SENSIBLE-MDA(8)

💌 SENSIBLE-MDA(8) 💌

okay bestie, so this is a page from the System Manager's Manual, and it's about sensible-mda — a generic local MDA router for Debian systems. yes the manual name is literally right there in the title, i know, i know, but we're keeping the vibes cute and the facts intact. 💅

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✨ NAME ✨

sensible-mda — a generic local MDA router for Debian systems 🎀

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

sensible-mda from to detail client-addr

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

so sensible-mda exists to make installing and configuring sendmail(8) — or other MTAs on Debian systems — so much simpler. with sensible-mda, sendmail can support a whole plethora of MDAs (procmail, maildrop, deliver, etc.) without having to pick any one of them as required. it's giving ✨polyamorous mail delivery✨ and honestly? iconic. 🔥

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🦋 FUNCTION 🦋

sensible-mda gets called by sendmail as a local mailer when this little line lives in sendmail.mc:

define(`LOCAL_MAILER_ARGS', `sensible-mda $g $u $h ${client_addr}')dnl

then sensible-mda goes looking for the following MDAs, in this exact order, and hands the mail off to the first SUID MDA it finds (or the first MDA found, if it's run w/ euid=root): procmail(1), maildrop(1), deliver(8), mail.local(8). first come, first served, no cap. 👑

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

the command line options available are the following:

• from — the sender of this email (that's the sendmail $g variable)
• to — the recipient of this email (that's the sendmail $u variable)
• detail — the detail portion of the recipient userid (that's the sendmail $h variable) — ie: cowboy+sendmail@debian.org
• client-addr — the TCP/IP address of the sender (that's the sendmail ${client_addr} variable). not used (for the nonce) 🙈

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🎀 FILES 🎀

• /etc/mail/sendmail.mc — sendmail m4 input used to generate sendmail.cf
• /etc/mail/sendmail.cf — the actual sendmail configuration file (treated as a binary file)

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

sendmail(8), procmail(1), maildrop(1), deliver(8), mail.local(8)

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💀 BUGS 💀

none known so far. (we're as shocked as you are. slay. ✨)

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Richard Nelson <cowboy@debian.org>

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🫶 HISTORY 🫶

this beauty comes to you from the 4th Berkeley Distribution, dated October 21 1999. yeah, it's a vintage queen and she still eats. 💖 periodt.