Provided by: exim4-base_4.97-4ubuntu4.3_amd64 bug

NAME

       exim4 - a Mail Transfer Agent

SYNOPSIS

       exim4 [options] arguments ...
       mailq [options] arguments ...
       rsmtp [options] arguments ...
       rmail [options] arguments ...
       runq [options] arguments ...
       newaliases [options] arguments ...

DESCRIPTION


       Exim is a mail transfer agent (MTA) developed at the University of Cambridge.  It is a large program with
       very  many  facilities. For a full specification, see the reference manual. This man page contains only a
       description of the command line options. It has been automatically generated from  the  reference  manual
       source, hopefully without too much mangling.

       Like  other  MTAs,  Exim  replaces  Sendmail, and is normally called by user agents (MUAs) using the path
       /usr/sbin/sendmail when they submit messages for delivery (some operating systems use /usr/lib/sendmail).
       This path is normally set up as a symbolic link to the Exim binary. It may also be used by  boot  scripts
       to start the Exim daemon. Many of Exim's command line options are compatible with Sendmail so that it can
       act as a drop-in replacement.

DEFAULT ACTION


       If  no options are present that require a specific action (such as starting the daemon or a queue runner,
       testing an address, receiving a message in a specific format, or listing the queue),  and  there  are  no
       arguments on the command line, Exim outputs a brief message about itself and exits.

       However,  if  there  is  at  least one command line argument, -bm (accept a local message on the standard
       input, with the arguments specifying the recipients) is assumed. Thus, for example, if Exim is  installed
       in /usr/sbin, you can send a message from the command line like this:

         /usr/sbin/exim4 -i <recipient-address(es)>
         <message content, including all the header lines>
         CTRL-D

       The  -i  option  prevents  a line containing just a dot from terminating the message. Only an end-of-file
       (generated by typing CTRL-D if the input is from a terminal) does so.

SETTING OPTIONS BY PROGRAM NAME


       If an Exim binary is called using one of the names listed in  this  section  (typically  via  a  symbolic
       link), certain options are assumed.

       mailq  Behave  as  if  the  option  -bp were present before any other options.  The -bp option requests a
              listing of the contents of the mail queue on the standard output.

       rsmtp  Behaves as if the option -bS were present before any other options, for compatibility with  Smail.
              The -bS option is used for reading in a number of messages in batched SMTP format.

       rmail  Behave as if the -i and -oee options were present before any other options, for compatibility with
              Smail. The name rmail is used as an interface by some UUCP systems. The -i option specifies that a
              dot  on a line by itself does not terminate a non-SMTP message; -oee requests that errors detected
              in non-SMTP messages be reported by emailing the sender.

       runq   Behave as if the option -q were present before any other options, for  compatibility  with  Smail.
              The  -q  option  causes  a single queue runner process to be started. It processes the queue once,
              then exits.

       newaliases
              Behave as if the option -bi  were  present  before  any  other  options,  for  compatibility  with
              Sendmail. This option is used for rebuilding Sendmail's alias file. Exim does not have the concept
              of  a  single  alias file, but can be configured to run a specified command if called with the -bi
              option.

OPTIONS


       -- --     This is a pseudo-option whose only purpose is to terminate the options and therefore  to  cause
                 subsequent  command  line  items  to  be treated as arguments rather than options, even if they
                 begin with hyphens.

       --help    This option causes Exim to output a few sentences stating what  it  is.   The  same  output  is
                 generated if the Exim binary is called with no options and no arguments.

       --version This option is an alias for -bV and causes version information to be displayed.

       -Ac       -Am  These  options  are  used by Sendmail for selecting configuration files and are ignored by
                 Exim.

       -B <type> This is a Sendmail option for selecting 7 or 8 bit processing. Exim is 8-bit clean; it  ignores
                 this option.

       -bd       This  option  runs Exim as a daemon, awaiting incoming SMTP connections. Usually the -bd option
                 is combined with the -q<time> option, to specify that the daemon should also initiate  periodic
                 queue runs.

                 The  -bd  option  can  be  used  only  by  an admin user. If either of the -d (debugging) or -v
                 (verifying) options are set, the daemon does not disconnect from the controlling terminal. When
                 running this way, it can be stopped by pressing ctrl-C.

                 By default, Exim listens for incoming connections to the standard SMTP port on all  the  host's
                 running  interfaces.  However,  it is possible to listen on other ports, on multiple ports, and
                 only on specific interfaces.

                 When a listening daemon is started without the use of -oX  (that  is,  without  overriding  the
                 normal  configuration),  it  writes  its  process id to a file called /run/exim4/exim.pid. This
                 location can be overridden by setting PID_FILE_PATH in  Local/Makefile.  The  file  is  written
                 while Exim is still running as root.

                 When -oX is used on the command line to start a listening daemon, the process id is not written
                 to  the normal pid file path. However, -oP can be used to specify a path on the command line if
                 a pid file is required.

                 The SIGHUP signal can be used to cause the daemon to re-execute itself.  This  should  be  done
                 whenever  Exim's  configuration  file, or any file that is incorporated into it by means of the
                 .include facility, is changed, and also whenever a new version of Exim is installed. It is  not
                 necessary  to do this when other files that are referenced from the configuration (for example,
                 alias files) are changed, because these are reread each time they are used.  Either  a  SIGTERM
                 or  a  SIGINT  signal  should  be  used to cause the daemon to cleanly shut down.  Subprocesses
                 handling recceiving or delivering messages, or for scanning the queue, will not be affected  by
                 the termination of the daemon process.

       -bdf      This  option  has  the same effect as -bd except that it never disconnects from the controlling
                 terminal, even when no debugging is specified.

       -be       Run Exim in expansion testing mode. Exim discards its root privilege, to prevent ordinary users
                 from using this mode to read otherwise inaccessible files. If no arguments are given, Exim runs
                 interactively, prompting for lines of data. Otherwise, it processes each argument in turn.

                 If Exim was built with USE_READLINE=yes in Local/Makefile, it tries  to  load  the  libreadline
                 library  dynamically  whenever  the  -be  option  is  used  without  command line arguments. If
                 successful, it uses the readline() function, which provides extensive line-editing  facilities,
                 for reading the test data. A line history is supported.

                 Long expansion expressions can be split over several lines by using backslash continuations. As
                 in  Exim's  runtime  configuration,  white space at the start of continuation lines is ignored.
                 Each argument or data line is passed through the string expansion mechanism, and the result  is
                 output.  Variable  values  from  the  configuration  file  (for  example,  $qualify_domain) are
                 available, but no message-specific values  (such  as  $message_exim_id)  are  set,  because  no
                 message is being processed (but see -bem and -Mset).

                 Note: If you use this mechanism to test lookups, and you change the data files or databases you
                 are  using,  you  must  exit  and  restart Exim before trying the same lookup again. Otherwise,
                 because each Exim process caches the results of lookups, you will just get the same  result  as
                 before.

                 Macro processing is done on lines before string-expansion: new macros can be defined and macros
                 will be expanded.  Because macros in the config file are often used for secrets, those are only
                 available  to  admin users.  The word "set" at the start of a line, followed by a single space,
                 is recognised specially as defining a value for a variable.  The syntax is otherwise  the  same
                 as the ACL modifier "set =".

       -bem <filename>
                 This  option  operates  like  -be  except  that  it must be followed by the name of a file. For
                 example:

                   exim4 -bem /tmp/testmessage

                 The file is read as a message (as if receiving a locally-submitted non-SMTP message) before any
                 of the test expansions are done. Thus, message-specific variables  such  as  $message_size  and
                 $header_from:  are  available.  However, no Received: header is added to the message. If the -t
                 option is set, recipients are read from the headers in the normal way, and  are  shown  in  the
                 $recipients variable. Note that recipients cannot be given on the command line, because further
                 arguments are taken as strings to expand (just like -be).

       -bF <filename>
                 This  option is the same as -bf except that it assumes that the filter being tested is a system
                 filter. The additional commands that are available only in system filters are recognized.

       -bf <filename>
                 This option runs Exim in user filter testing mode; the file is the filter file  to  be  tested,
                 and  a  test  message must be supplied on the standard input. If there are no message-dependent
                 tests in the filter, an empty file can be supplied.

                 If you want to test a system filter file, use -bF instead of -bf. You can use both -bF and  -bf
                 on  the  same  command, in order to test a system filter and a user filter in the same run. For
                 example:

                   exim4 -bF /system/filter -bf /user/filter </test/message

                 This is helpful when the system filter adds header lines or sets filter variables that are used
                 by the user filter.

                 If the test filter file does not begin with one of the special lines

                   # Exim filter
                   # Sieve filter

                 it is taken to be a normal .forward file, and is tested for validity under that interpretation.

                 The result of an Exim command that uses -bf, provided no errors are detected, is a list of  the
                 actions  that  Exim  would  try to take if presented with the message for real. More details of
                 filter testing are given in the separate document entitled Exim's interfaces to mail filtering.

                 When testing a filter file, the envelope sender can be set by the -f option, or by  a  "From  "
                 line at the start of the test message. Various parameters that would normally be taken from the
                 envelope  recipient  address  of  the  message  can  be set by means of additional command line
                 options (see the next four options).

       -bfd <domain>
                 This sets the domain of the recipient address when a filter file is being tested  by  means  of
                 the -bf option. The default is the value of $qualify_domain.

       -bfl <local part>
                 This  sets  the local part of the recipient address when a filter file is being tested by means
                 of the -bf option. The default is the username of the process that calls  Exim.  A  local  part
                 should  be  specified with any prefix or suffix stripped, because that is how it appears to the
                 filter when a message is actually being delivered.

