Ubuntu Manpage: masqmail - An offline Mail Transfer Agent

NAME

       masqmail - An offline Mail Transfer Agent

SYNOPSIS

       masqmail [-t] [-oi] [-f ADDRESS] RECIPIENT...

       mailq
       masqmail -bp

       runq
       masqmail -q

       masqmail -qo NAME

       mailrm MSGID...
       masqmail -Mrm MSGID...

       masqmail [-C FILE] [-odq] -bs

       masqmail [-C FILE] [-odq] -bd -qINTERVAL

       (This list is a selection.)

DESCRIPTION

       Masqmail  is  a  mail  server  designed  for  hosts  that do not have a permanent internet
       connection e.g. a home network or a single host at  home.   It  has  special  support  for
       connections to different ISPs.  It replaces sendmail or other MTAs such as qmail or exim.

OPERATION MODES

Masqmail operates in one of several exclusive modes.

The daemon mode has two flavors that may be, and usually are, used in combination:

Daemon (listen)
-bd or invoked as smtpd

Run as daemon. Act as SMTP server and accept SMTP connections, on port 25 if not
configured differently.

This is normally used in the startup script at system boot and together with
-qINTERVAL (see below).

Alternatively masqmail can be run with the -bs option from inetd.

Daemon (queue)
-qINTERVAL

Run as daemon. Do regular queue runs at the specified time interval. This is
normally used together with -bd (see above).

An argument may be a time interval i.e. a numerical value followed by one of the
letters s,m,h,d,w which are interpreted as seconds, minutes, hours, days or weeks
respectively. Example: -q30m. Combinations like -q1h30m, which sendmail accepts,
are not possible.

Alternatively single queue runs (-q) can be started from cron.

The queue processing mode has two flavors that may be used in combination:

Single queue run (normal)
-q (without argument) or invoked as runq

Do a single queue run. Try to deliver all messages in the queue. Masqmail sends
to addresses on the local host and to remote ones, if available online routes
permit it. That means, masqmail sends all queued mail it can. Online detection is
done with the configured method (see online_query in masqmail.conf(5)).

Single queue run (only named route)
-qo NAME

Do a single queue run and deliver only using the specified online route.

The route configuration for NAME is read and queued mail to matching remote
recipients is sent. (See query_routes.NAME in the main config file.)

You may want to use this option in scripts that run as soon as a link to the
internet has been set up (e.g. ip-up).

Obsolete behavior: Up to now: If -qo has no argument, the online connection is
determinded by online detect and, if available, mail is sent through it. If none
is available no mail is delivered.

This behavior is likely to change in future versions because it is included in -q.
We could do something more useful instead.

The other modes are simple ones:

Rebuild alias database
-bi or invoked as newaliases

A no-op for masqmail, just exit. Old sendmail rebuilds its alias database when
invoked with this option. Masqmail reads directly from its alias file (see config
option `alias_file'), thus no database needs to be updated.

Accept messages
-bm, also the default mode

Accept a text message on stdin. This is the default mode of operation. One will
hardly use this switch as it is the default.

The command line options -f,-F,-i/-oi,-t are only used in this mode.

Print queue
-bp or invoked as mailq

Show the messages in the queue.

Stand-alone SMTP server
-bs

Act as SMTP server by reading commands from stdin and writing to stdout. Some
mailers (e.g. pine) use this option as an interface. It can also be used to call
masqmail from inetd.

Print version
-bV or if called without arguments

Print version information, then exit.

Queue manipulation mode
-Mrm or invoked as mailrm

Remove given messages from the queue. Privileged users may remove any message,
other users only their own. The message identifiers are listed when printing the
queue (see -bp).

The default mode:

When no mode had been specified by either one of the above command line options or by
calling masqmail under a special name, then the default mode -bm (i.e. accept messages on
stdin) is entered. However, if neither address arguments are specified nor -t is given,
then mail can not be sent, hence something more useful is done: -bV is assumed.

OPTIONS

Since masqmail is intended to replace sendmail, it uses the same command line options, but
not all are implemented. The -qo option is additional, and unique to masqmail.

Not a `real' option, it means that all following arguments are to be understood as
arguments and not as options even if they begin with a leading dash `-'. Mutt is
known to call sendmail with this option.

-bd

``Daemon (listen)'' mode. See above.

-bi

``Rebuild alias database'' mode. See above.

-bm

``Accept message'' mode. See above.

-bp

``Print queue'' mode. See above.

-bs

``Stand-alone SMTP server'' mode. See above.

-bV

``Print version'' mode. See above.

