Provided by: swaks_20240103.0-2_all 
NAME
Swaks - Swiss Army Knife SMTP, the all-purpose SMTP transaction tester
DESCRIPTION
Swaks' primary design goal is to be a flexible, scriptable, transaction-oriented SMTP test tool. It
handles SMTP features and extensions such as TLS, authentication, and pipelining; multiple version of the
SMTP protocol including SMTP, ESMTP, and LMTP; and multiple transport methods including UNIX-domain
sockets, internet-domain sockets, and pipes to spawned processes. Options can be specified in
environment variables, configuration files, and the command line allowing maximum configurability and
ease of use for operators and scripters.
QUICK START
Deliver a standard test email to user@example.com on port 25 of test-server.example.net:
swaks --to user@example.com --server test-server.example.net
Deliver a standard test email, requiring CRAM-MD5 authentication as user me@example.com. An "X-Test"
header will be added to the email body. The authentication password will be prompted for if it cannot be
obtained from your .netrc file.
swaks --to user@example.com --from me@example.com --auth CRAM-MD5 --auth-user me@example.com --header-X-Test "test email"
Test a virus scanner using EICAR in an attachment. Don't show the message DATA part.:
swaks -t user@example.com --attach - --server test-server.example.com --suppress-data </path/to/eicar.txt
Test a spam scanner using GTUBE in the body of an email, routed via the MX records for example.com:
swaks --to user@example.com --body @/path/to/gtube/file
Deliver a standard test email to user@example.com using the LMTP protocol via a UNIX domain socket file
swaks --to user@example.com --socket /var/lda.sock --protocol LMTP
Report all the recipients in a text file that are non-verifiable on a test server:
for E in `cat /path/to/email/file`
do
swaks --to $E --server test-server.example.com --quit-after RCPT --hide-all
[ $? -ne 0 ] && echo $E
done
TERMS AND CONVENTIONS
This document tries to be consistent and specific in its use of the following terms to reduce confusion.
Target
The target of a transaction is the thing that Swaks connects to. This generic term is used
throughout the documentation because most other terms improperly imply something about the transport
being used.
Transport
The transport is the underlying method used to connect to the target.
Transaction
A transaction is the opening of a connection over a transport to a target and using a messaging
protocol to attempt to deliver a message.
Protocol
The protocol is the application language used to communicate with the target. This document uses
SMTP to speak generically of all three supported protocols unless it states that it is speaking of
the specific 'SMTP' protocol and excluding the others.
Message
SMTP protocols exist to transfer messages, a set of bytes in an agreed-upon format that has a sender
and a recipient.
Envelope
A message's envelope contains the "true" sender and receiver of a message. It can also be referred
to as its components, envelope-sender and envelope-recipients. It is important to note that a
messages envelope does not have to match its "To:" and "From:" headers.
DATA
The DATA portion of an SMTP transaction is the actual message that is being transported. It consists
of both the message's headers and its body. DATA and body are sometimes used synonymously, but they
are always two distinct things in this document.
Headers
A message's headers are defined as all the lines in the message's DATA section before the first blank
line. They contain information about the email that will be displayed to the recipient such as
"To:", "From:", "Subject:", etc. In this document headers will always be written with a capitalized
first letter and a trailing colon.
Body
A message's body is the portion of its DATA section following the first blank line.
Option
An option is a flag which changes Swaks' behavior. Always called an option regardless of how it is
provided. For instance, "--no-data-fixup" is an option.
Argument
When an option takes addition data beside the option itself, that additional data is called an
argument. In "--quit-after <stop-point>'", "<stop-point>" is the argument to the "--quit-after"
option.
<literal-string>
When used in the definition of an option, text that is inside of angle brackets ("<>") indicates a
descriptive label for a value that the user should provide. For instance, "--quit-after
<stop-point>" indicates that "<stop-point>" should be replaced with a valid stop-point value.
[<optional-value>]
When used in the definition of an option, text inside of square brackets ([]) indicates that the
value is optional and can be omitted. For instance, "--to [<recipient>]" indicates that the "--to"
option can be used with or without a specified "<recipient>".
OPTION PROCESSING
To prevent potential confusion in this document a flag to Swaks is always referred to as an "option". If
the option takes additional data, that additional data is referred to as an argument to the option. For
example, "--from fred@example.com" might be provided to Swaks on the command line, with "--from" being
the option and "fred@example.com" being "--from"'s argument.
Options and arguments are the only way to provide information to Swaks. If Swaks finds data during
option processing that is neither an option nor an option's argument, it will error and exit. For
instance, if "--no-data-fixup 1" were found on the command line, this would result in an error because
"--no-data-fixup" does not take an argument and therefore Swaks would not know what to do with 1.
Options can be given to Swaks in three ways. They can be specified in a configuration file, in
environment variables, and on the command line. Depending on the specific option and whether an argument
is given to it, Swaks may prompt the user for the argument.
When Swaks evaluates its options, it first looks for a configuration file (either in a default location
or specified with "--config"). Then it evaluates any options in environment variables. Finally, it
evaluates command line options. At each round of processing, any options set earlier will be overridden.
Additionally, any option can be prefixed with "no-" to cause Swaks to forget that the variable had
previously been set (either in an earlier round, or earlier in the same round). This capability is
necessary because many options treat defined-but-no-argument differently than not-defined.
As a general rule, if the same option is given multiple time, the last time it is given is the one that
will be used. This applies to both intra-method (if "--from user1@example.com --from user2@example.com"
is given, "user2@example.com" will be used) and inter-method (if "from user1@example.com" is given in a
config file and "--from user2@example.com" is given on the command line, "user2@example.com" will be
used)
Each option definition ends with a parenthetical synopsis of how the option behaves. The following codes
can be used
Arg-None, Arg-Optional, Arg-Required
These three codes are mutually exclusive and describe whether or not the option takes an argument.
Note that this does not necessarily describe whether the argument is required to be specified
directly, but rather whether an argument is required eventually. For instance, "--to" is labeled as
Arg-Required, but it is legal to specify "--to" on the command line without an argument. This is
because Swaks can prompt for the required argument if it is not directly provided.
From-Prompt
An option labeled with From-Prompt will prompt the user interactively for the argument if none is
provided.
From-File
An option labeled with From-File will handle arguments as files in certain situations.
If the initial argument is "-", the final argument is the contents of "STDIN". Multiple options can
all specify "STDIN", but the same content will be used for each of them.
If the initial argument is prefixed with "@", the argument will be treated as a path to a file. The
file will be opened and the contents will be used as the final argument. If the contents of the file
can't be read, Swaks will exit. To specify a literal string value starting with an "@", use two "@"
symbols. The first will be stripped. It is not possible to include an unqualified file which starts
with an "@" sign (like "--attach @file.txt" or "--attach @@file.txt"), but if you include a path to
the file which splits up the two "@" signs, that will work (eg "--attach @./@file.txt" will include
the contents of the file @file.txt).
Sensitive
If an option marked Sensitive attempts to prompt the user for an argument and the "--protect-prompt"
option is set, Swaks will attempt to mask the user input from being echoed on the terminal. Swaks
tries to mask the input in several ways, but if none of them work program flow will continue with
unmasked input.
Deprecated
An option labeled Deprecated has been officially deprecated and will be removed in a future release.
See the "DEPRECATIONS" section of this documentation for details about the deprecations.
The exact mechanism and format for using each of the types is listed below.
CONFIGURATION FILES
A configuration file can be used to set commonly-used or abnormally verbose options. By default,
Swaks looks in order for $SWAKS_HOME/.swaksrc, $HOME/.swaksrc, and $LOGDIR/.swaksrc. If one of those
is found to exist (and "--config" has not been used) that file is used as the configuration file.
Additionally, a configuration file in a non-default location can be specified using "--config". If
this is set and not given an argument Swaks will not use any configuration file, including any
default file. If "--config" points to a readable file, it is used as the configuration file,
overriding any default that may exist. If it points to a non-readable file an error will be shown
and Swaks will exit.
A set of "portable" defaults can also be created by adding options to the end of the Swaks program
file. As distributed, the last line of Swaks should be "__END__". Any lines added after "__END__"
will be treated as the contents of a configuration file. This allows a set of user preferences to be
automatically copied from server to server in a single file.
If configuration files have not been explicitly turned off, the "__END__" config is always read.
