1TMAIL(1) General Commands Manual TMAIL(1)
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6 tmail - Mail Delivery Module
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9 tmail [-b format] [-D] [-f from_name] [-I inbox_specifier]
10 user[+folder] ...
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13 tmail delivers mail to a user's INBOX or a designated folder. tmail
14 may be configured as a drop-in replacement for binmail(1),
15 mail.local(1) or any program intended for use for mail delivery by a
16 mail delivery program such as sendmail(8).
17 tmail is intended to be used for direct delivery by the mailer daemon;
19 dmail(1) is the preferred tool for user applications, e.g. a mail
20 delivery filter such as procmail(1). If tmail is used for a user
21 application, then the calling program must be aware of the restrictions
22 noted below.
23 When tmail exits, it returns exit status values to enable the mail
25 delivery program to determine whether a message was delivered
26 successfully or had a temporary (requeue for later delivery) or
27 permanent (return to sender) failure.
28 If the +folder extension is included in the user argument, tmail will
30 attempt to deliver to the designated folder. If the folder does not
31 exist or the extension is not included, the message is delivered to the
32 user's INBOX. If delivery is to INBOX and no INBOX currently exists,
33 tmail will create a new INBOX, using the -I or -b flag if specified.
34 tmail recognizes the format of an existing INBOX or folder, and appends
35 the new message in that format.
36 The -b flag specifies a format to create INBOX if INBOX does not
38 already exist. This flag requires privileges, and can not be used with
39 -I. The argument is a format name such as mix, mbx, etc.
40 The -D flag specifies debugging; this enables additional message
42 telemetry.
43 The -f or -r flag is used by the mail delivery program to specify a
45 Return-Path. The header
46 Return-Path: <from_name>
47 is prepended to the message before delivery.
48 The -I flag is used by the mail delivery program to specify an
50 alternative INBOX name. This flag requires privileges, and can not be
51 used with -b. This affects the location and format of INBOX. If
52 specified, it should be in one of three forms:
53 The first form of argument to -I is the string "INBOX", which means to
55 write to the system default inbox using the system default mailbox
56 format. These system defaults are defined when the c-client library is
57 built.
58 The second form of argument to -I is a delivery specification,
60 consisting of "#driver.", a c-client mailbox format driver name, "/",
61 and a file name. This will write to the specified file in the
62 specified format. For example, #driver.mbx/INBOX will write to file
63 "INBOX" in the home directory in mbx format; and
64 #driver.unix/mail/incoming will write to file "incoming" in the user's
65 "mail" subdirectory in unix (default UNIX) format.
66 The third form of argument to -I is any other name. Normally, this
68 will write to the specified file on the user's home directory in the
69 specified format. However, certain names are special. These are:
70 value equivalant to
72 ----- -------------
73 INBOX.MTX #driver.mtx/INBOX.MTX
74 mbox #driver.unix/mbox
75 mail.txt #driver.tenex/mail.txt
76 If -I is not specified, the default action is -I INBOX.
78 If multiple recipients are specified on the command line, tmail spawns
80 one child process per recipient to perform actual delivery. This way
81 of calling tmail is not recommended; see below under RESTRICTIONS.
82
84 If tmail is to be used for mail delivery from the mail delivery
85 program, it must be installed setuid root.
86 If sendmail is the mail delivery program, tmail is invoked from
88 sendmail.cf. Look for the "Mlocal" line, and substitute the path name
89 for the tmail binary in place of /bin/mail, /usr/lib/mail.local, etc.
90 You should also add the flag to invoke tmail with CRLF style newlines;
91 this is usually done with E=\r\n in the Mlocal line.
92 Here is an example of an Mlocal line in sendmail version 8:
94 Mlocal, P=/usr/local/etc/tmail, F=lsDFMAw5:/|@qPrn+,
96 S=10/30, R=20/40, E=\r\n, T=DNS/RFC822/X-Unix,
97 A=tmail $u
98 If tmail is to be called with the -I flag, it must be invoked with both
100 real and effective UID root. Many sendmail configurations invoke the
101 local mailer as the sending user when that user is local, which will
102 prevent -b or -I from working.
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105 If tmail is invoked by an ordinary user, the Received: header line will
106 indicate the name or UID of the user that invoked it.
107 Ordinary users are not permitted to use the -b or -I flag since
109 otherwise a user could create any file on another user's directory.
110 tmail can deliver mail to home directories. In addition, tmail can be
112 used to deliver mail to other mail folders in a home directory or an
113 inferior directory of a home directory.
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116 The calling program should invoke tmail with CRLF newlines, otherwise
117 tmail will complain in syslog.
118 Absolute pathnames and ~user specifications are not permitted in
120 +folder extensions.
121 Ordinary users are not permitted to use the -I flag.
123 IMAP4 namespace names are not yet supported in +folder extensions.
125 It is not possible to use tmail to deliver to mh(1) format mailboxes.
127 If delivery to multiple users is specified and delivery to any single
129 user fails, the entire delivery will be reported as having failed, even
130 though delivery to other users may have succeeded. If tmail is used
131 for mail delivery from sendmail(8), a separate tmail invocation should
132 be done for each user. Otherwise a delivery failure for a single user
133 in a message going to multiple users will cause multiple deliveries to
134 all the other users every time sendmail(8), retries.
135
137 Mark Crispin, MRC@CAC.Washington.EDU
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140 binmail(1)
141 sendmail(8)
142 September 27, 2007 TMAIL(1)