aliases(5) - NetBSD Manual Pages

Command:
Section:
Arch:
Collection:
>>>
ALIASES(5)                                                          ALIASES(5)




NAME

       aliases - aliases file for sendmail


SYNOPSIS

       aliases


DESCRIPTION

       This file describes user ID aliases used by sendmail.  The file resides
       in /etc/mail and is formatted as a series of lines of the form

              name: addr_1, addr_2, addr_3, . . .

       The name is the name to alias, and the addr_n are the aliases for  that
       name.  addr_n can be another alias, a local username, a local filename,
       a command, an include file, or an external address.

       Local Username
              username

              The username must be available via getpwnam(3).

       Local Filename
              /path/name

              Messages are appended to the file specified by the full pathname
              (starting with a slash (/))

       Command
              |command

              A  command  starts  with a pipe symbol (|), it receives messages
              via standard input.

       Include File
              :include: /path/name

              The aliases in pathname are added to the aliases for name.

       E-Mail Address
              user@domain

              An e-mail address in RFC 822 format.

       Lines beginning with white space are continuation lines.   Another  way
       to  continue lines is by placing a backslash directly before a newline.
       Lines beginning with # are comments.

       Aliasing occurs only on local names.  Loops can  not  occur,  since  no
       message will be sent to any person more than once.

       If  an  alias  is found for name, sendmail then checks for an alias for
       owner-name.  If it is found and the result of the lookup expands  to  a
       single address, the envelope sender address of the message is rewritten
       to that address.  If it is found and the result expands  to  more  than
       one address, the envelope sender address is changed to owner-name.

       After  aliasing  has  been  done, local and valid recipients who have a
       ``.forward'' file in their home directory have  messages  forwarded  to
       the list of users defined in that file.

       This  is  only  the  raw  data file; the actual aliasing information is
       placed into a binary format in the file /etc/mail/aliases.db using  the
       program  newaliases(1).   A  newaliases command should be executed each
       time the aliases file is changed for the change to take effect.


SEE ALSO

       newaliases(1), dbopen(3), sendmail(8)

       SENDMAIL Installation and Operation Guide.

       SENDMAIL An Internetwork Mail Router.


BUGS

       You can get longer aliases by ``chaining''; that is, make the last name
       in the alias be a dummy name which is a continuation alias.


HISTORY

       The aliases file format appeared in 4.0BSD.



                           Date: 2004/07/12 05:39:21                ALIASES(5)