Only one other configuration file will ever be used per single invocation of Swaks, even if multiple
configuration files are specified. If the "__END__" config and another config are to be read, the
"__END__" config will be processed first. Specifying the "--config" option with no argument turns
off the processing of both the "__END__" config and any actual config files.
In a configuration file lines beginning with a hash ("#") are ignored. All other lines are assumed
to be an option to Swaks, with the leading dash or dashes optional. Everything after an option
line's first space is assumed to be the option's argument and is not shell processed. Therefore,
quoting is usually unneeded and will be included literally in the argument.
There is a subtle difference between providing an option with no argument and providing an option
with an empty argument. If an option line does not have a space, the entire line is treated as an
option and there is no argument. If the line ends in a single space, it will be processed as an
option with an empty argument. So, "apt" will be treated as "--apt", but "apt " will be treated as
"--apt ''".
Here is an example of the contents of a configuration file:
# always use this sender, no matter server or logged in user
--from fred@example.com
# I prefer my test emails have a pretty from header. Note
# the lack of dashes on option and lack of quotes around
# entire argument.
h-From: "Fred Example" <fred@example.com>
Options specific to configuration file:
--config [<config-file>]
This option provides a path to a specific configuration file to be used. If specified with no
argument, no automatically-found configuration file (via $HOME, etc, or "__END__") will be
processed. If the argument is a valid file, that file will be used as the configuration file
(after "__END__" config). If argument is not a valid, readable file, Swaks will error and exit.
This option can be specified multiple times, but only the first time it is specified (in
environment variable and the command line search order) will be used. (Arg-Optional)
CONFIGURATION ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
Options can be supplied via environment variables. The variables are in the form $SWAKS_OPT_name,
where "name" is the name of the option that would be specified on the command line. Because dashes
aren't allowed in environment variable names in most UNIX-ish shells, no leading dashes should be
used and any dashes inside the option's name should be replaced with underscores. The following
would create the same options shown in the configuration file example:
$ SWAKS_OPT_from='fred@example.com'
$ SWAKS_OPT_h_From='"Fred Example" <fred@example.com>'
Setting a variable to an empty value is the same as specifying it on the command line with no
argument. For instance, setting <SWAKS_OPT_server=""> would cause Swaks to prompt the user for the
server to which to connect at each invocation. On Windows, it is not possible to set empty
environment variables. The behavior can be simulated by setting the environment variable to "<>"
instead. Additionally, embedding the header name in the header option via environment variable is
not allowed on Windows (eg "SWAKS_OPT_header_Foo=bar" will result in an error, but
"SWAKS_OPT_header="Foo: bar"" will work.)
Because there is no inherent order in options provided by setting environment variables, the options
are sorted before being processed. This is not a great solution, but it at least defines the
behavior, which would be otherwise undefined. As an example, if both $SWAKS_OPT_from and
$SWAKS_OPT_f were set, the value from $SWAKS_OPT_from would be used, because it sorts after
$SWAKS_OPT_f. Also as a result of not having an inherent order in environment processing, unsetting
options with the "no-" prefix is unreliable. It works if the option being turned off sorts before
"no-", but fails if it sorts after. Because "no-" is primarily meant to operate between config types
(for instance, unsetting from the command line an option that was set in a config file), this is not
likely to be a problem.
In addition to setting the equivalent of command line options, $SWAKS_HOME can be set to a directory
containing the default .swaksrc to be used.
COMMAND LINE OPTIONS
The final method of supplying options to Swaks is via the command line. The options behave in a
manner consistent with most UNIX-ish command line programs. Many options have both a short and long
form (for instance "-s" and "--server"). By convention short options are specified with a single
dash and long options are specified with a double-dash. This is only a convention and either prefix
will work with either type.
The following demonstrates the example shown in the configuration file and environment variable
sections:
$ swaks --from fred@example.com --h-From: '"Fred Example" <fred@example.com>'
TRANSPORTS
Swaks can connect to a target via UNIX pipes ("pipes"), UNIX domain sockets ("UNIX sockets"), or internet
domain sockets ("network sockets"). Connecting via network sockets is the default behavior. Because of
the singular nature of the transport used, each set of options in the following section is mutually
exclusive. Specifying more than one of "--server", "--pipe", or "--socket" will result in an error.
Mixing other options between transport types will only result in the irrelevant options being ignored.
Below is a brief description of each type of transport and the options that are specific to that
transport type.
NETWORK SOCKETS
This transport attempts to deliver a message via TCP/IP, the standard method for delivering SMTP.
This is the default transport for Swaks. If none of "--server", "--pipe", or "--socket" are given
then this transport is used and the target server is determined from the recipient's domain (see
"--server" below for more details).
This transport requires the IO::Socket::IP module for both IPv4 and IPv6 sockets. If this module is
not loadable, Swaks will attempt to use the IO::Socket library for IPv4 and IO::Socket::INET6 for
IPv6 support. Attempting to use this transport with none of those libraries available will result in
an error and program termination.
The fall back to IO::Socket and IO::Socket::INET6 is deprecated and will be removed in a future
release. See DEPRECATIONS below
-s, --server [<target-server>[:<port>]]
Explicitly tell Swaks to use network sockets and specify the hostname or IP address to which to
connect, or prompt if no argument is given. If this option is not given and no other transport
option is given, the target mail server is determined from the appropriate DNS records for the
domain of the recipient email address using the Net::DNS module. If Net::DNS is not available
Swaks will attempt to connect to localhost to deliver. The target port can optionally be set
here. Supported formats for this include SERVER:PORT (supporting names and IPv4 addresses);
[SERVER]:PORT and SERVER/PORT (supporting names, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses). A port set via this
option will only be used if the "--port" option is not used. See also "--copy-routing". (Arg-
Required, From-Prompt)
-p, --port [<port>]
Specify which TCP port on the target is to be used, or prompt if no argument is listed. The
argument can be a service name (as retrieved by getservbyname(3)) or a port number. The default
port is smtp/25 unless influenced by the "--protocol" or "--tls-on-connect" options. (Arg-
Required, From-Prompt)
-li, --local-interface [<local-interface>[:<port>]]
Use argument as the local interface for the outgoing SMTP connection, or prompt user if no
argument given. Argument can be an IP address or a hostname. Default action is to let the
operating system choose the local interface. See "--server" for additional comments on :<port>
format. A port set via this option will only be used if the "--port" option is not used. (Arg-
Required, From-Prompt)
-lp, --local-port, --lport [<port>]
Specify the outgoing port from which to originate the transaction. The argument can be a service
name (as retrieved by getservbyname(3)) or a port number. If this option is not specified the
system will pick an ephemeral port. Note that regular users cannot specify some ports. (Arg-
Required, From-Prompt)
--copy-routing <domain>
The argument is interpreted as the domain part of an email address and it is used to find the
target server using the same logic that would be used to look up the target server for a
recipient email address. See "--to" option for more details on how the target is determined from
the email domain. (Arg-Required)
-4, -6
Force IPv4 or IPv6. (Arg-None)
UNIX SOCKETS
This transport method attempts to deliver messages via a UNIX-domain socket file. This is useful for
testing MTA/MDAs that listen on socket files (for instance, testing LMTP delivery to Cyrus). This
transport requires the IO::Socket::UNIX module which is part of the standard Perl distribution. If
this module is not loadable, attempting to use this transport will result in an error and program
termination.
--socket [<socket-file>]
This option takes as its argument a UNIX-domain socket file. If Swaks is unable to open this
socket it will display an error and exit. (Arg-Required, From-Prompt)
PIPES
This transport attempts to spawn a process and communicate with it via pipes. The spawned program
must be prepared to behave as a mail server over "STDIN"/"STDOUT". Any MTA designed to operate from
inet/xinet should support this. In addition, some MTAs provide testing modes that can be
communicated with via "STDIN"/"STDOUT". This transport can be used to automate that testing. For
example, if you implemented DNSBL checking with Exim and you wanted to make sure it was working, you
could run "swaks --pipe "exim -bh 127.0.0.2"". Ideally, the process you are talking to should behave
exactly like an SMTP server on "STDIN" and "STDOUT". Any debugging should be sent to "STDERR", which
will be directed to your terminal. In practice, Swaks can generally handle some debug on the child's
"STDOUT", but there are no guarantees on how much it can handle.
This transport requires the IPC::Open2 module which is part of the standard Perl distribution. If
this module is not loadable, attempting to use this transport will result in an error and program
termination.
