09dad3c58165f4553cab13b01c18b1006b0f3fe9
[hcoop/debian/exim4.git] / doc / exim.8
1 .TH EXIM 8
2 .SH NAME
3 exim \- a Mail Transfer Agent
4 .SH SYNOPSIS
5 .nf
6 .B exim [options] arguments ...
7 .B mailq [options] arguments ...
8 .B rsmtp [options] arguments ...
9 .B rmail [options] arguments ...
10 .B runq [options] arguments ...
11 .B newaliases [options] arguments ...
12 .fi
13 .
14 .SH DESCRIPTION
15 .rs
16 .sp
17 Exim is a mail transfer agent (MTA) developed at the University of Cambridge.
18 It is a large program with very many facilities. For a full specification, see
19 the reference manual. This man page contains only a description of the command
20 line options. It has been automatically generated from the reference manual
21 source, hopefully without too much mangling.
22 .P
23 Like other MTAs, Exim replaces Sendmail, and is normally called by user agents
24 (MUAs) using the path \fI/usr/sbin/sendmail\fP when they submit messages for
25 delivery (some operating systems use \fI/usr/lib/sendmail\fP). This path is
26 normally set up as a symbolic link to the Exim binary. It may also be used by
27 boot scripts to start the Exim daemon. Many of Exim's command line options are
28 compatible with Sendmail so that it can act as a drop-in replacement.
29 .
30 .SH "DEFAULT ACTION"
31 .rs
32 .sp
33 If no options are present that require a specific action (such as starting the
34 daemon or a queue runner, testing an address, receiving a message in a specific
35 format, or listing the queue), and there are no arguments on the command line,
36 Exim outputs a brief message about itself and exits.
37 .sp
38 However, if there is at least one command line argument, \fB-bm\fR (accept a
39 local message on the standard input, with the arguments specifying the
40 recipients) is assumed. Thus, for example, if Exim is installed in
41 \fI/usr/sbin\fP, you can send a message from the command line like this:
42 .sp
43 /usr/sbin/exim -i <recipient-address(es)>
44 <message content, including all the header lines>
45 CTRL-D
46 .sp
47 The \fB-i\fP option prevents a line containing just a dot from terminating
48 the message. Only an end-of-file (generated by typing CTRL-D if the input is
49 from a terminal) does so.
50 .
51 .SH "SETTING OPTIONS BY PROGRAM NAME"
52 .rs
53 .sp
54 If an Exim binary is called using one of the names listed in this section
55 (typically via a symbolic link), certain options are assumed.
56 .TP
57 \fBmailq\fR
58 Behave as if the option \fB\-bp\fP were present before any other options.
59 The \fB\-bp\fP option requests a listing of the contents of the mail queue
60 on the standard output.
61 .TP
62 \fBrsmtp\fR
63 Behaves as if the option \fB\-bS\fP were present before any other options,
64 for compatibility with Smail. The \fB\-bS\fP option is used for reading in a
65 number of messages in batched SMTP format.
66 .TP
67 \fBrmail\fR
68 Behave as if the \fB\-i\fP and \fB\-oee\fP options were present before
69 any other options, for compatibility with Smail. The name \fBrmail\fR is used
70 as an interface by some UUCP systems. The \fB\-i\fP option specifies that a
71 dot on a line by itself does not terminate a non\-SMTP message; \fB\-oee\fP
72 requests that errors detected in non\-SMTP messages be reported by emailing
73 the sender.
74 .TP
75 \fBrunq\fR
76 Behave as if the option \fB\-q\fP were present before any other options, for
77 compatibility with Smail. The \fB\-q\fP option causes a single queue runner
78 process to be started. It processes the queue once, then exits.
79 .TP
80 \fBnewaliases\fR
81 Behave as if the option \fB\-bi\fP were present before any other options,
82 for compatibility with Sendmail. This option is used for rebuilding Sendmail's
83 alias file. Exim does not have the concept of a single alias file, but can be
84 configured to run a specified command if called with the \fB\-bi\fP option.
85 .
86 .SH "OPTIONS"
87 .rs
88 .TP 10
89 \fB\-\-\fP
90 This is a pseudo\-option whose only purpose is to terminate the options and
91 therefore to cause subsequent command line items to be treated as arguments
92 rather than options, even if they begin with hyphens.
93 .TP 10
94 \fB\-\-help\fP
95 This option causes Exim to output a few sentences stating what it is.
96 The same output is generated if the Exim binary is called with no options and
97 no arguments.
98 .TP 10
99 \fB\-\-version\fP
100 This option is an alias for \fB\-bV\fP and causes version information to be
101 displayed.
102 .TP 10
103 \fB\-Ac\fP
104 \fB\-Am\fP
105 These options are used by Sendmail for selecting configuration files and are
106 ignored by Exim.
107 .TP 10
108 \fB\-B\fP<\fItype\fP>
109 This is a Sendmail option for selecting 7 or 8 bit processing. Exim is 8\-bit
110 clean; it ignores this option.
111 .TP 10
112 \fB\-bd\fP
113 This option runs Exim as a daemon, awaiting incoming SMTP connections. Usually
114 the \fB\-bd\fP option is combined with the \fB\-q\fP<\fItime\fP> option, to specify
115 that the daemon should also initiate periodic queue runs.
116 .sp
117 The \fB\-bd\fP option can be used only by an admin user. If either of the \fB\-d\fP
118 (debugging) or \fB\-v\fP (verifying) options are set, the daemon does not
119 disconnect from the controlling terminal. When running this way, it can be
120 stopped by pressing ctrl\-C.
121 .sp
122 By default, Exim listens for incoming connections to the standard SMTP port on
123 all the host's running interfaces. However, it is possible to listen on other
124 ports, on multiple ports, and only on specific interfaces.
125 .sp
126 When a listening daemon
127 is started without the use of \fB\-oX\fP (that is, without overriding the normal
128 configuration), it writes its process id to a file called exim\-daemon.pid
129 in Exim's spool directory. This location can be overridden by setting
130 PID_FILE_PATH in Local/Makefile. The file is written while Exim is still
131 running as root.
132 .sp
133 When \fB\-oX\fP is used on the command line to start a listening daemon, the
134 process id is not written to the normal pid file path. However, \fB\-oP\fP can be
135 used to specify a path on the command line if a pid file is required.
136 .sp
137 The SIGHUP signal
138 can be used to cause the daemon to re\-execute itself. This should be done
139 whenever Exim's configuration file, or any file that is incorporated into it by
140 means of the \fB.include\fP facility, is changed, and also whenever a new version
141 of Exim is installed. It is not necessary to do this when other files that are
142 referenced from the configuration (for example, alias files) are changed,
143 because these are reread each time they are used.
144 .TP 10
145 \fB\-bdf\fP
146 This option has the same effect as \fB\-bd\fP except that it never disconnects
147 from the controlling terminal, even when no debugging is specified.
148 .TP 10
149 \fB\-be\fP
150 Run Exim in expansion testing mode. Exim discards its root privilege, to
151 prevent ordinary users from using this mode to read otherwise inaccessible
152 files. If no arguments are given, Exim runs interactively, prompting for lines
153 of data. Otherwise, it processes each argument in turn.
154 .sp
155 If Exim was built with USE_READLINE=yes in Local/Makefile, it tries
156 to load the \fBlibreadline\fP library dynamically whenever the \fB\-be\fP option is
157 used without command line arguments. If successful, it uses the readline()
158 function, which provides extensive line\-editing facilities, for reading the
159 test data. A line history is supported.
160 .sp
161 Long expansion expressions can be split over several lines by using backslash
162 continuations. As in Exim's run time configuration, white space at the start of
163 continuation lines is ignored. Each argument or data line is passed through the
164 string expansion mechanism, and the result is output. Variable values from the
165 configuration file (for example, \fI$qualify_domain\fP) are available, but no
166 message\-specific values (such as \fI$sender_domain\fP) are set, because no message
167 is being processed (but see \fB\-bem\fP and \fB\-Mset\fP).
168 .sp
169 \fBNote\fP: If you use this mechanism to test lookups, and you change the data
170 files or databases you are using, you must exit and restart Exim before trying
171 the same lookup again. Otherwise, because each Exim process caches the results
172 of lookups, you will just get the same result as before.
173 .TP 10
174 \fB\-bem\fP <\fIfilename\fP>
175 This option operates like \fB\-be\fP except that it must be followed by the name
176 of a file. For example:
177 .sp
178 exim \-bem /tmp/testmessage
179 .sp
180 The file is read as a message (as if receiving a locally\-submitted non\-SMTP
181 message) before any of the test expansions are done. Thus, message\-specific
182 variables such as \fI$message_size\fP and \fI$header_from:\fP are available. However,
183 no \fIReceived:\fP header is added to the message. If the \fB\-t\fP option is set,
184 recipients are read from the headers in the normal way, and are shown in the
185 \fI$recipients\fP variable. Note that recipients cannot be given on the command
186 line, because further arguments are taken as strings to expand (just like
187 \fB\-be\fP).
188 .TP 10
189 \fB\-bF\fP <\fIfilename\fP>
190 This option is the same as \fB\-bf\fP except that it assumes that the filter being
191 tested is a system filter. The additional commands that are available only in
192 system filters are recognized.
193 .TP 10
194 \fB\-bf\fP <\fIfilename\fP>
195 This option runs Exim in user filter testing mode; the file is the filter file
196 to be tested, and a test message must be supplied on the standard input. If
197 there are no message\-dependent tests in the filter, an empty file can be
198 supplied.
199 .sp
200 If you want to test a system filter file, use \fB\-bF\fP instead of \fB\-bf\fP. You
201 can use both \fB\-bF\fP and \fB\-bf\fP on the same command, in order to test a system
202 filter and a user filter in the same run. For example:
203 .sp
204 exim \-bF /system/filter \-bf /user/filter </test/message
205 .sp
206 This is helpful when the system filter adds header lines or sets filter
207 variables that are used by the user filter.
208 .sp
209 If the test filter file does not begin with one of the special lines
210 .sp
211 # Exim filter
212 # Sieve filter
213 .sp
214 it is taken to be a normal .forward file, and is tested for validity under
215 that interpretation.
216 .sp
217 The result of an Exim command that uses \fB\-bf\fP, provided no errors are
218 detected, is a list of the actions that Exim would try to take if presented
219 with the message for real. More details of filter testing are given in the
220 separate document entitled \fIExim's interfaces to mail filtering\fP.
221 .sp
222 When testing a filter file,
223 the envelope sender can be set by the \fB\-f\fP option,
224 or by a "From " line at the start of the test message. Various parameters
225 that would normally be taken from the envelope recipient address of the message
226 can be set by means of additional command line options (see the next four
227 options).