       -bfp <prefix>
                 This sets the prefix of the local part of the recipient address when a  filter  file  is  being
                 tested by means of the -bf option. The default is an empty prefix.

       -bfs <suffix>
                 This  sets  the  suffix  of the local part of the recipient address when a filter file is being
                 tested by means of the -bf option. The default is an empty suffix.

       -bh <IP address>
                 This option runs a fake SMTP session as if from the given IP address, using the standard  input
                 and  output.  The  IP  address  may  include  a  port number at the end, after a full stop. For
                 example:

                   exim4 -bh 10.9.8.7.1234
                   exim4 -bh fe80::a00:20ff:fe86:a061.5678

                 When an IPv6 address is given, it is converted into canonical form. In the case of  the  second
                 example  above,  the  value  of  $sender_host_address after conversion to the canonical form is
                 fe80:0000:0000:0a00:20ff:fe86:a061.5678.

                 Comments as to what is going on are written to the standard error  file.  These  include  lines
                 beginning  with  "LOG" for anything that would have been logged.  This facility is provided for
                 testing configuration options for incoming messages, to make sure they implement  the  required
                 policy. For example, you can test your relay controls using -bh.

                 Warning 1: You can test features of the configuration that rely on ident (RFC 1413) information
                 by  using  the -oMt option. However, Exim cannot actually perform an ident callout when testing
                 using -bh because there is no incoming SMTP connection.

                 Warning 2: Address verification callouts are also skipped when testing using -bh. If  you  want
                 these callouts to occur, use -bhc instead.

                 Messages  supplied  during  the testing session are discarded, and nothing is written to any of
                 the real log files. There may be pauses when DNS (and other) lookups are taking place,  and  of
                 course  these  may time out. The -oMi option can be used to specify a specific IP interface and
                 port if this is important, and -oMaa and -oMai can be used to set parameters  as  if  the  SMTP
                 session were authenticated.

                 The  exim_checkaccess utility is a "packaged" version of -bh whose output just states whether a
                 given recipient address from a given host is acceptable or not.

                 Features such as authentication and encryption, where the  client  input  is  not  plain  text,
                 cannot  easily be tested with -bh. Instead, you should use a specialized SMTP test program such
                 as swaks.

       -bhc <IP address>
                 This option operates in the same way as -bh, except  that  address  verification  callouts  are
                 performed if required. This includes consulting and updating the callout cache database.

       -bi       Sendmail  interprets the -bi option as a request to rebuild its alias file.  Exim does not have
                 the concept of a single alias file, and so it cannot mimic this behaviour.  However,  calls  to
                 /usr/lib/sendmail with the -bi option tend to appear in various scripts such as NIS make files,
                 so the option must be recognized.

                 If  -bi  is  encountered,  the command specified by the bi_command configuration option is run,
                 under the uid and gid of the caller of Exim. If the -oA option is used, its value is passed  to
                 the  command  as  an  argument.   The  command set by bi_command may not contain arguments. The
                 command can use the exim_dbmbuild utility, or some other means, to rebuild alias files if  this
                 is required. If the bi_command option is not set, calling Exim with -bi is a no-op.

       -bI:help  We  shall  provide various options starting -bI: for querying Exim for information.  The output
                 of many of these will be intended for machine consumption.  This  one  is  not.   The  -bI:help
                 option  asks  Exim  for  a  synopsis  of supported options beginning -bI:.  Use of any of these
                 options shall cause Exim to exit after producing the requested output.

       -bI:dscp  This option causes Exim to emit an alphabetically sorted list of all recognised DSCP names.

       -bI:sieve This option causes Exim to emit an alphabetically sorted list of all supported  Sieve  protocol
                 extensions  on  stdout,  one  per  line.  This is anticipated to be useful for ManageSieve (RFC
                 5804) implementations, in providing that protocol's SIEVE capability  response  line.   As  the
                 precise  list may depend upon compile-time build options, which this option will adapt to, this
                 is the only way to guarantee a correct response.

       -bm       This option runs an Exim receiving process that accepts an incoming, locally-generated  message
                 on  the  standard  input.  The recipients are given as the command arguments (except when -t is
                 also present - see below). Each argument can be a comma-separated list of RFC  2822  addresses.
                 This  is  the default option for selecting the overall action of an Exim call; it is assumed if
                 no other conflicting option is present.

                 If any addresses in the message are unqualified (have no domain), they  are  qualified  by  the
                 values of the qualify_domain or qualify_recipient options, as appropriate. The -bnq option (see
                 below) provides a way of suppressing this for special cases.

                 Policy checks on the contents of local messages can be enforced by means of the non-SMTP ACL.

                 The  return  code  is  zero  if  the message is successfully accepted. Otherwise, the action is
                 controlled by the -oex option setting - see below.

                 The format of the message must be as defined in RFC 2822, except that, for  compatibility  with
                 Sendmail and Smail, a line in one of the forms

                   From sender Fri Jan  5 12:55 GMT 1997
                   From sender Fri, 5 Jan 97 12:55:01

                 (with  the  weekday optional, and possibly with additional text after the date) is permitted to
                 appear at the start of the message. There appears to be no authoritative specification  of  the
                 format  of  this line. Exim recognizes it by matching against the regular expression defined by
                 the uucp_from_pattern option, which can be changed if necessary.

                 The specified sender is treated as if it were given as the argument to the -f option, but if  a
                 -f  option  is  also  present, its argument is used in preference to the address taken from the
                 message. The caller of Exim must be a trusted user for the sender of a message  to  be  set  in
                 this way.

       -bmalware <filename>
                 This  debugging  option  causes Exim to scan the given file or directory (depending on the used
                 scanner interface), using the malware scanning framework.  The option of av_scanner  influences
                 this  option, so if av_scanner's value is dependent upon an expansion then the expansion should
                 have defaults which apply  to  this  invocation.   ACLs  are  not  invoked,  so  if  av_scanner
                 references an ACL variable then that variable will never be populated and -bmalware will fail.

                 Exim  will  have  changed  working  directory  before  resolving  the  filename, so using fully
                 qualified pathnames is advisable.  Exim will be running as the Exim user when it tries to  open
                 the file, rather than as the invoking user.  This option requires admin privileges.

                 The  -bmalware  option will not be extended to be more generally useful, there are better tools
                 for file-scanning.  This option exists to help administrators verify their Exim and AV  scanner
                 configuration.

       -bnq      By  default,  Exim  automatically  qualifies unqualified addresses (those without domains) that
                 appear in messages that are submitted locally (that is, not over  TCP/IP).  This  qualification
                 applies  both  to  addresses  in envelopes, and addresses in header lines. Sender addresses are
                 qualified using qualify_domain, and recipient addresses using qualify_recipient (which defaults
                 to the value of qualify_domain).

                 Sometimes, qualification is not wanted. For example, if -bS  (batch  SMTP)  is  being  used  to
                 re-submit  messages that originally came from remote hosts after content scanning, you probably
                 do not want to qualify unqualified addresses in header lines. (Such lines will be present  only
                 if you have not enabled a header syntax check in the appropriate ACL.)

                 The  -bnq  option  suppresses  all  qualification  of  unqualified  addresses  in messages that
                 originate on the local host. When this is used, unqualified addresses in the  envelope  provoke
                 errors (causing message rejection) and unqualified addresses in header lines are left alone.

       -bP       If  this  option  is  given  with  no  arguments,  it  causes  the  values  of  all Exim's main
                 configuration options to be written to the standard output. The values of one or more  specific
                 options can be requested by giving their names as arguments, for example:

                   exim4 -bP qualify_domain hold_domains

                 However,  any  option  setting that is preceded by the word "hide" in the configuration file is
                 not shown in full, except to an admin user. For other users, the output is as in this example:

                   mysql_servers = <value not displayable>

                 If config is given as an argument, the config is output, as it was  parsed,  any  include  file
                 resolved, any comment removed.

                 If  config_file  is given as an argument, the name of the runtime configuration file is output.
                 (configure_file works too, for backward compatibility.)  If a list of configuration  files  was
                 supplied, the value that is output here is the name of the file that was actually used.

                 If the -n flag is given, then for most modes of -bP operation the name will not be output.

                 If  log_file_path  or pid_file_path are given, the names of the directories where log files and
                 daemon pid files are written are output, respectively. If these values are unset, log files are
                 written in a sub-directory of the spool directory called log,  and  the  pid  file  is  written
                 directly into the spool directory.

                 If -bP is followed by a name preceded by +, for example,

                   exim4 -bP +local_domains

                 it  searches  for  a matching named list of any type (domain, host, address, or local part) and
                 outputs what it finds.

                 If one of the words router, transport, or authenticator is given, followed by the  name  of  an
                 appropriate driver instance, the option settings for that driver are output. For example:

                   exim4 -bP transport local_delivery

                 The  generic  driver options are output first, followed by the driver's private options. A list
                 of the names of drivers of a particular type  can  be  obtained  by  using  one  of  the  words
                 router_list,  transport_list,  or  authenticator_list,  and a complete list of all drivers with
                 their option settings can be obtained by using routers, transports, or authenticators.

                 If environment is given as an argument, the set of environment variables  is  output,  line  by
                 line. Using the -n flag suppresses the value of the variables.

