NAME¶
newaliases - create a forwarding database from /etc/aliases
SYNOPSIS¶
newaliases
DESCRIPTION¶
newaliases reads a table of sendmail-style forwarding instructions from
/etc/aliases and converts them into a forwarding database in
/etc/aliases.cdb. The forwarding database can be used by
fastforward.
For safety,
newaliases writes the forwarding database to
/etc/aliases.tmp and then moves
/etc/aliases.tmp to
/etc/aliases.cdb. If there is a problem creating
/etc/aliases.tmp,
newaliases complains and leaves
/etc/aliases.cdb alone. Deliveries can continue using
/etc/aliases.cdb in the meantime.
newaliases always creates
/etc/aliases.cdb world-readable.
newaliases makes no attempt to protect against simultaneous updates of
/etc/aliases.cdb.
newaliases imitates sendmail's handling of
/etc/aliases. For
example,
root: alice, bill
says that mail for
root should be forwarded to
alice and
bill.
COMPATIBILITY WARNING: newaliases does not support file
deliveries. You can use the file delivery mechanism described in
dot-qmail(5) instead.
SIMPLE ALIASES¶
The simplest type of forwarding instruction is a line of the form
alias: recip
Any message sent to
alias will be forwarded to the recipient address
recip. Addresses are compared to
alias without regard to case.
Forwarding instructions are cumulative. If
recip is itself an alias,
messages to
alias will be forwarded the same way as messages to
recip. For example, with the following instructions, messages to
postmaster@heaven.af.mil or
root@heaven.af.mil will be delivered
to Bob:
postmaster@heaven.af.mil: bob@heaven.af.mil
root@heaven.af.mil: postmaster@heaven.af.mil
COMPATIBILITY WARNING: With sendmail, entries in
/etc/aliases can
override usernames. With
qmail, if you install
fastforward in
~alias/.qmail-default, it will not see addresses that are controlled by
other users. See
qmail-getpw(8). To change this, see
qmail-users(5).
COMPATIBILITY WARNING: Various versions of sendmail do various strange
things with circular alias definitions. See
setforward(1) for details
on
fastforward's behavior.
COMPATIBILITY WARNING: If there are several forwarding instructions for a
single
alias, sendmail will complain;
fastforward will silently
use the first instruction.
WILDCARDS¶
alias can have the form
user@host.dom for one user at one host,
@host.dom for all users at one host, or
user for one user at all
hosts.
COMPATIBILITY WARNING: sendmail supports only
user; it does not
support per-host aliases. It accepts
user@host.dom if
host.dom
is a local host, but it then treats it the same way as
user, applying
to all local hosts and virtual domains.
Addresses in
/etc/aliases are parsed the same way as addresses in RFC 822
message headers. Parenthesized comments and bracketed addresses are permitted:
root: bob (Bob, the postmaster)
joe: Joe Shmoe <shmoe@heaven.af.mil>
Addresses with special characters must be quoted:
fred: "spaced out mailbox"@heaven.af.mil
Address groups are not permitted, since colons have a different use in
/etc/aliases.
Any recipient address without a fully qualified domain name is fed through the
defaulthost,
defaultdomain, and
plusdomain mechanisms
described in
qmail-header(5).
COMPATIBILITY WARNING: sendmail's handling of quotes and backslashes
violates RFC 821 and RFC 822, and is not supported by
newaliases. The
qmail-local delivery mechanism lets each user manage several addresses,
so there is no need for a special syntax to get around forwarding.
MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS¶
An instruction may list more than one recipient address:
alias: recip1, recip2, recip3
Any message sent to
alias will be forwarded to all of the addresses.
A forwarding instruction may be split across several lines. Each line past the
first must either (1) begin with space or tab or (2) be empty:
hostmaster:
fred,
joe
COMPATIBILITY WARNING: sendmail requires the colon to be on the first
line of a multi-line forwarding instruction.
newaliases doesn't care
whether the colon is present at all.
COMPATIBILITY WARNING: sendmail does not permit blank lines in the middle
of continuations. This has the undesirable effect that a blank line behaves
differently from a line containing a single space.
Any line in
/etc/aliases that begins with # is ignored:
# this is a comment
A comment may be split across several lines. Each line past the first must
either (1) begin with space or tab or (2) be empty.
COMPATIBILITY WARNING: sendmail does not permit continuations of comment
lines.
PROGRAMS¶
If a recipient address does not contain a domain name, and begins with a
vertical bar,
newaliases takes the rest of the address as a program to
run:
weather: "|weather-server"
fastforward will run
weather-server when a message arrives for
weather.
COMPATIBILITY WARNING: Internet addresses can legitimately start with a
slash or vertical bar.
newaliases treats anything with an unquoted @ as
an address. sendmail appears to have various problems coping with these
addresses, and with commands that contain @ signs.
COMPATIBILITY WARNING: newaliases does not allow a vertical bar
before double quotes.
INCLUDE FILES¶
A recipient address of the form
:include:file means ``every
address listed in file.'' (Actually
fastforward reads
file .bin; see newinclude(1) for further
details.)
Note that
file is read by
fastforward, not
newaliases, so
the system administrator does not have to run
newaliases every time
file changes.
file must be world-readable and accessible to
fastforward.
COMPATIBILITY WARNING: If an
:include: file is unreadable or
nonexistent, sendmail skips it;
fastforward defers delivery of the
message.
COMPATIBILITY WARNING: sendmail does not permit spaces inside the literal
text
:include:.
newaliases does.
COMPATIBILITY WARNING: Versions of sendmail before V8 did not strip
quotes from
:include: filenames.
ALIAS OWNERS¶
If there is an alias for
owner-list, any message
forwarded through list will have its envelope sender set to
owner- list, so that bounces go back to
owner-list.
COMPATIBILITY WARNING: When an alias includes the same recipient both
inside and outside a mailing list,
fastforward sends the message twice,
once with each envelope sender. sendmail sends the message only once; its
choice of envelope sender for that recipient depends on the phase of the moon.
SEE ALSO¶
fastforward(1),
setforward(1),
newinclude(1),
printforward(1),
dot-qmail(5)