| 1 | .TH newaliases 1 |
| 2 | .SH NAME |
| 3 | newaliases \- create a forwarding database from /etc/aliases |
| 4 | .SH SYNOPSIS |
| 5 | .B newaliases |
| 6 | .SH DESCRIPTION |
| 7 | .B newaliases |
| 8 | reads a table of |
| 9 | sendmail-style |
| 10 | forwarding instructions from |
| 11 | .B /etc/aliases |
| 12 | and converts them into a forwarding database in |
| 13 | .BR /etc/aliases.cdb . |
| 14 | The forwarding database can be used by |
| 15 | .BR fastforward . |
| 16 | |
| 17 | For safety, |
| 18 | .B newaliases |
| 19 | writes the forwarding database to |
| 20 | .B /etc/aliases.tmp |
| 21 | and then moves |
| 22 | .B /etc/aliases.tmp |
| 23 | to |
| 24 | .BR /etc/aliases.cdb . |
| 25 | If there is a problem creating |
| 26 | .BR /etc/aliases.tmp , |
| 27 | .B newaliases |
| 28 | complains and leaves |
| 29 | .B /etc/aliases.cdb |
| 30 | alone. |
| 31 | Deliveries can continue using |
| 32 | .B /etc/aliases.cdb |
| 33 | in the meantime. |
| 34 | |
| 35 | .B newaliases |
| 36 | always creates |
| 37 | .B /etc/aliases.cdb |
| 38 | world-readable. |
| 39 | |
| 40 | .B newaliases |
| 41 | makes no attempt to protect against |
| 42 | simultaneous updates of |
| 43 | .BR /etc/aliases.cdb . |
| 44 | .SH "INSTRUCTION FORMAT" |
| 45 | .B newaliases |
| 46 | imitates |
| 47 | sendmail's |
| 48 | handling of |
| 49 | .BR /etc/aliases . |
| 50 | For example, |
| 51 | |
| 52 | .EX |
| 53 | root: alice, bill |
| 54 | .EE |
| 55 | |
| 56 | says that mail for |
| 57 | .B root |
| 58 | should be forwarded to |
| 59 | .B alice |
| 60 | and |
| 61 | .BR bill . |
| 62 | |
| 63 | .B COMPATIBILITY WARNING: |
| 64 | .B newaliases |
| 65 | does not support file deliveries. |
| 66 | You can use the file delivery mechanism described in |
| 67 | .B dot-qmail(5) |
| 68 | instead. |
| 69 | .SH "SIMPLE ALIASES" |
| 70 | The simplest type of forwarding instruction |
| 71 | is a line of the form |
| 72 | |
| 73 | .EX |
| 74 | alias: recip |
| 75 | .EE |
| 76 | |
| 77 | Any message sent to |
| 78 | .I alias |
| 79 | will be forwarded to the recipient address |
| 80 | .IR recip . |
| 81 | Addresses are compared to |
| 82 | .I alias |
| 83 | without regard to case. |
| 84 | |
| 85 | Forwarding instructions are cumulative. |
| 86 | If |
| 87 | .I recip |
| 88 | is itself an alias, |
| 89 | messages to |
| 90 | .I alias |
| 91 | will be forwarded the same way as |
| 92 | messages to |
| 93 | .IR recip . |
| 94 | For example, with the following instructions, |
| 95 | messages to |
| 96 | .B postmaster@heaven.af.mil |
| 97 | or |
| 98 | .B root@heaven.af.mil |
| 99 | will be delivered to Bob: |
| 100 | |
| 101 | .EX |
| 102 | postmaster@heaven.af.mil: bob@heaven.af.mil |
| 103 | .EE |
| 104 | .br |
| 105 | .EX |
| 106 | root@heaven.af.mil: postmaster@heaven.af.mil |
| 107 | .EE |
| 108 | |
| 109 | .B COMPATIBILITY WARNING: |
| 110 | With |
| 111 | sendmail, |
| 112 | entries in |
| 113 | .B /etc/aliases |
| 114 | can override usernames. |
| 115 | With |
| 116 | .BR qmail , |
| 117 | if you install |
| 118 | .B fastforward |
| 119 | in |
| 120 | .BR ~alias/.qmail-default , |
| 121 | it will not see addresses that are controlled by other users. |
| 122 | See |
| 123 | .BR qmail-getpw (8). |
| 124 | To change this, see |
| 125 | .BR qmail-users (5). |
| 126 | |
| 127 | .B COMPATIBILITY WARNING: |
| 128 | Various versions of |
| 129 | sendmail |
| 130 | do various strange things with circular alias definitions. |
| 131 | See |
| 132 | .BR setforward (1) |
| 133 | for details on |
