EXIM(8)                     System Manager's Manual                    EXIM(8)

NAME
       exim - a Mail Transfer Agent

SYNOPSIS
       exim [options] arguments ...
       mailq [options] arguments ...
       rsmtp [options] arguments ...
       rmail [options] arguments ...
       runq [options] arguments ...
       newaliases [options] arguments ...

DESCRIPTION
       Exim is a mail transfer agent (MTA) developed at the University of
       Cambridge.  It is a large program with very many facilities. For a full
       specification, see the reference manual. This man page contains only a
       description of the command line options. It has been automatically
       generated from the reference manual source, hopefully without too much
       mangling.

       Like other MTAs, Exim replaces Sendmail, and is normally called by user
       agents (MUAs) using the path /usr/sbin/sendmail when they submit
       messages for delivery (some operating systems use /usr/lib/sendmail).
       This path is normally set up as a symbolic link to the Exim binary. It
       may also be used by boot scripts to start the Exim daemon. Many of
       Exim's command line options are compatible with Sendmail so that it can
       act as a drop-in replacement.

DEFAULT ACTION
       If no options are present that require a specific action (such as
       starting the daemon or a queue runner, testing an address, receiving a
       message in a specific format, or listing the queue), and there are no
       arguments on the command line, Exim outputs a brief message about
       itself and exits.

       However, if there is at least one command line argument, -bm (accept a
       local message on the standard input, with the arguments specifying the
       recipients) is assumed. Thus, for example, if Exim is installed in
       /usr/sbin, you can send a message from the command line like this:

         /usr/sbin/exim -i <recipient-address(es)>
         <message content, including all the header lines>
         CTRL-D

       The -i option prevents a line containing just a dot from terminating
       the message. Only an end-of-file (generated by typing CTRL-D if the
       input is from a terminal) does so.

SETTING OPTIONS BY PROGRAM NAME
       If an Exim binary is called using one of the names listed in this
       section (typically via a symbolic link), certain options are assumed.

       mailq  Behave as if the option -bp were present before any other
              options.  The -bp option requests a listing of the contents of
              the mail queue on the standard output.

       rsmtp  Behaves as if the option -bS were present before any other
              options, for compatibility with Smail. The -bS option is used
              for reading in a number of messages in batched SMTP format.

       rmail  Behave as if the -i and -oee options were present before any
              other options, for compatibility with Smail. The name rmail is
              used as an interface by some UUCP systems. The -i option
              specifies that a dot on a line by itself does not terminate a
              non-SMTP message; -oee requests that errors detected in non-SMTP
              messages be reported by emailing the sender.

       runq   Behave as if the option -q were present before any other
              options, for compatibility with Smail. The -q option causes a
              single queue runner process to be started. It processes the
              queue once, then exits.

       newaliases
              Behave as if the option -bi were present before any other
              options, for compatibility with Sendmail. This option is used
              for rebuilding Sendmail's alias file. Exim does not have the
              concept of a single alias file, but can be configured to run a
              specified command if called with the -bi option.

OPTIONS
       -- --     This is a pseudo-option whose only purpose is to terminate
                 the options and therefore to cause subsequent command line
                 items to be treated as arguments rather than options, even if
                 they begin with hyphens.

       --help    This option causes Exim to output a few sentences stating
                 what it is.  The same output is generated if the Exim binary
                 is called with no options and no arguments.

       --version This option is an alias for -bV and causes version
                 information to be displayed.

       -Ac       -Am These options are used by Sendmail for selecting
                 configuration files and are ignored by Exim.

       -B <type> This is a Sendmail option for selecting 7 or 8 bit
                 processing. Exim is 8-bit clean; it ignores this option.

       -bd       This option runs Exim as a daemon, awaiting incoming SMTP
                 connections. Usually the -bd option is combined with the
                 -q<time> option, to specify that the daemon should also
                 initiate periodic queue runs.

                 The -bd option can be used only by an admin user. If either
                 of the -d (debugging) or -v (verifying) options are set, the
                 daemon does not disconnect from the controlling terminal.
                 When running this way, it can be stopped by pressing ctrl-C.

                 By default, Exim listens for incoming connections to the
                 standard SMTP port on all the host's running interfaces.
                 However, it is possible to listen on other ports, on multiple
                 ports, and only on specific interfaces.

                 When a listening daemon is started without the use of -oX
                 (that is, without overriding the normal configuration), it
                 writes its process id to a file called exim-daemon.pid in
                 Exim's spool directory. This location can be overridden by
                 setting PID_FILE_PATH in Local/Makefile. The file is written
                 while Exim is still running as root.

                 When -oX is used on the command line to start a listening
                 daemon, the process id is not written to the normal pid file
                 path. However, -oP can be used to specify a path on the
                 command line if a pid file is required.

                 The SIGHUP signal can be used to cause the daemon to
                 re-execute itself. This should be done whenever Exim's
                 configuration file, or any file that is incorporated into it
                 by means of the .include facility, is changed, and also
                 whenever a new version of Exim is installed. It is not
                 necessary to do this when other files that are referenced
                 from the configuration (for example, alias files) are
                 changed, because these are reread each time they are used.
                 Either a SIGTERM or a SIGINT signal should be used to cause
                 the daemon to cleanly shut down.  Subprocesses handling
                 recceiving or delivering messages, or for scanning the queue,
                 will not be affected by the termination of the daemon
                 process.

       -bdf      This option has the same effect as -bd except that it never
                 disconnects from the controlling terminal, even when no
                 debugging is specified.

       -be       Run Exim in expansion testing mode. Exim discards its root
                 privilege, to prevent ordinary users from using this mode to
                 read otherwise inaccessible files. If no arguments are given,
                 Exim runs interactively, prompting for lines of data.
                 Otherwise, it processes each argument in turn.

                 If Exim was built with USE_READLINE=yes in Local/Makefile, it
                 tries to load the libreadline library dynamically whenever
                 the -be option is used without command line arguments. If
                 successful, it uses the readline() function, which provides
                 extensive line-editing facilities, for reading the test data.
                 A line history is supported.

                 Long expansion expressions can be split over several lines by
                 using backslash continuations. As in Exim's runtime
                 configuration, white space at the start of continuation lines
                 is ignored. Each argument or data line is passed through the
                 string expansion mechanism, and the result is output.
                 Variable values from the configuration file (for example,
                 $qualify_domain) are available, but no message-specific
                 values (such as $message_exim_id) are set, because no message
                 is being processed (but see -bem and -Mset).

                 Note: If you use this mechanism to test lookups, and you
                 change the data files or databases you are using, you must
                 exit and restart Exim before trying the same lookup again.
                 Otherwise, because each Exim process caches the results of
                 lookups, you will just get the same result as before.

                 Macro processing is done on lines before string-expansion:
                 new macros can be defined and macros will be expanded.
                 Because macros in the config file are often used for secrets,
                 those are only available to admin users.  The word "set" at
                 the start of a line, followed by a single space, is
                 recognised specially as defining a value for a variable.  The
                 syntax is otherwise the same as the ACL modifier "set =".

       -bem <filename>
                 This option operates like -be except that it must be followed
                 by the name of a file. For example:

                   exim -bem /tmp/testmessage

                 The file is read as a message (as if receiving a
                 locally-submitted non-SMTP message) before any of the test
                 expansions are done. Thus, message-specific variables such as
                 $message_size and $header_from: are available. However, no
                 Received: header is added to the message. If the -t option is
                 set, recipients are read from the headers in the normal way,
                 and are shown in the $recipients variable. Note that
                 recipients cannot be given on the command line, because
                 further arguments are taken as strings to expand (just like
                 -be).

       -bF <filename>
                 This option is the same as -bf except that it assumes that
                 the filter being tested is a system filter. The additional
                 commands that are available only in system filters are
                 recognized.

       -bf <filename>
                 This option runs Exim in user filter testing mode; the file
                 is the filter file to be tested, and a test message must be
                 supplied on the standard input. If there are no
                 message-dependent tests in the filter, an empty file can be
                 supplied.

                 If you want to test a system filter file, use -bF instead of
                 -bf. You can use both -bF and -bf on the same command, in
                 order to test a system filter and a user filter in the same
                 run. For example:

                   exim -bF /system/filter -bf /user/filter </test/message

                 This is helpful when the system filter adds header lines or
                 sets filter variables that are used by the user filter.

                 If the test filter file does not begin with one of the
                 special lines

                   # Exim filter
                   # Sieve filter

                 it is taken to be a normal .forward file, and is tested for
                 validity under that interpretation.

                 The result of an Exim command that uses -bf, provided no
                 errors are detected, is a list of the actions that Exim would
                 try to take if presented with the message for real. More
                 details of filter testing are given in the separate document
                 entitled Exim's interfaces to mail filtering.

                 When testing a filter file, the envelope sender can be set by
                 the -f option, or by a "From " line at the start of the test
                 message. Various parameters that would normally be taken from
                 the envelope recipient address of the message can be set by
                 means of additional command line options (see the next four
                 options).

       -bfd <domain>
                 This sets the domain of the recipient address when a filter
                 file is being tested by means of the -bf option. The default
                 is the value of $qualify_domain.

