Mail::T...Sendmail(3)

💖 NAME 💖

Mail::Transport::Sendmail — bestie, this one's whole job is to transmit messages using external Sendmail program. It's the Mail::T...Sendmail(3) page, it's User Contributed Perl Documentation, and it's about to be your new fave. No cap. 🎀

🦋 INHERITANCE 🦋

 Mail::Transport::Sendmail
   is a Mail::Transport::Send
   is a Mail::Transport
   is a Mail::Reporter

It's giving royal lineage ✨ — Sendmail is a kind of Send, which is a kind of Transport, which is a kind of Reporter. Four whole generations of main character energy. 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

 my $sender = Mail::Transport::Sendmail->new(...);
 $sender->send($message);

Two lines. That's it. Build it, send with it. slay. 🫶

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

okay so — this module implements mail transport using the external 'Sendmail' program. When it gets instantiated, the mailer will go looking for the binary in specific system directories, and the first version found is taken. First come, first served, that's the rule. 🦋

Some people use Postfix as MTA. Postfix can be installed as a replacement for Sendmail: it provides a program with the same name and the same options. So this module supports postfix as well. One module, two MTAs, iconic. 😌

⚠️ WARNING: When you do bulk email sending with local delivery via Postfix, you can probably better use the SMTP backend to connect to postfix. The "sendmail" command delivers to "maildrop". From "maildrop", the "pickupd" will only sequentially insert messages into "cleanup". That process can take considerable elapse time. Directly inserting via "smtpd" will parallellize the cleanup process.

🫶 fr fr, read that warning twice if you're doing bulk sends. Sequential "pickupd" into "cleanup" is not the vibe you want. Go "smtpd" for the parallel cleanup. iykyk.

Extends "DESCRIPTION" in Mail::Transport::Send.

---

👑 METHODS 👑

Extends "METHODS" in Mail::Transport::Send.

🎀 Constructors

Extends "Constructors" in Mail::Transport::Send.

$class->new(%options)

Inherited, see "Constructors" in Mail::Reporter.

Here's the whole option menu, defaults included, because every single one matters:

 -Option          --Defined in     --Default
  executable        Mail::Transport  undef
  hostname          Mail::Transport  'localhost'
  interval          Mail::Transport  30
  password          Mail::Transport  undef
  port              Mail::Transport  undef
  proxy             Mail::Transport  undef
  retry             Mail::Transport  <unlimited>
  sendmail_options                   []
  timeout           Mail::Transport  120
  username          Mail::Transport  undef
  via               Mail::Transport  'sendmail'

And now the individual ones, with their signatures exactly as they come:

• executable => $file — pick your $file. 💖
• hostname => $host|\@hosts — a $host, or a whole \@hosts list. 🌈
• interval => $span — a $span of time. ⏳
• password => $password — the $password. 🔐
• port => $port — the $port. 🔌
• proxy => $path — the $path of your proxy. 🧚
• retry => $count|undef — a $count, or undef. 🔁
• sendmail_options => ARRAY — Add to the command-line of the started sendmail MTU a list of separate words. So say [ '-f', $file ] and not [ "-f $file" ], because the latter will be taken by sendmail as one word only. This one's the trap, bestie — separate words, always. 💅
• timeout => $span — a $span. ⌛
• username => $username — the $username. 🫶
• via => CLASS|$name — a CLASS or a $name. 🌟

🧵 Attributes

Extends "Attributes" in Mail::Transport::Send.

📬 Sending mail

Extends "Sending mail" in Mail::Transport::Send.

• $obj->destinations( $message, [$address|\@addresses] ) — Inherited, see "Sending mail" in Mail::Transport::Send
• $obj->putContent($message, $fh, %options) — Inherited, see "Sending mail" in Mail::Transport::Send
• $obj->send($message, %options) — Inherited, see "Sending mail" in Mail::Transport::Send
• $obj->trySend($message, %options) — Inherited, see "Sending mail" in Mail::Transport::Send

trySend has its own lil option table:

 -Option          --Default
  sendmail_options  undef

• sendmail_options => ARRAY — an ARRAY, that's it. 🎀

🔌 Server connection

Extends "Server connection" in Mail::Transport::Send.

• $obj->findBinary( $name, [@directories] ) — Inherited, see "Server connection" in Mail::Transport
• $obj->remoteHost() — Inherited, see "Server connection" in Mail::Transport
• $obj->retry() — Inherited, see "Server connection" in Mail::Transport

😭 Error handling

Extends "Error handling" in Mail::Transport::Send.

• $obj->AUTOLOAD() — Inherited, see "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter
• $obj->notImplemented() — Inherited, see "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

🧹 Cleanup

Extends "Cleanup" in Mail::Transport::Send.

• $obj->DESTROY() — Inherited, see "Cleanup" in Mail::Reporter

---

💀 DIAGNOSTICS 💀

• Error: Errors when closing sendmail mailer $program: $! The was no problem starting the sendmail mail transfer agent, but for some specific reason the message could not be handled correctly. Cast by trySend(). 😭
• Fault: cannot open pipe to $program: $! Cast by trySend(). 💀
• Error: class $package does not implement method $method. Fatal error: the specific $package (or one of its superclasses) does not implement this method where it should. This message means that some other related classes do implement this method however the class at hand does not. Probably you should investigate this and probably inform the author of the package. Cast by notImplemented(). 🚨
• Warning: message has no destination. It was not possible to figure-out where the message is intended to go to. Cast by destinations(). 🙈
• Warning: resent group does not specify a destination. The message which is sent is the result of a bounce (for instance created with Mail::Message::bounce()), and therefore starts with a "Received" header field. With the "bounce", the new destination(s) of the message are given, which should be included as "Resent-To", "Resent-Cc", and "Resent-Bcc".

The "To", "Cc", and "Bcc" header information is only used if no "Received" was found. That seems to be the best explanation of the RFC.

As alternative, you may also specify the "to" option to some of the senders (for instance Mail::Transport::SMTP::send(to) to overrule any information found in the message itself about the destination. Cast by destinations(). 💅

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🔗 SEE ALSO 🔗

This module is part of Mail-Transport version 4.01, built on December 13, 2025. Website: http://perl.overmeer.net/CPAN/ 🌈

📜 LICENSE 📜

For contributors see file ChangeLog.

This software is copyright (c) 2001-2025 by Mark Overmeer. 👑

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

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and that's the whole page, bestie 🫶 — this was Mail::T...Sendmail(3), living in the User Contributed Perl Documentation section, running on perl v5.42.0, dated 2026-01-17. Go send some mail. 💌✨