                 If  invoked by an admin user, then macro, macro_list and macros are available, similarly to the
                 drivers.  Because macros are sometimes used for storing passwords, this option  is  restricted.
                 The  output  format is one item per line.  For the "-bP macro <name>" form, if no such macro is
                 found the exit status will be nonzero.

       -bp       This option requests a listing of the contents of the mail queue on the standard output. If the
                 -bp option is followed by a list of message ids, just those messages are  listed.  By  default,
                 this  option  can  be used only by an admin user. However, the queue_list_requires_admin option
                 can be set false to allow any user to see the queue.

                 Each message in the queue is displayed as in the following example:

                   25m  2.9K 0t5C6f-0000c8-00 <alice@wonderland.fict.example>
                             red.king@looking-glass.fict.example
                             <other addresses>

                 The first line contains the length of time the message has been in the queue (in this  case  25
                 minutes),  the size of the message (2.9K), the unique local identifier for the message, and the
                 message sender, as contained in the envelope. For bounce messages, the sender address is empty,
                 and appears as "<>". If the message was submitted locally by an untrusted user who overrode the
                 default sender address, the user's login  name  is  shown  in  parentheses  before  the  sender
                 address.

                 If  the message is frozen (attempts to deliver it are suspended) then the text "*** frozen ***"
                 is displayed at the end of this line.

                 The recipients of the message (taken from the envelope,  not  the  headers)  are  displayed  on
                 subsequent  lines.  Those  addresses to which the message has already been delivered are marked
                 with the letter D. If an original address gets expanded into several addresses via an alias  or
                 forward  file,  the  original  is  displayed with a D only when deliveries for all of its child
                 addresses are complete.

       -bpa      This option operates like -bp, but in addition it shows delivered addresses that were generated
                 from the original top level address(es) in each message  by  alias  or  forwarding  operations.
                 These addresses are flagged with "+D" instead of just "D".

       -bpc      This  option  counts  the number of messages in the queue, and writes the total to the standard
                 output. It is restricted to admin users, unless queue_list_requires_admin is set false.

       -bpi      This option operates like -bp, but only outputs message ids (one per line).

       -bpr      This option operates like -bp, but the output is not sorted into chronological order of message
                 arrival. This can speed it up when there are lots of messages in the queue, and is particularly
                 useful if the output is going to be post-processed in a way that doesn't need the sorting.

       -bpra     This option is a combination of -bpr and -bpa.

       -bpri     This option is a combination of -bpr and -bpi.

       -bpru     This option is a combination of -bpr and -bpu.

       -bpu      This option operates like -bp but shows only undelivered top-level addresses for  each  message
                 displayed.  Addresses generated by aliasing or forwarding are not shown, unless the message was
                 deferred after processing by a router with the one_time option set.

       -brt      This option is for testing retry rules, and it must be followed by up to  three  arguments.  It
                 causes  Exim  to  look for a retry rule that matches the values and to write it to the standard
                 output. For example:

                   exim4 -brt bach.comp.mus.example
                   Retry rule: *.comp.mus.example  F,2h,15m; F,4d,30m;

                  The  first  argument,  which  is  required,  can  be  a   complete   address   in   the   form
                 local_part@domain,  or  it can be just a domain name. If the second argument contains a dot, it
                 is interpreted as an optional second domain name; if no retry  rule  is  found  for  the  first
                 argument,  the second is tried. This ties in with Exim's behaviour when looking for retry rules
                 for remote hosts - if no rule is found that matches the host, one that matches the mail  domain
                 is  sought.  Finally,  an  argument  that  is the name of a specific delivery error, as used in
                 setting up retry rules, can be given. For example:

                   exim4 -brt haydn.comp.mus.example quota_3d
                   Retry rule: *@haydn.comp.mus.example quota_3d  F,1h,15m

       -brw      This option is for testing address rewriting rules,  and  it  must  be  followed  by  a  single
                 argument,  consisting  of  either  a  local part without a domain, or a complete address with a
                 fully qualified domain. Exim outputs how this address would  be  rewritten  for  each  possible
                 place it might appear.

       -bS       This   option  is  used  for  batched  SMTP  input,  which  is  an  alternative  interface  for
                 non-interactive local message submission. A number of messages can be  submitted  in  a  single
                 run.  However,  despite  its  name,  this  is  not really SMTP input. Exim reads each message's
                 envelope from SMTP commands on the standard input, but generates no responses. If the caller is
                 trusted, or untrusted_set_sender is set, the senders in the SMTP MAIL  commands  are  believed;
                 otherwise the sender is always the caller of Exim.

                 The  message  itself  is  read  from the standard input, in SMTP format (leading dots doubled),
                 terminated by a line containing just a single dot. An error is provoked if the terminating  dot
                 is missing. A further message may then follow.

                 As  for  other  local  message submissions, the contents of incoming batch SMTP messages can be
                 checked using the non-SMTP  ACL.   Unqualified  addresses  are  automatically  qualified  using
                 qualify_domain and qualify_recipient, as appropriate, unless the -bnq option is used.

                 Some  other  SMTP  commands are recognized in the input. HELO and EHLO act as RSET; VRFY, EXPN,
                 ETRN, and HELP act as NOOP; QUIT quits, ignoring the rest of the standard input.

                 If any error is encountered, reports are written to the standard output and error streams,  and
                 Exim  gives  up  immediately.  The return code is 0 if no error was detected; it is 1 if one or
                 more messages were accepted before the error was detected; otherwise it is 2.

       -bs       This option causes Exim to accept one or more messages by reading SMTP commands on the standard
                 input, and producing SMTP replies on the standard output. SMTP policy controls, as  defined  in
                 ACLs  are  applied.   Some user agents use this interface as a way of passing locally-generated
                 messages to the MTA.

                 In this usage, if the caller of Exim is trusted, or untrusted_set_sender is set, the senders of
                 messages are taken from the SMTP MAIL commands.  Otherwise the content  of  these  commands  is
                 ignored  and  the sender is set up as the calling user. Unqualified addresses are automatically
                 qualified using qualify_domain and qualify_recipient, as appropriate, unless the -bnq option is
                 used.

                 The -bs option is also used to run Exim from inetd, as an  alternative  to  using  a  listening
                 daemon.  Exim  can distinguish the two cases by checking whether the standard input is a TCP/IP
                 socket. When Exim is called from inetd, the source of the mail is assumed to be remote, and the
                 comments above concerning senders and qualification do  not  apply.  In  this  situation,  Exim
                 behaves in exactly the same way as it does when receiving a message via the listening daemon.

       -bt       This  option  runs Exim in address testing mode, in which each argument is taken as a recipient
                 address to be tested for deliverability. The results are written to the standard output.  If  a
                 test  fails, and the caller is not an admin user, no details of the failure are output, because
                 these might contain sensitive information such as usernames and passwords for database lookups.

                 If no arguments are given, Exim runs in an interactive manner, prompting  with  a  right  angle
                 bracket for addresses to be tested.

                 Unlike the -be test option, you cannot arrange for Exim to use the readline() function, because
                 it is running as root and there are security issues.

                 Each  address  is  handled  as  if  it were the recipient address of a message (compare the -bv
                 option). It is passed to the routers and the result is written to the standard output. However,
                 any router that has no_address_test set is bypassed. This  can  make  -bt  easier  to  use  for
                 genuine routing tests if your first router passes everything to a scanner program.

                 The  return code is 2 if any address failed outright; it is 1 if no address failed outright but
                 at least one could not be resolved for some reason. Return  code  0  is  given  only  when  all
                 addresses succeed.

                 Note:  When  actually  delivering  a  message, Exim removes duplicate recipient addresses after
                 routing is complete, so that only one delivery takes place.  This does not happen when  testing
                 with -bt; the full results of routing are always shown.

                 Warning:  -bt can only do relatively simple testing. If any of the routers in the configuration
                 makes any tests on the sender address of a message, you  can  use  the  -f  option  to  set  an
                 appropriate  sender when running -bt tests. Without it, the sender is assumed to be the calling
                 user at the default qualifying domain. However, if you have set up (for example) routers  whose
                 behaviour  depends  on  the  contents  of an incoming message, you cannot test those conditions
                 using -bt. The -N option provides a possible way of doing such tests.

       -bV       This option  causes  Exim  to  write  the  current  version  number,  compilation  number,  and
                 compilation  date  of  the  exim4 binary to the standard output.  It also lists the DBM library
                 that is being used, the optional modules (such as specific lookup types), the drivers that  are
                 included in the binary, and the name of the runtime configuration file that is in use.

                 As  part  of  its  operation,  -bV causes Exim to read and syntax check its configuration file.
                 However, this is a static check only. It cannot check values  that  are  to  be  expanded.  For
                 example, although a misspelt ACL verb is detected, an error in the verb's arguments is not. You
                 cannot  rely  on  -bV  alone to discover (for example) all the typos in the configuration; some
                 realistic testing is needed. The -bh and -N options provide more dynamic testing facilities.

       -bv       This option runs Exim in address verification mode, in  which  each  argument  is  taken  as  a
                 recipient  address  to  be  verified  by  the  routers. (This does not involve any verification
                 callouts). During normal operation, verification happens mostly as a consequence  processing  a
                 verify condition in an ACL. If you want to test an entire ACL, possibly including callouts, see
                 the -bh and -bhc options.

                 If  verification  fails,  and  the  caller  is not an admin user, no details of the failure are
                 output, because these might contain sensitive information such as usernames and  passwords  for
                 database lookups.

                 If  no  arguments  are  given, Exim runs in an interactive manner, prompting with a right angle
                 bracket for addresses to be verified.