       -bfl <local part>
                 This sets the local part of the recipient address when a
                 filter file is being tested by means of the -bf option. The
                 default is the username of the process that calls Exim. A
                 local part should be specified with any prefix or suffix
                 stripped, because that is how it appears to the filter when a
                 message is actually being delivered.

       -bfp <prefix>
                 This sets the prefix of the local part of the recipient
                 address when a filter file is being tested by means of the
                 -bf option. The default is an empty prefix.

       -bfs <suffix>
                 This sets the suffix of the local part of the recipient
                 address when a filter file is being tested by means of the
                 -bf option. The default is an empty suffix.

       -bh <IP address>
                 This option runs a fake SMTP session as if from the given IP
                 address, using the standard input and output. The IP address
                 may include a port number at the end, after a full stop. For
                 example:

                   exim -bh 10.9.8.7.1234
                   exim -bh fe80::a00:20ff:fe86:a061.5678

                 When an IPv6 address is given, it is converted into canonical
                 form. In the case of the second example above, the value of
                 $sender_host_address after conversion to the canonical form
                 is fe80:0000:0000:0a00:20ff:fe86:a061.5678.

                 Comments as to what is going on are written to the standard
                 error file. These include lines beginning with "LOG" for
                 anything that would have been logged.  This facility is
                 provided for testing configuration options for incoming
                 messages, to make sure they implement the required policy.
                 For example, you can test your relay controls using -bh.

                 Warning 1: You can test features of the configuration that
                 rely on ident (RFC 1413) information by using the -oMt
                 option. However, Exim cannot actually perform an ident
                 callout when testing using -bh because there is no incoming
                 SMTP connection.

                 Warning 2: Address verification callouts are also skipped
                 when testing using -bh. If you want these callouts to occur,
                 use -bhc instead.

                 Messages supplied during the testing session are discarded,
                 and nothing is written to any of the real log files. There
                 may be pauses when DNS (and other) lookups are taking place,
                 and of course these may time out. The -oMi option can be used
                 to specify a specific IP interface and port if this is
                 important, and -oMaa and -oMai can be used to set parameters
                 as if the SMTP session were authenticated.

                 The exim_checkaccess utility is a "packaged" version of -bh
                 whose output just states whether a given recipient address
                 from a given host is acceptable or not.

                 Features such as authentication and encryption, where the
                 client input is not plain text, cannot easily be tested with
                 -bh. Instead, you should use a specialized SMTP test program
                 such as swaks.

       -bhc <IP address>
                 This option operates in the same way as -bh, except that
                 address verification callouts are performed if required. This
                 includes consulting and updating the callout cache database.

       -bi       Sendmail interprets the -bi option as a request to rebuild
                 its alias file.  Exim does not have the concept of a single
                 alias file, and so it cannot mimic this behaviour. However,
                 calls to /usr/lib/sendmail with the -bi option tend to appear
                 in various scripts such as NIS make files, so the option must
                 be recognized.

                 If -bi is encountered, the command specified by the
                 bi_command configuration option is run, under the uid and gid
                 of the caller of Exim. If the -oA option is used, its value
                 is passed to the command as an argument.  The command set by
                 bi_command may not contain arguments. The command can use the
                 exim_dbmbuild utility, or some other means, to rebuild alias
                 files if this is required. If the bi_command option is not
                 set, calling Exim with -bi is a no-op.

       -bI:help  We shall provide various options starting -bI: for querying
                 Exim for information.  The output of many of these will be
                 intended for machine consumption.  This one is not.  The
                 -bI:help option asks Exim for a synopsis of supported options
                 beginning -bI:.  Use of any of these options shall cause Exim
                 to exit after producing the requested output.

       -bI:dscp  This option causes Exim to emit an alphabetically sorted list
                 of all recognised DSCP names.

       -bI:sieve This option causes Exim to emit an alphabetically sorted list
                 of all supported Sieve protocol extensions on stdout, one per
                 line.  This is anticipated to be useful for ManageSieve (RFC
                 5804) implementations, in providing that protocol's SIEVE
                 capability response line.  As the precise list may depend
                 upon compile-time build options, which this option will adapt
                 to, this is the only way to guarantee a correct response.

       -bm       This option runs an Exim receiving process that accepts an
                 incoming, locally-generated message on the standard input.
                 The recipients are given as the command arguments (except
                 when -t is also present - see below). Each argument can be a
                 comma-separated list of RFC 2822 addresses. This is the
                 default option for selecting the overall action of an Exim
                 call; it is assumed if no other conflicting option is
                 present.

                 If any addresses in the message are unqualified (have no
                 domain), they are qualified by the values of the
                 qualify_domain or qualify_recipient options, as appropriate.
                 The -bnq option (see below) provides a way of suppressing
                 this for special cases.

                 Policy checks on the contents of local messages can be
                 enforced by means of the non-SMTP ACL.

                 The return code is zero if the message is successfully
                 accepted. Otherwise, the action is controlled by the -oex
                 option setting - see below.

                 The format of the message must be as defined in RFC 2822,
                 except that, for compatibility with Sendmail and Smail, a
                 line in one of the forms

                   From sender Fri Jan  5 12:55 GMT 1997
                   From sender Fri, 5 Jan 97 12:55:01

                 (with the weekday optional, and possibly with additional text
                 after the date) is permitted to appear at the start of the
                 message. There appears to be no authoritative specification
                 of the format of this line. Exim recognizes it by matching
                 against the regular expression defined by the
                 uucp_from_pattern option, which can be changed if necessary.

                 The specified sender is treated as if it were given as the
                 argument to the -f option, but if a -f option is also
                 present, its argument is used in preference to the address
                 taken from the message. The caller of Exim must be a trusted
                 user for the sender of a message to be set in this way.

       -bmalware <filename>
                 This debugging option causes Exim to scan the given file or
                 directory (depending on the used scanner interface), using
                 the malware scanning framework.  The option of av_scanner
                 influences this option, so if av_scanner's value is dependent
                 upon an expansion then the expansion should have defaults
                 which apply to this invocation.  ACLs are not invoked, so if
                 av_scanner references an ACL variable then that variable will
                 never be populated and -bmalware will fail.

                 Exim will have changed working directory before resolving the
                 filename, so using fully qualified pathnames is advisable.
                 Exim will be running as the Exim user when it tries to open
                 the file, rather than as the invoking user.  This option
                 requires admin privileges.

                 The -bmalware option will not be extended to be more
                 generally useful, there are better tools for file-scanning.
                 This option exists to help administrators verify their Exim
                 and AV scanner configuration.

       -bnq      By default, Exim automatically qualifies unqualified
                 addresses (those without domains) that appear in messages
                 that are submitted locally (that is, not over TCP/IP). This
                 qualification applies both to addresses in envelopes, and
                 addresses in header lines. Sender addresses are qualified
                 using qualify_domain, and recipient addresses using
                 qualify_recipient (which defaults to the value of
                 qualify_domain).

                 Sometimes, qualification is not wanted. For example, if -bS
                 (batch SMTP) is being used to re-submit messages that
                 originally came from remote hosts after content scanning, you
                 probably do not want to qualify unqualified addresses in
                 header lines. (Such lines will be present only if you have
                 not enabled a header syntax check in the appropriate ACL.)

                 The -bnq option suppresses all qualification of unqualified
                 addresses in messages that originate on the local host. When
                 this is used, unqualified addresses in the envelope provoke
                 errors (causing message rejection) and unqualified addresses
                 in header lines are left alone.

       -bP       If this option is given with no arguments, it causes the
                 values of all Exim's main configuration options to be written
                 to the standard output. The values of one or more specific
                 options can be requested by giving their names as arguments,
                 for example:

                   exim -bP qualify_domain hold_domains

                 However, any option setting that is preceded by the word
                 "hide" in the configuration file is not shown in full, except
                 to an admin user. For other users, the output is as in this
                 example:

                   mysql_servers = <value not displayable>

                 If config is given as an argument, the config is output, as
                 it was parsed, any include file resolved, any comment
                 removed.

                 If config_file is given as an argument, the name of the
                 runtime configuration file is output. (configure_file works
                 too, for backward compatibility.)  If a list of configuration
                 files was supplied, the value that is output here is the name
                 of the file that was actually used.

                 If the -n flag is given, then for most modes of -bP operation
                 the name will not be output.

                 If log_file_path or pid_file_path are given, the names of the
                 directories where log files and daemon pid files are written
                 are output, respectively. If these values are unset, log
                 files are written in a sub-directory of the spool directory
                 called log, and the pid file is written directly into the
                 spool directory.

                 If -bP is followed by a name preceded by +, for example,

                   exim -bP +local_domains

                 it searches for a matching named list of any type (domain,
                 host, address, or local part) and outputs what it finds.

                 If one of the words router, transport, or authenticator is
                 given, followed by the name of an appropriate driver
                 instance, the option settings for that driver are output. For
                 example:

                   exim -bP transport local_delivery

                 The generic driver options are output first, followed by the
                 driver's private options. A list of the names of drivers of a
                 particular type can be obtained by using one of the words
                 router_list, transport_list, or authenticator_list, and a
                 complete list of all drivers with their option settings can
                 be obtained by using routers, transports, or authenticators.