| 134 | .BR fastforward 's |
| 135 | behavior. |
| 136 | |
| 137 | .B COMPATIBILITY WARNING: |
| 138 | If there are several forwarding instructions for a single |
| 139 | .IR alias , |
| 140 | sendmail |
| 141 | will complain; |
| 142 | .B fastforward |
| 143 | will silently use the first instruction. |
| 144 | .SH "WILDCARDS" |
| 145 | .I alias |
| 146 | can have the form |
| 147 | .I user@host.dom |
| 148 | for one user at one host, |
| 149 | .I @host.dom |
| 150 | for all users at one host, or |
| 151 | .I user |
| 152 | for one user at all hosts. |
| 153 | |
| 154 | .B COMPATIBILITY WARNING: |
| 155 | sendmail |
| 156 | supports only |
| 157 | .IR user ; |
| 158 | it does not support per-host aliases. |
| 159 | It accepts |
| 160 | .I user@host.dom |
| 161 | if |
| 162 | .I host.dom |
| 163 | is a local host, |
| 164 | but it then treats it the same way as |
| 165 | .IR user , |
| 166 | applying to all local hosts and virtual domains. |
| 167 | .SH "ADDRESS FORMATS" |
| 168 | Addresses in |
| 169 | .B /etc/aliases |
| 170 | are parsed the same way as addresses in RFC 822 message headers. |
| 171 | Parenthesized comments and bracketed addresses are permitted: |
| 172 | |
| 173 | .EX |
| 174 | root: bob (Bob, the postmaster) |
| 175 | joe: Joe Shmoe <shmoe@heaven.af.mil> |
| 176 | .EE |
| 177 | |
| 178 | Addresses with special characters must be quoted: |
| 179 | |
| 180 | .EX |
| 181 | fred: "spaced out mailbox"@heaven.af.mil |
| 182 | .EE |
| 183 | |
| 184 | Address groups are not permitted, |
| 185 | since colons have a different use in |
| 186 | .BR /etc/aliases . |
| 187 | |
| 188 | Any recipient address without a fully qualified domain name is |
| 189 | fed through the |
| 190 | .BR defaulthost , |
| 191 | .BR defaultdomain , |
| 192 | and |
| 193 | .B plusdomain |
| 194 | mechanisms described in |
| 195 | .BR qmail-header (5). |
| 196 | |
| 197 | .B COMPATIBILITY WARNING: |
| 198 | sendmail's |
| 199 | handling of quotes and backslashes violates RFC 821 and RFC 822, |
| 200 | and is not supported by |
| 201 | .BR newaliases . |
| 202 | The |
| 203 | .B qmail-local |
| 204 | delivery mechanism |
| 205 | lets each user manage several addresses, |
| 206 | so there is no need for a special syntax to get around forwarding. |
| 207 | .SH "MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS" |
| 208 | An instruction may list more than one recipient address: |
| 209 | |
| 210 | .EX |
| 211 | alias: recip1, recip2, recip3 |
| 212 | .EE |
| 213 | |
| 214 | Any message sent to |
| 215 | .I alias |
| 216 | will be forwarded to all of the addresses. |
| 217 | |
| 218 | A forwarding instruction may be split across several lines. |
| 219 | Each line past the first must either (1) begin with space or tab |
| 220 | or (2) be empty: |
| 221 | |
| 222 | .EX |
| 223 | hostmaster: |
| 224 | .EE |
| 225 | .br |
| 226 | .EX |
| 227 | fred, |
| 228 | .EE |
| 229 | .br |
| 230 | .EX |
| 231 | joe |
| 232 | .EE |
| 233 | |
| 234 | .B COMPATIBILITY WARNING: |
| 235 | sendmail |
| 236 | requires the colon to be on the first line |
| 237 | of a multi-line forwarding instruction. |
| 238 | .B newaliases |
| 239 | doesn't care whether the colon is present at all. |
| 240 | |
| 241 | .B COMPATIBILITY WARNING: |
| 242 | sendmail |
| 243 | does not permit blank lines in the middle of continuations. |
| 244 | This has the undesirable effect that a blank line behaves differently |
| 245 | from a line containing a single space. |
| 246 | .SH "COMMENTS" |
| 247 | Any line in |
