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Chapter 36 The Command Line |
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Chapter 36 The Command Line |
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The sendmail program's ability to perform different tasks necessitates that the command line be processed in steps.
The command line is prescanned to set its
-d
debugging switch. That switch allows you to watch all the steps taken by
sendmail
prior to processing the rest of the command-line switches.
Internal macros are given values, then the command line's argv[0] (the name used to run sendmail ) is processed. That name can determine the sendmail program's mode of operation.
The command-line switches are processed. Although the configuration file is read after the command line is processed, options in the command line (with
-o
and
-O
) still supersede those in the configuration file.
The configuration file is read.
If sendmail is running in a mode that allows it to verify or deliver to recipients, the remainder of the command line is processed to extract the recipient list.
When
sendmail
begins to run, it performs a preliminary scan of its command-line arguments. It does this because some actions need to be performed before its configuration file is read. The
-d
command-line switch is processed during the pre-scanning phase.
After the command-line switches are prescanned, but before they are processed in full, sendmail performs two important internal tasks.
The environmental variables that are given to sendmail when it is first run are ignored. When running delivery agents, sendmail provides a small, customized environment. See Section 22.2, "The Environment" for a detailed discussion of this step.
Certain macros are next declared and assigned values. The
$w
macro (see
Section 31.10.40, $w
),
$j
macro (see
Section 31.10.38, $v
), and the
$=w
class macro (see
Section 32.5.8, $=w
) are given values that identify the current host. The
$m
macro (see
Section 31.10.24, $m
) is given a value that is the local domain name. The
$k
macro (see
Section 31.10.21, $k
) and the
$=k
class (see
Section 32.5.2, $=k
) are also given values at this time. The
$v
macro (see
Section 31.10.38
) is assigned a value that is the current version of the
sendmail
program. The
$b
macro (see
Section 31.10.3, $b
) is given the current date and time as its value.
Command-line switches are processed by
sendmail
as they appear in the command line, from left to right. The processing of switches ends when an argument is found that lacks a leading
-
character or when a
--
argument is found.
The fact that the configuration file is read after the command-line switches are processed can lead to some confusion. Some, but not all, command-line switches can overwrite some configuration file commands. Since there is no general rule, we describe the behavior of each item (such as macros and options) in a chapter dedicated to each.
The final step sendmail undertakes in processing its command line is gathering the list of recipients. Each recipient (or list of recipients if more than one is contained in a single command-line argument) is fully processed for delivery, and any error messages are printed before delivery is actually undertaken.
If sendmail is running in a mode that doesn't require recipients, any list of recipients in the command line is silently ignored.
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| 36.3 List of Recipient Addresses |
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36.5 sendmail's exit() Status |