                 Unlike the -be test option, you cannot arrange for Exim to use the readline() function, because
                 it is running as exim4 and there are security issues.

                 Verification differs from address testing (the -bt option) in that routers that have  no_verify
                 set  are  skipped,  and  if  the  address  is  accepted  by  a router that has fail_verify set,
                 verification fails. The address is verified as a recipient if -bv is used; to test verification
                 for a sender address, -bvs should be used.

                 If the -v option is not set, the output consists of a single line  for  each  address,  stating
                 whether  it was verified or not, and giving a reason in the latter case. Without -v, generating
                 more than  one  address  by  redirection  causes  verification  to  end  successfully,  without
                 considering  the  generated  addresses.  However,  if just one address is generated, processing
                 continues, and the generated address must verify successfully for the overall  verification  to
                 succeed.

                 When  -v is set, more details are given of how the address has been handled, and in the case of
                 address redirection, all the generated addresses are also considered. Verification may  succeed
                 for some and fail for others.

                 The  return code is 2 if any address failed outright; it is 1 if no address failed outright but
                 at least one could not be resolved for some reason. Return  code  0  is  given  only  when  all
                 addresses succeed.

                 If  any of the routers in the configuration makes any tests on the sender address of a message,
                 you should use the -f option to set an appropriate sender when running -bv tests.  Without  it,
                 the sender is assumed to be the calling user at the default qualifying domain.

       -bvs      This  option  acts  like  -bv,  but  verifies  the  address as a sender rather than a recipient
                 address. This affects any rewriting and qualification that might happen.

       -bw       This option runs Exim as a daemon, awaiting incoming SMTP connections,  similarly  to  the  -bd
                 option.  All port specifications on the command-line and in the configuration file are ignored.
                 Queue-running may not be specified.

                 In  this  mode,  Exim  expects  to  be  passed  a socket as fd 0 (stdin) which is listening for
                 connections.  This permits the system to start up and have inetd (or equivalent) listen on  the
                 SMTP ports, starting an Exim daemon for each port only when the first connection is received.

                 If  the  option  is  given as -bw<time> then the time is a timeout, after which the daemon will
                 exit, which should cause inetd to listen once more.

       -C <filelist>
                 This option causes Exim to find the runtime configuration file from the given list  instead  of
                 from  the  list  specified  by  the CONFIGURE_FILE compile-time setting. Usually, the list will
                 consist of just a single filename, but it can be a colon-separated list of names. In this case,
                 the first file that exists is used. Failure to open an existing file stops Exim from proceeding
                 any further along the list, and an error is generated.

                 When this option is used by a caller other than root,  and  the  list  is  different  from  the
                 compiled-in  list,  Exim  gives  up  its root privilege immediately, and runs with the real and
                 effective uid and gid set to those of the caller.  However, if a  TRUSTED_CONFIG_LIST  file  is
                 defined  in  Local/Makefile,  that  file  contains  a list of full pathnames, one per line, for
                 configuration files which are trusted. Root privilege is retained for any configuration file so
                 listed, as long as the caller is the Exim user (or the user specified  in  the  CONFIGURE_OWNER
                 option,  if any), and as long as the configuration file is not writeable by inappropriate users
                 or groups.

                 Leaving TRUSTED_CONFIG_LIST unset precludes the possibility of testing a configuration using -C
                 right through message reception and delivery, even if the caller is root. The reception  works,
                 but  by that time, Exim is running as the Exim user, so when it re-executes to regain privilege
                 for the delivery, the use of -C causes privilege to be lost. However, root can  test  reception
                 and  delivery  using  two separate commands (one to put a message in the queue, using -odq, and
                 another to do the delivery, using -M).

                 If ALT_CONFIG_PREFIX is defined in Local/Makefile, it specifies a prefix string with which  any
                 file  named  in a -C command line option must start. In addition, the filename must not contain
                 the sequence /../.  However, if the value of the  -C  option  is  identical  to  the  value  of
                 CONFIGURE_FILE  in  Local/Makefile,  Exim ignores -C and proceeds as usual. There is no default
                 setting for ALT_CONFIG_PREFIX; when it is unset, any filename can be used with -C.

                 ALT_CONFIG_PREFIX can be used to confine alternative configuration  files  to  a  directory  to
                 which  only  root  has  access. This prevents someone who has broken into the Exim account from
                 running a privileged Exim with an arbitrary configuration file.

                 The -C facility is useful for ensuring that configuration files are syntactically correct,  but
                 cannot  be used for test deliveries, unless the caller is privileged, or unless it is an exotic
                 configuration that does not require privilege. No check is made on the owner or  group  of  the
                 files specified by this option.

       -D<macro>=<value>
                 This  option can be used to override macro definitions in the configuration file. However, like
                 -C, if it is used by an unprivileged caller, it causes Exim to give up its root privilege.   If
                 DISABLE_D_OPTION  is  defined  in Local/Makefile, the use of -D is completely disabled, and its
                 use causes an immediate error exit.

                 If WHITELIST_D_MACROS is defined in Local/Makefile then it should be a colon-separated list  of
                 macros which are considered safe and, if -D only supplies macros from this list, and the values
                 are  acceptable,  then  Exim  will  not  give up root privilege if the caller is root, the Exim
                 run-time user, or the CONFIGURE_OWNER, if set.  This is a transition mechanism and is  expected
                 to  be  removed  in  the  future.   Acceptable  values  for  the  macros  satisfy  the  regexp:
                 ^[A-Za-z0-9_/.-]*$

                 The entire option (including equals sign if present) must all be within one command line  item.
                 -D  can  be used to set the value of a macro to the empty string, in which case the equals sign
                 is optional. These two commands are synonymous:

                   exim4 -DABC  ...
                   exim4 -DABC= ...

                 To include spaces in a macro definition item, quotes must be used. If you  use  quotes,  spaces
                 are permitted around the macro name and the equals sign. For example:

                   exim4 '-D ABC = something' ...

                 -D  may  be  repeated up to 10 times on a command line.  Only macro names up to 22 letters long
                 can be set.

       -d<debug options>
                 This option causes debugging information to be written to the  standard  error  stream.  It  is
                 restricted  to  admin  users  because  debugging  output may show database queries that contain
                 password information. Also, the details of users'  filter  files  should  be  protected.  If  a
                 non-admin  user  uses  -d,  Exim writes an error message to the standard error stream and exits
                 with a non-zero return code.

                 When -d is used, -v is assumed. If -d is given on its own, a lot of standard debugging data  is
                 output.  This  can  be reduced, or increased to include some more rarely needed information, by
                 directly following -d with a string made up of names preceded  by  plus  or  minus  characters.
                 These  add  or  remove sets of debugging data, respectively. For example, -d+filter adds filter
                 debugging, whereas -d-all+filter selects only filter debugging. Note that no spaces are allowed
                 in the debug setting. The available debugging categories are:
                     acl ACL interpretation
                     auth authenticators
                     deliver general delivery logic
                     dns DNS lookups (see also resolver)
                     dnsbl DNS black list (aka RBL) code
                     exec arguments for execv() calls
                     expand detailed debugging for string expansions
                     filter filter handling
                     hints_lookup hints data lookups
                     host_lookup all types of name-to-IP address handling
                     ident ident lookup
                     interface lists of local interfaces
                     lists matching things in lists
                     load system load checks
                     local_scan can be used by local_scan()
                     lookup general lookup code and all lookups
                     memory memory handling
                     noutf8 modifier: avoid UTF-8 line-drawing
                     pid modifier: add pid to debug output lines
                     process_info setting info for the process log
                     queue_run queue runs
                     receive general message reception logic
                     resolver turn on the DNS resolver's debugging output
                     retry retry handling
                     rewrite address rewriting"
                     route address routing
                     timestamp modifier: add timestamp to debug output lines
                     tls TLS logic
                     transport transports
                     uid changes of uid/gid and looking up uid/gid
                     verify address verification logic
                     all almost all of the above (see below), and also -v

                 The all option excludes memory when used as +all, but includes it for -all. The reason for this
                 is that +all is something that people tend  to  use  when  generating  debug  output  for  Exim
                 maintainers.  If +memory is included, an awful lot of output that is very rarely of interest is
                 generated, so it now has to be explicitly requested. However, -all does turn everything off.

                 The resolver option produces output only if the DNS resolver was compiled with  DEBUG  enabled.
                 This  is not the case in some operating systems. Also, unfortunately, debugging output from the
                 DNS resolver is written to stdout rather than stderr.

                 The default (-d with no argument) omits expand, filter, interface, load, memory, pid, resolver,
                 and timestamp.  However, the pid selector is forced when debugging is turned on for  a  daemon,
                 which then passes it on to any re-executed Exims. Exim also automatically adds the pid to debug
                 lines when several remote deliveries are run in parallel.

                 The  timestamp selector causes the current time to be inserted at the start of all debug output
                 lines. This can be useful when trying to track down delays in processing.

                 The noutf8 selector disables  the  use  of  UTF-8  line-drawing  characters  to  group  related
                 information.   When  disabled.  ascii-art  is used instead.  Using the +all option does not set
                 this modifier,

                 If the debug_print option is set in any driver, it produces output whenever  any  debugging  is
                 selected, or if -v is used.

       -dd<debug options>
                 This option behaves exactly like -d except when used on a command that starts a daemon process.
                 In that case, debugging is turned off for the subprocesses that the daemon creates. Thus, it is
                 useful  for  monitoring  the  behaviour  of  the daemon without creating as much output as full
                 debugging does.