| 248 | .B /etc/aliases |
| 249 | that begins with # is ignored: |
| 250 | |
| 251 | .EX |
| 252 | # this is a comment |
| 253 | .EE |
| 254 | |
| 255 | A comment may be split across several lines. |
| 256 | Each line past the first must either (1) begin with space or tab |
| 257 | or (2) be empty. |
| 258 | |
| 259 | .B COMPATIBILITY WARNING: |
| 260 | sendmail |
| 261 | does not permit continuations of comment lines. |
| 262 | .SH "PROGRAMS" |
| 263 | If a recipient address does not contain a domain name, |
| 264 | and begins with a vertical bar, |
| 265 | .B newaliases |
| 266 | takes the rest of the address as a program to run: |
| 267 | |
| 268 | .EX |
| 269 | weather: "|weather-server" |
| 270 | .EE |
| 271 | |
| 272 | .B fastforward |
| 273 | will run |
| 274 | .B weather-server |
| 275 | when a message arrives for |
| 276 | .BR weather . |
| 277 | |
| 278 | .B COMPATIBILITY WARNING: |
| 279 | Internet addresses can legitimately start with |
| 280 | a slash or vertical bar. |
| 281 | .B newaliases |
| 282 | treats anything with an unquoted @ as an address. |
| 283 | sendmail appears to have various problems |
| 284 | coping with these addresses, |
| 285 | and with commands that contain @ signs. |
| 286 | |
| 287 | .B COMPATIBILITY WARNING: |
| 288 | .B newaliases |
| 289 | does not allow a vertical bar before double quotes. |
| 290 | .SH "INCLUDE FILES" |
| 291 | A recipient address of the form |
| 292 | .B :include:\fIfile |
| 293 | means ``every address listed in |
| 294 | .IR file .'' |
| 295 | (Actually |
| 296 | .B fastforward |
| 297 | reads |
| 298 | .IR file\fB.bin ; |
| 299 | see |
| 300 | .BR newinclude (1) |
| 301 | for further details.) |
| 302 | |
| 303 | Note that |
| 304 | .I file |
| 305 | is read by |
| 306 | .BR fastforward , |
| 307 | not |
| 308 | .BR newaliases , |
| 309 | so the system administrator does not have to run |
| 310 | .B newaliases |
| 311 | every time |
| 312 | .I file |
| 313 | changes. |
| 314 | .I file |
| 315 | must be world-readable |
| 316 | and accessible to |
| 317 | .BR fastforward . |
| 318 | |
| 319 | .B COMPATIBILITY WARNING: |
| 320 | If an |
| 321 | .B :include: |
| 322 | file is unreadable or nonexistent, |
| 323 | sendmail |
| 324 | skips it; |
| 325 | .B fastforward |
| 326 | defers delivery of the message. |
| 327 | |
| 328 | .B COMPATIBILITY WARNING: |
| 329 | sendmail |
| 330 | does not permit spaces inside the literal text |
| 331 | .BR :include: . |
| 332 | .B newaliases |
| 333 | does. |
| 334 | |
| 335 | .B COMPATIBILITY WARNING: |
| 336 | Versions of |
| 337 | sendmail |
| 338 | before V8 did not strip quotes from |
| 339 | .B :include: |
| 340 | filenames. |
| 341 | .SH "ALIAS OWNERS" |
| 342 | If there is an alias for |
| 343 | .BR owner-\fIlist , |
| 344 | any message forwarded through |
| 345 | .I list |
| 346 | will have its envelope sender set to |
| 347 | .BR owner-\fIlist , |
| 348 | so that bounces go back to |
| 349 | .BR owner-\fIlist . |
| 350 | |
| 351 | .B COMPATIBILITY WARNING: |
| 352 | When an alias includes the same recipient both inside and outside |
| 353 | a mailing list, |
| 354 | .B fastforward |
| 355 | sends the message twice, |
| 356 | once with each envelope sender. |
| 357 | sendmail |
| 358 | sends the message only once; |
| 359 | its choice of envelope sender for that recipient |
| 360 | depends on the phase of the moon. |
| 361 | .SH "SEE ALSO" |
| 362 | fastforward(1), |
| 363 | setforward(1), |
| 364 | newinclude(1), |
| 365 | printforward(1), |
| 366 | dot-qmail(5) |