                 If environment is given as an argument, the set of
                 environment variables is output, line by line. Using the -n
                 flag suppresses the value of the variables.

                 If invoked by an admin user, then macro, macro_list and
                 macros are available, similarly to the drivers.  Because
                 macros are sometimes used for storing passwords, this option
                 is restricted.  The output format is one item per line.  For
                 the "-bP macro <name>" form, if no such macro is found the
                 exit status will be nonzero.

       -bp       This option requests a listing of the contents of the mail
                 queue on the standard output. If the -bp option is followed
                 by a list of message ids, just those messages are listed. By
                 default, this option can be used only by an admin user.
                 However, the queue_list_requires_admin option can be set
                 false to allow any user to see the queue.

                 Each message in the queue is displayed as in the following
                 example:

                   25m  2.9K 0t5C6f-0000c8-00 <alice@wonderland.fict.example>
                             red.king@looking-glass.fict.example
                             <other addresses>

                 The first line contains the length of time the message has
                 been in the queue (in this case 25 minutes), the size of the
                 message (2.9K), the unique local identifier for the message,
                 and the message sender, as contained in the envelope. For
                 bounce messages, the sender address is empty, and appears as
                 "<>". If the message was submitted locally by an untrusted
                 user who overrode the default sender address, the user's
                 login name is shown in parentheses before the sender address.

                 If the message is frozen (attempts to deliver it are
                 suspended) then the text "*** frozen ***" is displayed at the
                 end of this line.

                 The recipients of the message (taken from the envelope, not
                 the headers) are displayed on subsequent lines. Those
                 addresses to which the message has already been delivered are
                 marked with the letter D. If an original address gets
                 expanded into several addresses via an alias or forward file,
                 the original is displayed with a D only when deliveries for
                 all of its child addresses are complete.

       -bpa      This option operates like -bp, but in addition it shows
                 delivered addresses that were generated from the original top
                 level address(es) in each message by alias or forwarding
                 operations. These addresses are flagged with "+D" instead of
                 just "D".

       -bpc      This option counts the number of messages in the queue, and
                 writes the total to the standard output. It is restricted to
                 admin users, unless queue_list_requires_admin is set false.

       -bpi      This option operates like -bp, but only outputs message ids
                 (one per line).

       -bpr      This option operates like -bp, but the output is not sorted
                 into chronological order of message arrival. This can speed
                 it up when there are lots of messages in the queue, and is
                 particularly useful if the output is going to be
                 post-processed in a way that doesn't need the sorting.

       -bpra     This option is a combination of -bpr and -bpa.

       -bpri     This option is a combination of -bpr and -bpi.

       -bpru     This option is a combination of -bpr and -bpu.

       -bpu      This option operates like -bp but shows only undelivered
                 top-level addresses for each message displayed. Addresses
                 generated by aliasing or forwarding are not shown, unless the
                 message was deferred after processing by a router with the
                 one_time option set.

       -brt      This option is for testing retry rules, and it must be
                 followed by up to three arguments. It causes Exim to look for
                 a retry rule that matches the values and to write it to the
                 standard output. For example:

                   exim -brt bach.comp.mus.example
                   Retry rule: *.comp.mus.example  F,2h,15m; F,4d,30m;

                  The first argument, which is required, can be a complete
                 address in the form local_part@domain, or it can be just a
                 domain name. If the second argument contains a dot, it is
                 interpreted as an optional second domain name; if no retry
                 rule is found for the first argument, the second is tried.
                 This ties in with Exim's behaviour when looking for retry
                 rules for remote hosts - if no rule is found that matches the
                 host, one that matches the mail domain is sought. Finally, an
                 argument that is the name of a specific delivery error, as
                 used in setting up retry rules, can be given. For example:

                   exim -brt haydn.comp.mus.example quota_3d
                   Retry rule: *@haydn.comp.mus.example quota_3d  F,1h,15m

       -brw      This option is for testing address rewriting rules, and it
                 must be followed by a single argument, consisting of either a
                 local part without a domain, or a complete address with a
                 fully qualified domain. Exim outputs how this address would
                 be rewritten for each possible place it might appear.

       -bS       This option is used for batched SMTP input, which is an
                 alternative interface for non-interactive local message
                 submission. A number of messages can be submitted in a single
                 run. However, despite its name, this is not really SMTP
                 input. Exim reads each message's envelope from SMTP commands
                 on the standard input, but generates no responses. If the
                 caller is trusted, or untrusted_set_sender is set, the
                 senders in the SMTP MAIL commands are believed; otherwise the
                 sender is always the caller of Exim.

                 The message itself is read from the standard input, in SMTP
                 format (leading dots doubled), terminated by a line
                 containing just a single dot. An error is provoked if the
                 terminating dot is missing. A further message may then
                 follow.

                 As for other local message submissions, the contents of
                 incoming batch SMTP messages can be checked using the
                 non-SMTP ACL.  Unqualified addresses are automatically
                 qualified using qualify_domain and qualify_recipient, as
                 appropriate, unless the -bnq option is used.

                 Some other SMTP commands are recognized in the input. HELO
                 and EHLO act as RSET; VRFY, EXPN, ETRN, and HELP act as NOOP;
                 QUIT quits, ignoring the rest of the standard input.

                 If any error is encountered, reports are written to the
                 standard output and error streams, and Exim gives up
                 immediately. The return code is 0 if no error was detected;
                 it is 1 if one or more messages were accepted before the
                 error was detected; otherwise it is 2.


       -bs       This option causes Exim to accept one or more messages by
                 reading SMTP commands on the standard input, and producing
                 SMTP replies on the standard output. SMTP policy controls, as
                 defined in ACLs are applied.  Some user agents use this
                 interface as a way of passing locally-generated messages to
                 the MTA.

                 In this usage, if the caller of Exim is trusted, or
                 untrusted_set_sender is set, the senders of messages are
                 taken from the SMTP MAIL commands.  Otherwise the content of
                 these commands is ignored and the sender is set up as the
                 calling user. Unqualified addresses are automatically
                 qualified using qualify_domain and qualify_recipient, as
                 appropriate, unless the -bnq option is used.

                 The -bs option is also used to run Exim from inetd, as an
                 alternative to using a listening daemon. Exim can distinguish
                 the two cases by checking whether the standard input is a
                 TCP/IP socket. When Exim is called from inetd, the source of
                 the mail is assumed to be remote, and the comments above
                 concerning senders and qualification do not apply. In this
                 situation, Exim behaves in exactly the same way as it does
                 when receiving a message via the listening daemon.

       -bt       This option runs Exim in address testing mode, in which each
                 argument is taken as a recipient address to be tested for
                 deliverability. The results are written to the standard
                 output. If a test fails, and the caller is not an admin user,
                 no details of the failure are output, because these might
                 contain sensitive information such as usernames and passwords
                 for database lookups.

                 If no arguments are given, Exim runs in an interactive
                 manner, prompting with a right angle bracket for addresses to
                 be tested.

                 Unlike the -be test option, you cannot arrange for Exim to
                 use the readline() function, because it is running as root
                 and there are security issues.

                 Each address is handled as if it were the recipient address
                 of a message (compare the -bv option). It is passed to the
                 routers and the result is written to the standard output.
                 However, any router that has no_address_test set is bypassed.
                 This can make -bt easier to use for genuine routing tests if
                 your first router passes everything to a scanner program.

                 The return code is 2 if any address failed outright; it is 1
                 if no address failed outright but at least one could not be
                 resolved for some reason. Return code 0 is given only when
                 all addresses succeed.

                 Note: When actually delivering a message, Exim removes
                 duplicate recipient addresses after routing is complete, so
                 that only one delivery takes place.  This does not happen
                 when testing with -bt; the full results of routing are always
                 shown.

                 Warning: -bt can only do relatively simple testing. If any of
                 the routers in the configuration makes any tests on the
                 sender address of a message, you can use the -f option to set
                 an appropriate sender when running -bt tests. Without it, the
                 sender is assumed to be the calling user at the default
                 qualifying domain. However, if you have set up (for example)
                 routers whose behaviour depends on the contents of an
                 incoming message, you cannot test those conditions using -bt.
                 The -N option provides a possible way of doing such tests.

       -bV       This option causes Exim to write the current version number,
                 compilation number, and compilation date of the exim binary
                 to the standard output.  It also lists the DBM library that
                 is being used, the optional modules (such as specific lookup
                 types), the drivers that are included in the binary, and the
                 name of the runtime configuration file that is in use.

                 As part of its operation, -bV causes Exim to read and syntax
                 check its configuration file. However, this is a static check
                 only. It cannot check values that are to be expanded. For
                 example, although a misspelt ACL verb is detected, an error
                 in the verb's arguments is not. You cannot rely on -bV alone
                 to discover (for example) all the typos in the configuration;
                 some realistic testing is needed. The -bh and -N options
                 provide more dynamic testing facilities.

       -bv       This option runs Exim in address verification mode, in which
                 each argument is taken as a recipient address to be verified
                 by the routers. (This does not involve any verification
                 callouts). During normal operation, verification happens
                 mostly as a consequence processing a verify condition in an
                 ACL. If you want to test an entire ACL, possibly including
                 callouts, see the -bh and -bhc options.

