How to get the Exit Status in sendmail.

[Raghu Chikkamenahalli]

Hi All,

I have written small shell script which sends an e-mail using sendmail command.
Need to check the exit status after the completion of the sendmail.

Read the "sendmail" manpage and found some of the exit status defined. But I am unable to caputre the exit status using the "$?". Kindly guide how to capture the same.

Here is my Script

echo "To: raghu@xyz.com " > mesg
echo "From: raghu@abc.com" >> mesg
echo "Subject: Mail using sendmail" >> mesg
echo "Content-type: mixed/multipart base64;"
echo "" >> mesg
echo "Message file attached" >> mesg
echo "" >> mesg

cat mesg|/usr/sbin/sendmail -t

echo $?

Regards,
Raghu

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi:

Your script worked (and returned valid exit codes) for me. As you know, the possible exit values are defined in the manpages and can be mapped from '/usr/include/sysexits.h'.

For example if I use a recipient of "me" in the "To" line, I see an exit value of 67 (EX_NOUSER).

For efficiency, eliminate your 'cat' and write:

/usr/sbin/sendmail -t < mesg

Regards!

...JRF...

[Raghu Chikkamenahalli]

Hi JRF,

Thanks for the reply.
This works for the id which doesnot have the @domainname.
Is it possible to get the status if an invalid email id eg. raghu@123.com
(which does not exists) in the To: field is given...
Regards,
Raghu.

[Dennis Handly]

>Is it possible to get the status if an invalid email id eg. raghu@123.com (which does not exists) in the To: field is given.

You can always get the status. But errors in delivery are probably not detected in sendmail but by the bounced mail message.

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

You might want to see mail.log file. You can turn up the log level if you need increased detail to track a scripting problem by changing sendmail.cf and restarting sendmail.

SEP

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi (again) Raghu:

> Is it possible to get the status if an invalid email id eg. raghu@123.com
(which does not exists) in the To: field is given...


Errors like that, as noted, will probably be reported not as a return status, but as an undeliverable message noted in '/var/adm/syslog/mail.log'.

The manpages and the contents of '/usr/include/sysexits.h' will describe what return codes AND the reason they may be returned. I suggest examining them.

Regards!

...JRF...