228 .TP 10
229 \fB\-bfd\fP <\fIdomain\fP>
230 This sets the domain of the recipient address when a filter file is being
231 tested by means of the \fB\-bf\fP option. The default is the value of
232 \fI$qualify_domain\fP.
233 .TP 10
234 \fB\-bfl\fP <\fIlocal part\fP>
235 This sets the local part of the recipient address when a filter file is being
236 tested by means of the \fB\-bf\fP option. The default is the username of the
237 process that calls Exim. A local part should be specified with any prefix or
238 suffix stripped, because that is how it appears to the filter when a message is
239 actually being delivered.
240 .TP 10
241 \fB\-bfp\fP <\fIprefix\fP>
242 This sets the prefix of the local part of the recipient address when a filter
243 file is being tested by means of the \fB\-bf\fP option. The default is an empty
244 prefix.
245 .TP 10
246 \fB\-bfs\fP <\fIsuffix\fP>
247 This sets the suffix of the local part of the recipient address when a filter
248 file is being tested by means of the \fB\-bf\fP option. The default is an empty
249 suffix.
250 .TP 10
251 \fB\-bh\fP <\fIIP address\fP>
252 This option runs a fake SMTP session as if from the given IP address, using the
253 standard input and output. The IP address may include a port number at the end,
254 after a full stop. For example:
255 .sp
256 exim \-bh 10.9.8.7.1234
257 exim \-bh fe80::a00:20ff:fe86:a061.5678
258 .sp
259 When an IPv6 address is given, it is converted into canonical form. In the case
260 of the second example above, the value of \fI$sender_host_address\fP after
261 conversion to the canonical form is
262 fe80:0000:0000:0a00:20ff:fe86:a061.5678.
263 .sp
264 Comments as to what is going on are written to the standard error file. These
265 include lines beginning with "LOG" for anything that would have been logged.
266 This facility is provided for testing configuration options for incoming
267 messages, to make sure they implement the required policy. For example, you can
268 test your relay controls using \fB\-bh\fP.
269 .sp
270 \fBWarning 1\fP:
271 You can test features of the configuration that rely on ident (RFC 1413)
272 information by using the \fB\-oMt\fP option. However, Exim cannot actually perform
273 an ident callout when testing using \fB\-bh\fP because there is no incoming SMTP
274 connection.
275 .sp
276 \fBWarning 2\fP: Address verification callouts
277 are also skipped when testing using \fB\-bh\fP. If you want these callouts to
278 occur, use \fB\-bhc\fP instead.
279 .sp
280 Messages supplied during the testing session are discarded, and nothing is
281 written to any of the real log files. There may be pauses when DNS (and other)
282 lookups are taking place, and of course these may time out. The \fB\-oMi\fP option
283 can be used to specify a specific IP interface and port if this is important,
284 and \fB\-oMaa\fP and \fB\-oMai\fP can be used to set parameters as if the SMTP
285 session were authenticated.
286 .sp
287 The \fIexim_checkaccess\fP utility is a "packaged" version of \fB\-bh\fP whose
288 output just states whether a given recipient address from a given host is
289 acceptable or not.
290 .sp
291 Features such as authentication and encryption, where the client input is not
292 plain text, cannot easily be tested with \fB\-bh\fP. Instead, you should use a
293 specialized SMTP test program such as
294 \fBswaks\fP.
295 .TP 10
296 \fB\-bhc\fP <\fIIP address\fP>
297 This option operates in the same way as \fB\-bh\fP, except that address
298 verification callouts are performed if required. This includes consulting and
299 updating the callout cache database.
300 .TP 10
301 \fB\-bi\fP
302 Sendmail interprets the \fB\-bi\fP option as a request to rebuild its alias file.
303 Exim does not have the concept of a single alias file, and so it cannot mimic
304 this behaviour. However, calls to /usr/lib/sendmail with the \fB\-bi\fP option
305 tend to appear in various scripts such as NIS make files, so the option must be
306 recognized.
307 .sp
308 If \fB\-bi\fP is encountered, the command specified by the \fBbi_command\fP
309 configuration option is run, under the uid and gid of the caller of Exim. If
310 the \fB\-oA\fP option is used, its value is passed to the command as an argument.
311 The command set by \fBbi_command\fP may not contain arguments. The command can
312 use the \fIexim_dbmbuild\fP utility, or some other means, to rebuild alias files
313 if this is required. If the \fBbi_command\fP option is not set, calling Exim with
314 \fB\-bi\fP is a no\-op.
315 .TP 10
316 \fB\-bI:help\fP
317 We shall provide various options starting \-bI: for querying Exim for
318 information. The output of many of these will be intended for machine
319 consumption. This one is not. The \fB\-bI:help\fP option asks Exim for a
320 synopsis of supported options beginning \-bI:. Use of any of these
321 options shall cause Exim to exit after producing the requested output.
322 .TP 10
323 \fB\-bI:dscp\fP
324 This option causes Exim to emit an alphabetically sorted list of all
325 recognised DSCP names.
326 .TP 10
327 \fB\-bI:sieve\fP
328 This option causes Exim to emit an alphabetically sorted list of all supported
329 Sieve protocol extensions on stdout, one per line. This is anticipated to be
330 useful for ManageSieve (RFC 5804) implementations, in providing that protocol's
331 SIEVE capability response line. As the precise list may depend upon
332 compile\-time build options, which this option will adapt to, this is the only
333 way to guarantee a correct response.
334 .TP 10
335 \fB\-bm\fP
336 This option runs an Exim receiving process that accepts an incoming,
337 locally\-generated message on the standard input. The recipients are given as the
338 command arguments (except when \fB\-t\fP is also present \- see below). Each
339 argument can be a comma\-separated list of RFC 2822 addresses. This is the
340 default option for selecting the overall action of an Exim call; it is assumed
341 if no other conflicting option is present.
342 .sp
343 If any addresses in the message are unqualified (have no domain), they are
344 qualified by the values of the \fBqualify_domain\fP or \fBqualify_recipient\fP
345 options, as appropriate. The \fB\-bnq\fP option (see below) provides a way of
346 suppressing this for special cases.
347 .sp
348 Policy checks on the contents of local messages can be enforced by means of
349 the non\-SMTP ACL.
350 .sp
351 The return code is zero if the message is successfully accepted. Otherwise, the
352 action is controlled by the \fB\-oe\fP\fIx\fP option setting \- see below.
353 .sp
354 The format
355 of the message must be as defined in RFC 2822, except that, for
356 compatibility with Sendmail and Smail, a line in one of the forms
357 .sp
358 From sender Fri Jan 5 12:55 GMT 1997
359 From sender Fri, 5 Jan 97 12:55:01
360 .sp
361 (with the weekday optional, and possibly with additional text after the date)
362 is permitted to appear at the start of the message. There appears to be no
363 authoritative specification of the format of this line. Exim recognizes it by
364 matching against the regular expression defined by the \fBuucp_from_pattern\fP
365 option, which can be changed if necessary.
366 .sp
367 The specified sender is treated as if it were given as the argument to the
368 \fB\-f\fP option, but if a \fB\-f\fP option is also present, its argument is used in
369 preference to the address taken from the message. The caller of Exim must be a
370 trusted user for the sender of a message to be set in this way.
371 .TP 10
372 \fB\-bmalware\fP <\fIfilename\fP>
373 This debugging option causes Exim to scan the given file,
374 using the malware scanning framework. The option of \fBav_scanner\fP influences
375 this option, so if \fBav_scanner\fP's value is dependent upon an expansion then
376 the expansion should have defaults which apply to this invocation. ACLs are
377 not invoked, so if \fBav_scanner\fP references an ACL variable then that variable
378 will never be populated and \fB\-bmalware\fP will fail.
379 .sp
380 Exim will have changed working directory before resolving the filename, so
381 using fully qualified pathnames is advisable. Exim will be running as the Exim
382 user when it tries to open the file, rather than as the invoking user.
383 This option requires admin privileges.
384 .sp
385 The \fB\-bmalware\fP option will not be extended to be more generally useful,
386 there are better tools for file\-scanning. This option exists to help
387 administrators verify their Exim and AV scanner configuration.
388 .TP 10
389 \fB\-bnq\fP
390 By default, Exim automatically qualifies unqualified addresses (those
391 without domains) that appear in messages that are submitted locally (that
392 is, not over TCP/IP). This qualification applies both to addresses in
393 envelopes, and addresses in header lines. Sender addresses are qualified using
394 \fBqualify_domain\fP, and recipient addresses using \fBqualify_recipient\fP (which
395 defaults to the value of \fBqualify_domain\fP).
396 .sp
397 Sometimes, qualification is not wanted. For example, if \fB\-bS\fP (batch SMTP) is
398 being used to re\-submit messages that originally came from remote hosts after
399 content scanning, you probably do not want to qualify unqualified addresses in
400 header lines. (Such lines will be present only if you have not enabled a header
401 syntax check in the appropriate ACL.)
402 .sp
403 The \fB\-bnq\fP option suppresses all qualification of unqualified addresses in
404 messages that originate on the local host. When this is used, unqualified
405 addresses in the envelope provoke errors (causing message rejection) and
406 unqualified addresses in header lines are left alone.
407 .TP 10
408 \fB\-bP\fP
409 If this option is given with no arguments, it causes the values of all Exim's
410 main configuration options to be written to the standard output. The values
411 of one or more specific options can be requested by giving their names as
412 arguments, for example:
413 .sp
414 exim \-bP qualify_domain hold_domains
415 .sp
416 However, any option setting that is preceded by the word "hide" in the
417 configuration file is not shown in full, except to an admin user. For other
418 users, the output is as in this example:
419 .sp
420 mysql_servers = <value not displayable>
421 .sp
422 If \fBconfigure_file\fP is given as an argument, the name of the run time
423 configuration file is output.
424 If a list of configuration files was supplied, the value that is output here
425 is the name of the file that was actually used.
426 .sp
427 If the \fB\-n\fP flag is given, then for most modes of \fB\-bP\fP operation the
428 name will not be output.
429 .sp
430 If \fBlog_file_path\fP or \fBpid_file_path\fP are given, the names of the
431 directories where log files and daemon pid files are written are output,
432 respectively. If these values are unset, log files are written in a
433 sub\-directory of the spool directory called \fBlog\fP, and the pid file is
434 written directly into the spool directory.
435 .sp
436 If \fB\-bP\fP is followed by a name preceded by +, for example,
437 .sp
438 exim \-bP +local_domains
439 .sp
440 it searches for a matching named list of any type (domain, host, address, or
441 local part) and outputs what it finds.