-B arg

arg is usually 8BITMIME. Some mailers use this to indicate that the message
contains characters > 127. Masqmail is 8-bit clean and ignores this, so you do not
have to recompile elm, which is very painful ;-). Note though that this violates
some conventions: masqmail does not convert 8 bit messages to any MIME format if it
encounters a mail server which does not advertise its 8BITMIME capability, masqmail
does not advertise this itself. This is the same practice as that of exim (but
different to sendmail).

-C filename

Use another configuration than /etc/masqmail/masqmail.conf. Useful for debugging
purposes. If not invoked by a privileged user, masqmail will drop all privileges.

-d number

Set the debug level. This takes precedence before the value of `debug_level' in
the configuration file. Read the warning in the description of the latter. Only
root may set the debug level.

-f [address]

Set the return path address to address. Only root, the user mail and anyone in
group mail is allowed to do that.

-F [string]

Set the full sender name (in the From: header) to string.

-i

Same as -oi, see below. Kept for compatibility.

-Mrm msgid...

``Queue manipulation'' mode. See above.

-m

``Me too'' This switch is ignored as, masqmail never excludes the sender from any
alias expansions.

-m is an ancient alias for -om. Kept for compatibility.

-odb

``Deliver in Background'' Masqmail always does this. Hence masqmail ignores this
switch.

-odq

``Do Queueing'' Do not attempt to deliver immediately. Any messages will be queued
until the next queue running process picks them up and delivers them. You get the
same (but global) effect by setting the do_queue option in
/etc/masqmail/masqmail.conf.

-oi

A dot as a single character in a line does not terminate the message.

The same as -i.

-oXXX

Any other switch starting with `-o' is ignored. This especially affects -om, -oem,
-oee.

-q

``Single queue run (normal)'' mode. See above.

-qINTERVAL

``Daemon (queue)'' mode. See above.

-qo name

``Single queue run (only named route)'' mode. See above.

-t

Read recipients from mail headers and add them to the ones specified on the command
line. (Only To:, Cc:, and Bcc: headers are regarded.)

WARNING: The behavior changed with version 0.3.1!

In earlier versions command line argument addresses were ``substracted'' from
header addresses.

The old behavior was similar to exim's and smail's (which are anchesters of
masqmail). The new behavior is similar to the one of current postfix versions,
which add the arguments to the set of header recipients. (Earlier postfix failed
in case of address arguments with -t.) Sendmail seems to behave differently,
depending on the version. See exim(8) for further information.

For masqmail the most simple approach had been taken.

As the behavior of -t together with command line address arguments differs among
MTAs, one better not steps into this corner case.

-v

``Verbose'' Log also to stdout. Currently, some log messages are marked as `write
to stdout' and additionally, all messages with priority `LOG_ALERT' and
`LOG_WARNING' will be written to stdout if this option is given. It is disabled in
daemon mode.

ENVIRONMENT FOR PIPES AND MDAS

       For security reasons, before any pipe command from an alias expansion or an mda is called,
       the environment variables will be completely discarded and newly set up. These are:

       SENDER, RETURN_PATH – the return path.

       SENDER_DOMAIN – the domain part of the return path.

       SENDER_LOCAL – the local part of the return path.

       RECEIVED_HOST – the host the message was received from (unless local).

       LOCAL_PART, USER, LOGNAME – the local part of the (original) recipient.

       MESSAGE_ID – the unique message id.  This is not necessarily identical with the Message ID
       as given in the Message ID: header.

       QUALIFY_DOMAIN – the domain which will be appended to unqualified addresses.

FILES

       /etc/masqmail/masqmail.conf
              The main configuration for masqmail.  Depending on the settings in this  file,  you
              will also have other configuration files in /etc/masqmail/.

       /var/spool/masqmail/
              The spool directory where masqmail stores its queued mails.

       /var/spool/mail/
              The  directory  where  locally  delivered  mail  will  be  put,  if  not configured
              differently in masqmail.conf.

       /var/log/masqmail/
              The directory where masqmail stores its log messages.

       Any of the paths can be configured at compile time, and (except the main config file) also
       in  the  main  config file.  The typical paths are different, depending on the Unix system
       you use.

CONFORMING TO

       RFC 821, 822, 1869, 1870, 2197, 2554 (SMTP)

       RFC 1321 (MD5)

       RFC 2195 (CRAM-MD5)

AUTHOR

       Masqmail  was  written  by  Oliver  Kurth.   It  is  now  maintained  by  Markus  Schnalke
       <meillo@marmaro.de>.

       You    will    find    the    newest    version    of    masqmail    on    its    website:
       http://marmaro.de/prog/masqmail/.  There is also a mailing list; you will find information
       about it on the website.

BUGS

       Bug  reports  of  any kind are very welcome.  They help masqmail to become better.  Please
       report bugs to the mailing list (anyone can post).