--pipe [<command-and-arguments>]
Provide a process name and arguments to the process. Swaks will attempt to spawn the process and
communicate with it via pipes. If the argument is not an executable Swaks will display an error
and exit. (Arg-Required, From-Prompt)
PROTOCOL OPTIONS
These options are related to the protocol layer.
-t, --to [<email-address>[,<email-address>[,...]]]
--cc [<email-address>[,<email-address>[,...]]]
--bcc [<email-address>[,<email-address>[,...]]]
These options all tell Swaks to use the argument(s) as the envelope-recipient for the email. There
are subtle differences between these three options, detailed below. If any option is specified but
with no arguments, Swaks will prompt the user for an argument.
"--to" is special in that it is the only option required by Swaks. There is no default value for this
option. If no recipients are provided via any means, user will be prompted to provide one
interactively. The only exception to this is if a "--quit-after" value is provided which will cause
the SMTP transaction to be terminated before the recipient is needed. If multiple recipients are
provided and the recipient domain is needed to determine routing, the domain of the last recipient in
the "--to" argument list is used.
The primary distinction between these options is how their arguments are treated when generating the
DATA portion of the email. They each have their own replacement tokens ("%TO_ADDRESS%",
"%CC_ADDRESS%", and "%BCC_ADDRESS%" respectively) which can be used by anyone crafting a custom DATA.
In Swaks' default message, "%TO_ADDRESS%" will be used for the To: header and, if it is populated,
"%CC_HEADER%" will be used for a Cc: header. "%BCC_ADDRESS%" is not used in the default DATA. (Arg-
Required, From-Prompt)
-f, --from [<email-address>]
Use argument as envelope-sender for email, or prompt user if no argument specified. The string "<>"
can be supplied to mean the null sender. If user does not specify a sender address a default value
is used. The domain-part of the default sender is a best guess at the fully-qualified domain name of
the local host. The method of determining the local-part varies. If the $LOGNAME environment
variable is set, it will be used as the local-part. Otherwise the value from Win32::LoginName() will
be used on Windows and getpwuid(3) on UNIX-ish platforms. See also "--force-getpwuid". If Swaks
cannot determine a local hostname and the sender address is needed for the transaction, Swaks will
error and exit. In this case, a valid string must be provided via this option. (Arg-Required, From-
Prompt)
--ehlo, --lhlo, -h, --helo [<helo-string>]
String to use as argument to HELO/EHLO/LHLO command, or prompt user if no argument is specified. If
this option is not used a best guess at the fully-qualified domain name of the local host is used.
If Swaks cannot determine a local hostname and the helo string is needed for the transaction, Swaks
will error and exit. In this case, a valid string must be provided via this option. (Arg-Required,
From-Prompt)
-q, --quit, --quit-after <stop-point>
Point at which the transaction should be stopped. When the requested stopping point is reached in
the transaction, and provided that Swaks has not errored out prior to reaching it, Swaks will send
"QUIT" and attempt to close the connection cleanly. These are the valid arguments and notes about
their meaning. (Arg-Required)
PROXY
Quit after the server sends a response to a PROXY request. Note that if there is not an error
negotiating proxy, this will be synonymous with CONNECT.
CONNECT, BANNER
Terminate the session after receiving the greeting banner from the target.
FIRST-HELO, FIRST-EHLO, FIRST-LHLO
In a STARTTLS (but not tls-on-connect) session, terminate the transaction after the first of two
HELOs. In a non-STARTTLS transaction, behaves the same as HELO (see below).
XCLIENT
Quit after XCLIENT is negotiation. This always quits after the point where XCLIENT would have
been negotiated, regardless of whether it was attempted.
XCLIENT-HELO
Quit after the HELO that XCLIENT negotiation triggers. This differs from HELO and FIRST-HELO
because XCLIENT negotiation can happen at multiple points in the SMTP transaction and it is
impossible to specifically refer to the XCLIENT-triggered HELO using the HELO or FIRST-HELO stop-
points. This always quits after the point where the XCLIENT-triggered HELO would have occurred,
regardless of whether it was attempted.
STARTTLS, TLS
Quit the transaction immediately following TLS negotiation. Note that this happens in different
places depending on whether STARTTLS or tls-on-connect are used. This always quits after the
point where TLS would have been negotiated, regardless of whether it was attempted.
HELO, EHLO, LHLO
In a STARTTLS or XCLIENT session, quit after the second HELO. Otherwise quit after the first and
only HELO.
AUTH
Quit after authentication. This always quits after the point where authentication would have
been negotiated, regardless of whether it was attempted.
MAIL, FROM
Quit after MAIL FROM: is sent.
RCPT, TO
Quit after RCPT TO: is sent.
--da, --drop-after <stop-point>
The option is similar to "--quit-after", but instead of trying to cleanly shut down the session it
simply terminates the session. This option accepts the same stop-points as "--quit-after" and
additionally accepts DATA and DOT, detailed below. (Arg-Required)
DATA
Drop the connection after DATA is sent by server.
DOT Drop the connection after the final '.' of the message is sent by server.
--das, --drop-after-send <stop-point>
This option is similar to "--drop-after", but instead of dropping the connection after reading a
response to the stop-point, it drops the connection immediately after sending stop-point. It accepts
the same stop-points as "--drop-after". If the stop-point is for an optional part of the transaction
which is not actually sent (for instance STARTTLS or AUTH), this option will behave identically to
"--drop-after". See below for specific details. (Arg-Required)
CONNECT
Connect to the server and then drops the connection before receiving the server's banner.
STARTTLS, TLS
Behaves identically to "--drop-after".
HELO, EHLO, LHLO
Doesn't necessarily work as expected. If it appears to read the HELO response incorrectly, use
FIRST-HELO instead.
--timeout [<time>]
Use argument as the SMTP transaction timeout, or prompt user if no argument given. Argument can
either be a pure digit, which will be interpreted as seconds, or can have a specifier s, m, or h (5s
= 5 seconds, 3m = 180 seconds, 1h = 3600 seconds). As a special case, 0 means don't timeout the
transactions. Default value is 30s. (Arg-Required, From-Prompt)
--protocol <protocol>
Specify which protocol to use in the transaction. Valid options are shown in the table below.
Currently the 'core' protocols are SMTP, ESMTP, and LMTP. By using variations of these protocol
types one can tersely specify default ports, whether authentication should be attempted, and the type
of TLS connection that should be attempted. The default protocol is ESMTP. The following table
demonstrates the available arguments to "--protocol" and the options each sets as a side effect.
(Arg-Required)
SMTP
HELO, "-p 25"
SSMTP
EHLO->HELO, "-tlsc -p 465"
SSMTPA
EHLO->HELO, "-a -tlsc -p 465"
SMTPS
HELO, "-tlsc -p 465"
ESMTP
EHLO->HELO, "-p 25"
ESMTPA
EHLO->HELO, "-a -p 25"
ESMTPS
EHLO->HELO, "-tls -p 25"
ESMTPSA
EHLO->HELO, "-a -tls -p 25"
LMTP
LHLO, "-p 24"
LMTPA
LHLO, "-a -p 24"
LMTPS
LHLO, "-tls -p 24"
LMTPSA
LHLO, "-a -tls -p 24"
--pipeline
If the remote server supports it, attempt SMTP PIPELINING (RFC 2920). (Arg-None)
--prdr
If the server supports it, attempt Per-Recipient Data Response (PRDR)
(<https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-hall-prdr-00.txt>). PRDR is not yet standardized, but MTAs have
begun implementing the proposal. (Arg-None)
--force-getpwuid
Tell Swaks to use the system-default method of determining the current user's username for the
default sender local-part instead of trying $LOGNAME first. Despite the UNIX-ish-specific option
name, this option also works on Windows. (Arg-None)
TLS / ENCRYPTION
These are options related to encrypting the transaction. These have been tested and confirmed to work
with all three transport methods. The Net::SSLeay module is used to perform encryption when it is
requested. If this module is not loadable Swaks will either ignore the TLS request or error out,
depending on whether the request was optional. STARTTLS is defined as an extension in the ESMTP protocol
and will be unavailable if "--protocol" is set to a variation of plain SMTP. Because it is not defined
in the protocol itself, "--tls-on-connect" is available for any protocol type if the target supports it.