442 .sp
443 If one of the words \fBrouter\fP, \fBtransport\fP, or \fBauthenticator\fP is given,
444 followed by the name of an appropriate driver instance, the option settings for
445 that driver are output. For example:
446 .sp
447 exim \-bP transport local_delivery
448 .sp
449 The generic driver options are output first, followed by the driver's private
450 options. A list of the names of drivers of a particular type can be obtained by
451 using one of the words \fBrouter_list\fP, \fBtransport_list\fP, or
452 \fBauthenticator_list\fP, and a complete list of all drivers with their option
453 settings can be obtained by using \fBrouters\fP, \fBtransports\fP, or
454 \fBauthenticators\fP.
455 .sp
456 If \fBenvironment\fP is given as an argument, the set of environment
457 variables is output, line by line. Using the \fB\-n\fP flag supresses the value of the
458 variables.
459 .sp
460 If invoked by an admin user, then \fBmacro\fP, \fBmacro_list\fP and \fBmacros\fP
461 are available, similarly to the drivers. Because macros are sometimes used
462 for storing passwords, this option is restricted.
463 The output format is one item per line.
464 .TP 10
465 \fB\-bp\fP
466 This option requests a listing of the contents of the mail queue on the
467 standard output. If the \fB\-bp\fP option is followed by a list of message ids,
468 just those messages are listed. By default, this option can be used only by an
469 admin user. However, the \fBqueue_list_requires_admin\fP option can be set false
470 to allow any user to see the queue.
471 .sp
472 Each message on the queue is displayed as in the following example:
473 .sp
474 25m 2.9K 0t5C6f\-0000c8\-00 <alice@wonderland.fict.example>
475 red.king@looking\-glass.fict.example
476 <other addresses>
477 .sp
478 The first line contains the length of time the message has been on the queue
479 (in this case 25 minutes), the size of the message (2.9K), the unique local
480 identifier for the message, and the message sender, as contained in the
481 envelope. For bounce messages, the sender address is empty, and appears as
482 "<>". If the message was submitted locally by an untrusted user who overrode
483 the default sender address, the user's login name is shown in parentheses
484 before the sender address.
485 .sp
486 If the message is frozen (attempts to deliver it are suspended) then the text
487 "*** frozen ***" is displayed at the end of this line.
488 .sp
489 The recipients of the message (taken from the envelope, not the headers) are
490 displayed on subsequent lines. Those addresses to which the message has already
491 been delivered are marked with the letter D. If an original address gets
492 expanded into several addresses via an alias or forward file, the original is
493 displayed with a D only when deliveries for all of its child addresses are
494 complete.
495 .TP 10
496 \fB\-bpa\fP
497 This option operates like \fB\-bp\fP, but in addition it shows delivered addresses
498 that were generated from the original top level address(es) in each message by
499 alias or forwarding operations. These addresses are flagged with "+D" instead
500 of just "D".
501 .TP 10
502 \fB\-bpc\fP
503 This option counts the number of messages on the queue, and writes the total
504 to the standard output. It is restricted to admin users, unless
505 \fBqueue_list_requires_admin\fP is set false.
506 .TP 10
507 \fB\-bpr\fP
508 This option operates like \fB\-bp\fP, but the output is not sorted into
509 chronological order of message arrival. This can speed it up when there are
510 lots of messages on the queue, and is particularly useful if the output is
511 going to be post\-processed in a way that doesn't need the sorting.
512 .TP 10
513 \fB\-bpra\fP
514 This option is a combination of \fB\-bpr\fP and \fB\-bpa\fP.
515 .TP 10
516 \fB\-bpru\fP
517 This option is a combination of \fB\-bpr\fP and \fB\-bpu\fP.
518 .TP 10
519 \fB\-bpu\fP
520 This option operates like \fB\-bp\fP but shows only undelivered top\-level
521 addresses for each message displayed. Addresses generated by aliasing or
522 forwarding are not shown, unless the message was deferred after processing by a
523 router with the \fBone_time\fP option set.
524 .TP 10
525 \fB\-brt\fP
526 This option is for testing retry rules, and it must be followed by up to three
527 arguments. It causes Exim to look for a retry rule that matches the values
528 and to write it to the standard output. For example:
529 .sp
530 exim \-brt bach.comp.mus.example
531 Retry rule: *.comp.mus.example F,2h,15m; F,4d,30m;
532 .sp
533 The first
534 argument, which is required, can be a complete address in the form
535 \fIlocal_part@domain\fP, or it can be just a domain name. If the second argument
536 contains a dot, it is interpreted as an optional second domain name; if no
537 retry rule is found for the first argument, the second is tried. This ties in
538 with Exim's behaviour when looking for retry rules for remote hosts \- if no
539 rule is found that matches the host, one that matches the mail domain is
540 sought. Finally, an argument that is the name of a specific delivery error, as
541 used in setting up retry rules, can be given. For example:
542 .sp
543 exim \-brt haydn.comp.mus.example quota_3d
544 Retry rule: *@haydn.comp.mus.example quota_3d F,1h,15m
545 .TP 10
546 \fB\-brw\fP
547 This option is for testing address rewriting rules, and it must be followed by
548 a single argument, consisting of either a local part without a domain, or a
549 complete address with a fully qualified domain. Exim outputs how this address
550 would be rewritten for each possible place it might appear.
551 .TP 10
552 \fB\-bS\fP
553 This option is used for batched SMTP input, which is an alternative interface
554 for non\-interactive local message submission. A number of messages can be
555 submitted in a single run. However, despite its name, this is not really SMTP
556 input. Exim reads each message's envelope from SMTP commands on the standard
557 input, but generates no responses. If the caller is trusted, or
558 \fBuntrusted_set_sender\fP is set, the senders in the SMTP MAIL commands are
559 believed; otherwise the sender is always the caller of Exim.
560 .sp
561 The message itself is read from the standard input, in SMTP format (leading
562 dots doubled), terminated by a line containing just a single dot. An error is
563 provoked if the terminating dot is missing. A further message may then follow.
564 .sp
565 As for other local message submissions, the contents of incoming batch SMTP
566 messages can be checked using the non\-SMTP ACL.
567 Unqualified addresses are automatically qualified using \fBqualify_domain\fP and
568 \fBqualify_recipient\fP, as appropriate, unless the \fB\-bnq\fP option is used.
569 .sp
570 Some other SMTP commands are recognized in the input. HELO and EHLO act
571 as RSET; VRFY, EXPN, ETRN, and HELP act as NOOP;
572 QUIT quits, ignoring the rest of the standard input.
573 .sp
574 If any error is encountered, reports are written to the standard output and
575 error streams, and Exim gives up immediately. The return code is 0 if no error
576 was detected; it is 1 if one or more messages were accepted before the error
577 was detected; otherwise it is 2.
578 .sp
579 .TP 10
580 \fB\-bs\fP
581 This option causes Exim to accept one or more messages by reading SMTP commands
582 on the standard input, and producing SMTP replies on the standard output. SMTP
583 policy controls, as defined in ACLs are applied.
584 Some user agents use this interface as a way of passing locally\-generated
585 messages to the MTA.
586 .sp
587 In
588 this usage, if the caller of Exim is trusted, or \fBuntrusted_set_sender\fP is
589 set, the senders of messages are taken from the SMTP MAIL commands.
590 Otherwise the content of these commands is ignored and the sender is set up as
591 the calling user. Unqualified addresses are automatically qualified using
592 \fBqualify_domain\fP and \fBqualify_recipient\fP, as appropriate, unless the
593 \fB\-bnq\fP option is used.
594 .sp
595 The
596 \fB\-bs\fP option is also used to run Exim from \fIinetd\fP, as an alternative to
597 using a listening daemon. Exim can distinguish the two cases by checking
598 whether the standard input is a TCP/IP socket. When Exim is called from
599 \fIinetd\fP, the source of the mail is assumed to be remote, and the comments
600 above concerning senders and qualification do not apply. In this situation,
601 Exim behaves in exactly the same way as it does when receiving a message via
602 the listening daemon.
603 .TP 10
604 \fB\-bt\fP
605 This option runs Exim in address testing mode, in which each argument is taken
606 as a recipient address to be tested for deliverability. The results are
607 written to the standard output. If a test fails, and the caller is not an admin
608 user, no details of the failure are output, because these might contain
609 sensitive information such as usernames and passwords for database lookups.
610 .sp
611 If no arguments are given, Exim runs in an interactive manner, prompting with a
612 right angle bracket for addresses to be tested.
613 .sp
614 Unlike the \fB\-be\fP test option, you cannot arrange for Exim to use the
615 readline() function, because it is running as \fIroot\fP and there are
616 security issues.
617 .sp
618 Each address is handled as if it were the recipient address of a message
619 (compare the \fB\-bv\fP option). It is passed to the routers and the result is
620 written to the standard output. However, any router that has
621 \fBno_address_test\fP set is bypassed. This can make \fB\-bt\fP easier to use for
622 genuine routing tests if your first router passes everything to a scanner
623 program.
624 .sp
625 The return code is 2 if any address failed outright; it is 1 if no address
626 failed outright but at least one could not be resolved for some reason. Return
627 code 0 is given only when all addresses succeed.
628 .sp
629 \fBNote\fP: When actually delivering a message, Exim removes duplicate recipient
630 addresses after routing is complete, so that only one delivery takes place.
631 This does not happen when testing with \fB\-bt\fP; the full results of routing are
632 always shown.
633 .sp
634 \fBWarning\fP: \fB\-bt\fP can only do relatively simple testing. If any of the
635 routers in the configuration makes any tests on the sender address of a
636 message,
637 you can use the \fB\-f\fP option to set an appropriate sender when running
638 \fB\-bt\fP tests. Without it, the sender is assumed to be the calling user at the
639 default qualifying domain. However, if you have set up (for example) routers
640 whose behaviour depends on the contents of an incoming message, you cannot test
641 those conditions using \fB\-bt\fP. The \fB\-N\fP option provides a possible way of
642 doing such tests.
643 .TP 10
644 \fB\-bV\fP
645 This option causes Exim to write the current version number, compilation
646 number, and compilation date of the \fIexim\fP binary to the standard output.
647 It also lists the DBM library that is being used, the optional modules (such as
648 specific lookup types), the drivers that are included in the binary, and the
649 name of the run time configuration file that is in use.
650 .sp
651 As part of its operation, \fB\-bV\fP causes Exim to read and syntax check its
652 configuration file. However, this is a static check only. It cannot check
653 values that are to be expanded. For example, although a misspelt ACL verb is
654 detected, an error in the verb's arguments is not. You cannot rely on \fB\-bV\fP
655 alone to discover (for example) all the typos in the configuration; some
656 realistic testing is needed. The \fB\-bh\fP and \fB\-N\fP options provide more
657 dynamic testing facilities.