                 If verification fails, and the caller is not an admin user,
                 no details of the failure are output, because these might
                 contain sensitive information such as usernames and passwords
                 for database lookups.

                 If no arguments are given, Exim runs in an interactive
                 manner, prompting with a right angle bracket for addresses to
                 be verified.

                 Unlike the -be test option, you cannot arrange for Exim to
                 use the readline() function, because it is running as exim
                 and there are security issues.

                 Verification differs from address testing (the -bt option) in
                 that routers that have no_verify set are skipped, and if the
                 address is accepted by a router that has fail_verify set,
                 verification fails. The address is verified as a recipient if
                 -bv is used; to test verification for a sender address, -bvs
                 should be used.

                 If the -v option is not set, the output consists of a single
                 line for each address, stating whether it was verified or
                 not, and giving a reason in the latter case. Without -v,
                 generating more than one address by redirection causes
                 verification to end successfully, without considering the
                 generated addresses. However, if just one address is
                 generated, processing continues, and the generated address
                 must verify successfully for the overall verification to
                 succeed.

                 When -v is set, more details are given of how the address has
                 been handled, and in the case of address redirection, all the
                 generated addresses are also considered. Verification may
                 succeed for some and fail for others.

                 The return code is 2 if any address failed outright; it is 1
                 if no address failed outright but at least one could not be
                 resolved for some reason. Return code 0 is given only when
                 all addresses succeed.

                 If any of the routers in the configuration makes any tests on
                 the sender address of a message, you should use the -f option
                 to set an appropriate sender when running -bv tests. Without
                 it, the sender is assumed to be the calling user at the
                 default qualifying domain.

       -bvs      This option acts like -bv, but verifies the address as a
                 sender rather than a recipient address. This affects any
                 rewriting and qualification that might happen.

       -bw       This option runs Exim as a daemon, awaiting incoming SMTP
                 connections, similarly to the -bd option.  All port
                 specifications on the command-line and in the configuration
                 file are ignored.  Queue-running may not be specified.

                 In this mode, Exim expects to be passed a socket as fd 0
                 (stdin) which is listening for connections.  This permits the
                 system to start up and have inetd (or equivalent) listen on
                 the SMTP ports, starting an Exim daemon for each port only
                 when the first connection is received.

                 If the option is given as -bw<time> then the time is a
                 timeout, after which the daemon will exit, which should cause
                 inetd to listen once more.

       -C <filelist>
                 This option causes Exim to find the runtime configuration
                 file from the given list instead of from the list specified
                 by the CONFIGURE_FILE compile-time setting. Usually, the list
                 will consist of just a single filename, but it can be a
                 colon-separated list of names. In this case, the first file
                 that exists is used. Failure to open an existing file stops
                 Exim from proceeding any further along the list, and an error
                 is generated.

                 When this option is used by a caller other than root, and the
                 list is different from the compiled-in list, Exim gives up
                 its root privilege immediately, and runs with the real and
                 effective uid and gid set to those of the caller.  However,
                 if a TRUSTED_CONFIG_LIST file is defined in Local/Makefile,
                 that file contains a list of full pathnames, one per line,
                 for configuration files which are trusted. Root privilege is
                 retained for any configuration file so listed, as long as the
                 caller is the Exim user (or the user specified in the
                 CONFIGURE_OWNER option, if any), and as long as the
                 configuration file is not writeable by inappropriate users or
                 groups.

                 Leaving TRUSTED_CONFIG_LIST unset precludes the possibility
                 of testing a configuration using -C right through message
                 reception and delivery, even if the caller is root. The
                 reception works, but by that time, Exim is running as the
                 Exim user, so when it re-executes to regain privilege for the
                 delivery, the use of -C causes privilege to be lost. However,
                 root can test reception and delivery using two separate
                 commands (one to put a message in the queue, using -odq, and
                 another to do the delivery, using -M).

                 If ALT_CONFIG_PREFIX is defined in Local/Makefile, it
                 specifies a prefix string with which any file named in a -C
                 command line option must start. In addition, the filename
                 must not contain the sequence /../.  However, if the value of
                 the -C option is identical to the value of CONFIGURE_FILE in
                 Local/Makefile, Exim ignores -C and proceeds as usual. There
                 is no default setting for ALT_CONFIG_PREFIX; when it is
                 unset, any filename can be used with -C.

                 ALT_CONFIG_PREFIX can be used to confine alternative
                 configuration files to a directory to which only root has
                 access. This prevents someone who has broken into the Exim
                 account from running a privileged Exim with an arbitrary
                 configuration file.

                 The -C facility is useful for ensuring that configuration
                 files are syntactically correct, but cannot be used for test
                 deliveries, unless the caller is privileged, or unless it is
                 an exotic configuration that does not require privilege. No
                 check is made on the owner or group of the files specified by
                 this option.

       -D<macro>=<value>
                 This option can be used to override macro definitions in the
                 configuration file. However, like -C, if it is used by an
                 unprivileged caller, it causes Exim to give up its root
                 privilege.  If DISABLE_D_OPTION is defined in Local/Makefile,
                 the use of -D is completely disabled, and its use causes an
                 immediate error exit.

                 If WHITELIST_D_MACROS is defined in Local/Makefile then it
                 should be a colon-separated list of macros which are
                 considered safe and, if -D only supplies macros from this
                 list, and the values are acceptable, then Exim will not give
                 up root privilege if the caller is root, the Exim run-time
                 user, or the CONFIGURE_OWNER, if set.  This is a transition
                 mechanism and is expected to be removed in the future.
                 Acceptable values for the macros satisfy the regexp:
                 ^[A-Za-z0-9_/.-]*$

                 The entire option (including equals sign if present) must all
                 be within one command line item. -D can be used to set the
                 value of a macro to the empty string, in which case the
                 equals sign is optional. These two commands are synonymous:

                   exim -DABC  ...
                   exim -DABC= ...

                 To include spaces in a macro definition item, quotes must be
                 used. If you use quotes, spaces are permitted around the
                 macro name and the equals sign. For example:

                   exim '-D ABC = something' ...

                 -D may be repeated up to 10 times on a command line.  Only
                 macro names up to 22 letters long can be set.

       -d<debug options>
                 This option causes debugging information to be written to the
                 standard error stream. It is restricted to admin users
                 because debugging output may show database queries that
                 contain password information. Also, the details of users'
                 filter files should be protected. If a non-admin user uses
                 -d, Exim writes an error message to the standard error stream
                 and exits with a non-zero return code.

                 When -d is used, -v is assumed. If -d is given on its own, a
                 lot of standard debugging data is output. This can be
                 reduced, or increased to include some more rarely needed
                 information, by directly following -d with a string made up
                 of names preceded by plus or minus characters. These add or
                 remove sets of debugging data, respectively. For example,
                 -d+filter adds filter debugging, whereas -d-all+filter
                 selects only filter debugging. Note that no spaces are
                 allowed in the debug setting. The available debugging
                 categories are:
                     acl ACL interpretation
                     auth authenticators
                     deliver general delivery logic
                     dns DNS lookups (see also resolver)
                     dnsbl DNS black list (aka RBL) code
                     exec arguments for execv() calls
                     expand detailed debugging for string expansions
                     filter filter handling
                     hints_lookup hints data lookups
                     host_lookup all types of name-to-IP address handling
                     ident ident lookup
                     interface lists of local interfaces
                     lists matching things in lists
                     load system load checks
                     local_scan can be used by local_scan()
                     lookup general lookup code and all lookups
                     memory memory handling
                     noutf8 modifier: avoid UTF-8 line-drawing
                     pid modifier: add pid to debug output lines
                     process_info setting info for the process log
                     queue_run queue runs
                     receive general message reception logic
                     resolver turn on the DNS resolver's debugging output
                     retry retry handling
                     rewrite address rewriting"
                     route address routing
                     timestamp modifier: add timestamp to debug output lines
                     tls TLS logic
                     transport transports
                     uid changes of uid/gid and looking up uid/gid
                     verify address verification logic
                     all almost all of the above (see below), and also -v

                 The all option excludes memory when used as +all, but
                 includes it for -all. The reason for this is that +all is
                 something that people tend to use when generating debug
                 output for Exim maintainers. If +memory is included, an awful
                 lot of output that is very rarely of interest is generated,
                 so it now has to be explicitly requested. However, -all does
                 turn everything off.

                 The resolver option produces output only if the DNS resolver
                 was compiled with DEBUG enabled. This is not the case in some
                 operating systems. Also, unfortunately, debugging output from
                 the DNS resolver is written to stdout rather than stderr.

                 The default (-d with no argument) omits expand, filter,
                 interface, load, memory, pid, resolver, and timestamp.
                 However, the pid selector is forced when debugging is turned
                 on for a daemon, which then passes it on to any re-executed
                 Exims. Exim also automatically adds the pid to debug lines
                 when several remote deliveries are run in parallel.

                 The timestamp selector causes the current time to be inserted
                 at the start of all debug output lines. This can be useful
                 when trying to track down delays in processing.

                 The noutf8 selector disables the use of UTF-8 line-drawing
                 characters to group related information.  When disabled.
                 ascii-art is used instead.  Using the +all option does not
                 set this modifier,

                 If the debug_print option is set in any driver, it produces
                 output whenever any debugging is selected, or if -v is used.