A local certificate is not required for a TLS connection to be negotiated. However, some servers use
client certificate checking to verify that the client is allowed to connect. Swaks can be told to use a
specific local certificate using the "--tls-cert" and "--tls-key" options, and optionally to use a
certificate chain using the "--tls-chain" option.
-tls
Require connection to use STARTTLS. Exit if TLS not available for any reason (not advertised,
negotiations failed, etc). (Arg-None)
-tlso, --tls-optional
Attempt to use STARTTLS if available, continue with normal transaction if TLS was unable to be
negotiated for any reason. Note that this is a semi-useless option as currently implemented because
after a negotiation failure the state of the connection is unknown. In some cases, like a version
mismatch, the connection should be left as plaintext. In others, like a verification failure, the
server-side may think that it should continue speaking TLS while the client thinks it is plaintext.
There may be an attempt to add more granular state detection in the future, but for now just be aware
that odd things may happen with this option if the TLS negotiation is attempted and fails. (Arg-None)
-tlsos, --tls-optional-strict
Attempt to use STARTTLS if available. Proceed with transaction if TLS is negotiated successfully or
STARTTLS not advertised. If STARTTLS is advertised but TLS negotiations fail, treat as an error and
abort transaction. Due to the caveat noted above, this is a much saner option than "--tls-optional".
(Arg-None)
-tlsc, --tls-on-connect
Initiate a TLS connection immediately on connection. Following common convention, if this option is
specified the default port changes from 25 to 465, though this can still be overridden with the
--port option. (Arg-None)
-tlsp, --tls-protocol <tls-version-specification>
Specify which protocols to use (or not use) when negotiating TLS. At the time of this writing, the
available protocols are sslv2, sslv3, tlsv1, tlsv1_1, tlsv1_2, and tlsv1_3. The availability of
these protocols is dependent on your underlying OpenSSL library, so not all of these may be
available. The list of available protocols is shown in the output of "--dump" (assuming TLS is
available at all).
The specification string is a comma-delimited list of protocols that can be used or not used. For
instance 'tlsv1,tlsv1_1' will only succeed if one of those two protocols is available on both the
client and the server. Conversely, 'no_sslv2,no_sslv3' will attempt to negotiate any protocol except
sslv2 and sslv3. The two forms of specification cannot be mixed. (Arg-Required)
--tls-cipher <cipher-string>
The argument to this option is passed to the underlying OpenSSL library to set the list of acceptable
ciphers to the be used for the connection. The format of this string is opaque to Swaks and is
defined in <https://www.openssl.org/docs/manmaster/man1/openssl-ciphers.html#CIPHER-LIST-FORMAT>. A
brief example would be "--tls-cipher '3DES:+RSA'". (Arg-Required)
--tls-verify
Tell Swaks to attempt to verify the server's certificate. This option is identical to specifying
both the "--tls-verify-ca" and "--tls-verify-host" options. See those options for detailed
descriptions of how to fine-tune each type of verification.
By default, TLS verification is not required. If TLS verification is required by "--tls-verify",
"--tls-verify-ca", or "--tls-verify-host" and the requested type of verification fails, TLS
negotiation will not succeed. (Arg-None)
--tls-verify-ca
Require that the server's certificate be signed by a known certificate authority and not be expired.
By default the list of known CAs will be whatever is available via the client Swaks is running on.
To provide a custom CA, see "--tls-ca-path". (Arg-None)
--tls-verify-host
Require that the target of the current connection be listed in the server certificate's Subject
Alternative Name (SAN) or Subject CommonName (CN).
The target that Swaks uses for verification will vary. It can be a hostname, either provided
directly via the "--server" option or looked up via MX records. In this case, verification performs
as expected. If the target is an IP, the IP will be looked up in the certificate, which is possible
but unusual. If the transport is "--pipe" or "--socket", there will not be a meaningful target to
verify in the certificate and verification will fail. In this situation it's better to use only
"--tls-verify-ca" or to override the target used for verification with the "--tls-verify-target"
option. (Arg-None)
--tls-verify-target <verification-string>
When set, the argument to this option will be used as the host to be verified for
"--tls-verify-host". This is necessary when using "--tls-verify-host" with either the "--pipe" or
"--socket" transports, which do not have a verifiable target by default. It can also be used to
override the default target lookup when using the "--server" transport. For instance, it can be used
to verify that the certificate of a server explicitly connect to via IP contains a specific
certificate. (Arg-Required)
--tls-ca-path <ca-location>
Specify an alternate location for CA information for verifying server certificates. The argument can
point to a file or directory. The default behavior is to use the underlying OpenSSL library's
default information. (Arg-Required)
--tls-cert <cert-file>
Provide a path to a file containing the local certificate Swaks should use if TLS is negotiated. If
a certificate chain needs to be provided, it can be provided via this file or via a separate file
with "--tls-chain". The file path argument is required. As currently implemented the certificate in
the file must be in PEM format. Contact the author if there's a compelling need for ASN1. If this
option is set, "--tls-key" is also required. (Arg-Required)
--tls-key <key-file>
Provide a path to a file containing the local private key Swaks should use if TLS is negotiated. The
file path argument is required. As currently implemented the certificate in the file must be in PEM
format. Contact the author if there's a compelling need for ASN1. If this option is set,
"--tls-cert" is also required. (Arg-Required)
--tls-chain <chain-file>
Provide a path to a file containing the local certificate chain Swaks should use if TLS is
negotiated. The file path argument is required. As currently implemented the certificate in the
file must be in PEM format. Contact the author if there's a compelling need for ASN1. If this
option is set, "--tls-cert" and "--tls-key" are also required. (Arg-Required)
--tls-get-peer-cert [<output-file>]
Get a copy of the TLS peer's certificate. If no argument is given, it will be displayed to "STDOUT".
If an argument is given it is assumed to be a filesystem path specifying where the certificate should
be written. The saved certificate can then be examined using standard tools such as the openssl
command. If a file is specified its contents will be overwritten. This option will only ever return
one certificate. In order to get every certificate sent by the server, see "--tls-get-peer-chain".
(Arg-Optional)
--tls-get-peer-chain [<output-file>]
Get a copy of the TLS certificate chain sent by the server. If no argument is given, it will be
displayed to "STDOUT". If an argument is given it is assumed to be a filesystem path specifying
where the certificate should be written. The saved chain can then be examined using standard tools
such as the openssl command. If a file is specified its contents will be overwritten. See also
"--tls-get-peer-cert". (Arg-Optional)
--tls-sni <sni-string>
Specify the Server Name Indication field to send when the TLS connection is initiated. (Arg-Required)
AUTHENTICATION
Swaks will attempt to authenticate to the target mail server if instructed to do so. This section
details available authentication types, requirements, options and their interactions, and other fine
points in authentication usage. Because authentication is defined as an extension in the ESMTP protocol
it will be unavailable if "--protocol" is set to a variation of SMTP.
All authentication methods require base64 encoding. If the MIME::Base64 Perl module is loadable Swaks
attempts to use it to perform these encodings. If MIME::Base64 is not available Swaks will use its own
onboard base64 routines. These are slower than the MIME::Base64 routines and less reviewed, though they
have been tested thoroughly. Using the MIME::Base64 module is encouraged.
If authentication is required (see options below for when it is and isn't required) and the requirements
aren't met for the authentication type available, Swaks displays an error and exits. Two ways this can
happen include forcing Swaks to use a specific authentication type that Swaks can't use due to missing
requirements, or allowing Swaks to use any authentication type, but the server only advertises types
Swaks can't support. In the former case Swaks errors out at option processing time since it knows up
front it won't be able to authenticate. In the latter case Swaks will error out at the authentication
stage of the SMTP transaction since Swaks will not be aware that it will not be able to authenticate
until that point.
Following are the supported authentication types including any individual notes and requirements.
The following options affect Swaks' use of authentication. These options are all inter-related. For
instance, specifying "--auth-user" implies "--auth" and "--auth-password". Specifying "--auth-optional"
implies "--auth-user" and "--auth-password", etc.
-a, --auth [<auth-type>[,<auth-type>[,...]]]
Require Swaks to authenticate. If no argument is given, any supported auth-types advertised by the
server are tried until one succeeds or all fail. If one or more auth-types are specified as an
argument, each that the server also supports is tried in order until one succeeds or all fail. This
option requires Swaks to authenticate, so if no common auth-types are found or no credentials
succeed, Swaks displays an error and exits. (Arg-Optional)
The following tables lists the valid auth-types
LOGIN, PLAIN
These basic authentication types are fully supported and tested and have no additional
requirements
CRAM-MD5
The CRAM-MD5 authenticator requires the Digest::MD5 module. It is fully tested and believed to
work against any server that implements it.