658 .TP 10
659 \fB\-bv\fP
660 This option runs Exim in address verification mode, in which each argument is
661 taken as a recipient address to be verified by the routers. (This does
662 not involve any verification callouts). During normal operation, verification
663 happens mostly as a consequence processing a \fBverify\fP condition in an ACL. If you want to test an entire ACL, possibly
664 including callouts, see the \fB\-bh\fP and \fB\-bhc\fP options.
665 .sp
666 If verification fails, and the caller is not an admin user, no details of the
667 failure are output, because these might contain sensitive information such as
668 usernames and passwords for database lookups.
669 .sp
670 If no arguments are given, Exim runs in an interactive manner, prompting with a
671 right angle bracket for addresses to be verified.
672 .sp
673 Unlike the \fB\-be\fP test option, you cannot arrange for Exim to use the
674 readline() function, because it is running as \fIexim\fP and there are
675 security issues.
676 .sp
677 Verification differs from address testing (the \fB\-bt\fP option) in that routers
678 that have \fBno_verify\fP set are skipped, and if the address is accepted by a
679 router that has \fBfail_verify\fP set, verification fails. The address is
680 verified as a recipient if \fB\-bv\fP is used; to test verification for a sender
681 address, \fB\-bvs\fP should be used.
682 .sp
683 If the \fB\-v\fP option is not set, the output consists of a single line for each
684 address, stating whether it was verified or not, and giving a reason in the
685 latter case. Without \fB\-v\fP, generating more than one address by redirection
686 causes verification to end successfully, without considering the generated
687 addresses. However, if just one address is generated, processing continues,
688 and the generated address must verify successfully for the overall verification
689 to succeed.
690 .sp
691 When \fB\-v\fP is set, more details are given of how the address has been handled,
692 and in the case of address redirection, all the generated addresses are also
693 considered. Verification may succeed for some and fail for others.
694 .sp
695 The
696 return code is 2 if any address failed outright; it is 1 if no address
697 failed outright but at least one could not be resolved for some reason. Return
698 code 0 is given only when all addresses succeed.
699 .sp
700 If any of the routers in the configuration makes any tests on the sender
701 address of a message, you should use the \fB\-f\fP option to set an appropriate
702 sender when running \fB\-bv\fP tests. Without it, the sender is assumed to be the
703 calling user at the default qualifying domain.
704 .TP 10
705 \fB\-bvs\fP
706 This option acts like \fB\-bv\fP, but verifies the address as a sender rather
707 than a recipient address. This affects any rewriting and qualification that
708 might happen.
709 .TP 10
710 \fB\-bw\fP
711 This option runs Exim as a daemon, awaiting incoming SMTP connections,
712 similarly to the \fB\-bd\fP option. All port specifications on the command\-line
713 and in the configuration file are ignored. Queue\-running may not be specified.
714 .sp
715 In this mode, Exim expects to be passed a socket as fd 0 (stdin) which is
716 listening for connections. This permits the system to start up and have
717 inetd (or equivalent) listen on the SMTP ports, starting an Exim daemon for
718 each port only when the first connection is received.
719 .sp
720 If the option is given as \fB\-bw\fP<\fItime\fP> then the time is a timeout, after
721 which the daemon will exit, which should cause inetd to listen once more.
722 .TP 10
723 \fB\-C\fP <\fIfilelist\fP>
724 This option causes Exim to find the run time configuration file from the given
725 list instead of from the list specified by the CONFIGURE_FILE
726 compile\-time setting. Usually, the list will consist of just a single file
727 name, but it can be a colon\-separated list of names. In this case, the first
728 file that exists is used. Failure to open an existing file stops Exim from
729 proceeding any further along the list, and an error is generated.
730 .sp
731 The file names need to be absolute names.
732 .sp
733 When this option is used by a caller other than root, and the list is different
734 from the compiled\-in list, Exim gives up its root privilege immediately, and
735 runs with the real and effective uid and gid set to those of the caller.
736 However, if a TRUSTED_CONFIG_LIST file is defined in Local/Makefile, that
737 file contains a list of full pathnames, one per line, for configuration files
738 which are trusted. Root privilege is retained for any configuration file so
739 listed, as long as the caller is the Exim user (or the user specified in the
740 CONFIGURE_OWNER option, if any), and as long as the configuration file is
741 not writeable by inappropriate users or groups.
742 .sp
743 Leaving TRUSTED_CONFIG_LIST unset precludes the possibility of testing a
744 configuration using \fB\-C\fP right through message reception and delivery,
745 even if the caller is root. The reception works, but by that time, Exim is
746 running as the Exim user, so when it re\-executes to regain privilege for the
747 delivery, the use of \fB\-C\fP causes privilege to be lost. However, root can
748 test reception and delivery using two separate commands (one to put a message
749 on the queue, using \fB\-odq\fP, and another to do the delivery, using \fB\-M\fP).
750 .sp
751 If ALT_CONFIG_PREFIX is defined in Local/Makefile, it specifies a
752 prefix string with which any file named in a \fB\-C\fP command line option
753 must start. In addition, the file name must not contain the sequence /../.
754 However, if the value of the \fB\-C\fP option is identical to the value of
755 CONFIGURE_FILE in Local/Makefile, Exim ignores \fB\-C\fP and proceeds as
756 usual. There is no default setting for ALT_CONFIG_PREFIX; when it is
757 unset, any file name can be used with \fB\-C\fP.
758 .sp
759 ALT_CONFIG_PREFIX can be used to confine alternative configuration files
760 to a directory to which only root has access. This prevents someone who has
761 broken into the Exim account from running a privileged Exim with an arbitrary
762 configuration file.
763 .sp
764 The \fB\-C\fP facility is useful for ensuring that configuration files are
765 syntactically correct, but cannot be used for test deliveries, unless the
766 caller is privileged, or unless it is an exotic configuration that does not
767 require privilege. No check is made on the owner or group of the files
768 specified by this option.
769 .TP 10
770 \fB\-D\fP<\fImacro\fP>=<\fIvalue\fP>
771 This option can be used to override macro definitions in the configuration file. However, like \fB\-C\fP, if it is used by an
772 unprivileged caller, it causes Exim to give up its root privilege.
773 If DISABLE_D_OPTION is defined in Local/Makefile, the use of \fB\-D\fP is
774 completely disabled, and its use causes an immediate error exit.
775 .sp
776 If WHITELIST_D_MACROS is defined in Local/Makefile then it should be a
777 colon\-separated list of macros which are considered safe and, if \fB\-D\fP only
778 supplies macros from this list, and the values are acceptable, then Exim will
779 not give up root privilege if the caller is root, the Exim run\-time user, or
780 the CONFIGURE_OWNER, if set. This is a transition mechanism and is expected
781 to be removed in the future. Acceptable values for the macros satisfy the
782 regexp: ^[A\-Za\-z0\-9_/.\-]*$
783 .sp
784 The entire option (including equals sign if present) must all be within one
785 command line item. \fB\-D\fP can be used to set the value of a macro to the empty
786 string, in which case the equals sign is optional. These two commands are
787 synonymous:
788 .sp
789 exim \-DABC ...
790 exim \-DABC= ...
791 .sp
792 To include spaces in a macro definition item, quotes must be used. If you use
793 quotes, spaces are permitted around the macro name and the equals sign. For
794 example:
795 .sp
796 exim '\-D ABC = something' ...
797 .sp
798 \fB\-D\fP may be repeated up to 10 times on a command line.
799 .TP 10
800 \fB\-d\fP<\fIdebug options\fP>
801 This option causes debugging information to be written to the standard
802 error stream. It is restricted to admin users because debugging output may show
803 database queries that contain password information. Also, the details of users'
804 filter files should be protected. If a non\-admin user uses \fB\-d\fP, Exim
805 writes an error message to the standard error stream and exits with a non\-zero
806 return code.
807 .sp
808 When \fB\-d\fP is used, \fB\-v\fP is assumed. If \fB\-d\fP is given on its own, a lot of
809 standard debugging data is output. This can be reduced, or increased to include
810 some more rarely needed information, by directly following \fB\-d\fP with a string
811 made up of names preceded by plus or minus characters. These add or remove sets
812 of debugging data, respectively. For example, \fB\-d+filter\fP adds filter
813 debugging, whereas \fB\-d\-all+filter\fP selects only filter debugging. Note that
814 no spaces are allowed in the debug setting. The available debugging categories
815 are:
816 .sp
817 acl ACL interpretation
818 auth authenticators
819 deliver general delivery logic
820 dns DNS lookups (see also resolver)
821 dnsbl DNS black list (aka RBL) code
822 exec arguments for execv() calls
823 expand detailed debugging for string expansions
824 filter filter handling
825 hints_lookup hints data lookups
826 host_lookup all types of name\-to\-IP address handling
827 ident ident lookup
828 interface lists of local interfaces
829 lists matching things in lists
830 load system load checks
831 local_scan can be used by local_scan()
832 lookup general lookup code and all lookups
833 memory memory handling
834 pid add pid to debug output lines
835 process_info setting info for the process log
836 queue_run queue runs
837 receive general message reception logic
838 resolver turn on the DNS resolver's debugging output
839 retry retry handling
840 rewrite address rewriting
841 route address routing
842 timestamp add timestamp to debug output lines
843 tls TLS logic
844 transport transports
845 uid changes of uid/gid and looking up uid/gid
846 verify address verification logic
847 all almost all of the above (see below), and also \fB\-v\fP
848 .sp
849 The all option excludes memory when used as +all, but includes it
850 for \-all. The reason for this is that +all is something that people
851 tend to use when generating debug output for Exim maintainers. If +memory
852 is included, an awful lot of output that is very rarely of interest is
853 generated, so it now has to be explicitly requested. However, \-all does
854 turn everything off.
855 .sp
856 The resolver option produces output only if the DNS resolver was compiled
857 with DEBUG enabled. This is not the case in some operating systems. Also,
858 unfortunately, debugging output from the DNS resolver is written to stdout
859 rather than stderr.
860 .sp
861 The default (\fB\-d\fP with no argument) omits expand, filter,
862 interface, load, memory, pid, resolver, and timestamp.
863 However, the pid selector is forced when debugging is turned on for a
864 daemon, which then passes it on to any re\-executed Exims. Exim also
865 automatically adds the pid to debug lines when several remote deliveries are
866 run in parallel.
867 .sp
868 The timestamp selector causes the current time to be inserted at the start
869 of all debug output lines. This can be useful when trying to track down delays
870 in processing.
871 .sp
872 If the \fBdebug_print\fP option is set in any driver, it produces output whenever
873 any debugging is selected, or if \fB\-v\fP is used.
874 .TP 10
875 \fB\-dd\fP<\fIdebug options\fP>
876 This option behaves exactly like \fB\-d\fP except when used on a command that
877 starts a daemon process. In that case, debugging is turned off for the
878 subprocesses that the daemon creates. Thus, it is useful for monitoring the
879 behaviour of the daemon without creating as much output as full debugging does.