       -dropcr   This is an obsolete option that is now a no-op. It used to affect the way Exim handled  CR  and
                 LF characters in incoming messages.

       -E        This  option specifies that an incoming message is a locally-generated delivery failure report.
                 It is used internally by Exim when handling delivery failures and is not intended for  external
                 use.  Its  only  effect  is  to  stop  Exim  generating  certain messages to the postmaster, as
                 otherwise message cascades could occur in some situations.  As  part  of  the  same  option,  a
                 message  id  may follow the characters -E. If it does, the log entry for the receipt of the new
                 message contains the id, following "R=", as a cross-reference.

       -ex       There are a number of Sendmail options starting with -oe which seem to  be  called  by  various
                 programs  without the leading o in the option. For example, the vacation program uses -eq. Exim
                 treats all options of the form -ex as synonymous with the corresponding -oex options.

       -F <string>
                 This option sets the sender's full name for use  when  a  locally-generated  message  is  being
                 accepted. In the absence of this option, the user's gecos entry from the password data is used.
                 As  users  are generally permitted to alter their gecos entries, no security considerations are
                 involved. White space between -F and the <string> is optional.

       -f <address>
                 This option sets the address of the envelope sender of a locally-generated message (also  known
                 as  the  return  path).  The  option  can  normally  be  used  only  by  a  trusted  user,  but
                 untrusted_set_sender can be set to allow untrusted users to use it.

                 Processes running as root or the Exim user are always trusted. Other trusted users are  defined
                 by  the  trusted_users or trusted_groups options. In the absence of -f, or if the caller is not
                 trusted, the sender of a local message is set to the caller's login name at the default qualify
                 domain.

                 There is one exception to the restriction on the use of -f: an empty sender can be specified by
                 any user, trusted or not, to create a message that can never provoke a bounce. An empty  sender
                 can be specified either as an empty string, or as a pair of angle brackets with nothing between
                 them, as in these examples of shell commands:

                   exim4 -f '<>' user@domain
                   exim4 -f "" user@domain

                 In  addition,  the  use  of  -f  is  not restricted when testing a filter file with -bf or when
                 testing or verifying addresses using the -bt or -bv options.

                 Allowing untrusted users to change the sender address does not of itself make  it  possible  to
                 send  anonymous  mail. Exim still checks that the From: header refers to the local user, and if
                 it  does  not,  it  adds  a  Sender:  header,  though  this  can  be  overridden   by   setting
                 no_local_from_check.

                 White  space  between  -f  and  the  <address>  is  optional (that is, they can be given as two
                 arguments or one combined argument). The sender of a locally-generated message can also be  set
                 (when permitted) by an initial "From " line in the message - see the description of -bm above -
                 but if -f is also present, it overrides "From ".

       -G        This option is equivalent to an ACL applying:

                   control = suppress_local_fixups

                 for  every message received.  Note that Sendmail will complain about such bad formatting, where
                 Exim silently just does not fix it up.  This may change in future.

                 As this affects audit information, the caller must be a trusted user to use this option.

       -h <number>
                 This option is accepted for compatibility with Sendmail, but has no  effect.  (In  Sendmail  it
                 overrides the "hop count" obtained by counting Received: headers.)

       -i        This  option, which has the same effect as -oi, specifies that a dot on a line by itself should
                 not terminate an incoming, non-SMTP message.  Solaris 2.4 (SunOS 5.4) Sendmail has a similar -i
                 processing option https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19457-01/801-6680-1M/801-6680-1M.pdf, p. 1M-529),
                 and therefore a -oi command line option, which both are used by its mailx command.

       -L <tag>  This option is equivalent  to  setting  syslog_processname  in  the  config  file  and  setting
                 log_file_path  to syslog.  Its use is restricted to administrators.  The configuration file has
                 to be read and parsed, to determine access rights, before this is  set  and  takes  effect,  so
                 early configuration file errors will not honour this flag.

                 The tag should not be longer than 32 characters.

       -M <message id> <message id> ...
                 This  option  requests  Exim  to  run a delivery attempt on each message in turn. If any of the
                 messages are frozen, they are automatically thawed before the delivery attempt. The settings of
                 queue_domains, queue_smtp_domains, and hold_domains are ignored.

                 Retry hints for any of the addresses are overridden - Exim tries to deliver even if the  normal
                 retry  time  has  not  yet  been  reached. This option requires the caller to be an admin user.
                 However, there is an option called prod_requires_admin which can be set  false  to  relax  this
                 restriction (and also the same requirement for the -q, -R, and -S options).

                 The  deliveries  happen  synchronously,  that  is, the original Exim process does not terminate
                 until all the delivery attempts have finished. No output is produced unless there is a  serious
                 error.  If you want to see what is happening, use the -v option as well, or inspect Exim's main
                 log.

       -Mar <message id> <address> <address> ...
                 This option requests Exim to add the addresses to the list of recipients of the  message  ("ar"
                 for  "add recipients"). The first argument must be a message id, and the remaining ones must be
                 email addresses. However, if the message is active (in the middle of a delivery attempt), it is
                 not altered. This option can be used only by an admin user.

       -MC <transport> <hostname> <host IP> <sequence number> <message id>
                 This option is not intended for use by external callers. It  is  used  internally  by  Exim  to
                 invoke  another  instance  of  itself  to  deliver  a  waiting  message  using an existing SMTP
                 connection, which is passed as the standard input. This must  be  the  final  option,  and  the
                 caller must be root or the Exim user in order to use it.

       -MCA      This  option  is  not  intended  for  use by external callers. It is used internally by Exim in
                 conjunction with the -MC option. It signifies that the connection to the remote host  has  been
                 authenticated.

       -MCD      This  option  is  not  intended  for  use by external callers. It is used internally by Exim in
                 conjunction with the -MC option. It signifies that the  remote  host  supports  the  ESMTP  DSN
                 extension.

       -MCd      This  option  is  not  intended  for  use by external callers. It is used internally by Exim in
                 conjunction with the -d option to pass on an information string on the purpose of the process.

       -MCG <queue name>
                 This option is not intended for use by external callers. It  is  used  internally  by  Exim  in
                 conjunction  with  the  -MC  option. It signifies that an alternate queue is used, named by the
                 following argument.

       -MCK      This option is not intended for use by external callers. It  is  used  internally  by  Exim  in
                 conjunction  with  the  -MC option. It signifies that a remote host supports the ESMTP CHUNKING
                 extension.

       -MCL      This option is not intended for use by external callers. It  is  used  internally  by  Exim  in
                 conjunction  with  the  -MC  option.  It  signifies  that the server to which Exim is connected
                 advertised limits on numbers of mails, recipients or recipient domains.  The limits  are  given
                 by the following three arguments.

       -MCP      This  option  is  not  intended  for  use by external callers. It is used internally by Exim in
                 conjunction with the -MC option. It signifies that  the  server  to  which  Exim  is  connected
                 supports pipelining.

       -MCp      This  option  is  not  intended  for  use by external callers. It is used internally by Exim in
                 conjunction with the -MC option. It signifies that the connection t a remote server  is  via  a
                 SOCKS proxy, using addresses and ports given by the following four arguments.

       -MCQ <process id> <pipe fd>
                 This  option  is  not  intended  for  use by external callers. It is used internally by Exim in
                 conjunction with the -MC option when the original delivery was started by a  queue  runner.  It
                 passes  on  the  process id of the queue runner, together with the file descriptor number of an
                 open pipe. Closure of the pipe signals the final completion of the sequence of  processes  that
                 are passing messages through the same SMTP connection.

       -MCq <recipient address> <size>
                 This  option  is  not  intended  for  use by external callers. It is used internally by Exim to
                 implement quota checking for local users.

       -MCS      This option is not intended for use by external callers. It  is  used  internally  by  Exim  in
                 conjunction  with  the  -MC option, and passes on the fact that the ESMTP SIZE option should be
                 used on messages delivered down the existing connection.

       -MCT      This option is not intended for use by external callers. It  is  used  internally  by  Exim  in
                 conjunction  with  the  -MC  option,  and  passes  on  the  fact that the host to which Exim is
                 connected supports TLS encryption.

       -MCr <SNI>
                 -MCs <SNI> These options are not intended for use by external callers. It is used internally by
                 Exim in conjunction with the -MCt option, and passes  on  the  fact  that  a  TLS  Server  Name
                 Indication  was  sent as part of the channel establishment.  The argument gives the SNI string.
                 The "r" variant indicates a DANE-verified connection.

       -MCt <IP address> <port> <cipher>
                 This option is not intended for use by external callers. It  is  used  internally  by  Exim  in
                 conjunction with the -MC option, and passes on the fact that the connection is being proxied by
                 a  parent  process  for handling TLS encryption.  The arguments give the local address and port
                 being proxied, and the TLS cipher.

       -Mc <message id> <message id> ...
                 This option requests Exim to run a delivery attempt on each message, in turn, but unlike the -M
                 option, it does check for retry hints, and respects any that are found. This option is not very
                 useful to external callers. It is provided mainly for internal use by Exim  when  it  needs  to
                 re-invoke  itself in order to regain root privilege for a delivery.  However, -Mc can be useful
                 when testing, in order to run a delivery that respects retry times and other  options  such  as
                 hold_domains  that  are  overridden  when -M is used. Such a delivery does not count as a queue
                 run.  If you want to run a specific delivery as if in a queue run, you should  use  -q  with  a
                 message id argument. A distinction between queue run deliveries and other deliveries is made in
                 one or two places.

