NAME

       forward - email forwarding information file

DESCRIPTION

       Users may put a .forward file in their home directory.  If this file exists, smtpd(8)
       forwards email to the destinations specified therein.

       A .forward file contains a list of expansion values, as described in aliases(5).  Each
       expansion value should be on a line by itself.  However, the .forward mechanism differs
       from the aliases mechanism in that it disallows file inclusion (:include:) and it performs
       expansion under the user ID of the .forward file owner.

       Permissions on the .forward file are very strict and expansion is rejected if the file is
       group or world-writable; if the home directory is group writeable; or if the file is not
       owned by the user.

       Users should avoid editing directly the .forward file to prevent delivery failures from
       occurring if a message arrives while the file is not fully written.  The best option is to
       use a temporary file and use the mv(1) command to atomically overwrite the former
       .forward.  Alternatively, setting the sticky(8) bit on the home directory will cause the
       .forward lookup to return a temporary failure, causing mails to be deferred.

FILES

            ~/.forward
                   Email forwarding information.

EXAMPLES

       The following file forwards mail to ``user@example.com'', and pipes the same mail to
       ``examplemda''.
           # empty lines are ignored
           user@example.com    # anything after # is ignored
           "|/path/to/examplemda"

SEE ALSO

       aliases(5), smtpd(8)

                                  $Mdocdate: November 13 2013 $                        FORWARD(5)