Command-Line Flags

-bx

Set operation mode to x. Operation modes are:

a	Run in ARPANET mode. The special processing for the ARPANET includes reading the "From:" and "Sender:" lines from the header to find the sender, printing ARPANET-style messages (preceded by three-digit reply codes for compatibility with the FTP protocol) and ending lines of error messages with <CRLF>.
d	Run as a daemon.
i	Initialize the alias database.
m	Deliver mail in the usual way (default).
p	Print the mail queue.
s	Speak SMTP on input side.
t	Run in test mode.
v	Just verify addresses, don't collect or deliver.
z	Freeze the configuration file.

-Cfile

Use a different configuration file. sendmail runs as the invoking user (rather than root) when this flag is specified.

-dflag[-flag][.level]

Set debugging flag (or range of flags) to the specified level. (The default is 1.) See "Debugging Flags".

-Fname

Set the full name of the sender to name.

-fname

Set the name of the "From" person (the sender of the mail). This flag is ignored unless the user appears in the list of "trusted" users, or name is the same as the user's name.

-hcnt

Set the "hop count" to cnt. The hop count is incremented every time the mail is processed. When it reaches a limit, the mail is returned with an error message, the victim of an aliasing loop.

-n

Don't do aliasing.

-ox value

Set configuration option x to the specified value. These options are described in section "Configuration Options".

-q[time]

Process the queued mail. If the time is given, sendmail will run through the queue at the specified interval to deliver queued mail; otherwise, it runs only once. See "Queue Mode".

-r name

An alternative and obsolete form of -f.

-t

Read the header for "To:", "Cc:", and "Bcc:" lines, and send the message to everyone listed in those lists. The "Bcc:" line is deleted before sending. Any addresses in the argument vector are deleted from the send list.

-v

Go into verbose mode: Alias expansions are announced, and so on.