| Variable Name | Configuration | Description &
[Default] |
| confMAILER_NAME |
$n macro |
[MAILER-DAEMON] The sender name used for internally generated
outgoing messages. |
| confDOMAIN_NAME |
$j macro |
If defined, sets $j. This should
only be done if your system cannot
determine your local domain name,
and then it should be set to
$w.Foo.COM, where Foo.COM is your
domain name. |
| confCF_VERSION |
$Z macro |
If defined, this is appended to the
configuration version name. |
| confFROM_HEADER |
From: |
[$?x$x <$g>$|$g$.] The format of an
internally generated From: address. |
| confRECEIVED_HEADER |
Received: |
[$?sfrom $s $.$?_($?s$|from $.$_)
$.by $j ($v/$Z)$?r with $r$. id $i$?u
for $u; $|;
$.$b]
The format of the Received: header
in messages passed through this host.
It is unwise to try to change this. |
| confCW_FILE |
Fw class |
[/etc/sendmail.cw] Name of file used
to get the local additions to the $=w
(local host names) class. |
| confCT_FILE |
Ft class |
[/etc/sendmail.ct] Name of file used
to get the local additions to the $=t
(trusted users) class. |
| confCR_FILE |
FR class |
[/etc/mail/relay-domains] Name of file used
to get the local additions to the $=R
(hosts allowed to relay) class. |
| confTRUSTED_USERS |
Ct class |
[no default] Names of users to add to
the list of trusted users. This list
always includes root, uucp, and daemon.
See also FEATURE(`use_ct_file'). |
| confSMTP_MAILER |
- |
[esmtp] The mailer name used when
SMTP connectivity is required.
One of smtp, "smtp8",
or "esmtp". |
| confUUCP_MAILER |
- |
[uucp-old] The mailer to be used
by default for bang-format recipient
addresses. See also discussion of
$=U, $=Y, and $=Z in the
MAILER(uucp) section. |
| confLOCAL_MAILER |
- |
[local] The mailer name used when
local connectivity is required.
Almost always "local". |
| confRELAY_MAILER |
- |
[relay] The default mailer name
used for relaying any mail (e.g., to a
BITNET_RELAY, a
SMART_HOST, or
whatever). This can reasonably be
"uucp-new" if you are on a
UUCP-connected site. |
| confSEVEN_BIT_INPUT |
SevenBitInput |
[False] Force input to seven bits? |
| confEIGHT_BIT_HANDLING |
EightBitMode |
[pass8] 8-bit data handling |
| confALIAS_WAIT |
AliasWait |
[10m] Time to wait for alias file
rebuild until you get bored and
decide that the apparently pending
rebuild failed. |
| confMIN_FREE_BLOCKS |
MinFreeBlocks |
[100] Minimum number of free blocks on
queue file system to accept SMTP mail.
(Prior to 8.7 this was minfree/maxsize,
where minfree was the number of free
blocks and maxsize was the maximum
message size. Use
confMAX_MESSAGE_SIZE
for the second value now.) |
| confMAX_MESSAGE_SIZE |
MaxMessageSize |
[infinite] The maximum size of messages
that will be accepted (in bytes). |
| confBLANK_SUB |
BlankSub |
[.] Blank (space) substitution
character. |
| confCON_EXPENSIVE |
HoldExpensive |
[False] Avoid connecting immediately
to mailers marked expensive? |
| confCHECKPOINT_INTERVAL |
CheckpointInterval |
[10] Checkpoint queue files every N
recipients. |
| confDELIVERY_MODE |
DeliveryMode |
[background] Default delivery mode. |
| confAUTO_REBUILD |
AutoRebuildAliases |
[False] Automatically rebuild alias
file if needed. |
| confERROR_MODE |
ErrorMode |
[print] Error message mode. |
| confERROR_MESSAGE |
ErrorHeader |
[undefined] Error message header/file. |
| confSAVE_FROM_LINES |
SaveFromLine |
Save extra leading From_ lines. |
| confTEMP_FILE_MODE |
TempFileMode |
[0600] Temporary file mode. |
| confMATCH_GECOS |
MatchGECOS |
[False] Match GECOS field. |
| confMAX_HOP |
MaxHopCount |
[25] Maximum hop count. |
| confIGNORE_DOTS* |
IgnoreDots |
[False; always False in -bs or -bd mode]
Ignore dot as terminator for incoming
messages? |
| confBIND_OPTS |
ResolverOptions |
[undefined] Default options for DNS
resolver. |
| confMIME_FORMAT_ERRORS* |
SendMimeErrors |
[True] Send error messages as MIME-
encapsulated messages per
RFC 1344 |
| confFORWARD_PATH |
ForwardPath |
[$z/.forward.$w:$z/.forward]
The colon-separated list of places to
search for .forward files. N.B.: see
the Security Notes section. |
| confMCI_CACHE_SIZE |
