Ubuntu Manpage: spfquery, spfquery.libspf2 - checks if an IP address is an SPF-authorized SMTP sender for a domain.

NAME

       spfquery, spfquery.libspf2 - checks if an IP address is an SPF-authorized SMTP sender for a domain.

SYNOPSIS

       spfquery {-i|--ip} ip-address {-s|--sender} [local-part@]domain [{-h|--helo} domain-name] [--rcpt-to
                email-address(es)] [CONTROL-OPTIONS]

       spfquery {-f|--file} datafile [CONTROL-OPTIONS]

       spfquery {--help|-v|--version}

DESCRIPTION

       This manual page documents briefly the spfquery command. It was  written  for  the  Debian®  distribution
       because the original program does not have a manual page.

       spfquery  performs Sender Policy Framework (SPF) authorization checks based on the command-line arguments
       or data given in a file or on standard input. For information on SPF see http://www.openspf.org.

OPTIONS

Options are divided into two groups: Data options, which must be given, though just enough of them to
specify a query; and control options, which are optional and control the local policy, behaviour and
output format of spfquery.

This programs follows the GNU getopt_long_only(3) command line syntax: Long options can be given with one
or two dashes and can be abbreviated to a prefix long enough to be non-ambiguous. If an option starting
with a single dash doesn't match a long option, it is taken as a short option with a following parameter,
if applicable. An equals sign between the option name and the parameter is optional for both short and
long options.

Data options
The --file option conflicts with all the other data options. The --helo and --rcpt-to are optional.

-f, --file filename
Read SPF data from filename. Specify “-” to read from standard input.

The file should consist of one line per query, each query line consisting of the IP address,
sender adress, and optional HELO string, separated by spaces.

Note Local parts containing spaces are currently not supported.

-i, --ip ip-address
Specify the IP address of the remote host that is delivering the mail.

-s, --sender [local-part@]domain
Specify the email address that was used as the envelope sender. If no username (local part) is
given, “postmaster” will be assumed.

-h, --helo domain-name
Specify that domain-name was provided in the SMTP HELO (or EHLO) command.

-r, --rcpt-to rcpt-address[,rcpt-address,...]
Specify the recipients as comma-separated list. Any secondary mail exchangers of all recipient
domains are automatically authorized.

Control options
-d, --debug[=level]
Turn on debugging output.

-l, --local spf-terms
Test against spf-terms before the final (implicit or explicit) “all” in an SPF record. This can be
used to implement a local policy for whitelisting.

-t, --trusted [1]
Check the sender domain with trusted-forwarder.org. This is a non-standard feature.

-t 0, --trusted 0
Do not check the sender domain with trusted-forwarder.org. This is the default.

-g, --guess spf-mechanisms
Test the sender domain against spf-mechanisms if the domain has no SPF record.

-e, --default-explanation string
Default explanation string to use if the SPF record does not specify an explanation string itself.

-m, --max-lookup number
Maximum number of DNS lookups to allow.

-c, --sanitize [0|1]
Do [not] sanitize the output by condensing consecutive whitespace into a single space and
replacing non-printable characters with question marks. Enabled by default.

-n, --name hostname
Use hostname as the name of the local system instead of “spfquery” (the name is used in the
output).

-k, --keep-comments
Print comments found when reading from a file.

-a, --override ...

-z, --fallback ...
Provide override and fallback SPF records for certain domains. Not implemented yet. spfquery
would act as if the specified records were present before and after any existing record,
respectively, of those domains.

--help Show summary of options.

-v, --version
Show version of program.

DIAGNOSTICS

The output ordinarily consists of four lines:

1. the result code;

2. the explanation, suitable for use in an SMTP response message, empty except when a rejection
(permanent or temporary) makes sense;

3. the header comment on its own;

4. the Received-SPF header field as defined in RFC 4408 section 7, incorporating the header comment.

If errors (including no SPF record found!) occur during processing, one or more error blocks will be
prepended. These start with “StartError“ and end with “EndError“.

The result codes and their corresponding exit codes are as follows:

1 – neutral
The sender domain explicitly makes no assertion about the ip-address. This result must be
interpreted exactly as if no SPF record at all existed.

2 – pass
The ip-address is authorized to send mail for the sender domain.

3 – fail
The ip-address is unauthorized to send mail for the sender domain.

4 – softfail
The ip-address is not authorized to send mail for the sender domain, but the sender domain cannot
or does not wish to make a strong assertion that no such mail can ever come from it.

5 – none
No SPF record was found.

6 – error (temporary)
A transient error occurred (e.g. failure to reach a DNS server), preventing a result from being
reached.

7 – unknown (permanent error)
One or more SPF records could not be interpreted.

EXAMPLES

       spfquery -ip=11.22.33.44 -sender=user@aol.com -helo=spammer.tld
       spfquery -f test_data
       echo "127.0.0.1 myname@mydomain.com helohost.com" | spfquery -f -

AUTHOR

       spfquery was written by Wayne Schlitt.

       This  manual  page  was  written  by  Magnus Holmgren for the Debian® system (but may be used by others).
       Heavily inspired by the spfquery manpage of libmail-spf-query-perl  (spfquery.mail-spf-query-perl(1))  by
       Julian Mehnle.  Also based on the command-line help of spfquery.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright  ©  2007 Magnus Holmgren. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
       under the terms of the two-clause BSD License. See /usr/share/doc/spfquery/copyright.