       -Mes <message id> <address>
                 This  option  requests  Exim  to change the sender address in the message to the given address,
                 which must be a fully qualified address or "<>" ("es" for "edit sender"). There must be exactly
                 two arguments. The first argument must be a message id, and the second one  an  email  address.
                 However,  if  the  message  is  active (in the middle of a delivery attempt), its status is not
                 altered.  This option can be used only by an admin user.

       -Mf <message id> <message id> ...
                 This option requests Exim to mark each listed message as "frozen". This prevents  any  delivery
                 attempts  taking  place  until  the  message is "thawed", either manually or as a result of the
                 auto_thaw configuration option.  However, if any of the messages are active (in the middle of a
                 delivery attempt), their status is not altered. This option can be used only by an admin user.

       -Mg <message id> <message id> ...
                 This option requests Exim to give up trying to deliver the listed messages, including any  that
                 are  frozen.  However,  if  any  of  the  messages are active, their status is not altered. For
                 non-bounce messages, a delivery error message is sent to the sender.  Bounce messages are  just
                 discarded. This option can be used only by an admin user.

       -MG <queue name> <message id> <message id> ...
                 This  option  requests  that  each  listed message be moved from its current queue to the given
                 named queue.  The destination queue name argument is required, but can be an  empty  string  to
                 define  the  default  queue.  If the messages are not currently located in the default queue, a
                 -qG<name> option will be required to define the source queue.

       -Mmad <message id> <message id> ...
                 This option requests Exim to mark all the  recipient  addresses  in  the  messages  as  already
                 delivered ("mad" for "mark all delivered"). However, if any message is active (in the middle of
                 a delivery attempt), its status is not altered. This option can be used only by an admin user.

       -Mmd <message id> <address> <address> ...
                 This  option  requests  Exim  to  mark the given addresses as already delivered ("md" for "mark
                 delivered"). The first argument must be a message id, and the  remaining  ones  must  be  email
                 addresses.  These are matched to recipient addresses in the message in a case-sensitive manner.
                 If the message is active (in the middle of a delivery attempt), its status is not altered. This
                 option can be used only by an admin user.

       -Mrm <message id> <message id> ...
                 This option requests Exim to remove the given messages from the queue. No bounce  messages  are
                 sent;  each  message  is  simply  forgotten.  However, if any of the messages are active, their
                 status is not altered. This option can be used only by  an  admin  user  or  by  the  user  who
                 originally caused the message to be placed in the queue.

       -Mset <message id>
                 This  option  is useful only in conjunction with -be (that is, when testing string expansions).
                 Exim loads the given message from its spool before doing  the  test  expansions,  thus  setting
                 message-specific  variables  such  as  $message_size  and the header variables. The $recipients
                 variable is made available. This feature is provided to make it easier to test expansions  that
                 make  use  of these variables. However, this option can be used only by an admin user. See also
                 -bem.

       -Mt <message id> <message id> ...
                 This option requests Exim to "thaw" any of the listed  messages  that  are  "frozen",  so  that
                 delivery  attempts  can resume. However, if any of the messages are active, their status is not
                 altered. This option can be used only by an admin user.

       -Mvb <message id>
                 This option causes the contents of the message body (-D)  spool  file  to  be  written  to  the
                 standard output. This option can be used only by an admin user.

       -Mvc <message id>
                 This option causes a copy of the complete message (header lines plus body) to be written to the
                 standard output in RFC 2822 format. This option can be used only by an admin user.

       -Mvh <message id>
                 This  option  causes  the  contents of the message headers (-H) spool file to be written to the
                 standard output. This option can be used only by an admin user.

       -Mvl <message id>
                 This option causes the contents of the message log spool file to be  written  to  the  standard
                 output. This option can be used only by an admin user.

       -m        This      is     a     synonym     for     -om     that     is     accepted     by     Sendmail
                 (https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19457-01/801-6680-1M/801-6680-1M.pdf p. 1M-258), so Exim treats it
                 that way too.

       -N        This is a debugging option that inhibits delivery of a  message  at  the  transport  level.  It
                 implies  -v.  Exim  goes  through  many  of  the motions of delivery - it just doesn't actually
                 transport the message, but instead behaves as if it had successfully done so. However, it  does
                 not make any updates to the retry database, and the log entries for deliveries are flagged with
                 "*>" rather than "=>".

                 Because  -N discards any message to which it applies, only root or the Exim user are allowed to
                 use it with -bd, -q, -R or -M. In other words, an ordinary user can use it only when  supplying
                 an incoming message to which it will apply. Although transportation never fails when -N is set,
                 an  address  may  be  deferred  because of a configuration problem on a transport, or a routing
                 problem. Once -N has been used for a delivery attempt, it sticks to the message, and applies to
                 any subsequent delivery attempts that may happen for that message.

       -n        This option is interpreted by Sendmail to mean "no aliasing".  For normal modes  of  operation,
                 it  is  ignored  by  Exim.   When  combined with -bP it makes the output more terse (suppresses
                 option names, environment values and config pretty printing).

       -O <data> This option is interpreted by Sendmail to mean set option. It is ignored by Exim.

       -oA <file name>
                 This option is used by Sendmail in  conjunction  with  -bi  to  specify  an  alternative  alias
                 filename. Exim handles -bi differently; see the description above.

       -oB <n>   This  is  a  debugging option which limits the maximum number of messages that can be delivered
                 down one SMTP connection, overriding the value set in any smtp transport. If  <n>  is  omitted,
                 the limit is set to 1.

       -odb      This  option  applies  to  all  modes  in  which  Exim accepts incoming messages, including the
                 listening daemon. It requests "background" delivery of such  messages,  which  means  that  the
                 accepting  process  automatically starts a delivery process for each message received, but does
                 not wait for the delivery processes to finish.

                 When all the messages have been received, the reception process  exits,  leaving  the  delivery
                 processes  to finish in their own time. The standard output and error streams are closed at the
                 start of each delivery process.  This is the default action if none  of  the  -od  options  are
                 present.

                 If  one  of  the queueing options in the configuration file (queue_only or queue_only_file, for
                 example) is in effect, -odb overrides it if queue_only_override  is  set  true,  which  is  the
                 default setting. If queue_only_override is set false, -odb has no effect.

       -odf      This   option   requests   "foreground"   (synchronous)  delivery  when  Exim  has  accepted  a
                 locally-generated message. (For the daemon it is exactly the same as -odb.) A delivery  process
                 is  automatically  started  to  deliver  the  message, and Exim waits for it to complete before
                 proceeding.

                 The original Exim reception process does not finish until the delivery process  for  the  final
                 message has ended. The standard error stream is left open during deliveries.

                 However,  like  -odb,  this option has no effect if queue_only_override is false and one of the
                 queueing options in the configuration file is in effect.

                 If there is a temporary delivery error during foreground delivery, the message is left  in  the
                 queue for later delivery, and the original reception process exits.

       -odi      This option is synonymous with -odf. It is provided for compatibility with Sendmail.

       -odq      This  option  applies  to  all  modes  in  which  Exim accepts incoming messages, including the
                 listening daemon. It specifies that the accepting process  should  not  automatically  start  a
                 delivery  process for each message received. Messages are placed in the queue, and remain there
                 until a subsequent queue runner  process  encounters  them.  There  are  several  configuration
                 options  (such  as  queue_only)  that  can  be  used  to  queue incoming messages under certain
                 conditions. This option overrides all of them and also -odqs. It always forces queueing.

       -odqs     This option is a hybrid between -odb/-odi and -odq.  However, like -odb and -odi,  this  option
                 has  no  effect  if  queue_only_override  is  false  and  one  of  the  queueing options in the
                 configuration file is in effect.

                 When -odqs does operate, a delivery process is  started  for  each  incoming  message,  in  the
                 background  by  default, but in the foreground if -odi is also present. The recipient addresses
                 are routed, and local deliveries are done in the normal way. However, if  any  SMTP  deliveries
                 are  required,  they  are  not  done  at this time, so the message remains in the queue until a
                 subsequent queue runner process encounters it. Because  routing  was  done,  Exim  knows  which
                 messages are waiting for which hosts, and so a number of messages for the same host can be sent
                 in  a  single  SMTP connection. The queue_smtp_domains configuration option has the same effect
                 for specific domains. See also the -qq option.

       -oee      If an error is detected while a non-SMTP message is being received (for  example,  a  malformed
                 address), the error is reported to the sender in a mail message.

                 Provided  this  error  message  is  successfully  sent, the Exim receiving process exits with a
                 return code of zero. If not, the return code is 2 if the problem is that the  original  message
                 has no recipients, or 1 for any other error.  This is the default -oex option if Exim is called
                 as rmail.

       -oem      This is the same as -oee, except that Exim always exits with a non-zero return code, whether or
                 not  the  error message was successfully sent.  This is the default -oex option, unless Exim is
                 called as rmail.

       -oep      If an error is detected while a non-SMTP message is being received, the error  is  reported  by
                 writing a message to the standard error file (stderr).  The return code is 1 for all errors.

       -oeq      This option is supported for compatibility with Sendmail, but has the same effect as -oep.

       -oew      This option is supported for compatibility with Sendmail, but has the same effect as -oem.

       -oi       This  option,  which has the same effect as -i, specifies that a dot on a line by itself should
                 not terminate an incoming, non-SMTP message. Otherwise, a single  dot  does  terminate,  though
                 Exim  does  no  special processing for other lines that start with a dot. This option is set by
                 default if Exim is called as rmail. See also -ti.

       -oitrue   This option is treated as synonymous with -oi.