DIGEST-MD5
The DIGEST-MD5 authenticator (RFC2831) requires the Authen::SASL module. Version 20100211.0 and
earlier used Authen::DigestMD5 which had some protocol level errors which prevented it from
working with some servers. Authen::SASL's DIGEST-MD5 handling is much more robust.
The DIGEST-MD5 implementation in Swaks is fairly immature. It currently supports only the "auth"
qop type, for instance. If you have DIGEST-MD5 experience and would like to help Swaks support
DIGEST-MD5 better, please get in touch with me.
The DIGEST-MD5 protocol's "realm" value can be set using the "--auth-extra" "realm" keyword. If
no realm is given, a reasonable default will be used.
The DIGEST-MD5 protocol's "digest-uri" values can be set using the "--auth-extra" option. For
instance, you could create the digest-uri-value of "lmtp/mail.example.com/example.com" with the
option "--auth-extra dmd5-serv-type=lmtp,dmd5-host=mail.example.com,dmd5-serv-name=example.com".
The "digest-uri-value" string and its components is defined in RFC2831. If none of these values
are given, reasonable defaults will be used.
CRAM-SHA1
The CRAM-SHA1 authenticator requires the Digest::SHA module. This type has only been tested
against a non-standard implementation on an Exim server and may therefore have some
implementation deficiencies.
NTLM/SPA/MSN
These authenticators require the Authen::NTLM module. This type has been tested against Exim,
Communigate, and Exchange 2007.
In addition to the standard username and password, this authentication type can also recognize a
"domain". The domain can be set using the "--auth-extra" "domain" keyword. Note that this has
never been tested with a mail server that doesn't ignore DOMAIN so this may be implemented
incorrectly.
-ao, --auth-optional [<auth-type>[,<auth-type>[,...]]]
This option behaves identically to "--auth" except that it requests authentication rather than
requiring it. If no common auth-types are found or no credentials succeed, Swaks proceeds as if
authentication had not been requested. (Arg-Optional)
-aos, --auth-optional-strict [<auth-type>[,<auth-type>[,...]]]
This option is a compromise between "--auth" and "--auth-optional". If authentication is never
attempted (server doesn't advertise authentication or no common authentication types are found), it
behaves like "--auth-optional" and the smtp transaction continues. If authentication is attempted
but fails, it behaves like "--auth" and exits with an error. (Arg-Optional)
-au, --auth-user [<username>]
Provide the username to be used for authentication. If no username is provided, indicate that Swaks
should attempt to find the username via .netrc (requires the Net::Netrc module). If no username is
provided and cannot be found via .netrc, the user will be prompted to provide one. The string "<>"
can be supplied to mean an empty username. (Arg-Required, From-Prompt)
-ap, --auth-password [<password>]
Provide the password to be used for authentication. If no password is provided, indicate that Swaks
should attempt to find the password via .netrc (requires the Net::Netrc module). If no password is
provided and cannot be found via .netrc, the user will be prompted to provide one. The string "<>"
can be supplied to mean an empty password. (Arg-Required, From-Prompt, Sensitive)
-ae, --auth-extra <key-value-pair>[,<key-value-pair>[,...]]
Some of the authentication types allow extra information to be included in the authentication
process. Rather than add a new option for every nook and cranny of each authenticator, the
"--auth-extra" option allows this information to be supplied. The format for <key-value-pair> is
KEYWORD=VALUE. (Arg-Required)
The following table lists the currently recognized keywords and the authenticators that use them
realm, domain
The realm and domain keywords are synonymous. Using either will set the "domain" option in
NTLM/MSN/SPA and the "realm" option in DIGEST-MD5
dmd5-serv-type
The dmd5-serv-type keyword is used by the DIGEST-MD5 authenticator and is used, in part, to build
the digest-uri-value string (see RFC2831)
dmd5-host
The dmd5-host keyword is used by the DIGEST-MD5 authenticator and is used, in part, to build the
digest-uri-value string (see RFC2831)
dmd5-serv-name
The dmd5-serv-name keyword is used by the DIGEST-MD5 authenticator and is used, in part, to build
the digest-uri-value string (see RFC2831)
-am, --auth-map <key-value-pair>[,<key-value-pair>[,...]]
Provides a way to map alternate names onto base authentication types. Useful for any sites that use
alternate names for common types. The format for <key-value-pair> is AUTH-ALIAS=AUTH-TYPE. This
functionality is actually used internally to map types SPA and MSN onto the base type NTLM. The
command line argument to simulate this would be "--auth-map SPA=NTLM,MSN=NTLM". All of the auth-
types listed above are valid targets for mapping except SPA and MSN. (Arg-Required)
-apt, --auth-plaintext
Instead of showing AUTH strings base64 encoded as they are transmitted, translate them to plaintext
before printing on screen. (Arg-None)
-ahp, --auth-hide-password [<replacement-string>]
If this option is specified, any time a readable password would be printed to the terminal
(specifically AUTH PLAIN and AUTH LOGIN) the password is replaced with the string
'PROVIDED_BUT_REMOVED' (or the contents of <replacement-string> if provided). The dummy string may
or may not be base64 encoded, contingent on the "--auth-plaintext" option.
Note that "--auth-hide-password" is similar, but not identical, to the "--protect-prompt" option.
The former protects passwords from being displayed in the SMTP transaction regardless of how they are
entered. The latter protects sensitive strings when the user types them at the terminal, regardless
of how the string would be used. (Arg-Optional)
XCLIENT OPTIONS
XCLIENT is an SMTP extension introduced by the Postfix project. XCLIENT allows a (properly-authorized)
client to tell a server to use alternate information, such as IP address or hostname, for the client.
This allows much easier paths for testing mail server configurations. Full details on the protocol are
available at <http://www.postfix.org/XCLIENT_README.html>.
The XCLIENT verb can be passed to the server multiple times per SMTP session with different attributes.
For instance, HELO and PROTO might be passed in one call and NAME and ADDR passed in a second. Because it
can be useful for testing, Swaks exposes some control over how the attributes are grouped and in what
order they are passed to the server. The different options attempt to expose simplicity for those using
Swaks as a client, and complexity for those using Swaks to test installs.
--xclient-addr [<string>]
--xclient-name [<string>]
--xclient-port [<string>]
--xclient-proto [<string>]
--xclient-destaddr [<string>]
--xclient-destport [<string>]
--xclient-helo [<string>]
--xclient-login [<string>]
--xclient-reverse-name [<string>]
These options specify XCLIENT attributes that should be sent to the target server. If <string> is
not provided, Swaks will prompt and read the value on "STDIN". See
<http://www.postfix.org/XCLIENT_README.html> for official documentation for what the attributes mean
and their possible values, including the special "[UNAVAILABLE]" and "[TEMPUNAVAIL]" values.
By way of simple example, setting "--xclient-name foo.example.com --xclient-addr 192.168.1.1" will
cause Swaks to send the SMTP command "XCLIENT NAME=foo.example.com ADDR=192.168.1.1".
Note that the "REVERSE_NAME" attribute doesn't seem to appear in the official documentation. There
is a mailing list thread that documents it, viewable at
<http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.mail.postfix.user/192623>.
These options can all be mixed with each other, and can be mixed with the "--xclient" option (see
below). By default all attributes will be combined into one XCLIENT call, but see "--xclient-delim".
(Arg-Required, From-Prompt)
--xclient-delim
When this option is specified, it indicates a break in XCLIENT attributes to be sent. For instance,
setting "--xclient-helo 'helo string' --xclient-delim --xclient-name foo.example.com --xclient-addr
192.168.1.1" will cause Swaks to send two XCLIENT calls, "XCLIENT HELO=helo+20string" and "XCLIENT
NAME=foo.example.com ADDR=192.168.1.1". This option is ignored where it doesn't make sense (at the
start or end of XCLIENT options, by itself, consecutively, etc). (Arg-None)
--xclient [<string>]
This is the "free form" XCLIENT option. Whatever value is provided for <string> will be sent
verbatim as the argument to the XCLIENT SMTP command. For example, if "--xclient 'NAME=
ADDR=192.168.1.1 FOO=bar'" is used, Swaks will send the SMTP command "XCLIENT NAME= ADDR=192.168.1.1
FOO=bar". If no argument is passed on command line, Swaks will prompt and read the value on STDIN.