       -dd<debug options>
                 This option behaves exactly like -d except when used on a
                 command that starts a daemon process. In that case, debugging
                 is turned off for the subprocesses that the daemon creates.
                 Thus, it is useful for monitoring the behaviour of the daemon
                 without creating as much output as full debugging does.

       -dropcr   This is an obsolete option that is now a no-op. It used to
                 affect the way Exim handled CR and LF characters in incoming
                 messages.

       -E        This option specifies that an incoming message is a
                 locally-generated delivery failure report. It is used
                 internally by Exim when handling delivery failures and is not
                 intended for external use. Its only effect is to stop Exim
                 generating certain messages to the postmaster, as otherwise
                 message cascades could occur in some situations. As part of
                 the same option, a message id may follow the characters -E.
                 If it does, the log entry for the receipt of the new message
                 contains the id, following "R=", as a cross-reference.

       -ex       There are a number of Sendmail options starting with -oe
                 which seem to be called by various programs without the
                 leading o in the option. For example, the vacation program
                 uses -eq. Exim treats all options of the form -ex as
                 synonymous with the corresponding -oex options.

       -F <string>
                 This option sets the sender's full name for use when a
                 locally-generated message is being accepted. In the absence
                 of this option, the user's gecos entry from the password data
                 is used. As users are generally permitted to alter their
                 gecos entries, no security considerations are involved. White
                 space between -F and the <string> is optional.

       -f <address>
                 This option sets the address of the envelope sender of a
                 locally-generated message (also known as the return path).
                 The option can normally be used only by a trusted user, but
                 untrusted_set_sender can be set to allow untrusted users to
                 use it.

                 Processes running as root or the Exim user are always
                 trusted. Other trusted users are defined by the trusted_users
                 or trusted_groups options. In the absence of -f, or if the
                 caller is not trusted, the sender of a local message is set
                 to the caller's login name at the default qualify domain.

                 There is one exception to the restriction on the use of -f:
                 an empty sender can be specified by any user, trusted or not,
                 to create a message that can never provoke a bounce. An empty
                 sender can be specified either as an empty string, or as a
                 pair of angle brackets with nothing between them, as in these
                 examples of shell commands:

                   exim -f '<>' user@domain
                   exim -f "" user@domain

                 In addition, the use of -f is not restricted when testing a
                 filter file with -bf or when testing or verifying addresses
                 using the -bt or -bv options.

                 Allowing untrusted users to change the sender address does
                 not of itself make it possible to send anonymous mail. Exim
                 still checks that the From: header refers to the local user,
                 and if it does not, it adds a Sender: header, though this can
                 be overridden by setting no_local_from_check.

                 White space between -f and the <address> is optional (that
                 is, they can be given as two arguments or one combined
                 argument). The sender of a locally-generated message can also
                 be set (when permitted) by an initial "From " line in the
                 message - see the description of -bm above - but if -f is
                 also present, it overrides "From ".

       -G        This option is equivalent to an ACL applying:

                   control = suppress_local_fixups

                 for every message received.  Note that Sendmail will complain
                 about such bad formatting, where Exim silently just does not
                 fix it up.  This may change in future.

                 As this affects audit information, the caller must be a
                 trusted user to use this option.

       -h <number>
                 This option is accepted for compatibility with Sendmail, but
                 has no effect. (In Sendmail it overrides the "hop count"
                 obtained by counting Received: headers.)

       -i        This option, which has the same effect as -oi, specifies that
                 a dot on a line by itself should not terminate an incoming,
                 non-SMTP message.  Solaris 2.4 (SunOS 5.4) Sendmail has a
                 similar -i processing option
                 https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19457-01/801-6680-1M/801-6680-1M.pdf,
                 p. 1M-529), and therefore a -oi command line option, which
                 both are used by its mailx command.

       -L <tag>  This option is equivalent to setting syslog_processname in
                 the config file and setting log_file_path to syslog.  Its use
                 is restricted to administrators.  The configuration file has
                 to be read and parsed, to determine access rights, before
                 this is set and takes effect, so early configuration file
                 errors will not honour this flag.

                 The tag should not be longer than 32 characters.

       -M <message id> <message id> ...
                 This option requests Exim to run a delivery attempt on each
                 message in turn. If any of the messages are frozen, they are
                 automatically thawed before the delivery attempt. The
                 settings of queue_domains, queue_smtp_domains, and
                 hold_domains are ignored.

                 Retry hints for any of the addresses are overridden - Exim
                 tries to deliver even if the normal retry time has not yet
                 been reached. This option requires the caller to be an admin
                 user. However, there is an option called prod_requires_admin
                 which can be set false to relax this restriction (and also
                 the same requirement for the -q, -R, and -S options).

                 The deliveries happen synchronously, that is, the original
                 Exim process does not terminate until all the delivery
                 attempts have finished. No output is produced unless there is
                 a serious error. If you want to see what is happening, use
                 the -v option as well, or inspect Exim's main log.

       -Mar <message id> <address> <address> ...
                 This option requests Exim to add the addresses to the list of
                 recipients of the message ("ar" for "add recipients"). The
                 first argument must be a message id, and the remaining ones
                 must be email addresses. However, if the message is active
                 (in the middle of a delivery attempt), it is not altered.
                 This option can be used only by an admin user.

       -MC <transport> <hostname> <host IP> <sequence number> <message id>
                 This option is not intended for use by external callers. It
                 is used internally by Exim to invoke another instance of
                 itself to deliver a waiting message using an existing SMTP
                 connection, which is passed as the standard input. This must
                 be the final option, and the caller must be root or the Exim
                 user in order to use it.

       -MCA      This option is not intended for use by external callers. It
                 is used internally by Exim in conjunction with the -MC
                 option. It signifies that the connection to the remote host
                 has been authenticated.

       -MCD      This option is not intended for use by external callers. It
                 is used internally by Exim in conjunction with the -MC
                 option. It signifies that the remote host supports the ESMTP
                 DSN extension.

       -MCd      This option is not intended for use by external callers. It
                 is used internally by Exim in conjunction with the -d option
                 to pass on an information string on the purpose of the
                 process.

       -MCG <queue name>
                 This option is not intended for use by external callers. It
                 is used internally by Exim in conjunction with the -MC
                 option. It signifies that an alternate queue is used, named
                 by the following argument.

       -MCK      This option is not intended for use by external callers. It
                 is used internally by Exim in conjunction with the -MC
                 option. It signifies that a remote host supports the ESMTP
                 CHUNKING extension.

       -MCL      This option is not intended for use by external callers. It
                 is used internally by Exim in conjunction with the -MC
                 option. It signifies that the server to which Exim is
                 connected advertised limits on numbers of mails, recipients
                 or recipient domains.  The limits are given by the following
                 three arguments.

       -MCP      This option is not intended for use by external callers. It
                 is used internally by Exim in conjunction with the -MC
                 option. It signifies that the server to which Exim is
                 connected supports pipelining.

       -MCp      This option is not intended for use by external callers. It
                 is used internally by Exim in conjunction with the -MC
                 option. It signifies that the connection t a remote server is
                 via a SOCKS proxy, using addresses and ports given by the
                 following four arguments.

       -MCQ <process id> <pipe fd>
                 This option is not intended for use by external callers. It
                 is used internally by Exim in conjunction with the -MC option
                 when the original delivery was started by a queue runner. It
                 passes on the process id of the queue runner, together with
                 the file descriptor number of an open pipe. Closure of the
                 pipe signals the final completion of the sequence of
                 processes that are passing messages through the same SMTP
                 connection.

       -MCq <recipient address> <size>
                 This option is not intended for use by external callers. It
                 is used internally by Exim to implement quota checking for
                 local users.

       -MCS      This option is not intended for use by external callers. It
                 is used internally by Exim in conjunction with the -MC
                 option, and passes on the fact that the ESMTP SIZE option
                 should be used on messages delivered down the existing
                 connection.

       -MCT      This option is not intended for use by external callers. It
                 is used internally by Exim in conjunction with the -MC
                 option, and passes on the fact that the host to which Exim is
                 connected supports TLS encryption.

       -MCr <SNI>
                 -MCs <SNI> These options are not intended for use by external
                 callers. It is used internally by Exim in conjunction with
                 the -MCt option, and passes on the fact that a TLS Server
                 Name Indication was sent as part of the channel
                 establishment.  The argument gives the SNI string.  The "r"
                 variant indicates a DANE-verified connection.

       -MCt <IP address> <port> <cipher>
                 This option is not intended for use by external callers. It
                 is used internally by Exim in conjunction with the -MC
                 option, and passes on the fact that the connection is being
                 proxied by a parent process for handling TLS encryption.  The
                 arguments give the local address and port being proxied, and
                 the TLS cipher.

       -Mc <message id> <message id> ...
                 This option requests Exim to run a delivery attempt on each
                 message, in turn, but unlike the -M option, it does check for
                 retry hints, and respects any that are found. This option is
                 not very useful to external callers. It is provided mainly
                 for internal use by Exim when it needs to re-invoke itself in
                 order to regain root privilege for a delivery.  However, -Mc
                 can be useful when testing, in order to run a delivery that
                 respects retry times and other options such as hold_domains
                 that are overridden when -M is used. Such a delivery does not
                 count as a queue run.  If you want to run a specific delivery
                 as if in a queue run, you should use -q with a message id
                 argument. A distinction between queue run deliveries and
                 other deliveries is made in one or two places.

