if not configured differently.
53 This is usually used in the startup script at system boot and together with
54 the \fB\-q\fR option (see below).
56 .TP
57 \fB\-bi\fR
59 Old sendmail rebuilds its alias database when invoked with this option.
60 Masqmail ignores it.
61 Masqmail reads directly from the file given with `alias_file' in the config file.
63 .TP
64 \fB\-bp\fR
66 Show the messages in the queue. Same as calling masqmail as `mailq'.
68 .TP
69 \fB\-bs\fR
71 Accept SMTP commands from stdin.
72 Some mailers (e.g. pine) use this option as an interface.
73 It can also be used to call masqmail from inetd.
75 .TP
76 \fB\-B \fIarg\fR
78 \fIarg\fR is usually 8BITMIME.
79 Some mailers use this to indicate that the message contains characters > 127.
80 Masqmail is 8-bit clean and ignores this, so you do not have to recompile elm,
81 which is very painful ;-).
82 Note though that this violates some conventions:
83 masqmail does not convert 8 bit messages to any MIME format if it encounters
84 a mail server which does not advertise its 8BITMIME capability,
85 masqmail does not advertise this itself.
86 This is the same practice as that of exim (but different to sendmail).
88 .TP
89 \fB\-bV \fR
91 Show version information.
93 .TP
94 \fB\-C \fIfilename\fR
96 Use another configuration than \fI/etc/masqmail/masqmail.conf\fR.
97 Useful for debugging purposes.
98 If not invoked by a privileged user, masqmail will drop all privileges.
100 .TP
101 \fB\-d \fInumber\fR
103 Set the debug level.
104 This takes precedence before the value of `debug_level' in the configuration file.
105 Read the warning in the description of the latter.
107 .TP
108 \fB\-f [\fIaddress\fB]\fR
110 Set the return path address to \fIaddress\fR.
111 Only root, the user mail and anyone in group mail is allowed to do that.
113 .TP
114 \fB\-F [\fIstring\fB]\fR
116 Set the full sender name (in the From: header) to \fIstring\fR.
118 .TP
119 \fB\-g [\fIname\fB]\fR
121 Get mail (using pop3 or apop),
122 using the configurations given with get.\fIname\fR in the main configuration.
123 Without \fIname\fR, all get configurations will be used.
124 See also \fBmasqmail.get(5)\fR
126 .TP
127 \fB\-go [\fIinterval\fB] [\fIname\fB]\fR
129 Can be followed by a connection name.
130 Use this option in your script which starts as soon as a link to the internet
131 has been set up (usually ip-up).
132 When masqmail is called with this option, the specified get configuration(s)
133 is(are) read and mail will be retrieved from servers on the internet.
134 The \fIname\fR is defined in the configuration (see \fBonline_gets.\fIname\fR).
136 If called with an interval option (recognized by a digit as the first characater),
137 masqmail starts as a daemon and tries to get mail in these intervals.
138 It checks for the online status first.
139 Example: `masqmail \-go 5m' will retrieve mail every five minutes.
141 If called without \fIname\fR the online status is determined with the configured method
142 (see \fBonline_detect\fR in \fBmasqmail.conf(5)\fR).
144 .TP
145 \fB\-i\fR
147 Same as \fB\-oi\fR, see below.
149 .TP
150 \fB\-Mrm \fIlist\fR
152 Remove given messages from the queue.
153 Only allowed for privileged users.
154 The identifiers of messages are listed in the output of
155 \fImasqmail \-bp\fP (\fImailq\fR).
157 .TP
158 \fB\-oem\fR
160 If the \fB\-oi\fR ist not also given, always return with a non zero return code.
161 Maybe someone tells me what this is good for...
163 .TP
164 \fB\-odb\fR
166 Deliver in background.
167 Masqmail always does this, which makes this option pretty much useless.
169 .TP
170 \fB\-odq\fR
172 Do not attempt to deliver immediately.
173 Any messages will be queued until the next queue running process picks them up and delivers them.
174 You get the same effect by setting the do_queue option in /etc/masqmail/masqmail.conf.
176 .TP
177 \fB\-oi\fR
179 A dot as a single character in a line does not terminate the message.
181 .TP
182 \fB\-q [\fIinterval\fB]\fR
184 If not given with an argument, run a queue process, i.e. try to deliver all messages in the queue.
185 Masqmail sends only to those addresses that are on the local net, not to those that are outside.
186 Use \fB\-qo\fR for those.
188 If you have configured inetd to start masqmail,
189 you can use this option in a cron job which starts in regular time intervals,
190 to mimic the same effect as starting masqmail with \fB\-bd \-q30m\fR.