The primary advantage to this over the more specific options above is that there is no XCLIENT syntax
validation here. This allows you to send invalid XCLIENT to the target server for testing.
Additionally, at least one MTA (Message Systems' Momentum, formerly ecelerity) implements XCLIENT
without advertising supported attributes. The "--xclient" option allows you to skip the "supported
attributes" check when communicating with this type of MTA (though see also "--xclient-no-verify").
The "--xclient" option can be mixed freely with the "--xclient-*" options above. The argument to
"--xclient" will be sent in its own command group. For instance, if "--xclient-addr 192.168.0.1
--xclient-port 26 --xclient 'FOO=bar NAME=wind'" is given to Swaks, "XCLIENT ADDR=192.168.0.1
PORT=26" and "XCLIENT FOO=bar NAME=wind" will both be sent to the target server. (Arg-Required, From-
Prompt)
--xclient-no-verify
Do not enforce the requirement that an XCLIENT attribute must be advertised by the server in order
for Swaks to send it in an XCLIENT command. This is to support servers which don't advertise the
attributes but still support them. (Arg-None)
--xclient-before-starttls
If Swaks is configured to attempt both XCLIENT and STARTTLS, it will do STARTTLS first. If this
option is specified it will attempt XCLIENT first. (Arg-None)
--xclient-optional
--xclient-optional-strict
In normal operation, setting one of the "--xclient*" options will require a successful XCLIENT
transaction to take place in order to proceed (that is, XCLIENT needs to be advertised, all the user-
requested attributes need to have been advertised, and the server needs to have accepted Swaks'
XCLIENT request). These options change that behavior. "--xclient-optional" tells Swaks to proceed
unconditionally past the XCLIENT stage of the SMTP transaction, regardless of whether it was
successful. "--xclient-optional-strict" is similar but more granular. The strict version will
continue to XCLIENT was not advertised, but will fail if XCLIENT was attempted but did not succeed.
(Arg-None)
PROXY OPTIONS
Swaks implements the Proxy protocol as defined in
<http://www.haproxy.org/download/1.5/doc/proxy-protocol.txt>. Proxy allows an application load balancer,
such as HAProxy, to be used in front of an MTA while still allowing the MTA access to the originating
host information. Proxy support in Swaks allows direct testing of an MTA configured to expect requests
from a proxy, bypassing the proxy itself during testing.
Swaks makes no effort to ensure that the Proxy options used are internally consistent. For instance,
"--proxy-family" (in version 1) is expected to be one of "TCP4" or "TCP6". While it will likely not make
sense to the target server, Swaks makes no attempt to ensure that "--proxy-source" and "--proxy-dest" are
in the same protocol family as "--proxy-family" or each other.
The "--proxy" option is mutually exclusive with all other "--proxy-*" options except "--proxy-version".
When "--proxy" is not used, all of "--proxy-family", "--proxy-source", "--proxy-source-port",
"--proxy-dest", and "--proxy-dest-port" are required. Additionally, when "--proxy-version" is 2,
"--proxy-protocol" and "--proxy-command" are optional.
--proxy-version [ 1 | 2 ]
Whether to use version 1 (human readable) or version 2 (binary) of the Proxy protocol. Version 1 is
the default. Version 2 is only implemented through the "address block", and is roughly on par with
the information provided in version 1. (Arg-Required, From-Prompt)
--proxy [<string>]
This option provides the raw proxy string which will be sent to the server. The protocol prefix
("PROXY " for version 1, the 12-byte protocol header for version 2) can be present or not in the
argument. This option allows sending incomplete or malformed Proxy strings to a target server for
testing. This option is mutually exclusive with all other "--proxy-*" options which provide granular
proxy information.
Because version 2 of the Proxy protocol is a binary protocol, there are multiple ways to provide the
argument to this option. If the argument starts with "base64:", that prefix is stripped and the rest
of the string is base64 decoded before use. If the argument starts with "@" it will be treated as a
filename and the proxy value will be read from the file. Any other value is assumed to be the
literal value for the proxy string. (Arg-Required, From-Prompt, From-File)
--proxy-family [<string>]
For version 1, specifies both the address family and transport protocol. The protocol defines TCP4
and TCP6.
For version 2, specifies only the address family. The protocol defines AF_UNSPEC, AF_INET, AF_INET6,
and AF_UNIX. (Arg-Required, From-Prompt)
--proxy-protocol [<string>]
For version 2, specifies the transport protocol. The protocol defines UNSPEC, STREAM, and DGRAM.
The default is STREAM. This option is unused in version 1. (Arg-Required, From-Prompt)
--proxy-command [<string>]
For version 2, specifies the transport protocol. The protocol defines LOCAL and PROXY. The default
is PROXY. This option is unused in version 1. (Arg-Required, From-Prompt)
--proxy-source [<string>]
Specify the source address of the proxied connection. (Arg-Required, From-Prompt)
--proxy-source-port [<string>]
Specify the source port of the proxied connection. (Arg-Required, From-Prompt)
--proxy-dest [<string>]
Specify the destination address of the proxied connection. (Arg-Required, From-Prompt)
--proxy-dest-port [<string>]
Specify the destination port of the proxied connection. (Arg-Required, From-Prompt)
DATA OPTIONS
These options pertain to the contents for the DATA portion of the SMTP transaction. By default a very
simple message is sent. If the "--attach" or "--attach-body" options are used, Swaks attempts to upgrade
to a MIME message.
-d, --data [<data-portion>]
Use argument as the entire contents of DATA.
If no argument is provided, user will be prompted to supply value.
If the argument "-" is provided the data will be read from "STDIN" with no prompt.
If the argument starts with "@" it will be treated as a filename. If you would like to pass in an
argument that starts with "@" and isn't a filename, prefix the argument with an additional "@". For
example, "@file.txt" will force processing of file.txt. @@data will use the string '@data'.
If the argument does not contain any literal (0x0a) or representative (0x5c, 0x6e or %NEWLINE%)
newline characters, it will be treated as a filename. If the file is open-able, the contents of the
file will be used as the data portion. If the file cannot be opened, Swaks will error and exit. The
entire behavior described in this paragraph is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.
Instead use a leading "@" to explicitly set that the argument is a filename.
Any other argument will be used as the DATA contents.
The value can be on one single line, with "\n" (ASCII 0x5c, 0x6e) representing where line breaks
should be placed. Leading dots will be quoted. Closing dot is not required but is allowed. The
default value for this option is "Date: %DATE%\nTo: %TO_ADDRESS%\nFrom: %FROM_ADDRESS%\nSubject: test
%DATE%\nMessage-Id: <%MESSAGEID%>\nX-Mailer: swaks v%SWAKS_VERSION%
jetmore.org/john/code/swaks/\n%NEW_HEADERS%\n%BODY%\n".
Very basic token parsing is performed on the DATA portion. The following table shows the recognized
tokens and their replacement values. (Arg-Required, From-Prompt, From-File)
%FROM_ADDRESS%, ..FROM_ADDRESS..
Replaced with the envelope-sender.
%TO_ADDRESS%, ..TO_ADDRESS..
Replaced with the envelope-recipient(s) set by the "--to" option.
%CC_ADDRESS%, ..CC_ADDRESS..
Replaced with the envelope-recipient(s) set by the "--cc" option.
%BCC_ADDRESS%, ..BCC_ADDRESS..
Replaced with the envelope-recipient(s) set by the "--bcc" option.
%DATE%, ..DATE..
Replaced with the current time in a format suitable for inclusion in the Date: header. Note this
attempts to use the standard module POSIX for timezone calculations. If this module is
unavailable or the current environment doesn't support the %z strftime format token (as on
Windows) the date string will be in GMT.
%MESSAGEID%, ..MESSAGEID..
Replaced with a message ID string suitable for use in a Message-Id header. The value for this
token will remain consistent for the life of the process.
%SWAKS_VERSION%, ..SWAKS_VERSION..
Replaced with the version of the currently-running Swaks process.
%NEW_HEADERS%, ..NEW_HEADERS..
Replaced with the contents of the "--add-header" option. If "--add-header" is not specified this
token is simply removed.
%BODY%, ..BODY..
Replaced with the value specified by the "--body" option. See "--body" for default.