       -Mes <message id> <address>
                 This option requests Exim to change the sender address in the
                 message to the given address, which must be a fully qualified
                 address or "<>" ("es" for "edit sender"). There must be
                 exactly two arguments. The first argument must be a message
                 id, and the second one an email address. However, if the
                 message is active (in the middle of a delivery attempt), its
                 status is not altered.  This option can be used only by an
                 admin user.

       -Mf <message id> <message id> ...
                 This option requests Exim to mark each listed message as
                 "frozen". This prevents any delivery attempts taking place
                 until the message is "thawed", either manually or as a result
                 of the auto_thaw configuration option.  However, if any of
                 the messages are active (in the middle of a delivery
                 attempt), their status is not altered. This option can be
                 used only by an admin user.

       -Mg <message id> <message id> ...
                 This option requests Exim to give up trying to deliver the
                 listed messages, including any that are frozen. However, if
                 any of the messages are active, their status is not altered.
                 For non-bounce messages, a delivery error message is sent to
                 the sender.  Bounce messages are just discarded. This option
                 can be used only by an admin user.

       -MG <queue name> <message id> <message id> ...
                 This option requests that each listed message be moved from
                 its current queue to the given named queue.  The destination
                 queue name argument is required, but can be an empty string
                 to define the default queue.  If the messages are not
                 currently located in the default queue, a -qG<name> option
                 will be required to define the source queue.

       -Mmad <message id> <message id> ...
                 This option requests Exim to mark all the recipient addresses
                 in the messages as already delivered ("mad" for "mark all
                 delivered"). However, if any message is active (in the middle
                 of a delivery attempt), its status is not altered. This
                 option can be used only by an admin user.

       -Mmd <message id> <address> <address> ...
                 This option requests Exim to mark the given addresses as
                 already delivered ("md" for "mark delivered"). The first
                 argument must be a message id, and the remaining ones must be
                 email addresses. These are matched to recipient addresses in
                 the message in a case-sensitive manner. If the message is
                 active (in the middle of a delivery attempt), its status is
                 not altered. This option can be used only by an admin user.

       -Mrm <message id> <message id> ...
                 This option requests Exim to remove the given messages from
                 the queue. No bounce messages are sent; each message is
                 simply forgotten. However, if any of the messages are active,
                 their status is not altered. This option can be used only by
                 an admin user or by the user who originally caused the
                 message to be placed in the queue.

       -Mset <message id>
                 This option is useful only in conjunction with -be (that is,
                 when testing string expansions). Exim loads the given message
                 from its spool before doing the test expansions, thus setting
                 message-specific variables such as $message_size and the
                 header variables. The $recipients variable is made available.
                 This feature is provided to make it easier to test expansions
                 that make use of these variables. However, this option can be
                 used only by an admin user. See also -bem.

       -Mt <message id> <message id> ...
                 This option requests Exim to "thaw" any of the listed
                 messages that are "frozen", so that delivery attempts can
                 resume. However, if any of the messages are active, their
                 status is not altered. This option can be used only by an
                 admin user.

       -Mvb <message id>
                 This option causes the contents of the message body (-D)
                 spool file to be written to the standard output. This option
                 can be used only by an admin user.

       -Mvc <message id>
                 This option causes a copy of the complete message (header
                 lines plus body) to be written to the standard output in RFC
                 2822 format. This option can be used only by an admin user.

       -Mvh <message id>
                 This option causes the contents of the message headers (-H)
                 spool file to be written to the standard output. This option
                 can be used only by an admin user.

       -Mvl <message id>
                 This option causes the contents of the message log spool file
                 to be written to the standard output. This option can be used
                 only by an admin user.

       -m        This is a synonym for -om that is accepted by Sendmail
                 (https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19457-01/801-6680-1M/801-6680-1M.pdf
                 p. 1M-258), so Exim treats it that way too.

       -N        This is a debugging option that inhibits delivery of a
                 message at the transport level. It implies -v. Exim goes
                 through many of the motions of delivery - it just doesn't
                 actually transport the message, but instead behaves as if it
                 had successfully done so. However, it does not make any
                 updates to the retry database, and the log entries for
                 deliveries are flagged with "*>" rather than "=>".

                 Because -N discards any message to which it applies, only
                 root or the Exim user are allowed to use it with -bd, -q, -R
                 or -M. In other words, an ordinary user can use it only when
                 supplying an incoming message to which it will apply.
                 Although transportation never fails when -N is set, an
                 address may be deferred because of a configuration problem on
                 a transport, or a routing problem. Once -N has been used for
                 a delivery attempt, it sticks to the message, and applies to
                 any subsequent delivery attempts that may happen for that
                 message.

       -n        This option is interpreted by Sendmail to mean "no aliasing".
                 For normal modes of operation, it is ignored by Exim.  When
                 combined with -bP it makes the output more terse (suppresses
                 option names, environment values and config pretty printing).

       -O <data> This option is interpreted by Sendmail to mean set option. It
                 is ignored by Exim.

       -oA <file name>
                 This option is used by Sendmail in conjunction with -bi to
                 specify an alternative alias filename. Exim handles -bi
                 differently; see the description above.

       -oB <n>   This is a debugging option which limits the maximum number of
                 messages that can be delivered down one SMTP connection,
                 overriding the value set in any smtp transport. If <n> is
                 omitted, the limit is set to 1.

       -odb      This option applies to all modes in which Exim accepts
                 incoming messages, including the listening daemon. It
                 requests "background" delivery of such messages, which means
                 that the accepting process automatically starts a delivery
                 process for each message received, but does not wait for the
                 delivery processes to finish.

                 When all the messages have been received, the reception
                 process exits, leaving the delivery processes to finish in
                 their own time. The standard output and error streams are
                 closed at the start of each delivery process.  This is the
                 default action if none of the -od options are present.

                 If one of the queueing options in the configuration file
                 (queue_only or queue_only_file, for example) is in effect,
                 -odb overrides it if queue_only_override is set true, which
                 is the default setting. If queue_only_override is set false,
                 -odb has no effect.

       -odf      This option requests "foreground" (synchronous) delivery when
                 Exim has accepted a locally-generated message. (For the
                 daemon it is exactly the same as -odb.) A delivery process is
                 automatically started to deliver the message, and Exim waits
                 for it to complete before proceeding.

                 The original Exim reception process does not finish until the
                 delivery process for the final message has ended. The
                 standard error stream is left open during deliveries.

                 However, like -odb, this option has no effect if
                 queue_only_override is false and one of the queueing options
                 in the configuration file is in effect.

                 If there is a temporary delivery error during foreground
                 delivery, the message is left in the queue for later
                 delivery, and the original reception process exits.

       -odi      This option is synonymous with -odf. It is provided for
                 compatibility with Sendmail.

       -odq      This option applies to all modes in which Exim accepts
                 incoming messages, including the listening daemon. It
                 specifies that the accepting process should not automatically
                 start a delivery process for each message received. Messages
                 are placed in the queue, and remain there until a subsequent
                 queue runner process encounters them. There are several
                 configuration options (such as queue_only) that can be used
                 to queue incoming messages under certain conditions. This
                 option overrides all of them and also -odqs. It always forces
                 queueing.

       -odqs     This option is a hybrid between -odb/-odi and -odq.  However,
                 like -odb and -odi, this option has no effect if
                 queue_only_override is false and one of the queueing options
                 in the configuration file is in effect.

                 When -odqs does operate, a delivery process is started for
                 each incoming message, in the background by default, but in
                 the foreground if -odi is also present. The recipient
                 addresses are routed, and local deliveries are done in the
                 normal way. However, if any SMTP deliveries are required,
                 they are not done at this time, so the message remains in the
                 queue until a subsequent queue runner process encounters it.
                 Because routing was done, Exim knows which messages are
                 waiting for which hosts, and so a number of messages for the
                 same host can be sent in a single SMTP connection. The
                 queue_smtp_domains configuration option has the same effect
                 for specific domains. See also the -qq option.

       -oee      If an error is detected while a non-SMTP message is being
                 received (for example, a malformed address), the error is
                 reported to the sender in a mail message.

                 Provided this error message is successfully sent, the Exim
                 receiving process exits with a return code of zero. If not,
                 the return code is 2 if the problem is that the original
                 message has no recipients, or 1 for any other error.  This is
                 the default -oex option if Exim is called as rmail.

       -oem      This is the same as -oee, except that Exim always exits with
                 a non-zero return code, whether or not the error message was
                 successfully sent.  This is the default -oex option, unless
                 Exim is called as rmail.

       -oep      If an error is detected while a non-SMTP message is being
                 received, the error is reported by writing a message to the
                 standard error file (stderr).  The return code is 1 for all
                 errors.

       -oeq      This option is supported for compatibility with Sendmail, but
                 has the same effect as -oep.

       -oew      This option is supported for compatibility with Sendmail, but
                 has the same effect as -oem.