       -oMa <host address>
                 A number of options starting with -oM can be used to set values associated with remote hosts on
                 locally-submitted messages (that is, messages not received over TCP/IP). These options  can  be
                 used  by any caller in conjunction with the -bh, -be, -bf, -bF, -bt, or -bv testing options. In
                 other circumstances, they are ignored unless the caller is trusted.

                 The -oMa option sets the sender host address. This may include a port number at the end,  after
                 a full stop (period). For example:

                   exim4 -bs -oMa 10.9.8.7.1234

                 An  alternative syntax is to enclose the IP address in square brackets, followed by a colon and
                 the port number:

                   exim4 -bs -oMa [10.9.8.7]:1234

                 The IP address is placed in the $sender_host_address variable, and the  port,  if  present,  in
                 $sender_host_port.  If  both  -oMa  and -bh are present on the command line, the sender host IP
                 address is taken from whichever one is last.

       -oMaa <name>
                 See -oMa above for general remarks about the -oM options. The -oMaa option sets  the  value  of
                 $sender_host_authenticated  (the authenticator name).  This option can be used with -bh and -bs
                 to set up an authenticated SMTP session without actually using the SMTP AUTH command.

       -oMai <string>
                 See -oMa above for general remarks about the -oM options. The -oMai option sets  the  value  of
                 $authenticated_id  (the  id  that  was  authenticated).   This overrides the default value (the
                 caller's login id, except with -bh, where there is no default) for messages from local sources.

       -oMas <address>
                 See -oMa above  for  general  remarks  about  the  -oM  options.  The  -oMas  option  sets  the
                 authenticated  sender  value  in $authenticated_sender. It overrides the sender address that is
                 created from the caller's login id for messages from local sources, except when  -bh  is  used,
                 when  there is no default. For both -bh and -bs, an authenticated sender that is specified on a
                 MAIL command overrides this value.

       -oMi <interface address>
                 See -oMa above for general remarks about the -oM options. The -oMi option sets the IP interface
                 address value. A port number may be included, using the same syntax as for -oMa. The  interface
                 address is placed in $received_ip_address and the port number, if present, in $received_port.

       -oMm <message reference>
                 See  -oMa  above  for  general  remarks about the -oM options. The -oMm option sets the message
                 reference, e.g. message-id, and is logged during delivery. This is useful  when  some  kind  of
                 audit  trail  is  required  to  tie  messages  together. The format of the message reference is
                 checked and will abort if the format is invalid. The option will only be accepted  if  exim  is
                 running in trusted mode, not as any regular user.

                 The  best  example  of  a  message  reference is when Exim sends a bounce message.  The message
                 reference is the message-id of the original message for which Exim is sending the bounce.

       -oMr <protocol name>
                 See -oMa above for general remarks about the -oM options. The -oMr  option  sets  the  received
                 protocol  value  that  is  stored  in  $received_protocol.  However,  it does not apply (and is
                 ignored) when -bh or -bs is used. For -bh, the protocol is forced to one of the  standard  SMTP
                 protocol  names.  For -bs, the protocol is always "local-" followed by one of those same names.
                 For -bS (batched SMTP) however, the protocol can be set by -oMr. Repeated use of this option is
                 not supported.

       -oMs <host name>
                 See -oMa above for general remarks about the -oM options. The -oMs option sets the sender  host
                 name in $sender_host_name. When this option is present, Exim does not attempt to look up a host
                 name from an IP address; it uses the name it is given.

       -oMt <ident string>
                 See -oMa above for general remarks about the -oM options. The -oMt option sets the sender ident
                 value  in  $sender_ident.  The default setting for local callers is the login id of the calling
                 process, except when -bh is used, when there is no default.

       -om       In Sendmail, this option means "me too", indicating that the sender of a message should receive
                 a copy of the message if the sender appears in an alias expansion. Exim always  does  this,  so
                 the option does nothing.

       -oo       This option is ignored. In Sendmail it specifies "old style headers", whatever that means.

       -oP <path>
                 This  option  is  useful  only  in  conjunction  with  -bd  or -q with a time value. The option
                 specifies the file to which the process id of the daemon is written. When -oX is used with -bd,
                 or when -q with a time is used without -bd, this is the only way of causing Exim to write a pid
                 file, because in those cases, the normal pid file is not used.

       -oPX      This option is not intended for general use.  The daemon uses it  when  terminating  due  to  a
                 SIGTEM, possibly in combination with -oP <path>.  It causes the pid file to be removed.

       -or <time>
                 This  option  sets  a timeout value for incoming non-SMTP messages. If it is not set, Exim will
                 wait forever for the standard input. The value can also be set by the receive_timeout option.

       -os <time>
                 This option sets a timeout value for incoming SMTP messages. The timeout applies to  each  SMTP
                 command  and  block  of  data. The value can also be set by the smtp_receive_timeout option; it
                 defaults to 5 minutes.

       -ov       This option has exactly the same effect as -v.

       -oX <number or string>
                 This option is relevant only when the -bd (start listening daemon) option  is  also  given.  It
                 controls which ports and interfaces the daemon uses. When -oX is used to start a daemon, no pid
                 file is written unless -oP is also present to specify a pid filename.

       -oY       This  option  controls  the  creation  of  an inter-process communications endpoint by the Exim
                 daemon.  It is only relevant when the -bd  (start  listening  daemon)  option  is  also  given.
                 Normally  the  daemon  creates this socket, unless a -oX and no -oP option is also present.  If
                 this option is given then the socket will not be created.  This is required if  the  system  is
                 running  multiple  daemons,  in which case it should be used on all.  The features supported by
                 the socket will not be available in such cases.  The socket is currently used for fast  ramp-up
                 of queue runner processes caching compiled regexes obtaining a current queue size

       -pd       This  option  applies  when  an embedded Perl interpreter is linked with Exim. It overrides the
                 setting of the perl_at_start option, forcing the starting of  the  interpreter  to  be  delayed
                 until it is needed.

       -ps       This  option  applies  when  an embedded Perl interpreter is linked with Exim. It overrides the
                 setting of the perl_at_start option, forcing the starting of the interpreter to occur  as  soon
                 as Exim is started.

       -p<rval>:<sval>
                 For compatibility with Sendmail, this option is equivalent to

                   -oMr <rval> -oMs <sval>

                 It  sets the incoming protocol and host name (for trusted callers). The host name and its colon
                 can be omitted when only the protocol is to be set.  Note the  Exim  already  has  two  private
                 options, -pd and -ps, that refer to embedded Perl. It is therefore impossible to set a protocol
                 value  of d or s using this option (but that does not seem a real limitation).  Repeated use of
                 this option is not supported.

       -q        This option is normally restricted to admin users. However, there  is  a  configuration  option
                 called  prod_requires_admin which can be set false to relax this restriction (and also the same
                 requirement for the -M, -R, and -S options).

                 If other commandline options do not specify an action, the -q option starts  one  queue  runner
                 process.  This scans the queue of waiting messages, and runs a delivery process for each one in
                 turn. It waits for each delivery process to finish before starting the  next  one.  A  delivery
                 process  may  not actually do any deliveries if the retry times for the addresses have not been
                 reached. Use -qf (see below) if you want to override this.

                 If the delivery process spawns other processes to  deliver  other  messages  down  passed  SMTP
                 connections, the queue runner waits for these to finish before proceeding.

                 When  all  the  queued  messages  have  been  considered,  the  original  queue  runner process
                 terminates. In other words, a single pass is made over the waiting mail, one message at a time.
                 Use -q with a time (see below) if you want this to be repeated periodically.

                 Exim processes the waiting messages in an unpredictable order. It isn't very random, but it  is
                 likely  to be different each time, which is all that matters.  If one particular message screws
                 up a remote MTA, other messages to the same MTA have a chance of getting through  if  they  get
                 tried first.

                 It  is  possible  to  cause  the messages to be processed in lexical message id order, which is
                 essentially the order in which they arrived, by setting the queue_run_in_order option, but this
                 is not recommended for normal use.

       -q<qflags>
                 The -q option may be followed by one or more flag letters that change its behaviour.  They  are
                 all optional, but if more than one is present, they must appear in the correct order. Each flag
                 is described in a separate item below.

       -qq...    An  option  starting  with -qq requests a two-stage queue run. In the first stage, the queue is
                 scanned as if the queue_smtp_domains option matched every domain. Addresses are  routed,  local
                 deliveries happen, but no remote transports are run.

                 Performance  will  be  best  if  the queue_run_in_order option is false.  If that is so and the
                 queue_fast_ramp option is true and a daemon-notifier socket is  available  then  in  the  first
                 phase  of  the run, once a threshold number of messages are routed for a given host, a delivery
                 process is forked in parallel with the rest of the scan.

                 The hints database that remembers which messages are waiting for specific hosts is updated,  as
                 if delivery to those hosts had been deferred.

                 After  the  first  queue  scan  complete, a second, normal queue scan is done, with routing and
                 delivery taking place as normal.  Messages that are routed to the same host  should  mostly  be
                 delivered  down a single SMTP connection because of the hints that were set up during the first
                 queue scan.  Two-phase queue runs should be used on systems which, even intermittently, have  a
                 large  queue  (such  as  mailing-list  operators).   They may also be useful for hosts that are
                 connected to the Internet intermittently.

       -q[q]i... If the i flag is present, the queue runner runs delivery processes only for those messages that
                 haven't previously been tried. (i stands for "initial delivery".) This can be  helpful  if  you
                 are  putting  messages  in the queue using -odq and want a queue runner just to process the new
                 messages.