%NEWLINE%, ..BODY..
Replaced with carriage return, newline (0x0d, 0x0a). This is identical to using "\n" (0x5c,
0x6e), but doesn't have the escaping concerns that the backslash can cause on the newline.
-dab, --dump-as-body [<section>[,<section>[,...]]]
If "--dump-as-body" is used and no other option is used to change the default body of the message,
the body is replaced with output similar to the output of what is provided by "--dump". "--dump"'s
initial program capability stanza is not displayed, and the "data" section is not included.
Additionally, "--dump" always includes passwords. By default "--dump-as-body" does not include
passwords, though this can be changed with "--dump-as-body-shows-password". "--dump-as-body" takes
the same arguments as "--dump" except the SUPPORT and DATA arguments are not supported. (Arg-
Optional)
-dabsp, --dump-as-body-shows-password
Cause "--dump-as-body" to include plaintext passwords. This option is not recommended. This option
implies "--dump-as-body". (Arg-None)
--body [<body-specification>]
Specify the body of the email. The default is "This is a test mailing". If no argument to "--body"
is given, prompt to supply one interactively. If "-" is supplied, the body will be read from
standard input. Arguments beginning with "@" will be treated as filenames containing the body data
to use (see "--data" for more detail).
If, after the above processing, the argument represents an open-able file, the content of that file
is used as the body. This is deprecated behavior and will be removed in a future release. Instead
use a leading "@" to explicitly set that the argument is a filename.
If the message is forced to MIME format (see "--attach") "--body 'body text'" is the same as
"--attach-type text/plain --attach-body 'body text'". See "--attach-body" for details on creating a
multipart/alternative body. (Arg-Required, From-Prompt, From-File)
--attach [<attachment-specification>]
When one or more "--attach" option is supplied, the message is changed into a multipart/mixed MIME
message. The arguments to "--attach" are processed the same as "--body" with respect to "STDIN",
file contents, etc. "--attach" can be supplied multiple times to create multiple attachments. By
default, each attachment is attached as an application/octet-stream file. See "--attach-type" for
changing this behavior.
If the contents of the attachment are provided via a file name, the MIME encoding will include that
file name. See "--attach-name" for more detail on file naming.
It is legal for "-" ("STDIN") to be specified as an argument multiple times (once for "--body" and
multiple times for "--attach"). In this case, the same content will be attached each time it is
specified. This is useful for attaching the same content with multiple MIME types. (Arg-Required,
From-File)
--attach-body [<body-specification>]
This is a variation on "--attach" that is specifically for the body part of the email. It behaves
identically to "--attach" in that it takes the same arguments and forces the creation of a MIME
message. However, it is different in that the argument will always be the first MIME part in the
message, no matter where in option processing order it is encountered. Additionally, "--attach-body"
options stack to allow creation of multipart/alternative bodies. For example, "--attach-type
text/plain --attach-body 'plain text body' --attach-type text/html --attach-body 'html body'" would
create a multipart/alternative message body. (Arg-Required, From-File)
--attach-type <mime-type>
By default, content that gets MIME attached to a message with the "--attach" option is encoded as
application/octet-stream (except for the body, which is text/plain by default). "--attach-type"
changes the mime type for every "--attach" option which follows it. It can be specified multiple
times. The current MIME type gets reset to application/octet-stream between processing body parts
and other parts. (Arg-Required)
--attach-name [<name>]
This option sets the filename that will be included in the MIME part created for the next "--attach"
option. If no argument is set for this option, it causes no filename information to be included for
the next MIME part, even if Swaks could generate it from the local file name. (Arg-Optional)
-ah, --add-header <header>
This option allows headers to be added to the DATA. If "%NEW_HEADERS%" is present in the DATA it is
replaced with the argument to this option. If "%NEW_HEADERS%" is not present, the argument is
inserted between the first two consecutive newlines in the DATA (that is, it is inserted at the end
of the existing headers).
The option can either be specified multiple times or a single time with multiple headers separated by
a literal "\n" string. So, "--add-header 'Foo: bar' --add-header 'Baz: foo'" and "--add-header 'Foo:
bar\nBaz: foo'" end up adding the same two headers. (Arg-Required)
--header <header-and-data>, --h-<header> <data>
These options allow a way to change headers that already exist in the DATA. "--header 'Subject:
foo'" and "--h-Subject foo" are equivalent. If the header does not already exist in the data then
this argument behaves identically to "--add-header". However, if the header already exists it is
replaced with the one specified. Negating the version of this option with the header name in the
option (eg "--no-header-Subject") will remove all previously processed "--header" options, not just
the ones used for 'Subject'. Embedding the header name in the option via environment variable is not
supported on Windows and will result in an error. (Arg-Required)
-g This option is a direct alias to "--data -" (read DATA from "STDIN"). It is totally secondary to
"--data". Any occurrence of "--data" will cause "-g" to be ignored. This option cannot be negated
with the "no-" prefix. This option is deprecated and will be removed in a future version of Swaks.
(Arg-None, Deprecated)
--no-data-fixup, -ndf
This option forces Swaks to do no massaging of the DATA portion of the email. This includes token
replacement, From_ stripping, trailing-dot addition, "--body"/attachment inclusion, and any header
additions. This option is only useful when used with "--data", since the internal default DATA
portion uses tokens. (Arg-None)
--no-strip-from, -nsf
Don't strip the From_ line from the DATA portion, if present. (Arg-None)
OUTPUT OPTIONS
Swaks provides a transcript of its transactions to its caller ("STDOUT"/"STDERR") by default. This
transcript aims to be as faithful a representation as possible of the transaction though it does modify
this output by adding informational prefixes to lines and by providing plaintext versions of TLS
transactions
The "informational prefixes" are referred to as transaction hints. These hints are initially composed of
those marking lines that are output of Swaks itself, either informational or error messages, and those
that indicate a line of data actually sent or received in a transaction. This table indicates the hints
and their meanings:
"==="
Indicates an informational line generated by Swaks.
"***"
Indicates an error generated within Swaks.
" ->"
Indicates an expected line sent by Swaks to target server.
" ~>"
Indicates a TLS-encrypted, expected line sent by Swaks to target server.
"**>"
Indicates an unexpected line sent by Swaks to the target server.
"*~>"
Indicates a TLS-encrypted, unexpected line sent by Swaks to target server.
" >"
Indicates a raw chunk of text sent by Swaks to a target server (see "--show-raw-text"). There is no
concept of "expected" or "unexpected" at this level.
"<- "
Indicates an expected line sent by target server to Swaks.
"<~ "
Indicates a TLS-encrypted, expected line sent by target server to Swaks.
"<**"
Indicates an unexpected line sent by target server to Swaks.
"<~*"
Indicates a TLS-encrypted, unexpected line sent by target server to Swaks.
"< "
Indicates a raw chunk of text received by Swaks from a target server (see "--show-raw-text"). There
is no concept of "expected" or "unexpected" at this level.
The following options control what and how output is displayed to the caller.
-n, --suppress-data
Summarizes the DATA portion of the SMTP transaction instead of printing every line. This option is
very helpful, bordering on required, when using Swaks to send certain test emails. Emails with
attachments, for instance, will quickly overwhelm a terminal if the DATA is not suppressed. (Arg-
None)
-stl, --show-time-lapse [i]
Display time lapse between send/receive pairs. This option is most useful when Time::HiRes is
available, in which case the time lapse will be displayed in thousandths of a second. If Time::HiRes
is unavailable or "i" is given as an argument the lapse will be displayed in integer seconds only.
