Control sendmail defaults

[jmb]

When we deactivate the server part of sendmail, (SENDMAIL_SERVER=0), is there a way to control how frequently sendmail continues to check the mail queue? Does it simply try to send once, then leave any unsuccessful attempts in mqueue?

I'm looking for where the -qXXm flag gets set, and have not found it yet. What am I missing?

btw, this forum has been very helpful, and I appreciate all the answers to my various questions!

[Sundar_7]

Hi,

The -q option is set in the script itself /sbin/init.d/sendmail.

/usr/sbin/sendmail -bd -q30m

This is what is used by the script to start sendmail

-- Sundar.

[Jeff Schussele · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Yes - if sendmail is not running in background daemon mode, it's a one time delivery attampt. If it fails that attempt, the mail remains in the queue.
Any subsequent run of
sendmail -q
will attempt another delivery. We just set that up as a cron job along with a
mailq
command that points out anything left in the queue. mailq will alert you to misaddressed mail or any other mail that's never going to be delivered so that it can be manually deleted.

Rgds,
Jeff