---
name: "mailer.conf"
section: "5"
platform: "openbsd"
package: "man"
version: "8.0-current-20261101"
release: "OpenBSD 8.0-current (2026-11-01)"
platforms: ["freebsd", "openbsd"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/mailer.conf"
---

# mailer.conf(5)

configuration file for mailwrapper(8)

## NAME

**mailer.conf** – configuration file for [mailwrapper(8)](/mailwrapper/8.md)

## DESCRIPTION

The file */etc/mailer.conf* contains a series of pairs. The first member of each pair is the name of a program invoking [mailwrapper(8)](/mailwrapper/8.md) which is typically a symbolic link to */usr/sbin/sendmail*. (On a typical system, [newaliases(8)](/newaliases/8.md) and [mailq(8)](/mailq/8.md) would be set up this way.) The second member of each pair is the name of the program to actually execute when the first name is invoked. The file may also contain comments, denoted by a ‘#’ character in the first column of any line.

## FILES

- */etc/mailer.conf*

  ## EXAMPLES

The following is an example of how to set up **mailer.conf** for the default [smtpd(8)](/smtpd/8.md) MTA suite:

```
# Emulate sendmail using smtpd
sendmail	/usr/sbin/smtpctl
send-mail	/usr/sbin/smtpctl
mailq		/usr/sbin/smtpctl
makemap 	/usr/sbin/smtpctl
newaliases	/usr/sbin/smtpctl
```

This example shows how to invoke the traditional [sendmail(8)](/sendmail/8.md) MTA suite in place of [smtpd(8)](/smtpd/8.md):

```
# Execute the "real" sendmail program
sendmail	/usr/local/libexec/sendmail/sendmail
send-mail	/usr/local/libexec/sendmail/sendmail
mailq		/usr/local/libexec/sendmail/sendmail
makemap 	/usr/local/libexec/sendmail/makemap
newaliases	/usr/local/libexec/sendmail/sendmail
hoststat	/usr/local/libexec/sendmail/sendmail
purgestat	/usr/local/libexec/sendmail/sendmail
```

## SEE ALSO

[mail(1)](/mail/1.md), [mailq(8)](/mailq/8.md), [mailwrapper(8)](/mailwrapper/8.md), [newaliases(8)](/newaliases/8.md), [smtpd(8)](/smtpd/8.md)

## AUTHORS

Perry E. Metzger ⟨*perry@piermont.com*⟩

## BUGS

The entire reason this program exists is a crock. Instead, a command for how to submit mail should be standardized, and all the "behave differently if invoked with a different name" behavior of things like [mailq(8)](/mailq/8.md) should go away.