880 .TP 10
881 \fB\-dropcr\fP
882 This is an obsolete option that is now a no\-op. It used to affect the way Exim
883 handled CR and LF characters in incoming messages.
884 .TP 10
885 \fB\-E\fP
886 This option specifies that an incoming message is a locally\-generated delivery
887 failure report. It is used internally by Exim when handling delivery failures
888 and is not intended for external use. Its only effect is to stop Exim
889 generating certain messages to the postmaster, as otherwise message cascades
890 could occur in some situations. As part of the same option, a message id may
891 follow the characters \fB\-E\fP. If it does, the log entry for the receipt of the
892 new message contains the id, following "R=", as a cross\-reference.
893 .TP 10
894 \fB\-e\fP\fIx\fP
895 There are a number of Sendmail options starting with \fB\-oe\fP which seem to be
896 called by various programs without the leading \fBo\fP in the option. For
897 example, the \fBvacation\fP program uses \fB\-eq\fP. Exim treats all options of the
898 form \fB\-e\fP\fIx\fP as synonymous with the corresponding \fB\-oe\fP\fIx\fP options.
899 .TP 10
900 \fB\-F\fP <\fIstring\fP>
901 This option sets the sender's full name for use when a locally\-generated
902 message is being accepted. In the absence of this option, the user's \fIgecos\fP
903 entry from the password data is used. As users are generally permitted to alter
904 their \fIgecos\fP entries, no security considerations are involved. White space
905 between \fB\-F\fP and the <\fIstring\fP> is optional.
906 .TP 10
907 \fB\-f\fP <\fIaddress\fP>
908 This option sets the address of the envelope sender of a locally\-generated
909 message (also known as the return path). The option can normally be used only
910 by a trusted user, but \fBuntrusted_set_sender\fP can be set to allow untrusted
911 users to use it.
912 .sp
913 Processes running as root or the Exim user are always trusted. Other
914 trusted users are defined by the \fBtrusted_users\fP or \fBtrusted_groups\fP
915 options. In the absence of \fB\-f\fP, or if the caller is not trusted, the sender
916 of a local message is set to the caller's login name at the default qualify
917 domain.
918 .sp
919 There is one exception to the restriction on the use of \fB\-f\fP: an empty sender
920 can be specified by any user, trusted or not, to create a message that can
921 never provoke a bounce. An empty sender can be specified either as an empty
922 string, or as a pair of angle brackets with nothing between them, as in these
923 examples of shell commands:
924 .sp
925 exim \-f '<>' user@domain
926 exim \-f "" user@domain
927 .sp
928 In addition, the use of \fB\-f\fP is not restricted when testing a filter file
929 with \fB\-bf\fP or when testing or verifying addresses using the \fB\-bt\fP or
930 \fB\-bv\fP options.
931 .sp
932 Allowing untrusted users to change the sender address does not of itself make
933 it possible to send anonymous mail. Exim still checks that the \fIFrom:\fP header
934 refers to the local user, and if it does not, it adds a \fISender:\fP header,
935 though this can be overridden by setting \fBno_local_from_check\fP.
936 .sp
937 White
938 space between \fB\-f\fP and the <\fIaddress\fP> is optional (that is, they can be
939 given as two arguments or one combined argument). The sender of a
940 locally\-generated message can also be set (when permitted) by an initial
941 "From " line in the message \- see the description of \fB\-bm\fP above \- but
942 if \fB\-f\fP is also present, it overrides "From ".
943 .TP 10
944 \fB\-G\fP
945 This option is equivalent to an ACL applying:
946 .sp
947 control = suppress_local_fixups
948 .sp
949 for every message received. Note that Sendmail will complain about such
950 bad formatting, where Exim silently just does not fix it up. This may change
951 in future.
952 .sp
953 As this affects audit information, the caller must be a trusted user to use
954 this option.
955 .TP 10
956 \fB\-h\fP <\fInumber\fP>
957 This option is accepted for compatibility with Sendmail, but has no effect. (In
958 Sendmail it overrides the "hop count" obtained by counting \fIReceived:\fP
959 headers.)
960 .TP 10
961 \fB\-i\fP
962 This option, which has the same effect as \fB\-oi\fP, specifies that a dot on a
963 line by itself should not terminate an incoming, non\-SMTP message. I can find
964 no documentation for this option in Solaris 2.4 Sendmail, but the \fImailx\fP
965 command in Solaris 2.4 uses it. See also \fB\-ti\fP.
966 .TP 10
967 \fB\-L\fP <\fItag\fP>
968 This option is equivalent to setting \fBsyslog_processname\fP in the config
969 file and setting \fBlog_file_path\fP to syslog.
970 Its use is restricted to administrators. The configuration file has to be
971 read and parsed, to determine access rights, before this is set and takes
972 effect, so early configuration file errors will not honour this flag.
973 .sp
974 The tag should not be longer than 32 characters.
975 .TP 10
976 \fB\-M\fP <\fImessage id\fP> <\fImessage id\fP> ...
977 This option requests Exim to run a delivery attempt on each message in turn. If
978 any of the messages are frozen, they are automatically thawed before the
979 delivery attempt. The settings of \fBqueue_domains\fP, \fBqueue_smtp_domains\fP,
980 and \fBhold_domains\fP are ignored.
981 .sp
982 Retry
983 hints for any of the addresses are overridden \- Exim tries to deliver even if
984 the normal retry time has not yet been reached. This option requires the caller
985 to be an admin user. However, there is an option called \fBprod_requires_admin\fP
986 which can be set false to relax this restriction (and also the same requirement
987 for the \fB\-q\fP, \fB\-R\fP, and \fB\-S\fP options).
988 .sp
989 The deliveries happen synchronously, that is, the original Exim process does
990 not terminate until all the delivery attempts have finished. No output is
991 produced unless there is a serious error. If you want to see what is happening,
992 use the \fB\-v\fP option as well, or inspect Exim's main log.
993 .TP 10
994 \fB\-Mar\fP <\fImessage id\fP> <\fIaddress\fP> <\fIaddress\fP> ...
995 This option requests Exim to add the addresses to the list of recipients of the
996 message ("ar" for "add recipients"). The first argument must be a message
997 id, and the remaining ones must be email addresses. However, if the message is
998 active (in the middle of a delivery attempt), it is not altered. This option
999 can be used only by an admin user.
1000 .TP 10
1001 \fB\-MC\fP <\fItransport\fP> <\fIhostname\fP> <\fIsequence number\fP> <\fImessage id\fP>
1002 This option is not intended for use by external callers. It is used internally
1003 by Exim to invoke another instance of itself to deliver a waiting message using
1004 an existing SMTP connection, which is passed as the standard input. This must be the final option, and the caller
1005 must be root or the Exim user in order to use it.
1006 .TP 10
1007 \fB\-MCA\fP
1008 This option is not intended for use by external callers. It is used internally
1009 by Exim in conjunction with the \fB\-MC\fP option. It signifies that the
1010 connection to the remote host has been authenticated.
1011 .TP 10
1012 \fB\-MCP\fP
1013 This option is not intended for use by external callers. It is used internally
1014 by Exim in conjunction with the \fB\-MC\fP option. It signifies that the server to
1015 which Exim is connected supports pipelining.
1016 .TP 10
1017 \fB\-MCQ\fP <\fIprocess id\fP> <\fIpipe fd\fP>
1018 This option is not intended for use by external callers. It is used internally
1019 by Exim in conjunction with the \fB\-MC\fP option when the original delivery was
1020 started by a queue runner. It passes on the process id of the queue runner,
1021 together with the file descriptor number of an open pipe. Closure of the pipe
1022 signals the final completion of the sequence of processes that are passing
1023 messages through the same SMTP connection.
1024 .TP 10
1025 \fB\-MCS\fP
1026 This option is not intended for use by external callers. It is used internally
1027 by Exim in conjunction with the \fB\-MC\fP option, and passes on the fact that the
1028 SMTP SIZE option should be used on messages delivered down the existing
1029 connection.
1030 .TP 10
1031 \fB\-MCT\fP
1032 This option is not intended for use by external callers. It is used internally
1033 by Exim in conjunction with the \fB\-MC\fP option, and passes on the fact that the
1034 host to which Exim is connected supports TLS encryption.
1035 .TP 10
1036 \fB\-Mc\fP <\fImessage id\fP> <\fImessage id\fP> ...
1037 This option requests Exim to run a delivery attempt on each message in turn,
1038 but unlike the \fB\-M\fP option, it does check for retry hints, and respects any
1039 that are found. This option is not very useful to external callers. It is
1040 provided mainly for internal use by Exim when it needs to re\-invoke itself in
1041 order to regain root privilege for a delivery.
1042 However, \fB\-Mc\fP can be useful when testing, in order to run a delivery that
1043 respects retry times and other options such as \fBhold_domains\fP that are
1044 overridden when \fB\-M\fP is used. Such a delivery does not count as a queue run.
1045 If you want to run a specific delivery as if in a queue run, you should use
1046 \fB\-q\fP with a message id argument. A distinction between queue run deliveries
1047 and other deliveries is made in one or two places.
1048 .TP 10
1049 \fB\-Mes\fP <\fImessage id\fP> <\fIaddress\fP>
1050 This option requests Exim to change the sender address in the message to the
1051 given address, which must be a fully qualified address or "<>" ("es" for
1052 "edit sender"). There must be exactly two arguments. The first argument must
1053 be a message id, and the second one an email address. However, if the message
1054 is active (in the middle of a delivery attempt), its status is not altered.
1055 This option can be used only by an admin user.
1056 .TP 10
1057 \fB\-Mf\fP <\fImessage id\fP> <\fImessage id\fP> ...
1058 This option requests Exim to mark each listed message as "frozen". This
1059 prevents any delivery attempts taking place until the message is "thawed",
1060 either manually or as a result of the \fBauto_thaw\fP configuration option.
1061 However, if any of the messages are active (in the middle of a delivery
1062 attempt), their status is not altered. This option can be used only by an admin
1063 user.
1064 .TP 10
1065 \fB\-Mg\fP <\fImessage id\fP> <\fImessage id\fP> ...
1066 This option requests Exim to give up trying to deliver the listed messages,
1067 including any that are frozen. However, if any of the messages are active,
1068 their status is not altered. For non\-bounce messages, a delivery error message
1069 is sent to the sender, containing the text "cancelled by administrator".
1070 Bounce messages are just discarded. This option can be used only by an admin
1071 user.
1072 .TP 10
1073 \fB\-Mmad\fP <\fImessage id\fP> <\fImessage id\fP> ...