       -oi       This option, which has the same effect as -i, specifies that
                 a dot on a line by itself should not terminate an incoming,
                 non-SMTP message. Otherwise, a single dot does terminate,
                 though Exim does no special processing for other lines that
                 start with a dot. This option is set by default if Exim is
                 called as rmail. See also -ti.

       -oitrue   This option is treated as synonymous with -oi.

       -oMa <host address>
                 A number of options starting with -oM can be used to set
                 values associated with remote hosts on locally-submitted
                 messages (that is, messages not received over TCP/IP). These
                 options can be used by any caller in conjunction with the
                 -bh, -be, -bf, -bF, -bt, or -bv testing options. In other
                 circumstances, they are ignored unless the caller is trusted.

                 The -oMa option sets the sender host address. This may
                 include a port number at the end, after a full stop (period).
                 For example:

                   exim -bs -oMa 10.9.8.7.1234

                 An alternative syntax is to enclose the IP address in square
                 brackets, followed by a colon and the port number:

                   exim -bs -oMa [10.9.8.7]:1234

                 The IP address is placed in the $sender_host_address
                 variable, and the port, if present, in $sender_host_port. If
                 both -oMa and -bh are present on the command line, the sender
                 host IP address is taken from whichever one is last.

       -oMaa <name>
                 See -oMa above for general remarks about the -oM options. The
                 -oMaa option sets the value of $sender_host_authenticated
                 (the authenticator name).  This option can be used with -bh
                 and -bs to set up an authenticated SMTP session without
                 actually using the SMTP AUTH command.

       -oMai <string>
                 See -oMa above for general remarks about the -oM options. The
                 -oMai option sets the value of $authenticated_id (the id that
                 was authenticated).  This overrides the default value (the
                 caller's login id, except with -bh, where there is no
                 default) for messages from local sources.

       -oMas <address>
                 See -oMa above for general remarks about the -oM options. The
                 -oMas option sets the authenticated sender value in
                 $authenticated_sender. It overrides the sender address that
                 is created from the caller's login id for messages from local
                 sources, except when -bh is used, when there is no default.
                 For both -bh and -bs, an authenticated sender that is
                 specified on a MAIL command overrides this value.

       -oMi <interface address>
                 See -oMa above for general remarks about the -oM options. The
                 -oMi option sets the IP interface address value. A port
                 number may be included, using the same syntax as for -oMa.
                 The interface address is placed in $received_ip_address and
                 the port number, if present, in $received_port.

       -oMm <message reference>
                 See -oMa above for general remarks about the -oM options. The
                 -oMm option sets the message reference, e.g. message-id, and
                 is logged during delivery. This is useful when some kind of
                 audit trail is required to tie messages together. The format
                 of the message reference is checked and will abort if the
                 format is invalid. The option will only be accepted if exim
                 is running in trusted mode, not as any regular user.

                 The best example of a message reference is when Exim sends a
                 bounce message.  The message reference is the message-id of
                 the original message for which Exim is sending the bounce.

       -oMr <protocol name>
                 See -oMa above for general remarks about the -oM options. The
                 -oMr option sets the received protocol value that is stored
                 in $received_protocol. However, it does not apply (and is
                 ignored) when -bh or -bs is used. For -bh, the protocol is
                 forced to one of the standard SMTP protocol names. For -bs,
                 the protocol is always "local-" followed by one of those same
                 names. For -bS (batched SMTP) however, the protocol can be
                 set by -oMr. Repeated use of this option is not supported.

       -oMs <host name>
                 See -oMa above for general remarks about the -oM options. The
                 -oMs option sets the sender host name in $sender_host_name.
                 When this option is present, Exim does not attempt to look up
                 a host name from an IP address; it uses the name it is given.

       -oMt <ident string>
                 See -oMa above for general remarks about the -oM options. The
                 -oMt option sets the sender ident value in $sender_ident. The
                 default setting for local callers is the login id of the
                 calling process, except when -bh is used, when there is no
                 default.

       -om       In Sendmail, this option means "me too", indicating that the
                 sender of a message should receive a copy of the message if
                 the sender appears in an alias expansion. Exim always does
                 this, so the option does nothing.

       -oo       This option is ignored. In Sendmail it specifies "old style
                 headers", whatever that means.

       -oP <path>
                 This option is useful only in conjunction with -bd or -q with
                 a time value. The option specifies the file to which the
                 process id of the daemon is written. When -oX is used with
                 -bd, or when -q with a time is used without -bd, this is the
                 only way of causing Exim to write a pid file, because in
                 those cases, the normal pid file is not used.

       -oPX      This option is not intended for general use.  The daemon uses
                 it when terminating due to a SIGTEM, possibly in combination
                 with -oP <path>.  It causes the pid file to be removed.

       -or <time>
                 This option sets a timeout value for incoming non-SMTP
                 messages. If it is not set, Exim will wait forever for the
                 standard input. The value can also be set by the
                 receive_timeout option.

       -os <time>
                 This option sets a timeout value for incoming SMTP messages.
                 The timeout applies to each SMTP command and block of data.
                 The value can also be set by the smtp_receive_timeout option;
                 it defaults to 5 minutes.

       -ov       This option has exactly the same effect as -v.

       -oX <number or string>
                 This option is relevant only when the -bd (start listening
                 daemon) option is also given. It controls which ports and
                 interfaces the daemon uses. When -oX is used to start a
                 daemon, no pid file is written unless -oP is also present to
                 specify a pid filename.

       -oY       This option controls the creation of an inter-process
                 communications endpoint by the Exim daemon.  It is only
                 relevant when the -bd (start listening daemon) option is also
                 given.  Normally the daemon creates this socket, unless a -oX
                 and no -oP option is also present.  If this option is given
                 then the socket will not be created.  This is required if the
                 system is running multiple daemons, in which case it should
                 be used on all.  The features supported by the socket will
                 not be available in such cases.  The socket is currently used
                 for fast ramp-up of queue runner processes caching compiled
                 regexes obtaining a current queue size

       -pd       This option applies when an embedded Perl interpreter is
                 linked with Exim. It overrides the setting of the
                 perl_at_start option, forcing the starting of the interpreter
                 to be delayed until it is needed.

       -ps       This option applies when an embedded Perl interpreter is
                 linked with Exim. It overrides the setting of the
                 perl_at_start option, forcing the starting of the interpreter
                 to occur as soon as Exim is started.

       -p<rval>:<sval>
                 For compatibility with Sendmail, this option is equivalent to

                   -oMr <rval> -oMs <sval>

                 It sets the incoming protocol and host name (for trusted
                 callers). The host name and its colon can be omitted when
                 only the protocol is to be set.  Note the Exim already has
                 two private options, -pd and -ps, that refer to embedded
                 Perl. It is therefore impossible to set a protocol value of d
                 or s using this option (but that does not seem a real
                 limitation).  Repeated use of this option is not supported.

       -q        This option is normally restricted to admin users. However,
                 there is a configuration option called prod_requires_admin
                 which can be set false to relax this restriction (and also
                 the same requirement for the -M, -R, and -S options).

                 If other commandline options do not specify an action, the -q
                 option starts one queue runner process. This scans the queue
                 of waiting messages, and runs a delivery process for each one
                 in turn. It waits for each delivery process to finish before
                 starting the next one. A delivery process may not actually do
                 any deliveries if the retry times for the addresses have not
                 been reached. Use -qf (see below) if you want to override
                 this.

                 If the delivery process spawns other processes to deliver
                 other messages down passed SMTP connections, the queue runner
                 waits for these to finish before proceeding.

                 When all the queued messages have been considered, the
                 original queue runner process terminates. In other words, a
                 single pass is made over the waiting mail, one message at a
                 time. Use -q with a time (see below) if you want this to be
                 repeated periodically.

                 Exim processes the waiting messages in an unpredictable
                 order. It isn't very random, but it is likely to be different
                 each time, which is all that matters.  If one particular
                 message screws up a remote MTA, other messages to the same
                 MTA have a chance of getting through if they get tried first.

                 It is possible to cause the messages to be processed in
                 lexical message id order, which is essentially the order in
                 which they arrived, by setting the queue_run_in_order option,
                 but this is not recommended for normal use.

       -q<qflags>
                 The -q option may be followed by one or more flag letters
                 that change its behaviour. They are all optional, but if more
                 than one is present, they must appear in the correct order.
                 Each flag is described in a separate item below.

       -qq...    An option starting with -qq requests a two-stage queue run.
                 In the first stage, the queue is scanned as if the
                 queue_smtp_domains option matched every domain. Addresses are
                 routed, local deliveries happen, but no remote transports are
                 run.

                 Performance will be best if the queue_run_in_order option is
                 false.  If that is so and the queue_fast_ramp option is true
                 and a daemon-notifier socket is available then in the first
                 phase of the run, once a threshold number of messages are
                 routed for a given host, a delivery process is forked in
                 parallel with the rest of the scan.

                 The hints database that remembers which messages are waiting
                 for specific hosts is updated, as if delivery to those hosts
                 had been deferred.

