---
name: "errormail"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "zmailer"
version: "2.99.55-3"
release: "Debian 3.0 (Woody)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/errormail"
---

# errormail(8)

zmailer error message transport agent

## NAME

errormail - zmailer error message transport agent

## SYNOPSIS

**errormail** \[ **-c** *channel* \] \[ **-V** \]

## DESCRIPTION

*errormail* is a ZMailer transport agent which is usually only run by the [*scheduler*(8)](/scheduler/8.md) program to produce error messages from canned forms.  The *errormail* program must be invoked with the same current directory as the *scheduler*, namely *POSTOFFICE***/transport**.

The program will interpret the host part of an address destined for its channel as a file name in the *MAILSHARE***/forms** directory.  It will submit a new mail message consisting of the concatenation of:

-

  \- a To: header containing the sender address (original error return address),

-

  \- the file contents of the specified form,

-

  \- the user name of each recipient address with some descriptive text indicating the specific error, and

-

  \- the message file being processed.

This program is used to report errors on behalf of the ZMailer [*router*(8)](/router/8.md) and [*scheduler*(8)](/scheduler/8.md) programs, and by implication also report delivery failures for the various transport agents.  The primary exception is syntax errors during message parsing in the *router*.

## OPTIONS

- \-c *channel*

  specifies which channel name should be keyed on.  The default is **error**.

- \-V

  prints a version message and exits.

## INTERFACE

This program reads in processable file names relative to the current working directory of the scheduler (namely: *$POSTIOFFICE/transport/*). Optionally on the same line the scheduler may tell which host is to be looked for from the recipients of the message.

*relative-spool-path* \[ \<TAB\> *hostname* \]

This program produces diagnostic output on the standard output. Normal diagnostic output is of the form:

*id*/*offset*\<TAB\>*notify-data*\<TAB\>*status* *message*

where  *id* is the inode number of the message file, *offset* is a byte offset within its control file where the address being reported on is kept, *status* is one of **ok**, **error**, or **deferred**, and the *message* is descriptive text associated with the report.  The text is terminated by a linefeed.  Any other format (as might be produced by subprocesses) is passed to standard output for logging in the **scheduler** log.

The exit status is a code from **\<sysexits.h\>**.

## FILES

*/etc/zmailer.conf*\
 */var/spool/postoffice (POSTOFFICE)*\
 */local/share/mail/forms (MAILSHARE/forms)*

## SEE ALSO

[scheduler(8)](/scheduler/8.md), [router(8)](/router/8.md)

## AUTHOR

This program authored and copyright by:\
 Rayan Zachariassen \<rayan@cs.toronto.edu\>