The -F command-line
switch specifies the full name of the sender, which is used in mail
headers and the envelope. The form of the -F
switch is:
-Ffullname
-F fullname
Space between the -F and the
fullname is optional. If
fullname is missing and the
-F is the last argument,
sendmail prints the following error and exits:
sendmail: option requires an argument -- F
If the -F is followed by any other switches, the
following switch is taken as the full name.
When specifying the sender's full name, be sure to
quote any internal spaces or shell special characters. For example,
for the C shell the following would be needed to specify the full
name Happy Guy!:
"Happy Guy\!"
In the absence of this switch, sendmail finds
the sender's full name in any of several places.
These are described in the section discussing the
$x sendmail macro ($x).
The -F command-line switch is used by programs and
shell scripts that send email. Consider the following administrative
shell script that is run by cron(8) once per
night:
#!/bin/sh
DISKUSE="du -s"
ARCHDIR=/admin/mail/lists
LIMIT=10
NOTIFY=root@localhost
# Run this nightly to detect an overgrown archive directory
BLOCKS=`$DISKUSE $ARCHDIR | awk '{print $1}'`
if [ $BLOCKS -gt $LIMIT ]; then
echo $BLOCKS over $LIMIT in $ARCHDIR |\
/usr/sbin/sendmail -F"DU Report by root" -f du-report $NOTIFY
fi
Here, in the full-name portion of the From:
header, the delivered warning email message will include the notation
"DU Report by root":
From: "DU Report by root" <du-report@your.domain>
