newaliases(1)						      General Commands Manual						     newaliases(1)

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 pro-
       gram 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 newin-
       clude(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)