NAME

qconfirm-check - request delivery confirmation under qmail

SYNOPSIS

in .qmail:

|qconfirm-check [-mnbD] [-d dir] [-i bytes] [-t timeout] [prog]

DESCRIPTION

qconfirm-check (perhaps) requests delivery confirmations from the envelope sender to allow further processing in the .qmail file.

qconfirm-check can operate either sender-based or message-based, see below for sender mode and message mode.

Messages with an empty envelope sender and the envelope sender <#@[]> are allowed by default.

WARNING: If you create a .qmail file to enable qconfirm-check, make sure to also add a line specifying delivery to your normal mailbox.

SENDER MODE

If qconfirm-check runs in sender mode, messages from known envelope senders are accepted without a confirmation, and immediately allowed to be processed further in the .qmail file.

qconfirm-check defers messages from unknown envelope senders temporarily, and sends a confirmation request message to the sender. The original message and all newer messages from the same sender will be deferred temporarily until a reply to the confirmation request is received. A message bounces if queuelifetime has expired. New messages from the same sender do not result in new confirmation requests.

Once an envelope sender has confirmed a delivery, qconfirm-check treats this envelope sender as known.

MESSAGE MODE

If qconfirm-check runs in message mode (option -m is set), each single message needs to be confirmed to be allowed to be processed further in the .qmail file.

A message bounces if queuelifetime has expired.

OPTIONS

-m: message mode. qconfirm-check identifies the message by its inode. Each message must be confirmed before it is allowed to be processed further in the .qmail file. Without this option qconfirm-check runs in sender mode.
-n: no acknowledge. Do not acknowledge the receipt of a reply to a confirmation request.
-b: bad. Only works in sender mode. After checking if the envelope sender is currently pending or ok, check if it is matched as bad.
-D: no domain match. Only takes effect in sender mode. Don't use extended envelope sender address matching for domains and sub-domains. This applies for matching senders for ok and bad.
-d dir: Override the default qconfirm directory (``~/.qconfirm'') and the environment variable QCONFIRM_DIR with dir.
-i bytes: include the top bytes bytes of the sender's message at the bottom of a confirmation request or acknowledgement. Default is 8192.
-t timeout: Set the timeout for sending confirmation requests as reminders to timeout seconds. Unaccepted and unconfirmed messages are held in the queue. Whenever qmail tries to deliver the message, qconfirm-check checks if timeout or more seconds have expired since a confirmation request was sent. If so, qconfirm-check again sends a confirmation request as reminder. If timeout is zero, only one confirmation request per message or sender is sent and no reminders. Default is 345586 (ca. four days).
prog: prog can be omitted or consists of one or more arguments. If prog is set, qconfirm-check sets the environment variable QCONFIRM_DIR=dir and runs prog just before requesting a delivery confirmation. If prog exits zero, qconfirm-check allows the message to be processed further in the .qmail file without a confirmation and exits immediately. If prog exits 111, qconfirm-check exits 111 immediately. In all other cases qconfirm-check continues and requests a delivery confirmation.

CONFIGURATION

qconfirm-check reads its configuration from files in the subdirectory conf/ of the qconfirm directory (normally ``~/.qconfirm/conf/''). Only the first line of a configuration file is considered.

QCONFIRM_MAILNAME: The configuration file QCONFIRM_MAILNAME overrides the default mailname in the from header of confirmation requests and acknowledgements (``qconfirm'').
QCONFIRM_EXT: The configuration file QCONFIRM_EXT overrides the default extension used for receiving message confirmations (``qconfirm-'').
QCONFIRM_PREPEND: This configuration file must be set if the mail address you run qconfirm for is controlled through qmail's virtualdomains. It must be set to the prepend part of the corresponding entry in /var/qmail/control/virtualdomains plus a dash at the end.
QCONFIRM_HOST: The configuration file QCONFIRM_HOST if set overrides the environment variable HOST normally set by qmail-local(8).
QCONFIRM_ACCEPT: The configuration file QCONFIRM_ACCEPT overrides the default invocation of qconfirm-accept(1) in automatically created .qmail files (``qconfirm-accept'').
QCONFIRM_ACCEPT_PROG: If QCONFIRM_ACCEPT_PROG is set, its value is used as prog argument to qconfirm-accept(8) in automatically created .qmail files.

ENVIRONMENT

QCONFIRM_DIR: The environment variable QCONFIRM_DIR overrides the default location of the user's qconfirm directory (``.qconfirm/'').

FILES

~/.qconfirm/conf/ ~/.qconfirm/pending/ ~/.qconfirm/ok/ ~/.qconfirm/bad/ ~/.qconfirm/msg/request ~/.qconfirm/msg/acknowledge

AUTHOR

Gerrit Pape <pape@smarden.org>