aliases.sendmail(5) [centos man page]
ALIASES(5) File Formats Manual ALIASES(5) NAME
aliases - aliases file for sendmail SYNOPSIS
aliases DESCRIPTION
This file describes user ID aliases used by sendmail. The file resides in /etc 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 file- name, a command, an include file, or an external address. Local Username username The username must be available via getpwnam(3). Local Filename /path/name Messages are appended to the file specified by the full pathname (starting with a slash (/)) Command |command A command starts with a pipe symbol (|), it receives messages via standard input. Include File :include: /path/name The aliases in pathname are added to the aliases for name. 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 new- line. Lines beginning with # are comments. Aliasing occurs only on local names. Loops can not occur, since no message will be sent to any person more than once. If an alias is found for name, sendmail then checks for an alias for owner-name. If it is found and the result of the lookup expands to a single address, the envelope sender address of the message is rewritten to that address. If it is found and the result expands to more than one address, the envelope sender address is changed to owner-name. 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/aliases.db using the pro- gram newaliases(1). A newaliases command should be executed each time the aliases file is changed for the change to take effect. SEE ALSO
newaliases(1), dbm(3), dbopen(3), db_open(3), sendmail(8) SENDMAIL Installation and Operation Guide. SENDMAIL An Internetwork Mail Router. BUGS
If you have compiled sendmail with DBM support instead of NEWDB, you may have encountered problems in dbm(3) restricting a single alias to about 1000 bytes of information. You can get longer aliases by ``chaining''; that is, make the last name in the alias be a dummy name which is a continuation alias. HISTORY
The aliases file format appeared in 4.0BSD. $Date: 2004/07/12 05:39:21 $ ALIASES(5)
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aliases(5) File Formats Manual aliases(5) NAME
aliases - aliases file for sendmail SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
The command (which is the same as see sendmail(1M)) builds the sendmail alias database from a text file. The default text file is Local addresses (local user names) are looked up in the alias database and expanded as necessary, unless the user name is preceded by a backslash When the aliases file contains multiple entries for a given alias, only the last entry is used. Except when the processing option (the send to me option) is set in the command or in the configuration file, the sender is not included in any alias expansions. For example, if sends a message to and the expansion of includes the message is not delivered to Each line of the alias text file must be of the form: Mailing lists can be continued onto multiple lines. Each continuation line must begin with white space. Lines beginning with # are com- ments. A mailing-list is a comma-separated list of one or more of the following: user-name Local user names occurring in alias expansions will themselves be looked up in the alias database unless they are preceded by backslash remote-address The remote address syntax understood by is configured in the configuration file, and typically includes the RFC-822-style and the UUCP-style filename This must be an absolute path name. appends a message to the file only if the directory in which it resides is readable and searchable by all, and only if the file already exists, is not executable, and is writable by all. pipes the message as standard input to the specified command. If command-line contains blanks, it must be enclosed in quotation marks (). For example, reads filename for a list of recipient addresses and forwards the message to each. For example, an alias such as: would read for the list of addresses making up the group. If a file named exists in a user's home directory and is owned by the user, redirects mail for that user to the list of addresses in the file. An address in a or file can be anything that can appear as a mailing-list in the alias text file. can run programs or write to files using file. This is controlled by the file. If the owner of the file lacks a valid shell as listed in file, the execution of such programs will be disallowed. The user can still execute such programs by placing the special string in the file. The alias database is examined before a recipient's file is examined. After aliasing has been done, local and valid recipients who have a file in their home directory will have messages forwarded to the list of users defined in that file. Aliasing occurs only on local names. Loops can not occur, since no message will be sent to any person more than once. Aliases defined in will NOT be expanded in headers from (see mailx(1)), but WILL be visible over networks and in headers from (see mail(1)). is only the raw data file. The actual aliasing information is placed into a binary format in the file using (see newaliases(1M)). A command should be executed each time the file is changed in order for the change to take effect. Note that the NIS alias maps are gener- ated by using which leaves and in the directory. AUTHOR
was developed by the University of California, Berkeley, and originally appeared in 4.0BSD. FILES
User's mail forwarding file raw data file for alias names database of alias names SEE ALSO
mail(1), mailx(1), makemap(1M), newaliases(1M), sendmail(1M). aliases(5)