xenial (1) qmail-newaliases.1.gz

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.

INSTRUCTION FORMAT

       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.

ADDRESS FORMATS

       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.

COMMENTS

       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)

                                                                                                   newaliases(1)