sendmail, 4th Edition

Rule Set 3 Always Called First with -bt

When sendmail starts to run in rule-testing mode, its appearance and initial behavior vary from vendor to vendor and from version to version. When rule-testing mode begins, sendmail always prints an introductory banner. Pre-V8 sendmail printed the following banner:

ADDRESS TEST MODE
Enter <rule set> <address>
>

It is important to note that (unless a banner says otherwise) sendmail always calls rule set 3 first.^[146] That is, even if you try to test rule set 0, you always first see the effects of rule set 3.

Beginning with V8 sendmail, rule set 3 is no longer automatically called. To ensure that there is no confusion, V8 sendmail prints this banner:

ADDRESS TEST MODE (rule set 3 NOT automatically invoked)
Enter <rule set> <address>
>

Note that in all versions, the last line (the >) is a prompt. At this prompt, you can specify a rule set and an address or, beginning with V8.7, any of the commands shown in Overview on page 299.

^{[146] *} We use a rule set number here because the versions of sendmail that always started with rule set 3 are too old to use named rule sets.