(Arg-Optional)
Don't display the transaction hint for informational transactions. This is most useful when needing
to copy some portion of the informational lines, for instance the certificate output from
"--tls-get-peer-cert". (Arg-None)
-nih, --no-info-hints
-nsh, --no-send-hints
-nrh, --no-receive-hints
-nth, --no-hints
"--no-info-hints", "--no-send-hints", and "--no-receive-hints" suppress the transaction hints from
info, send, and receive lines, respectively. This is often useful when copying some portion of the
transaction for use elsewhere (for instance, "--no-send-hints --hide-receive --hide-informational" is
a useful way to get only the client-side commands for a given transaction and "--no-info-hints
--tls-get-peer-cert" for copying the peer certificate). "--no-hints" is identical to specifying
"--no-info-hints --no-send-hints --no-receive-hints". (Arg-None)
-raw, --show-raw-text
This option will print a hex dump of raw data sent and received by Swaks. Each hex dump is the
contents of a single read or write on the network. This should be identical to what is already being
displayed (with the exception of the "\r" characters being removed). This option is useful in seeing
details when servers are sending lots of data in single packets, or breaking up individual lines into
multiple packets. If you really need to go in depth in that area you're probably better with a
packet sniffer, but this option is a good first step to seeing odd connection issues. (Arg-None)
--output, --output-file <file-path>
--output-file-stdout <file-path>
--output-file-stderr <file-path>
These options allow the user to send output to files instead of "STDOUT"/"STDERR". The first option
sends both to the same file. The arguments of &STDOUT and &STDERR are treated specially, referring
to the "normal" file handles, so "--output-file-stderr '&STDOUT'" would redirect "STDERR" to
"STDOUT". These options are honored for all output except "--help" and "--version". (Arg-Required)
-pp, --protect-prompt
Don't echo user input on prompts that are potentially sensitive (right now only authentication
password). Very specifically, any option which is marked 'Sensitive' and eventually prompts for an
argument will do its best to mask that argument from being echoed. See also "--auth-hide-password".
(Arg-None)
-hr, --hide-receive
Don't display lines sent from the remote server being received by Swaks. (Arg-None)
-hs, --hide-send
Don't display lines being sent by Swaks to the remote server. (Arg-None)
-hi, --hide-informational
Don't display non-error informational lines from Swaks itself. (Arg-None)
-ha, --hide-all
Do not display any content to the terminal. (Arg-None)
-S, --silent [ 1 | 2 | 3 ]
Cause Swaks to be silent. If no argument is given or if an argument of "1" is given, print no output
unless/until an error occurs, after which all output is shown. If an argument of "2" is given, only
print errors. If "3" is given, show no output ever. "--silent" affects most output but not all.
For instance, "--help", "--version", "--dump", and "--dump-mail" are not affected. For historical
reasons, -S is not settable via environment variable on Windows, use SWAKS_OPT_silent instead. (Arg-
Optional)
--support
Print capabilities and exit. Certain features require non-standard Perl modules. This option
evaluates whether these modules are present and displays which functionality is available and which
isn't, and which modules would need to be added to gain the missing functionality. (Arg-None)
--dump-mail
Cause Swaks to process all options to generate the message it would send, then print that message to
"STDOUT" instead of sending it. This output is identical to the "data" section of "--dump", except
without the trailing dot. (Arg-None)
--dump [<section>[,<section>[,...]]]
This option causes Swaks to print the results of option processing, immediately before mail would
have been sent. No mail will be sent when "--dump" is used. Note that "--dump" is a pure self-
diagnosis tool and no effort is made or will ever be made to mask passwords in the "--dump" output.
If a section is provided as an argument to this option, only the requested section will be shown.
Currently supported arguments are SUPPORT, APP, OUTPUT, TRANSPORT, PROTOCOL, XCLIENT, PROXY, TLS,
AUTH, DATA, and ALL. If no argument is provided, all sections are displayed (Arg-Optional)
--help
Display this help information and exit. (Arg-None)
--version
Display version information and exit. (Arg-None)
DEPRECATIONS
The following features are deprecated and will be removed in a future version of Swaks
use of IO::Socket and IO::Socket::INET6 modules
Will be removed no sooner than (February 1, 2025).
The primary method of sending over IPv4 and IPv6 sockets is implemented with the IO::Socket::IP
module. For the time being there is still legacy support of the IO::Socket and IO::Socket::INET6
modules which were previously used. Please ensure IO::Socket::IP is installed to ensure future
functionality.
PORTABILITY
OPERATING SYSTEMS
This program was primarily intended for use on UNIX-like operating systems, and it should work on any
reasonable version thereof. It has been developed and tested on Solaris, Linux, and Mac OS X and is
feature complete on all of these.
This program is known to demonstrate basic functionality on Windows using Strawberry Perl. In all
documentation, unless otherwise noted, "Windows" refers to running Swaks via CMD.exe, not WSL or
cygwin. It has not been fully tested, but known to work are basic SMTP functionality and the LOGIN,
PLAIN, and CRAM-MD5 auth types. Unknown is any TLS functionality and the NTLM/SPA and DIGEST-MD5
auth types. Some functionality is known to be limited on Windows, including inability to embed
header name in environment variables (see "CONFIGURATION ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES" and "--header"),
inability to generate a local-timezone date string (see "%DATE%" token under "--data"), inability to
use "-S" option as an environment variable (see "--silent"), and inability to have a "set but empty"
value in an environment variable (see "CONFIGURATION ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES" for workaround).
Because this program should work anywhere Perl works, I would appreciate knowing about any new
operating systems you've thoroughly used Swaks on as well as any problems encountered on a new OS.
MAIL SERVERS
This program was almost exclusively developed against Exim mail servers. It has been used casually
by the author, though not thoroughly tested, with Sendmail, Smail, Exchange, Oracle Collaboration
Suite, qpsmtpd, and Communigate. Because all functionality in Swaks is based on known standards it
should work with any fairly modern mail server. If a problem is found, please alert the author at
the address below.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
LOGNAME
If Swaks must create a sender address, $LOGNAME is used as the message local-part if it is set, and
unless "--force-getpwuid" is used.
SWAKS_HOME
Used when searching for a .swaksrc configuration file. See OPTION PROCESSING -> "CONFIGURATION
FILES" above.
SWAKS_OPT_*
Environment variable prefix used to specify Swaks options from environment variables. See OPTION
PROCESSING -> "CONFIGURATION ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES" above.
EXIT CODES
0 no errors occurred
1 error parsing command line options
2 error connecting to remote server
3 unknown connection type
4 while running with connection type of "pipe", fatal problem writing to or reading from the child
process
5 while running with connection type of "pipe", child process died unexpectedly. This can mean that
the program specified with "--pipe" doesn't exist.
6 Connection closed unexpectedly. If the close is detected in response to the 'QUIT' Swaks sends
following an unexpected response, the error code for that unexpected response is used instead. For
instance, if a mail server returns a 550 response to a MAIL FROM: and then immediately closes the
connection, Swaks detects that the connection is closed, but uses the more specific exit code 23 to
detail the nature of the failure. If instead the server return a 250 code and then immediately
closes the connection, Swaks will use the exit code 6 because there is not a more specific exit code.
10 error in prerequisites (needed module not available)
21 error reading initial banner from server
22 error in HELO transaction
23 error in MAIL transaction
24 no RCPTs accepted
25 server returned error to DATA request
26 server did not accept mail following data
27 server returned error after normal-session quit request
28 error in AUTH transaction
29 error in TLS transaction
30 PRDR requested/required but not advertised
32 error in EHLO following TLS negotiation
33 error in XCLIENT transaction
34 error in EHLO following XCLIENT
35 error in PROXY option processing
36 error sending PROXY banner
ABOUT THE NAME
The name "Swaks" is a (sort-of) acronym for "SWiss Army Knife SMTP". It was chosen to be fairly distinct
and pronounceable. While "Swaks" is unique as the name of a software package, it has some other, non-
software meanings. Please send in other uses of "swak" or "swaks" for inclusion.
"Sealed With A Kiss"
SWAK/SWAKs turns up occasionally on the internet with the meaning "with love".
bad / poor / ill (Afrikaans)
Seen in the headline "SA se bes en swaks gekledes in 2011", which was translated as "best and worst
dressed" by native speakers. Google Translate doesn't like "swaks gekledes", but it will translate
"swak" as "poor" and "swak geklede" as "ill-dressed".
LICENSE
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU
General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even
the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write
to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
CONTACT INFORMATION
General contact, questions, patches, requests, etc to proj-swaks@jetmore.net.
Change logs, this help, and the latest version are found at <http://www.jetmore.org/john/code/swaks/>.
Swaks is crafted with love by John Jetmore from the cornfields of Indiana, United States of America.
NOTIFICATIONS
Email
updates-swaks@jetmore.net
If you would like to be put on a list to receive notifications when a new version of Swaks is
released, please send an email to this address. There will not be a response to your email.
Website
<http://www.jetmore.org/john/blog/c/swaks/>
RSS Feed
<http://www.jetmore.org/john/blog/c/swaks/feed/>
Twitter
<http://twitter.com/SwaksSMTP>
perl v5.40.0 2024-12-07 SWAKS(1)