ConnectionCacheSize |
[2] Size of open connection cache. |
| confMCI_CACHE_TIMEOUT |
ConnectionCacheTimeout |
[5m] Open connection cache timeout. |
| confHOST_STATUS_DIRECTORY |
HostStatusDirectory |
[undefined] If set, host status is kept
on disk between sendmail runs in the
named directory tree. This need not be
a full pathname, in which case it is
interpreted relative to the queue
directory. |
| confSINGLE_THREAD_DELIVERY |
SingleThreadDelivery |
[False] If this option and the
HostStatusDirectory option are both
set, single thread deliveries to other
hosts. That is, don't allow any two
sendmails on this host to connect
simultaneously to any other single
host. This can slow down delivery in
some cases, in particular since a
cached but otherwise idle connection
to a host will prevent other sendmails
from connecting to the other host. |
| confUSE_ERRORS_TO* |
UseErrorsTo |
[False] Use the Errors-To: header to
deliver error messages. This should
not be necessary because of general
acceptance of the envelope/header
distinction. |
| confLOG_LEVEL |
LogLevel |
[9] Log level. |
| confME_TOO |
MeToo |
[False] Include sender in group
expansions. |
| confCHECK_ALIASES |
CheckAliases |
[False] Check RHS of aliases when
running newaliases. Since this does
DNS lookups on every address, it can
slow down the alias rebuild process
considerably on large alias files. |
| confOLD_STYLE_HEADERS* |
OldStyleHeaders |
[True] Assume that headers without
special chars are old style. |
| confDAEMON_OPTIONS |
DaemonPortOptions |
[none] SMTP daemon options. |
| confPRIVACY_FLAGS |
PrivacyOptions |
[authwarnings] Privacy flags. |
| confCOPY_ERRORS_TO |
PostmasterCopy |
[undefined] Address for additional
copies of all error messages. |
| confQUEUE_FACTOR |
QueueFactor |
[600000] Slope of queue-only function. |
| confDONT_PRUNE_ROUTES |
DontPruneRoutes |
[False] Don't prune down route-addr
syntax addresses to the minimum
possible. |
| confSAFE_QUEUE* |
SuperSafe |
[True] Commit all messages to disk
before forking. |
| confTO_INITIAL |
Timeout.initial |
[5m] The timeout waiting for a response
on the initial connect. |
| confTO_CONNECT |
Timeout.connect |
[0] The timeout waiting for an initial
connect() to complete. This can only
shorten connection timeouts; the kernel
silently enforces an absolute maximum
(which varies depending on the system). |
| confTO_ICONNECT |
Timeout.iconnect |
[undefined] Like Timeout.connect, but
applies only to the very first attempt
to connect to a host in a message.
This allows a single very fast pass
followed by more careful delivery
attempts in the future. |
| confTO_HELO |
Timeout.helo |
[5m] The timeout waiting for a response
to a HELO or EHLO command. |
| confTO_MAIL |
Timeout.mail |
[10m] The timeout waiting for a
response to the MAIL command. |
| confTO_RCPT |
Timeout.rcpt |
[1h] The timeout waiting for a response
to the RCPT command. |
| confTO_DATAINIT |
Timeout.datainit |
[5m] The timeout waiting for a 354
response from the DATA command. |
| confTO_DATABLOCK |
Timeout.datablock |
[1h] The timeout waiting for a block
during DATA phase. |
| confTO_DATAFINAL |
Timeout.datafinal |
[1h] The timeout waiting for a response
to the final "." that terminates a
message. |
| confTO_RSET |
Timeout.rset |
[5m] The timeout waiting for a response
to the RSET command. |
| confTO_QUIT |
Timeout.quit |
[2m] The timeout waiting for a response
to the QUIT command. |
| confTO_MISC |
Timeout.misc |
[2m] The timeout waiting for a response
to other SMTP commands. |
| confTO_COMMAND |
Timeout.command |
[1h] In server SMTP, the timeout waiting
for a command to be issued. |
| confTO_IDENT |
Timeout.ident |
[30s] The timeout waiting for a response
to an IDENT query. |
| confTO_FILEOPEN |
Timeout.fileopen |
[60s] The timeout waiting for a file
(e.g., :include: file) to be opened. |
| confTO_QUEUERETURN |
Timeout.queuereturn |
[5d] The timeout before a message is
returned as undeliverable. |
| confTO_QUEUERETURN_NORMAL |
Timeout.queuereturn.normal |
[undefined] As above, for normal
priority messages. |
| confTO_QUEUERETURN_URGENT |
Timeout.queuereturn.urgent |
