envelopes(5)       Headers, Tables, and Macros       envelopes(5)



NAME
     envelopes - sender/recipient lists attached to messages

INTRODUCTION
     Electronic mail messages are delivered in envelopes.

     An envelope lists a sender and one or more recipients.  Usu-
     ally  these envelope addresses are the same as the addresses
     listed in the message header:

        (envelope) from djb to root
        From: djb
        To: root

     In  more  complicated  situations,  though,   the   envelope
     addresses may differ from the header addresses.

ENVELOPE EXAMPLES
     When a message is delivered to several people  at  different
     locations,  it  is first photocopied and placed into several
     envelopes:

        (envelope) from djb to root
        From: djb                          Copy #1 of message
        To: root, [email protected]

        (envelope) from djb to [email protected]
        From: djb                          Copy #2 of message
        To: root, [email protected]

     When a message is delivered to several people  at  the  same
     location,  the  sender doesn't have to photocopy it.  He can
     instead stuff it into one envelope with  several  addresses;
     the recipients will make the photocopy:

        (envelope) from djb to [email protected], [email protected]
        From: djb
        To: [email protected], [email protected], joe, frde

     Bounced mail is sent back to the  envelope  sender  address.
     The  bounced mail doesn't list an envelope sender, so bounce
     loops are impossible:

        (envelope) from <> to djb
        From: MAILER-DAEMON
        To: djb
        Subject: unknown user frde

     The recipient of a message may make another copy and forward
     it in a new envelope:

        (envelope) from djb to joe



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envelopes(5)       Headers, Tables, and Macros       envelopes(5)



        From: djb                          Original message
        To: joe

        (envelope) from joe to fred
        From: djb                          Forwarded message
        To: joe

     A mailing list works almost the same way:

        (envelope) from djb to sos-list
        From: djb                          Original message
        To: sos-list

        (envelope) from sos-owner to [email protected]
        From: djb                          Forwarded message
        To: sos-list                       to recipient #1

        (envelope) from sos-owner to frde
        From: djb                          Forwarded message
        To: sos-list                       to recipient #2

     Notice that the mailing  list  is  set  up  to  replace  the
     envelope  sender  with something new, sos-owner.  So bounces
     will come back to sos-owner:

        (envelope) from <> to sos-owner
        From: MAILER-DAEMON
        To: sos-owner
        Subject: unknown user frde

     It's a good idea to set up an extra address, sos-owner, like
     this:   the original envelope sender (djb) has no way to fix
     bad sos-list addresses, and of course bounces  must  not  be
     sent to sos-list itself.

HOW ENVELOPE ADDRESSES ARE STORED
     Envelope  sender  and  envelope  recipient   addresses   are
     transmitted and recorded in several ways.

     When a user injects mail through qmail-inject, he can supply
     a  Return-Path  line or a -f option for the envelope sender;
     by default the envelope  sender  is  his  login  name.   The
     envelope  recipient  addresses can be taken from the command
     line or from various header fields, depending on the options
     to qmail-inject.  Similar comments apply to sendmail.

     When a message is transferred from one  machine  to  another
     through  SMTP,  the  envelope sender is given in a MAIL FROM
     command, the envelope recipients are given in RCPT  TO  com-
     mands, and the message is supplied separately by a DATA com-
     mand.




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envelopes(5)       Headers, Tables, and Macros       envelopes(5)



     When a message is delivered by qmail to a single local reci-
     pient, qmail-local records the recipient in Delivered-To and
     the envelope sender in Return-Path.  It uses Delivered-To to
     detect mail forwarding loops.

     sendmail normally records the  envelope  sender  in  Return-
     Path.   It  does not record envelope recipient addresses, on
     the theory that they are redundant:  you received the  mail,
     so you must have been one of the envelope recipients.

     Note  that,  if  the  header  doesn't  have  any   recipient
     addresses,  sendmail  will move envelope recipient addresses
     back  into  the  header.   This  situation  occurs  if   all
     addresses  were  originally  listed  as  Bcc,  since  Bcc is
     automatically removed.  When sendmail sees this, it  creates
     a new Apparently-To header field with the envelope recipient
     addresses.  This has the strange  effect  that  each  blind-
     carbon-copy  recipient  will see a list of all recipients on
     the same machine.

     When a message is stored in mbox format, the envelope sender
     is  recorded  at the top of the message as a UUCP-style From
     (no colon) line.  Note that this line is less reliable  than
     the Return-Path line added by qmail-local or sendmail.

SEE ALSO
     qmail-header(5), qmail-local(8), qmail-inject(8)




























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