etrn(1M)

NAME

     etrn - start mail queue run

SYNOPSIS

     etrn [-v] server-host [client-hosts]

DESCRIPTION

     SMTP's ETRN command allows an  SMTP  client  and  server  to
     interact, giving the server an opportunity to start the pro-
     cessing of its queues for messages to go to  a  given  host.
     This  is meant to be used in start-up conditions, as well as
     for mail nodes that have transient connections to their ser-
     vice providers.

     The etrn utility initiates an SMTP  session  with  the  host
     server-host  and sends one or more ETRN commands as follows:
     If no client-hosts are specified, etrn looks up  every  host
     name  for  which  sendmail(1M)  accepts  email and, for each
     name, sends an ETRN command with that name as the  argument.
     If  any  client-hosts are specified, etrn uses each of these
     as arguments for successive ETRN commands.

OPTIONS

     The following option is supported:

     -v    The normal mode of operation for etrn is to do all  of
           its  work  silently.   The -v option makes it verbose,
           which causes etrn to display  its  conversations  with
           the remote SMTP server.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

     No  environment  variables  are  used.  However,  at  system
     start-up,  /etc/init.d/sendmail reads /etc/default/sendmail.
     In  this  file,  if  the   variable   ETRN_HOSTS   is   set,
     /etc/init.d/sendmail  parses  this variable and invokes etrn
     appropriately. ETRN_HOSTS should be of the form:

     "s1:c1.1,c1.2        s2:c2.1 s3:c3.1,c3.2,c3.3"

     That is, white-space separated groups of server:client where
     client can be one or more comma-separated names. The :client
     part is optional. server is the name of the server to  prod;
     a  mail queue run is requested for each client name. This is
     comparable to running:

     /usr/lib/sendmail -qR client

     on the host server.

EXAMPLES

     Example 1: Using etrn

     Inserting the line:

     ETRN_HOSTS="s1.domain.com:clnt.domain.com s2.domain.com:clnt.domain.com"

     in  /etc/default/sendmail  results  in  /etc/init.d/sendmail
     invoking  etrn  such  that  ETRN  commands  are sent to both
     s1.domain.com   and   s2.domain.com,   with   both    having
     clnt.domain.com as the ETRN argument.

     The line:

     ETRN_HOSTS="server.domain.com:client1.domain.com,client2.domain.com"

     results   in   two   ETRN    commands    being    sent    to
     server.domain.com, one with the argument client1.domain.com,
     the other with the argument client2.domain.com.

     The line:

     ETRN_HOSTS="server1.domain.com server2.domain.com"

     results in set  of  a  ETRN  commands  being  sent  to  both
     server1.domain.com and server2.domain.com; each set contains
     one ETRN command for each host name for  which  sendmail(1M)
     accepts email, with that host name as the argument.

FILES

     /etc/mail/sendmail.cf
           sendmail configuration file

     /etc/default/sendmail
           Variables used by /etc/init.d/sendmail

ATTRIBUTES

     See attributes(5) for descriptions of the  following  attri-
     butes:

     ____________________________________________________________
    |       ATTRIBUTE TYPE        |       ATTRIBUTE VALUE       |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | Availability                | SUNWsndmu                   |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|

SEE ALSO

     sendmail(1M), RFC 1985.

CAVEATS

     Not all SMTP servers support ETRN.