                 After the first queue scan complete, a second, normal queue
                 scan is done, with routing and delivery taking place as
                 normal.  Messages that are routed to the same host should
                 mostly be delivered down a single SMTP connection because of
                 the hints that were set up during the first queue scan.
                 Two-phase queue runs should be used on systems which, even
                 intermittently, have a large queue (such as mailing-list
                 operators).  They may also be useful for hosts that are
                 connected to the Internet intermittently.

       -q[q]i... If the i flag is present, the queue runner runs delivery
                 processes only for those messages that haven't previously
                 been tried. (i stands for "initial delivery".) This can be
                 helpful if you are putting messages in the queue using -odq
                 and want a queue runner just to process the new messages.

       -q[q][i]f...
                 If one f flag is present, a delivery attempt is forced for
                 each non-frozen message, whereas without f only those
                 non-frozen addresses that have passed their retry times are
                 tried.

       -q[q][i]ff...
                 If ff is present, a delivery attempt is forced for every
                 message, whether frozen or not.

       -q[q][i][f[f]]l
                 The l (the letter "ell") flag specifies that only local
                 deliveries are to be done. If a message requires any remote
                 deliveries, it remains in the queue for later delivery.

       -q[q][i][f[f]][l][G<name>[/<time>]]]
                 If the G flag and a name is present, the queue runner
                 operates on the queue with the given name rather than the
                 default queue.  The name should not contain a / character.
                 For a periodic queue run (see below) append to the name a
                 slash and a time value.

                 If other commandline options specify an action, a -qG<name>
                 option will specify a queue to operate on.  For example:

                   exim -bp -qGquarantine
                   mailq -qGquarantine
                   exim -qGoffpeak -Rf @special.domain.example

       -q<qflags> <start id> <end id>
                 When scanning the queue, Exim can be made to skip over
                 messages whose ids are lexically less than a given value by
                 following the -q option with a starting message id. For
                 example:

                   exim -q 0t5C6f-0000c8-00

                 Messages that arrived earlier than 0t5C6f-0000c8-00 are not
                 inspected. If a second message id is given, messages whose
                 ids are lexically greater than it are also skipped. If the
                 same id is given twice, for example,

                   exim -q 0t5C6f-0000c8-00 0t5C6f-0000c8-00

                 just one delivery process is started, for that message. This
                 differs from -M in that retry data is respected, and it also
                 differs from -Mc in that it counts as a delivery from a queue
                 run. Note that the selection mechanism does not affect the
                 order in which the messages are scanned. There are also other
                 ways of selecting specific sets of messages for delivery in a
                 queue run - see -R and -S.

       -q<qflags><time>
                 When a time value is present, the -q option causes Exim to
                 run as a daemon, starting a queue runner process at intervals
                 specified by the given time value. This form of the -q option
                 is commonly combined with the -bd option, in which case a
                 single daemon process handles both functions. A common way of
                 starting up a combined daemon at system boot time is to use a
                 command such as

                   /usr/exim/bin/exim -bd -q30m

                 Such a daemon listens for incoming SMTP calls, and also
                 starts a queue runner process every 30 minutes.  It is
                 possible to set up runners for multiple named queues within
                 one daemon, For example:

                   exim -qGhipri/2m -q10m -qqGmailinglist/1h

                 When a daemon is started by -q with a time value, but without
                 -bd, no pid file is written unless one is explicitly
                 requested by the -oP option.

       -qR<rsflags> <string>
                 This option is synonymous with -R. It is provided for
                 Sendmail compatibility.

       -qS<rsflags> <string>
                 This option is synonymous with -S.

       -R<rsflags> <string>
                 The <rsflags> may be empty, in which case the white space
                 before the string is optional, unless the string is f, ff, r,
                 rf, or rff, which are the possible values for <rsflags>.
                 White space is required if <rsflags> is not empty.

                 This option is similar to -q with no time value, that is, it
                 causes Exim to perform a single queue run, except that, when
                 scanning the messages on the queue, Exim processes only those
                 that have at least one undelivered recipient address
                 containing the given string, which is checked in a
                 case-independent way. If the <rsflags> start with r, <string>
                 is interpreted as a regular expression; otherwise it is a
                 literal string.

                 If you want to do periodic queue runs for messages with
                 specific recipients, you can combine -R with -q and a time
                 value. For example:

                   exim -q25m -R @special.domain.example

                 This example does a queue run for messages with recipients in
                 the given domain every 25 minutes. Any additional flags that
                 are specified with -q are applied to each queue run.

                 Once a message is selected for delivery by this mechanism,
                 all its addresses are processed. For the first selected
                 message, Exim overrides any retry information and forces a
                 delivery attempt for each undelivered address. This means
                 that if delivery of any address in the first message is
                 successful, any existing retry information is deleted, and so
                 delivery attempts for that address in subsequently selected
                 messages (which are processed without forcing) will run.
                 However, if delivery of any address does not succeed, the
                 retry information is updated, and in subsequently selected
                 messages, the failing address will be skipped.

                 If the <rsflags> contain f or ff, the delivery forcing
                 applies to all selected messages, not just the first; frozen
                 messages are included when ff is present.

                 The -R option makes it straightforward to initiate delivery
                 of all messages to a given domain after a host has been down
                 for some time. When the SMTP command ETRN is accepted by its
                 ACL, its default effect is to run Exim with the -R option,
                 but it can be configured to run an arbitrary command instead.

       -r        This is a documented (for Sendmail) obsolete alternative name
                 for -f.

       -S<rsflags> <string>
                 This option acts like -R except that it checks the string
                 against each message's sender instead of against the
                 recipients. If -R is also set, both conditions must be met
                 for a message to be selected. If either of the options has f
                 or ff in its flags, the associated action is taken.

       -Tqt <times>
                 This is an option that is exclusively for use by the Exim
                 testing suite. It is not recognized when Exim is run
                 normally. It allows for the setting up of explicit "queue
                 times" so that various warning/retry features can be tested.

       -t        When Exim is receiving a locally-generated, non-SMTP message
                 on its standard input, the -t option causes the recipients of
                 the message to be obtained from the To:, Cc:, and Bcc: header
                 lines in the message instead of from the command arguments.
                 The addresses are extracted before any rewriting takes place
                 and the Bcc: header line, if present, is then removed.

                 If the command has any arguments, they specify addresses to
                 which the message is not to be delivered. That is, the
                 argument addresses are removed from the recipients list
                 obtained from the headers. This is compatible with Smail 3
                 and in accordance with the documented behaviour of several
                 versions of Sendmail, as described in man pages on a number
                 of operating systems (e.g.  Solaris 8, IRIX 6.5, HP-UX 11).
                 However, some versions of Sendmail add argument addresses to
                 those obtained from the headers, and the O'Reilly Sendmail
                 book documents it that way. Exim can be made to add argument
                 addresses instead of subtracting them by setting the option
                 extract_addresses_remove_arguments false.

                 If there are any Resent- header lines in the message, Exim
                 extracts recipients from all Resent-To:, Resent-Cc:, and
                 Resent-Bcc: header lines instead of from To:, Cc:, and Bcc:.
                 This is for compatibility with Sendmail and other MTAs.
                 (Prior to release 4.20, Exim gave an error if -t was used in
                 conjunction with Resent- header lines.)

                 RFC 2822 talks about different sets of Resent- header lines
                 (for when a message is resent several times). The RFC also
                 specifies that they should be added at the front of the
                 message, and separated by Received: lines. It is not at all
                 clear how -t should operate in the present of multiple sets,
                 nor indeed exactly what constitutes a "set".  In practice, it
                 seems that MUAs do not follow the RFC. The Resent- lines are
                 often added at the end of the header, and if a message is
                 resent more than once, it is common for the original set of
                 Resent- headers to be renamed as X-Resent- when a new set is
                 added. This removes any possible ambiguity.

       -ti       This option is exactly equivalent to -t -i. It is provided
                 for compatibility with Sendmail.

       -tls-on-connect
                 This option is available when Exim is compiled with TLS
                 support. It forces all incoming SMTP connections to behave as
                 if the incoming port is listed in the tls_on_connect_ports
                 option.

       -U        Sendmail uses this option for "initial message submission",
                 and its documentation states that in future releases, it may
                 complain about syntactically invalid messages rather than
                 fixing them when this flag is not set. Exim ignores this
                 option.

       -v        This option causes Exim to write information to the standard
                 error stream, describing what it is doing. In particular, it
                 shows the log lines for receiving and delivering a message,
                 and if an SMTP connection is made, the SMTP dialogue is
                 shown. Some of the log lines shown may not actually be
                 written to the log if the setting of log_selector discards
                 them. Any relevant selectors are shown with each log line. If
                 none are shown, the logging is unconditional.

       -x        AIX uses -x for a private purpose ("mail from a local mail
                 program has National Language Support extended characters in
                 the body of the mail item").  It sets -x when calling the MTA
                 from its mail command. Exim ignores this option.

       -X <logfile>
                 This option is interpreted by Sendmail to cause debug
                 information to be sent to the named file.  It is ignored by
                 Exim.

       -z <log-line>
                 This option writes its argument to Exim's logfile.  Use is
                 restricted to administrators; the intent is for operational
                 notes.  Quotes should be used to maintain a multi-word item
                 as a single argument, under most shells.


SEE ALSO
       The full Exim specification, the Exim book, and the Exim wiki.

                                                                       EXIM(8)