newaliases(1) General Commands Manual newaliases(1)NAME
newaliases - Builds a new copy of the alias database
SYNOPSIS
newaliases
DESCRIPTION
The newaliases command builds a new copy of the alias file from source. The location of the alias source is controlled by the setting of
the A processing flag either in the sendmail.cf file or by the sendmail -o option. By default, the source file is in /var/adm/send-
mail/aliases. (The setting of the A processing flag also controls the location of the and files.)
You must issue this command each time you change the alias source file for the change to take effect. Running this command is equivalent to
running the sendmail command with the -bi option.
FILES
Contains source for the aliases for sendmail. Contains binary files for the aliases database created by the newaliases command. Contains
binary files for the aliases database created by the newaliases command.
SEE ALSO
Command: sendmail(8)
Files: aliases(4)newaliases(1)
Check Out this Related Man Page
aliases(4) Kernel Interfaces Manual aliases(4)NAME
aliases - Contains alias definitions for the sendmail program
SYNOPSIS
/var/adm/sendmail/aliases
DESCRIPTION
By default, the aliases file contains the required aliases for the sendmail program. Do not delete these defaults because they are needed
by the system. This file describes user ID aliases used by the sendmail command. It is formatted as a series of lines in the form: name:
name_1, name_2, name_3,..
The name is the name that needs an alias, and the name_n are the aliases for that name. Lines beginning with white space are continuation
lines. Lines beginning with a # (number sign) are comments.
You can define an alias only on local names. Duplicate addresses are removed and no message is sent to any person more than once. For
example, if name_1 defines an alias that is name_2 and name_2 defines an alias that is name_1, sendmail does not send the same message back
and forth. 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 information that defines the aliases is placed into a binary format in the files /var/adm/send-
mail/aliases.dir and /var/adm/sendmail/aliases.pag using the newaliases command. For the change to take effect, the newaliases command
must be executed each time the aliases file is changed.
The sendmail program also supports sending messages to programs or appending a message to a file. See the sendmail(8) reference page for
further information.
Special Aliases
Directs error messages that occur when sending to aliasname back to address.
RESTRICTIONS
Aliases for sendmail use the dbm(3) database format for faster lookups. A single alias cannot exceed 1,000 characters. To work around this
restriction, you can chain together aliases. For example: alias-list: ali1, ali2, ali3 ali1: name 1, name 2 ... ali2: name n, name n + 1
FILES
Binary aliases file. Binary aliases file.
RELATED INFORMATION
Commands: newaliases(1), forward(4), local.users(4), sendmail(8) delim off
aliases(4)