LFCS · Question #43
What is true regarding the command sendmail?
The correct answer is B. All MTAs, including Postfix and Exim, provide a sendmail command. Many different Mail Transfer Agents (MTAs), such as Postfix and Exim, provide a compatibility layer that includes a sendmail command. This ensures that applications expecting the traditional Sendmail interface can still submit mail regardless of the underlying MTA.
Question
Options
- AWith any MTA, the sendmail command must be run periodically by the cron daemon.
- BAll MTAs, including Postfix and Exim, provide a sendmail command.
- CThe sendmail command prints the MTAs queue history of which mails have been sent
- DIt is only available when the sendmail MTA is installed.
How the community answered
(17 responses)- A6% (1)
- B88% (15)
- C6% (1)
Why each option
Many different Mail Transfer Agents (MTAs), such as Postfix and Exim, provide a compatibility layer that includes a `sendmail` command. This ensures that applications expecting the traditional Sendmail interface can still submit mail regardless of the underlying MTA.
The `sendmail` command is typically used for submitting mail, not for periodic cron tasks to manage the queue; the MTA's daemon handles queue processing.
Most modern MTAs like Postfix and Exim provide a `sendmail` command (often as a symbolic link or wrapper script) that mimics the original Sendmail program's interface, allowing applications to submit mail without needing to know the specific MTA installed.
The `sendmail` command, when used with parameters like `-bp` (or via `mailq`), can list the current contents of the mail queue, but it does not print a history of sent mails.
This is incorrect because other MTAs commonly provide a compatible `sendmail` command for interoperability, even if the actual Sendmail MTA is not installed.
Concept tested: MTA sendmail command compatibility
Source: https://www.postfix.org/sendmail.8.html
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