sendmail, 4th Edition

$q

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The default format of the sender's address

V8.6 and earlier

Beginning with V8.7 sendmail , the $q macro is no longer used. Instead, sendmail uses the $g and $x macros (see the end of this section).

Prior to V8.7 the $q macro was used to specify the form that the sender's address would take in header definitions. It was most often used in the From : and Resent-From : header lines.

The definition of $q had to adhere to the standard form of addresses as defined by RFC822. It had to contain just an address or an address and a comment. The traditional definitions of $q were:

 Dq<$g>   as <[e-mail]  Dq$g   as [e-mail]  Dq$x <$g>   as George Washington <[e-mail]>  Dq$g ($x)   as [e-mail] (George Washington)  

The full name is not always known and so $x can be undefined (empty). As a consequence, when the full name was included in the $q macro definition, it was often wrapped in a conditional test:

 Dq$g$?x ($x)$. Dq$?x$x $.<$g> 

Prior to V8.7, $q had to be defined in the configuration file because it was used to define the fields of the Resent-From : and From : headers (From:).

Beginning with V8.7 sendmail , those headers are defined by using the $g and $x macros directly. For example:

 H?F?Resent-From: $?x$x <$g>$$g$. H?F?From: $?x$x <$g>$$g$.