192 An argument may be a time interval i.e. a numerical value followed by one of the letters.
193 s,m,h,d,w which are interpreted as seconds, minutes, hours, days or weeks respectively.
194 Example: \fB\-q30m\fR.
195 Masqmail starts as a daemon and a queue runner process will be started automatically
196 once in this time interval.
197 This is usually used together with \fB\-bd\fR (see above).
199 .TP
200 \fB\-qo [\fIname\fB]\fR
202 Can be followed by a connection name.
203 Use this option in your script which starts as soon as a link to the internet
204 has been set up (usually ip-up).
205 When masqmail is called with this option, the specified route configuration
206 is read and the queued mail with destinations on the internet will be sent.
207 The \fIname\fR is defined in the configuration (see \fBonline_routes.\fIname\fR).
209 If called without \fIname\fR the online status is determined with the configured
210 method (see \fBonline_detect\fR in \fBmasqmail.conf(5)\fR)
212 .TP
213 \fB\-t\fR
215 Read recipients from headers.
216 Delete `Bcc:' headers.
217 (Since 0.2.25, masqmail deletes Bcc: headers in all cases.)
218 If any arguments are given, these are interpreted as recipient addresses
219 and the message will not be sent to these,
220 although they might appear in To:, Cc:, or Bcc: headers.
221 I.e. the set of argument recipients is ``substracted'' from the set of header recipients.
223 This behavior is similar to exim's and smail's.
224 Postfix, in contrast, adds the arguments to the set of header recipients.
225 Sendmail seems to behave differently, depending on the version.
226 See exim(8) for further information.
228 .TP
229 \fB\-v\fR
231 Log also to stdout.
232 Currently, some log messages are marked as `write to stdout' and additionally,
233 all messages with priority `LOG_ALERT' and `LOG_WARNING' will be written to stdout
234 if this option is given. It is disabled in daemon mode.
237 .SH ENVIRONMENT FOR PIPES AND MDAS
239 For security reasons, before any pipe command from an alias expansion or an mda is called,
240 the environment variables will be completely discarded and newly set up. These are:
242 SENDER, RETURN_PATH \(en the return path.
244 SENDER_DOMAIN \(en the domain part of the return path.
246 SENDER_LOCAL \(en the local part of the return path.
248 RECEIVED_HOST \(en the host the message was received from (unless local).
250 LOCAL_PART, USER, LOGNAME \(en the local part of the (original) recipient.
252 MESSAGE_ID \(en the unique message id.
253 This is not necessarily identical with the Message ID as given in the Message ID: header.
255 QUALIFY_DOMAIN \(en the domain which will be appended to unqualified addresses.
258 .SH FILES
260 \fI/etc/masqmail/masqmail.conf\fR is the main configuration for masqmail.
261 Depending on the settings in this file, you will also have other configuration
262 files in \fI/etc/masqmail/\fR.
264 \fI/var/spool/masqmail/\fR is the spool directory where masqmail stores
265 its spooled messages and the uniq pop ids.
267 \fI/var/spool/mail/\fR is the directory where locally delivered mail will be put,
268 if not configured differently in \fImasqmail.conf\fR.
270 \fI/var/log/masqmail/\fR is the directory where masqmail stores its log mesages.
271 This can also be somewhere else if configured differently by your sysadmin or the package mantainer.
274 .SH CONFORMING TO
276 RFC 821, 822, 1869, 1870, 2197, 2554 (SMTP)
278 RFC 1725, 1939 (POP3)
280 RFC 1321 (MD5)
282 RFC 2195 (CRAM-MD5)
285 .SH AUTHOR
287 Masqmail was written by Oliver Kurth.
288 It is now maintained by Markus Schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>.
290 You will find the newest version of masqmail at \fBhttp://marmaro.de/prog/masqmail/\fR.
291 There is also a mailing list, you will find information about it at masqmail's main site.
294 .SH BUGS
296 Please report them to the mailing list.
299 .SH SEE ALSO
301 \fBmasqmail.conf(5)\fR, \fBmasqmail.route(5)\fR, \fBmasqmail.get(5)\fR, \fBmasqmail.aliases(5)\fR