22.13. Sendmail Administrative Tools

The commands listed below are some that we use often, but many more exist. Check the man page and documentation for more details and information.

newaliases. The purpose of the newaliases program utility of Sendmail is to rebuild and update the random access database for the mail aliases file /etc/mail/aliases. It must be run each time you change the contents of this file in order for the changes to take effect. To update the aliases file with the newaliases utility, use the following command:

         [root@deep] /# /usr/bin/newaliases
         

makemap. The purpose of the makemap program utility is to create the database maps in Sendmail. The makemap command must be used only when you need to create a new database for file like aliases, access, or domaintable, mailertable, and virtusertable. To run makemap to create a new database for access, use the following command:

         [root@deep] /# makemap hash /etc/mail/access.db < /etc/mail/access
         

In our example, we have created a new access.db file with the makemap command above. To create a database for other files like aliases, domaintable, mailertable, and virtusertable, you must indicate the location and name of the corresponding file in the makemap command.

mailq. The purpose of the mailq program utility is to print a summary of the mail messages queued for future delivery. To print a summary of the mail messages queued, use the following command:

         [root@deep] /# mailq
         

         Mail queue is empty
         

22.13.1. Sendmail Users Tools

The commands listed below are some that we use often, but many more exist. Check the man page and documentation for more details and information.

mailstats. The purpose of the mailstats program utility is to displays contents of the current mail statistics. To displays the current mail statistics, use the following command:

         [root@deep] /# mailstats
         

         Statistics from Tue Dec 14 20:31:48 1999
         M   msgsfr  bytes_from   msgsto    bytes_to  msgsrej msgsdis  Mailer
         5        0          0K        1          3K        0       0  esmtp
         8     1259      19618K     1259      19278K        0       0  local
         =============================================================
         T     1259      19618K     1260      19281K        0       0
         

praliases. The purpose of the praliases program utility is to display one per line, in no particular order the contents of the current system mail aliases. To displays the current system aliases, use the following command:

         [root@deep] /# praliases
         

         postmaster:root
         daemon:root
         root:admin
         @:@
         mailer-daemon:postmaster
         bin:root
         nobody:root
         webadmin:admin
         www:root