Configuring and Managing MPE/iX Internet Services (August 2002)

Chapter 10
Sendmail for MPE/iX
The Aliases Database Map and .forward Files
200
The Aliases Database Map and .forward Files
The aliases database map /etc/mail/aliases describes user ID aliases used by Sendmail 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 e-mail address.
Local Username
username The username must be available via getpwnam(3). Note that names specified here will be
subject to recursive alias lookups; to suppress further alias lookups against this name,
prefix the name with a backslash (\) character. MPE usernames have the format
USER.ACCOUNT.
Local Filename
/path/name Messages are appended to the file specified by the full absolute pathname (starting with a
slash (/))
Command
|command A command starts with a pipe symbol (|), it receives messages via standard input. To
execute a command with parameters, enclose the entire expression in quotes, i.e.,
"|command parm1 parm2 parm3".
Include File
:include: /path/name The aliases in pathname are added to the aliases for name.
External 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 cannot occur, since no message will be sent to any person more
than once.
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 must be executed each
time the aliases file is changed for the change to take effect:
1. :HELLO SERVER.SENDMAIL
2. :XEQ SH.HPBIN.SYS -L
3. shell/iX> newaliases
Each local user can create a .forward file to alter the delivery of their own mail. When delivering mail to local
users, Sendmail looks for a file called /ACCOUNT/GROUP/.forward where ACCOUNT is the user’s MPE
account and GROUP is the user’s MPE home group. If this file is found, the contents are parsed as if they
were the right-hand side of an aliases file entry. Consider the following example .forward file:
\USER.ACCOUNT, "|/SENDMAIL/CURRENT/bin/vacation USER.ACCOUNT"