System Management Guide: Communications and Networks

Mail Reference

This section provides a quick reference to the various Mail commands, files, and directories.

List of Mail Commands

The following is a list of mail management commands.

bugfiler	Stores bug reports in specific mail directories.
comsat	Notifies users of incoming mail (daemon).
mailq	Prints the contents of the mail queue.
mailstats	Displays statistics about mail traffic.
newaliases	Builds a new copy of the alias database from the /etc/mail/aliases file.
rmail	Handles remote mail received through the uucp command of the Basic Networking Utilities (BNU).
sendbug	Mails a system bug report to a specific address.
sendmail	Routes mail for local or network delivery.
smdemon.cleanu	Cleans up the sendmail queue for periodic housekeeping.

List of Mail Files and Directories

This list of files and directories is arranged by function.

Note: In versions earlier than AIX 5.1, the sendmail.cf and aliases files are located in /etc/sendmail.cf and /etc/aliases, respectively.

Using the Mail Program

/usr/share/lib/Mail.rc	Sets local system defaults for all users of the mail program. A text file you can modify to set the default characteristics of the mail command.
$HOME/.mailrc	Enables the user to change the local system defaults for the mail facility.
$HOME/mbox	Stores processed mail for the individual user.
/usr/bin/Mail, /usr/bin/mail, or /usr/bin/mailx	Specifies three names linked to the same program. The mail program is one of the user interfaces to the mail system.
/var/spool/mail	Specifies the default mail drop directory. By default, all mail is delivered to the /var/spool/mail/UserName file.
/usr/bin/bellmail	Performs local mail delivery.
/usr/bin/rmail	Performs remote mail interface for BNU.
/var/spool/mqueue	Contains the log file and temporary files associated with the messages in the mail queue.

Using the sendmail Command

/usr/sbin/sendmail	The sendmail command.
/usr/ucb/mailq	Links to the /usr/sbin/sendmail. Using mailq is equivalent to using the /usr/sbin/sendmail -bp command.
/usr/ucb/newaliases	Links to the /usr/sbin/sendmail file. Using newaliases is equivalent to using the /usr/sbin/sendmail -bi command.
/etc/netsvc.conf	Specifies the ordering of certain name resolution services.
/usr/sbin/mailstats	Formats and prints the sendmail statistics as found in the /etc/sendmail.st file if it exists. The /etc/sendmail.st file is the default, but you can specify an alternative file.
/etc/mail/aliases	Describes a text version of the aliases file for the sendmail command. You can edit this file to create, modify, or delete aliases for your system.
/etc/aliasesDB	Describes a directory containing the aliases database files, DB.dir and DB.pag, that are created from the /etc/mail/aliases file when you run the sendmail -bi command.
/etc/mail/sendmail.cf	Contains the sendmail configuration information in text form. Edit the file to change this information.
/usr/lib/smdemon.cleanu	Specifies a shell file that runs the mail queue and maintains the sendmail log files in the /var/spool/mqueue directory.
/etc/mail/statistics	Collects statistics about mail traffic. This file does not grow. Use the /usr/sbin/mailstats command to display the contents of this file. Delete this file if you do not want to collect this information.
/var/spool/mqueue	Describes a directory containing the temporary files associated with each message in the queue. The directory can contain the log file.
/var/spool/cron/crontabs	Describes a directory containing files that the cron daemon reads to determine which jobs to start. The root file contains a line to start the smdemon.cleanu shell script.

List of Internet Message Access Protocol and Post Office Protocol Commands

/usr/sbin/imapd	The Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) server process.
/usr/sbin/pop3d	The Post Office Protocol Version 3 (POP3) server process.