1074 This option requests Exim to mark all the recipient addresses in the messages
1075 as already delivered ("mad" for "mark all delivered"). However, if any
1076 message is active (in the middle of a delivery attempt), its status is not
1077 altered. This option can be used only by an admin user.
1078 .TP 10
1079 \fB\-Mmd\fP <\fImessage id\fP> <\fIaddress\fP> <\fIaddress\fP> ...
1080 This option requests Exim to mark the given addresses as already delivered
1081 ("md" for "mark delivered"). The first argument must be a message id, and
1082 the remaining ones must be email addresses. These are matched to recipient
1083 addresses in the message in a case\-sensitive manner. If the message is active
1084 (in the middle of a delivery attempt), its status is not altered. This option
1085 can be used only by an admin user.
1086 .TP 10
1087 \fB\-Mrm\fP <\fImessage id\fP> <\fImessage id\fP> ...
1088 This option requests Exim to remove the given messages from the queue. No
1089 bounce messages are sent; each message is simply forgotten. However, if any of
1090 the messages are active, their status is not altered. This option can be used
1091 only by an admin user or by the user who originally caused the message to be
1092 placed on the queue.
1093 .TP 10
1094 \fB\-Mset\fP <\fImessage id\fP>
1095 This option is useful only in conjunction with \fB\-be\fP (that is, when testing
1096 string expansions). Exim loads the given message from its spool before doing
1097 the test expansions, thus setting message\-specific variables such as
1098 \fI$message_size\fP and the header variables. The \fI$recipients\fP variable is made
1099 available. This feature is provided to make it easier to test expansions that
1100 make use of these variables. However, this option can be used only by an admin
1101 user. See also \fB\-bem\fP.
1102 .TP 10
1103 \fB\-Mt\fP <\fImessage id\fP> <\fImessage id\fP> ...
1104 This option requests Exim to "thaw" any of the listed messages that are
1105 "frozen", so that delivery attempts can resume. However, if any of the
1106 messages are active, their status is not altered. This option can be used only
1107 by an admin user.
1108 .TP 10
1109 \fB\-Mvb\fP <\fImessage id\fP>
1110 This option causes the contents of the message body (\-D) spool file to be
1111 written to the standard output. This option can be used only by an admin user.
1112 .TP 10
1113 \fB\-Mvc\fP <\fImessage id\fP>
1114 This option causes a copy of the complete message (header lines plus body) to
1115 be written to the standard output in RFC 2822 format. This option can be used
1116 only by an admin user.
1117 .TP 10
1118 \fB\-Mvh\fP <\fImessage id\fP>
1119 This option causes the contents of the message headers (\-H) spool file to be
1120 written to the standard output. This option can be used only by an admin user.
1121 .TP 10
1122 \fB\-Mvl\fP <\fImessage id\fP>
1123 This option causes the contents of the message log spool file to be written to
1124 the standard output. This option can be used only by an admin user.
1125 .TP 10
1126 \fB\-m\fP
1127 This is apparently a synonym for \fB\-om\fP that is accepted by Sendmail, so Exim
1128 treats it that way too.
1129 .TP 10
1130 \fB\-N\fP
1131 This is a debugging option that inhibits delivery of a message at the transport
1132 level. It implies \fB\-v\fP. Exim goes through many of the motions of delivery \-
1133 it just doesn't actually transport the message, but instead behaves as if it
1134 had successfully done so. However, it does not make any updates to the retry
1135 database, and the log entries for deliveries are flagged with "*>" rather
1136 than "=>".
1137 .sp
1138 Because \fB\-N\fP discards any message to which it applies, only root or the Exim
1139 user are allowed to use it with \fB\-bd\fP, \fB\-q\fP, \fB\-R\fP or \fB\-M\fP. In other
1140 words, an ordinary user can use it only when supplying an incoming message to
1141 which it will apply. Although transportation never fails when \fB\-N\fP is set, an
1142 address may be deferred because of a configuration problem on a transport, or a
1143 routing problem. Once \fB\-N\fP has been used for a delivery attempt, it sticks to
1144 the message, and applies to any subsequent delivery attempts that may happen
1145 for that message.
1146 .TP 10
1147 \fB\-n\fP
1148 This option is interpreted by Sendmail to mean "no aliasing".
1149 For normal modes of operation, it is ignored by Exim.
1150 When combined with \fB\-bP\fP it suppresses the name of an option from being output.
1151 .TP 10
1152 \fB\-O\fP <\fIdata\fP>
1153 This option is interpreted by Sendmail to mean set option. It is ignored by
1154 Exim.
1155 .TP 10
1156 \fB\-oA\fP <\fIfile name\fP>
1157 This option is used by Sendmail in conjunction with \fB\-bi\fP to specify an
1158 alternative alias file name. Exim handles \fB\-bi\fP differently; see the
1159 description above.
1160 .TP 10
1161 \fB\-oB\fP <\fIn\fP>
1162 This is a debugging option which limits the maximum number of messages that can
1163 be delivered down one SMTP connection, overriding the value set in any smtp
1164 transport. If <\fIn\fP> is omitted, the limit is set to 1.
1165 .TP 10
1166 \fB\-odb\fP
1167 This option applies to all modes in which Exim accepts incoming messages,
1168 including the listening daemon. It requests "background" delivery of such
1169 messages, which means that the accepting process automatically starts a
1170 delivery process for each message received, but does not wait for the delivery
1171 processes to finish.
1172 .sp
1173 When all the messages have been received, the reception process exits,
1174 leaving the delivery processes to finish in their own time. The standard output
1175 and error streams are closed at the start of each delivery process.
1176 This is the default action if none of the \fB\-od\fP options are present.
1177 .sp
1178 If one of the queueing options in the configuration file
1179 (\fBqueue_only\fP or \fBqueue_only_file\fP, for example) is in effect, \fB\-odb\fP
1180 overrides it if \fBqueue_only_override\fP is set true, which is the default
1181 setting. If \fBqueue_only_override\fP is set false, \fB\-odb\fP has no effect.
1182 .TP 10
1183 \fB\-odf\fP
1184 This option requests "foreground" (synchronous) delivery when Exim has
1185 accepted a locally\-generated message. (For the daemon it is exactly the same as
1186 \fB\-odb\fP.) A delivery process is automatically started to deliver the message,
1187 and Exim waits for it to complete before proceeding.
1188 .sp
1189 The original Exim reception process does not finish until the delivery
1190 process for the final message has ended. The standard error stream is left open
1191 during deliveries.
1192 .sp
1193 However, like \fB\-odb\fP, this option has no effect if \fBqueue_only_override\fP is
1194 false and one of the queueing options in the configuration file is in effect.
1195 .sp
1196 If there is a temporary delivery error during foreground delivery, the
1197 message is left on the queue for later delivery, and the original reception
1198 process exits.
1199 .TP 10
1200 \fB\-odi\fP
1201 This option is synonymous with \fB\-odf\fP. It is provided for compatibility with
1202 Sendmail.
1203 .TP 10
1204 \fB\-odq\fP
1205 This option applies to all modes in which Exim accepts incoming messages,
1206 including the listening daemon. It specifies that the accepting process should
1207 not automatically start a delivery process for each message received. Messages
1208 are placed on the queue, and remain there until a subsequent queue runner
1209 process encounters them. There are several configuration options (such as
1210 \fBqueue_only\fP) that can be used to queue incoming messages under certain
1211 conditions. This option overrides all of them and also \fB\-odqs\fP. It always
1212 forces queueing.
1213 .TP 10
1214 \fB\-odqs\fP
1215 This option is a hybrid between \fB\-odb\fP/\fB\-odi\fP and \fB\-odq\fP.
1216 However, like \fB\-odb\fP and \fB\-odi\fP, this option has no effect if
1217 \fBqueue_only_override\fP is false and one of the queueing options in the
1218 configuration file is in effect.
1219 .sp
1220 When \fB\-odqs\fP does operate, a delivery process is started for each incoming
1221 message, in the background by default, but in the foreground if \fB\-odi\fP is
1222 also present. The recipient addresses are routed, and local deliveries are done
1223 in the normal way. However, if any SMTP deliveries are required, they are not
1224 done at this time, so the message remains on the queue until a subsequent queue
1225 runner process encounters it. Because routing was done, Exim knows which
1226 messages are waiting for which hosts, and so a number of messages for the same
1227 host can be sent in a single SMTP connection. The \fBqueue_smtp_domains\fP
1228 configuration option has the same effect for specific domains. See also the
1229 \fB\-qq\fP option.
1230 .TP 10
1231 \fB\-oee\fP
1232 If an error is detected while a non\-SMTP message is being received (for
1233 example, a malformed address), the error is reported to the sender in a mail
1234 message.
1235 .sp
1236 Provided
1237 this error message is successfully sent, the Exim receiving process
1238 exits with a return code of zero. If not, the return code is 2 if the problem
1239 is that the original message has no recipients, or 1 for any other error.
1240 This is the default \fB\-oe\fP\fIx\fP option if Exim is called as \fIrmail\fP.
1241 .TP 10
1242 \fB\-oem\fP
1243 This is the same as \fB\-oee\fP, except that Exim always exits with a non\-zero
1244 return code, whether or not the error message was successfully sent.
1245 This is the default \fB\-oe\fP\fIx\fP option, unless Exim is called as \fIrmail\fP.
1246 .TP 10
1247 \fB\-oep\fP
1248 If an error is detected while a non\-SMTP message is being received, the
1249 error is reported by writing a message to the standard error file (stderr).
1250 The return code is 1 for all errors.
1251 .TP 10
1252 \fB\-oeq\fP
1253 This option is supported for compatibility with Sendmail, but has the same
1254 effect as \fB\-oep\fP.
1255 .TP 10
1256 \fB\-oew\fP
1257 This option is supported for compatibility with Sendmail, but has the same
1258 effect as \fB\-oem\fP.
1259 .TP 10
1260 \fB\-oi\fP
1261 This option, which has the same effect as \fB\-i\fP, specifies that a dot on a
1262 line by itself should not terminate an incoming, non\-SMTP message. Otherwise, a
1263 single dot does terminate, though Exim does no special processing for other
1264 lines that start with a dot. This option is set by default if Exim is called as
1265 \fIrmail\fP. See also \fB\-ti\fP.
1266 .TP 10
1267 \fB\-oitrue\fP
1268 This option is treated as synonymous with \fB\-oi\fP.
1269 .TP 10
1270 \fB\-oMa\fP <\fIhost address\fP>
1271 A number of options starting with \fB\-oM\fP can be used to set values associated
1272 with remote hosts on locally\-submitted messages (that is, messages not received
1273 over TCP/IP). These options can be used by any caller in conjunction with the
1274 \fB\-bh\fP, \fB\-be\fP, \fB\-bf\fP, \fB\-bF\fP, \fB\-bt\fP, or \fB\-bv\fP testing options. In
1275 other circumstances, they are ignored unless the caller is trusted.