[undefined] As above, for urgent
priority messages. |
| confTO_QUEUERETURN_NONURGENT |
Timeout.queuereturn.non-urgent |
[undefined] As above, for non-urgent
(low) priority messages. |
| confTO_QUEUEWARN |
Timeout.queuewarn |
[4h] The timeout before a warning
message is sent to the sender telling
them that the message has been deferred. |
| confTO_QUEUEWARN_NORMAL |
Timeout.queuewarn.normal |
[undefined] As above, for normal
priority messages. |
| confTO_QUEUEWARN_URGENT |
Timeout.queuewarn.urgent |
[undefined] As above, for urgent
priority messages. |
| confTO_QUEUEWARN_NONURGENT |
Timeout.queuewarn.non-urgent |
[undefined] As above, for non-urgent
(low) priority messages. |
| confTO_HOSTSTATUS |
Timeout.hoststatus |
[30m] How long information about host
statuses will be maintained before it
is considered stale and the host should
be retried. This applies both within
a single queue run and to persistent
information (see below). |
| confTIME_ZONE |
TimeZoneSpec |
[USE_SYSTEM] Time zone info -- can be
USE_SYSTEM to use the system's idea,
USE_TZ to use the user's TZ envariable,
or something else to force that value. |
| confDEF_USER_ID |
DefaultUser |
[1:1] Default user id. |
| confUSERDB_SPEC |
UserDatabaseSpec |
[undefined] User database
specification. |
| confFALLBACK_MX |
FallbackMXhost |
[undefined] Fallback MX host. |
| confTRY_NULL_MX_LIST |
TryNullMXList |
[False] If we are the best MX for a
host and haven't made other
arrangements, try connecting to the
host directly; normally this would be
a config error. |
| confQUEUE_LA |
QueueLA |
[8] Load average at which queue-only
function kicks in. |
| confREFUSE_LA |
RefuseLA |
[12] Load average at which incoming
SMTP connections are refused. |
| confMAX_DAEMON_CHILDREN |
MaxDaemonChildren |
[undefined] The maximum number of
children the daemon will permit. After
this number, connections will be
rejected. If not set or <= 0, there is
no limit. |
| confCONNECTION_RATE_THROTTLE |
ConnectionRateThrottle |
[undefined] The maximum number of
connections permitted per second.
After this many connections are
accepted, further connections will be
delayed. If not set or <= 0, there is
no limit. |
| confWORK_RECIPIENT_FACTOR |
RecipientFactor |
[30000] Cost of each recipient. |
| confSEPARATE_PROC |
ForkEachJob |
[False] Run all deliveries in a separate
process. |
| confWORK_CLASS_FACTOR |
ClassFactor |
[1800] Priority multiplier for class. |
| confWORK_TIME_FACTOR |
RetryFactor |
[90000] Cost of each delivery attempt. |
| confQUEUE_SORT_ORDER |
QueueSortOrder |
[Priority] Queue sort algorithm:
Priority, Host, or Time. |
| confMIN_QUEUE_AGE |
MinQueueAge |
[0] The minimum amount of time a job
must sit in the queue between queue
runs. This allows you to set the
queue run interval low for better
responsiveness without trying all
jobs in each run. |
| confDEF_CHAR_SET |
DefaultCharSet |
[unknown-8bit] When converting
unlabeled 8 bit input to MIME, the
character set to use by default. |
| confSERVICE_SWITCH_FILE |
ServiceSwitchFile |
[/etc/service.switch] The file to use
for the service switch on systems that
do not have a system-defined switch. |
| confHOSTS_FILE |
HostsFile |
[/etc/hosts] The file to use when doing
"file" type access of hosts names. |
| confDIAL_DELAY |
DialDelay |
[0s] If a connection fails, wait this
long and try again. Zero means "don't
retry". This is to allow "dial on
demand" connections to have enough time
to complete a connection. |
| confNO_RCPT_ACTION |
NoRecipientAction |
[none] What to do if there are no legal
recipient fields (To:, Cc: or Bcc:)
in the message. Legal values can
be "none" to just leave the
nonconforming message as is, "add-to"
to add a To: header with all the
known recipients (which may expose
blind recipients), "add-apparently-to"
to do the same but use Apparently-To:
instead of To:, "add-bcc" to add an
empty Bcc: header, or
"add-to-undisclosed" to add the header
``To: undisclosed-recipients:;''. |
| confSAFE_FILE_ENV |
SafeFileEnvironment |
[undefined] If set, sendmail will do a
chroot() into this directory before
writing files. |
| confCOLON_OK_IN_ADDR |
