debian/rules: Use `git' potty wrapper.
[qmail] / SENDMAIL
CommitLineData
212b6f5d
MW
1This document explains what you, as a user, will notice when the system
2switches from sendmail to qmail.
3
4This is a global document, part of the qmail package, not reflecting the
5decisions made by your system administrator. For details on
6
7 * which local delivery agent qmail is configured to use,
8 * whether qmail is configured to use dot-forward,
9 * whether ezmlm is installed,
10 * whether fastforward is installed, and
11 * all other local configuration features,
12
13see your local sendmail-qmail upgrade announcement (which your system
14administrator may have placed into /var/qmail/doc/ANNOUNCE).
15
16
17--- Mailbox location
18
19If your system administrator has configured qmail to use binmail for
20local deliveries, your mailbox will be in /var/spool/mail/you, just as
21it was under sendmail.
22
23If your system administrator has configured qmail to use qmail-local for
24local deliveries, your mailbox will be moved to ~you/Mailbox. There is a
25symbolic link from /var/spool/mail/you to ~you/Mailbox, so your mail
26reader will find the mailbox at its new location.
27
28
29--- Loop control
30
31qmail-local automatically adds a Delivered-To field at the top of every
32delivered message. It uses Delivered-To to prevent mail forwarding
33loops, including cross-host mailing-list loops.
34
35
36--- Outgoing messages
37
38qmail lets you use environment variables to control the appearance of
39your outgoing mail, supplementing the features offered by your MUA. For
40example, qmail-inject will set up Mail-Followup-To for you automatically
41if you tell it which mailing lists you are subscribed to. See
42qmail-inject(8) for a complete list of features.
43
44If you're at (say) sun.ee.movie.edu, qmail lets you type joe@mac for
45joe@mac.ee.movie.edu, and joe@mac+ for joe@mac.movie.edu without the ee.
46sendmail has a different interpretation of hostnames without dots.
47
48
49--- Forwarding and mailing lists
50
51qmail gives you the power to set up your own mailing lists without
52pestering your system administrator.
53
54Under qmail, you are in charge of all addresses of the form
55you-anything. The delivery of you-anything is controlled by
56~you/.qmail-anything, a file in your home directory.
57
58For example, if you want to set up a bug-of-the-month-club mailing list,
59you can put a list of addresses into ~you/.qmail-botmc. Any mail to
60you-botmc will be forwarded to all of those addresses. Mail directly to
61you is controlled by ~you/.qmail. You can even set up a catch-all,
62~you/.qmail-default, to handle unknown you- addresses.
63
64See dot-qmail(5) for the complete story. Beware that the syntax of
65.qmail is different from the syntax of sendmail's .forward file.
66
67If your system administrator has configured qmail to use the dot-forward
68compatibility tool, you can put forwarding addresses (and programs) into
69.forward the same way you did with sendmail.
70
71If your system administrator has installed ezmlm, you can use ezmlm-make
72to instantly set up a professional-quality mailing list, handling
73subscriptions and archives automatically.
74
75If your system administrator has installed fastforward, you can easily
76manage a large database of forwarding addresses.