1276 .sp
1277 The \fB\-oMa\fP option sets the sender host address. This may include a port
1278 number at the end, after a full stop (period). For example:
1279 .sp
1280 exim \-bs \-oMa 10.9.8.7.1234
1281 .sp
1282 An alternative syntax is to enclose the IP address in square brackets,
1283 followed by a colon and the port number:
1284 .sp
1285 exim \-bs \-oMa [10.9.8.7]:1234
1286 .sp
1287 The IP address is placed in the \fI$sender_host_address\fP variable, and the
1288 port, if present, in \fI$sender_host_port\fP. If both \fB\-oMa\fP and \fB\-bh\fP
1289 are present on the command line, the sender host IP address is taken from
1290 whichever one is last.
1291 .TP 10
1292 \fB\-oMaa\fP <\fIname\fP>
1293 See \fB\-oMa\fP above for general remarks about the \fB\-oM\fP options. The \fB\-oMaa\fP
1294 option sets the value of \fI$sender_host_authenticated\fP (the authenticator
1295 name).
1296 This option can be used with \fB\-bh\fP and \fB\-bs\fP to set up an
1297 authenticated SMTP session without actually using the SMTP AUTH command.
1298 .TP 10
1299 \fB\-oMai\fP <\fIstring\fP>
1300 See \fB\-oMa\fP above for general remarks about the \fB\-oM\fP options. The \fB\-oMai\fP
1301 option sets the value of \fI$authenticated_id\fP (the id that was authenticated).
1302 This overrides the default value (the caller's login id, except with \fB\-bh\fP,
1303 where there is no default) for messages from local sources.
1304 .TP 10
1305 \fB\-oMas\fP <\fIaddress\fP>
1306 See \fB\-oMa\fP above for general remarks about the \fB\-oM\fP options. The \fB\-oMas\fP
1307 option sets the authenticated sender value in \fI$authenticated_sender\fP. It
1308 overrides the sender address that is created from the caller's login id for
1309 messages from local sources, except when \fB\-bh\fP is used, when there is no
1310 default. For both \fB\-bh\fP and \fB\-bs\fP, an authenticated sender that is
1311 specified on a MAIL command overrides this value.
1312 .TP 10
1313 \fB\-oMi\fP <\fIinterface address\fP>
1314 See \fB\-oMa\fP above for general remarks about the \fB\-oM\fP options. The \fB\-oMi\fP
1315 option sets the IP interface address value. A port number may be included,
1316 using the same syntax as for \fB\-oMa\fP. The interface address is placed in
1317 \fI$received_ip_address\fP and the port number, if present, in \fI$received_port\fP.
1318 .TP 10
1319 \fB\-oMm\fP <\fImessage reference\fP>
1320 See \fB\-oMa\fP above for general remarks about the \fB\-oM\fP options. The \fB\-oMm\fP
1321 option sets the message reference, e.g. message\-id, and is logged during
1322 delivery. This is useful when some kind of audit trail is required to tie
1323 messages together. The format of the message reference is checked and will
1324 abort if the format is invalid. The option will only be accepted if exim is
1325 running in trusted mode, not as any regular user.
1326 .sp
1327 The best example of a message reference is when Exim sends a bounce message.
1328 The message reference is the message\-id of the original message for which Exim
1329 is sending the bounce.
1330 .TP 10
1331 \fB\-oMr\fP <\fIprotocol name\fP>
1332 See \fB\-oMa\fP above for general remarks about the \fB\-oM\fP options. The \fB\-oMr\fP
1333 option sets the received protocol value that is stored in
1334 \fI$received_protocol\fP. However, it does not apply (and is ignored) when \fB\-bh\fP
1335 or \fB\-bs\fP is used. For \fB\-bh\fP, the protocol is forced to one of the standard
1336 SMTP protocol names. For \fB\-bs\fP, the protocol is always "local\-" followed by
1337 one of those same names. For \fB\-bS\fP (batched SMTP) however, the protocol can
1338 be set by \fB\-oMr\fP.
1339 .TP 10
1340 \fB\-oMs\fP <\fIhost name\fP>
1341 See \fB\-oMa\fP above for general remarks about the \fB\-oM\fP options. The \fB\-oMs\fP
1342 option sets the sender host name in \fI$sender_host_name\fP. When this option is
1343 present, Exim does not attempt to look up a host name from an IP address; it
1344 uses the name it is given.
1345 .TP 10
1346 \fB\-oMt\fP <\fIident string\fP>
1347 See \fB\-oMa\fP above for general remarks about the \fB\-oM\fP options. The \fB\-oMt\fP
1348 option sets the sender ident value in \fI$sender_ident\fP. The default setting for
1349 local callers is the login id of the calling process, except when \fB\-bh\fP is
1350 used, when there is no default.
1351 .TP 10
1352 \fB\-om\fP
1353 In Sendmail, this option means "me too", indicating that the sender of a
1354 message should receive a copy of the message if the sender appears in an alias
1355 expansion. Exim always does this, so the option does nothing.
1356 .TP 10
1357 \fB\-oo\fP
1358 This option is ignored. In Sendmail it specifies "old style headers",
1359 whatever that means.
1360 .TP 10
1361 \fB\-oP\fP <\fIpath\fP>
1362 This option is useful only in conjunction with \fB\-bd\fP or \fB\-q\fP with a time
1363 value. The option specifies the file to which the process id of the daemon is
1364 written. When \fB\-oX\fP is used with \fB\-bd\fP, or when \fB\-q\fP with a time is used
1365 without \fB\-bd\fP, this is the only way of causing Exim to write a pid file,
1366 because in those cases, the normal pid file is not used.
1367 .TP 10
1368 \fB\-or\fP <\fItime\fP>
1369 This option sets a timeout value for incoming non\-SMTP messages. If it is not
1370 set, Exim will wait forever for the standard input. The value can also be set
1371 by the \fBreceive_timeout\fP option.
1372 .TP 10
1373 \fB\-os\fP <\fItime\fP>
1374 This option sets a timeout value for incoming SMTP messages. The timeout
1375 applies to each SMTP command and block of data. The value can also be set by
1376 the \fBsmtp_receive_timeout\fP option; it defaults to 5 minutes.
1377 .TP 10
1378 \fB\-ov\fP
1379 This option has exactly the same effect as \fB\-v\fP.
1380 .TP 10
1381 \fB\-oX\fP <\fInumber or string\fP>
1382 This option is relevant only when the \fB\-bd\fP (start listening daemon) option
1383 is also given. It controls which ports and interfaces the daemon uses. When \fB\-oX\fP is used to start a daemon, no pid
1384 file is written unless \fB\-oP\fP is also present to specify a pid file name.
1385 .TP 10
1386 \fB\-pd\fP
1387 This option applies when an embedded Perl interpreter is linked with Exim. It overrides the setting of the \fBperl_at_start\fP
1388 option, forcing the starting of the interpreter to be delayed until it is
1389 needed.
1390 .TP 10
1391 \fB\-ps\fP
1392 This option applies when an embedded Perl interpreter is linked with Exim. It overrides the setting of the \fBperl_at_start\fP
1393 option, forcing the starting of the interpreter to occur as soon as Exim is
1394 started.
1395 .TP 10
1396 \fB\-p\fP<\fIrval\fP>:<\fIsval\fP>
1397 For compatibility with Sendmail, this option is equivalent to
1398 .sp
1399 \-oMr <\fIrval\fP> \-oMs <\fIsval\fP>
1400 .sp
1401 It sets the incoming protocol and host name (for trusted callers). The
1402 host name and its colon can be omitted when only the protocol is to be set.
1403 Note the Exim already has two private options, \fB\-pd\fP and \fB\-ps\fP, that refer
1404 to embedded Perl. It is therefore impossible to set a protocol value of d
1405 or s using this option (but that does not seem a real limitation).
1406 .TP 10
1407 \fB\-q\fP
1408 This option is normally restricted to admin users. However, there is a
1409 configuration option called \fBprod_requires_admin\fP which can be set false to
1410 relax this restriction (and also the same requirement for the \fB\-M\fP, \fB\-R\fP,
1411 and \fB\-S\fP options).
1412 .sp
1413 The \fB\-q\fP option starts one queue runner process. This scans the queue of
1414 waiting messages, and runs a delivery process for each one in turn. It waits
1415 for each delivery process to finish before starting the next one. A delivery
1416 process may not actually do any deliveries if the retry times for the addresses
1417 have not been reached. Use \fB\-qf\fP (see below) if you want to override this.
1418 .sp
1419 If
1420 the delivery process spawns other processes to deliver other messages down
1421 passed SMTP connections, the queue runner waits for these to finish before
1422 proceeding.
1423 .sp
1424 When all the queued messages have been considered, the original queue runner
1425 process terminates. In other words, a single pass is made over the waiting
1426 mail, one message at a time. Use \fB\-q\fP with a time (see below) if you want
1427 this to be repeated periodically.
1428 .sp
1429 Exim processes the waiting messages in an unpredictable order. It isn't very
1430 random, but it is likely to be different each time, which is all that matters.
1431 If one particular message screws up a remote MTA, other messages to the same
1432 MTA have a chance of getting through if they get tried first.
1433 .sp
1434 It is possible to cause the messages to be processed in lexical message id
1435 order, which is essentially the order in which they arrived, by setting the
1436 \fBqueue_run_in_order\fP option, but this is not recommended for normal use.
1437 .TP 10
1438 \fB\-q\fP<\fIqflags\fP>
1439 The \fB\-q\fP option may be followed by one or more flag letters that change its
1440 behaviour. They are all optional, but if more than one is present, they must
1441 appear in the correct order. Each flag is described in a separate item below.
1442 .TP 10
1443 \fB\-qq...\fP
1444 An option starting with \fB\-qq\fP requests a two\-stage queue run. In the first
1445 stage, the queue is scanned as if the \fBqueue_smtp_domains\fP option matched
1446 every domain. Addresses are routed, local deliveries happen, but no remote
1447 transports are run.
1448 .sp
1449 The hints database that remembers which messages are waiting for specific hosts
1450 is updated, as if delivery to those hosts had been deferred. After this is
1451 complete, a second, normal queue scan happens, with routing and delivery taking
1452 place as normal. Messages that are routed to the same host should mostly be
1453 delivered down a single SMTP
1454 connection because of the hints that were set up during the first queue scan.
1455 This option may be useful for hosts that are connected to the Internet
1456 intermittently.