ColonOkInAddr |
[True unless Configuration Level >= 6]
If set, colons are treated as a regular
character in addresses. If not set,
they are treated as the introducer to
the RFC 822 "group"
syntax. Colons are
handled properly in route-addrs. This
option defaults on for V5 and lower
configuration files. |
| confMAX_QUEUE_RUN_SIZE |
MaxQueueRunSize |
[0] If set, limit the maximum size of
any given queue run to this number of
entries. Essentially, this will stop
reading the queue directory after this
number of entries are reached; it does
_not_ pick the highest priority jobs,
so this should be as large as your
system can tolerate. If not set, there
is no limit. |
| confDONT_EXPAND_CNAMES |
DontExpandCnames |
[False] If set, $[ ... $] lookups that
do DNS based lookups do not expand
CNAME records. This currently violates
the published standards, but the IETF
seems to be moving toward legalizing
this. For example, if "FTP.Foo.ORG"
is a CNAME for "Cruft.Foo.ORG", then
with this option set a lookup of
"FTP" will return "FTP.Foo.ORG"; if
clear it returns "Cruft.FOO.ORG". N.B.
you may not see any effect until your
downstream neighbors stop doing CNAME
lookups as well. |
| confFROM_LINE |
UnixFromLine |
[From $g $d] The From_ line used
when sending to files or programs. |
| confSINGLE_LINE_FROM_HEADER |
SingleLineFromHeader |
[False]From: lines that have embedded
newlines are unwrapped onto one line. |
| confALLOW_BOGUS_HELO |
AllowBogusHELO |
[.']Characters to be quoted in a full
name phrase (@,;:\()[] are automatic). |
| confOPERATORS |
OperatorChars |
[.:%@!^/[]+]Address operator characters. |
| confOPERATORS |
OperatorChars |
[.:%@!^/[]+] Address operator
characters. |
| confSMTP_LOGIN_MSG |
SmtpGreetingMessage |
[$j Sendmail $v/$Z; $b]
The initial (spontaneous) SMTP
greeting message. The word "ESMTP"
will be inserted between the first and
second words to convince other
sendmails to try to speak ESMTP. |
| confDONT_INIT_GROUPS |
DontInitGroups |
[False] If set, the initgroups(3)
routine will never be invoked. You
might want to do this if you are
running NIS and you have a large group
map, since this call does a sequential
scan of the map; in a large site this
can cause your ypserv to run
essentially full time. If you set
this, agents run on behalf of users
will only have their primary
(/etc/passwd) group permissions. |
| confUNSAFE_GROUP_WRITES |
UnsafeGroupWrites |
[False] If set, group-writable
:include: and .forward files are
considered "unsafe", that is, programs
and files cannot be directly referenced
from such files. World-writable files
are always considered unsafe. |
| confDOUBLE_BOUNCE_ADDRESS |
DoubleBounceAddress |
[postmaster] If an error occurs when
sending an error message, send that
"double bounce" error message to this
address. |
| confRUN_AS_USER |
RunAsUser |
[undefined] If set, become this user
when reading and delivering mail.
Causes all file reads (e.g., .forward
and :include: files) to be done as
this user. Also, all programs will
be run as this user, and all output
files will be written as this user.
Intended for use only on firewalls
where users do not have accounts. |
| confMAX_RCPTS_PER_MESSAGE |
MaxRecipientsPerMessage |
[infinite]If set, allow no more than the specified number of
recipients in an SMTP envelope. Further recipients receive a 452 error
code (i.e., they are deferred for the next delivery attempt). |
| confDONT_PROBE_INTERFACES |
DontProbeInterfaces |
[False]If set, sendmail will not insert the
names and addresses of any local interfaces into the $=w class (list of known
"equivalent" addresses). If you set this, you must also include some support
for these addresses (e.g., in a mailertable entry) -- otherwise, mail to
addresses in this list will bounce with a configuration error. |
| confDONT_BLAME_SENDMAIL |
DontBlameSendmail |
[safe]Override sendmail's file safety checks. This will
definitely compromise system security and should not be used unless
absolutely necessary. |
| confREJECT_MSG |
- |
[550 Access denied]The message given if the access database
contains REJECT in the value portion. |