       -q[q][i]f...
                 If one f flag is present, a delivery attempt is forced for  each  non-frozen  message,  whereas
                 without f only those non-frozen addresses that have passed their retry times are tried.

       -q[q][i]ff...
                 If ff is present, a delivery attempt is forced for every message, whether frozen or not.

       -q[q][i][f[f]]l
                 The l (the letter "ell") flag specifies that only local deliveries are to be done. If a message
                 requires any remote deliveries, it remains in the queue for later delivery.

       -q[q][i][f[f]][l][G<name>[/<time>]]]
                 If the G flag and a name is present, the queue runner operates on the queue with the given name
                 rather  than  the  default  queue.   The name should not contain a / character.  For a periodic
                 queue run (see below) append to the name a slash and a time value.

                 If other commandline options specify an action, a -qG<name> option  will  specify  a  queue  to
                 operate on.  For example:

                   exim4 -bp -qGquarantine
                   mailq -qGquarantine
                   exim4 -qGoffpeak -Rf @special.domain.example

       -q<qflags> <start id> <end id>
                 When  scanning  the  queue, Exim can be made to skip over messages whose ids are lexically less
                 than a given value by following the -q option with a starting message id. For example:

                   exim4 -q 0t5C6f-0000c8-00

                 Messages that arrived earlier than 0t5C6f-0000c8-00 are not inspected. If a second  message  id
                 is  given, messages whose ids are lexically greater than it are also skipped. If the same id is
                 given twice, for example,

                   exim4 -q 0t5C6f-0000c8-00 0t5C6f-0000c8-00

                 just one delivery process is started, for that message. This differs from -M in that retry data
                 is respected, and it also differs from -Mc in that it counts as a delivery from  a  queue  run.
                 Note  that the selection mechanism does not affect the order in which the messages are scanned.
                 There are also other ways of selecting specific sets of messages for delivery in a queue run  -
                 see -R and -S.

       -q<qflags><time>
                 When  a  time  value is present, the -q option causes Exim to run as a daemon, starting a queue
                 runner process at intervals specified by the given time value. This form of the  -q  option  is
                 commonly  combined  with  the  -bd  option,  in which case a single daemon process handles both
                 functions. A common way of starting up a combined daemon at  system  boot  time  is  to  use  a
                 command such as

                   /usr/sbin/exim4 -bd -q30m

                 Such  a daemon listens for incoming SMTP calls, and also starts a queue runner process every 30
                 minutes.  It is possible to set up runners for multiple named queues  within  one  daemon,  For
                 example:

                   exim -qGhipri/2m -q10m -qqGmailinglist/1h

                 When  a  daemon  is  started  by  -q with a time value, but without -bd, no pid file is written
                 unless one is explicitly requested by the -oP option.

       -qR<rsflags> <string>
                 This option is synonymous with -R. It is provided for Sendmail compatibility.

       -qS<rsflags> <string>
                 This option is synonymous with -S.

       -R<rsflags> <string>
                 The <rsflags> may be empty, in which case the white space before the string is optional, unless
                 the string is f, ff, r, rf, or rff, which are the possible values for <rsflags>. White space is
                 required if <rsflags> is not empty.

                 This option is similar to -q with no time value, that is, it causes Exim to  perform  a  single
                 queue run, except that, when scanning the messages on the queue, Exim processes only those that
                 have  at  least one undelivered recipient address containing the given string, which is checked
                 in a case-independent way. If the <rsflags> start with r, <string> is interpreted as a  regular
                 expression; otherwise it is a literal string.

                 If you want to do periodic queue runs for messages with specific recipients, you can combine -R
                 with -q and a time value. For example:

                   exim4 -q25m -R @special.domain.example

                 This  example  does  a  queue  run  for  messages  with recipients in the given domain every 25
                 minutes. Any additional flags that are specified with -q are applied to each queue run.

                 Once a message is selected for delivery by this mechanism, all its addresses are processed. For
                 the first selected message, Exim overrides any retry information and forces a delivery  attempt
                 for  each  undelivered address. This means that if delivery of any address in the first message
                 is successful, any existing retry information is deleted, and so  delivery  attempts  for  that
                 address  in  subsequently  selected  messages  (which  are processed without forcing) will run.
                 However, if delivery of any address does not succeed, the retry information is updated, and  in
                 subsequently selected messages, the failing address will be skipped.

                 If  the  <rsflags>  contain f or ff, the delivery forcing applies to all selected messages, not
                 just the first; frozen messages are included when ff is present.

                 The -R option makes it straightforward to initiate delivery of all messages to a  given  domain
                 after  a  host  has been down for some time. When the SMTP command ETRN is accepted by its ACL,
                 its default effect is to run Exim with the -R option, but  it  can  be  configured  to  run  an
                 arbitrary command instead.

       -r        This is a documented (for Sendmail) obsolete alternative name for -f.

       -S<rsflags> <string>
                 This option acts like -R except that it checks the string against each message's sender instead
                 of  against  the recipients. If -R is also set, both conditions must be met for a message to be
                 selected. If either of the options has f or ff in its flags, the associated action is taken.

       -Tqt <times>
                 This is an option that is exclusively for use by the Exim testing suite. It is  not  recognized
                 when  Exim  is  run  normally.  It  allows for the setting up of explicit "queue times" so that
                 various warning/retry features can be tested.

       -t        When Exim is receiving a locally-generated, non-SMTP message on  its  standard  input,  the  -t
                 option  causes  the recipients of the message to be obtained from the To:, Cc:, and Bcc: header
                 lines in the message instead of from the command arguments. The addresses are extracted  before
                 any rewriting takes place and the Bcc: header line, if present, is then removed.

                 If  the  command  has  any  arguments, they specify addresses to which the message is not to be
                 delivered. That is, the argument addresses are removed from the recipients list  obtained  from
                 the headers. This is compatible with Smail 3 and in accordance with the documented behaviour of
                 several  versions of Sendmail, as described in man pages on a number of operating systems (e.g.
                 Solaris 8, IRIX 6.5, HP-UX 11). However, some versions of Sendmail add  argument  addresses  to
                 those obtained from the headers, and the O'Reilly Sendmail book documents it that way. Exim can
                 be  made  to  add  argument  addresses  instead  of  subtracting  them  by  setting  the option
                 extract_addresses_remove_arguments false.

                 If there are any Resent- header lines  in  the  message,  Exim  extracts  recipients  from  all
                 Resent-To:,  Resent-Cc:,  and Resent-Bcc: header lines instead of from To:, Cc:, and Bcc:. This
                 is for compatibility with Sendmail and other MTAs. (Prior to release 4.20, Exim gave  an  error
                 if -t was used in conjunction with Resent- header lines.)

                 RFC  2822  talks  about  different  sets  of Resent- header lines (for when a message is resent
                 several times). The RFC also specifies that they should be added at the front of  the  message,
                 and  separated  by Received: lines. It is not at all clear how -t should operate in the present
                 of multiple sets, nor indeed exactly what constitutes a "set".  In practice, it seems that MUAs
                 do not follow the RFC. The Resent- lines are often added at the end of the  header,  and  if  a
                 message  is  resent  more than once, it is common for the original set of Resent- headers to be
                 renamed as X-Resent- when a new set is added. This removes any possible ambiguity.

       -ti       This option is exactly equivalent to -t -i. It is provided for compatibility with Sendmail.

       -tls-on-connect
                 This option is available when Exim is compiled with TLS support. It forces  all  incoming  SMTP
                 connections to behave as if the incoming port is listed in the tls_on_connect_ports option.

       -U        Sendmail  uses  this option for "initial message submission", and its documentation states that
                 in future releases, it may complain about syntactically invalid  messages  rather  than  fixing
                 them when this flag is not set. Exim ignores this option.

       -v        This  option  causes Exim to write information to the standard error stream, describing what it
                 is doing. In particular, it shows the log lines for receiving and delivering a message, and  if
                 an  SMTP  connection  is  made, the SMTP dialogue is shown. Some of the log lines shown may not
                 actually be written to the log if the setting  of  log_selector  discards  them.  Any  relevant
                 selectors are shown with each log line. If none are shown, the logging is unconditional.

       -x        AIX  uses  -x  for  a  private  purpose  ("mail from a local mail program has National Language
                 Support extended characters in the body of the mail item").  It sets -x when  calling  the  MTA
                 from its mail command. Exim ignores this option.

       -X <logfile>
                 This option is interpreted by Sendmail to cause debug information to be sent to the named file.
                 It is ignored by Exim.

       -z <log-line>
                 This  option  writes  its argument to Exim's logfile.  Use is restricted to administrators; the
                 intent is for operational notes.  Quotes should be used to maintain  a  multi-word  item  as  a
                 single argument, under most shells.

SEE ALSO

       exicyclog(8),   exigrep(8),   exim_checkaccess(8),   exim_convert4r4(8),   exim_db(8),  exim_dbmbuild(8),
       exim_lock(8),  eximon(8),  exinext(8),  exiqgrep(8),   exiqsumm(8),   exiwhat(8),   update-exim4.conf(8),
       update-exim4defaults(8), /usr/share/doc/exim4-base/, /usr/share/doc/exim4-base/README.Debian.[gz|html].

       The full Exim specification, the Exim book, and the Exim wiki.

AUTHOR

       This  manual  page  was  provided  with the upstream Exim source package.  It was enhanced for the Debian
       GNU/Linux system.

                                                                                                        EXIM4(8)