1457 .TP 10
1458 \fB\-q[q]i...\fP
1459 If the \fIi\fP flag is present, the queue runner runs delivery processes only for
1460 those messages that haven't previously been tried. (\fIi\fP stands for "initial
1461 delivery".) This can be helpful if you are putting messages on the queue using
1462 \fB\-odq\fP and want a queue runner just to process the new messages.
1463 .TP 10
1464 \fB\-q[q][i]f...\fP
1465 If one \fIf\fP flag is present, a delivery attempt is forced for each non\-frozen
1466 message, whereas without \fIf\fP only those non\-frozen addresses that have passed
1467 their retry times are tried.
1468 .TP 10
1469 \fB\-q[q][i]ff...\fP
1470 If \fIff\fP is present, a delivery attempt is forced for every message, whether
1471 frozen or not.
1472 .TP 10
1473 \fB\-q[q][i][f[f]]l\fP
1474 The \fIl\fP (the letter "ell") flag specifies that only local deliveries are to
1475 be done. If a message requires any remote deliveries, it remains on the queue
1476 for later delivery.
1477 .TP 10
1478 \fB\-q\fP<\fIqflags\fP> <\fIstart id\fP> <\fIend id\fP>
1479 When scanning the queue, Exim can be made to skip over messages whose ids are
1480 lexically less than a given value by following the \fB\-q\fP option with a
1481 starting message id. For example:
1482 .sp
1483 exim \-q 0t5C6f\-0000c8\-00
1484 .sp
1485 Messages that arrived earlier than 0t5C6f\-0000c8\-00 are not inspected. If a
1486 second message id is given, messages whose ids are lexically greater than it
1487 are also skipped. If the same id is given twice, for example,
1488 .sp
1489 exim \-q 0t5C6f\-0000c8\-00 0t5C6f\-0000c8\-00
1490 .sp
1491 just one delivery process is started, for that message. This differs from
1492 \fB\-M\fP in that retry data is respected, and it also differs from \fB\-Mc\fP in
1493 that it counts as a delivery from a queue run. Note that the selection
1494 mechanism does not affect the order in which the messages are scanned. There
1495 are also other ways of selecting specific sets of messages for delivery in a
1496 queue run \- see \fB\-R\fP and \fB\-S\fP.
1497 .TP 10
1498 \fB\-q\fP<\fIqflags\fP><\fItime\fP>
1499 When a time value is present, the \fB\-q\fP option causes Exim to run as a daemon,
1500 starting a queue runner process at intervals specified by the given time value. This form of the
1501 \fB\-q\fP option is commonly combined with the \fB\-bd\fP option, in which case a
1502 single daemon process handles both functions. A common way of starting up a
1503 combined daemon at system boot time is to use a command such as
1504 .sp
1505 /usr/exim/bin/exim \-bd \-q30m
1506 .sp
1507 Such a daemon listens for incoming SMTP calls, and also starts a queue runner
1508 process every 30 minutes.
1509 .sp
1510 When a daemon is started by \fB\-q\fP with a time value, but without \fB\-bd\fP, no
1511 pid file is written unless one is explicitly requested by the \fB\-oP\fP option.
1512 .TP 10
1513 \fB\-qR\fP<\fIrsflags\fP> <\fIstring\fP>
1514 This option is synonymous with \fB\-R\fP. It is provided for Sendmail
1515 compatibility.
1516 .TP 10
1517 \fB\-qS\fP<\fIrsflags\fP> <\fIstring\fP>
1518 This option is synonymous with \fB\-S\fP.
1519 .TP 10
1520 \fB\-R\fP<\fIrsflags\fP> <\fIstring\fP>
1521 The <\fIrsflags\fP> may be empty, in which case the white space before the string
1522 is optional, unless the string is \fIf\fP, \fIff\fP, \fIr\fP, \fIrf\fP, or \fIrff\fP,
1523 which are the possible values for <\fIrsflags\fP>. White space is required if
1524 <\fIrsflags\fP> is not empty.
1525 .sp
1526 This option is similar to \fB\-q\fP with no time value, that is, it causes Exim to
1527 perform a single queue run, except that, when scanning the messages on the
1528 queue, Exim processes only those that have at least one undelivered recipient
1529 address containing the given string, which is checked in a case\-independent
1530 way. If the <\fIrsflags\fP> start with \fIr\fP, <\fIstring\fP> is interpreted as a
1531 regular expression; otherwise it is a literal string.
1532 .sp
1533 If you want to do periodic queue runs for messages with specific recipients,
1534 you can combine \fB\-R\fP with \fB\-q\fP and a time value. For example:
1535 .sp
1536 exim \-q25m \-R @special.domain.example
1537 .sp
1538 This example does a queue run for messages with recipients in the given domain
1539 every 25 minutes. Any additional flags that are specified with \fB\-q\fP are
1540 applied to each queue run.
1541 .sp
1542 Once a message is selected for delivery by this mechanism, all its addresses
1543 are processed. For the first selected message, Exim overrides any retry
1544 information and forces a delivery attempt for each undelivered address. This
1545 means that if delivery of any address in the first message is successful, any
1546 existing retry information is deleted, and so delivery attempts for that
1547 address in subsequently selected messages (which are processed without forcing)
1548 will run. However, if delivery of any address does not succeed, the retry
1549 information is updated, and in subsequently selected messages, the failing
1550 address will be skipped.
1551 .sp
1552 If the <\fIrsflags\fP> contain \fIf\fP or \fIff\fP, the delivery forcing applies to
1553 all selected messages, not just the first; frozen messages are included when
1554 \fIff\fP is present.
1555 .sp
1556 The \fB\-R\fP option makes it straightforward to initiate delivery of all messages
1557 to a given domain after a host has been down for some time. When the SMTP
1558 command ETRN is accepted by its ACL, its default
1559 effect is to run Exim with the \fB\-R\fP option, but it can be configured to run
1560 an arbitrary command instead.
1561 .TP 10
1562 \fB\-r\fP
1563 This is a documented (for Sendmail) obsolete alternative name for \fB\-f\fP.
1564 .TP 10
1565 \fB\-S\fP<\fIrsflags\fP> <\fIstring\fP>
1566 This option acts like \fB\-R\fP except that it checks the string against each
1567 message's sender instead of against the recipients. If \fB\-R\fP is also set, both
1568 conditions must be met for a message to be selected. If either of the options
1569 has \fIf\fP or \fIff\fP in its flags, the associated action is taken.
1570 .TP 10
1571 \fB\-Tqt\fP <\fItimes\fP>
1572 This is an option that is exclusively for use by the Exim testing suite. It is not
1573 recognized when Exim is run normally. It allows for the setting up of explicit
1574 "queue times" so that various warning/retry features can be tested.
1575 .TP 10
1576 \fB\-t\fP
1577 When Exim is receiving a locally\-generated, non\-SMTP message on its standard
1578 input, the \fB\-t\fP option causes the recipients of the message to be obtained
1579 from the \fITo:\fP, \fICc:\fP, and \fIBcc:\fP header lines in the message instead of
1580 from the command arguments. The addresses are extracted before any rewriting
1581 takes place and the \fIBcc:\fP header line, if present, is then removed.
1582 .sp
1583 If the command has any arguments, they specify addresses to which the message
1584 is \fInot\fP to be delivered. That is, the argument addresses are removed from
1585 the recipients list obtained from the headers. This is compatible with Smail 3
1586 and in accordance with the documented behaviour of several versions of
1587 Sendmail, as described in man pages on a number of operating systems (e.g.
1588 Solaris 8, IRIX 6.5, HP\-UX 11). However, some versions of Sendmail \fIadd\fP
1589 argument addresses to those obtained from the headers, and the O'Reilly
1590 Sendmail book documents it that way. Exim can be made to add argument addresses
1591 instead of subtracting them by setting the option
1592 \fBextract_addresses_remove_arguments\fP false.
1593 .sp
1594 If there are any \fBResent\-\fP header lines in the message, Exim extracts
1595 recipients from all \fIResent\-To:\fP, \fIResent\-Cc:\fP, and \fIResent\-Bcc:\fP header
1596 lines instead of from \fITo:\fP, \fICc:\fP, and \fIBcc:\fP. This is for compatibility
1597 with Sendmail and other MTAs. (Prior to release 4.20, Exim gave an error if
1598 \fB\-t\fP was used in conjunction with \fBResent\-\fP header lines.)
1599 .sp
1600 RFC 2822 talks about different sets of \fBResent\-\fP header lines (for when a
1601 message is resent several times). The RFC also specifies that they should be
1602 added at the front of the message, and separated by \fIReceived:\fP lines. It is
1603 not at all clear how \fB\-t\fP should operate in the present of multiple sets,
1604 nor indeed exactly what constitutes a "set".
1605 In practice, it seems that MUAs do not follow the RFC. The \fBResent\-\fP lines
1606 are often added at the end of the header, and if a message is resent more than
1607 once, it is common for the original set of \fBResent\-\fP headers to be renamed as
1608 \fBX\-Resent\-\fP when a new set is added. This removes any possible ambiguity.
1609 .TP 10
1610 \fB\-ti\fP
1611 This option is exactly equivalent to \fB\-t\fP \fB\-i\fP. It is provided for
1612 compatibility with Sendmail.
1613 .TP 10
1614 \fB\-tls\-on\-connect\fP
1615 This option is available when Exim is compiled with TLS support. It forces all
1616 incoming SMTP connections to behave as if the incoming port is listed in the
1617 \fBtls_on_connect_ports\fP option.
1618 .TP 10
1619 \fB\-U\fP
1620 Sendmail uses this option for "initial message submission", and its
1621 documentation states that in future releases, it may complain about
1622 syntactically invalid messages rather than fixing them when this flag is not
1623 set. Exim ignores this option.
1624 .TP 10
1625 \fB\-v\fP
1626 This option causes Exim to write information to the standard error stream,
1627 describing what it is doing. In particular, it shows the log lines for
1628 receiving and delivering a message, and if an SMTP connection is made, the SMTP
1629 dialogue is shown. Some of the log lines shown may not actually be written to
1630 the log if the setting of \fBlog_selector\fP discards them. Any relevant
1631 selectors are shown with each log line. If none are shown, the logging is
1632 unconditional.
1633 .TP 10
1634 \fB\-x\fP
1635 AIX uses \fB\-x\fP for a private purpose ("mail from a local mail program has
1636 National Language Support extended characters in the body of the mail item").
1637 It sets \fB\-x\fP when calling the MTA from its \fBmail\fP command. Exim ignores
1638 this option.
1639 .TP 10
1640 \fB\-X\fP <\fIlogfile\fP>
1641 This option is interpreted by Sendmail to cause debug information to be sent
1642 to the named file. It is ignored by Exim.
1643 .sp
1644 .
1645 .SH "SEE ALSO"
1646 .rs
1647 .sp
1648 The full Exim specification, the Exim book, and the Exim wiki.