forward(4)						     Kernel Interfaces Manual							forward(4)

NAME

       forward - forward mail

SYNOPSIS

       /var/adm/forward/username $HOME/.forward

DESCRIPTION

       The .forward file allows a user to forward messages to another host, or to invoke programs (such as vacation(1)) to process their mail.	It
       is formatted as a series of comma-separated addresses in the form: addr_1, addr_2, ...  Alternatively, each address can be  on  a  separate
       line.

       The newer sendmail.v8 program also allows the use of comments (lines that begin with a ``#'') and blank lines.

       As  with the aliases(4) file, mail messages can be forwarded to another host or given to programs for further processing.  The following is
       an example of the vacation program. Assuming that the user's name is myra, create a .forward  file  and	add  the  following  line:  myra,
       "|/usr/bin/vacation myra"

       The  previous  example  forwards mail to myra (the backslash prevents an accidental aliasing loop), and also sends a copy of the message to
       the vacation program.

       For security reasons, the file must be owned by the user or by root and it should be writable only by the file  owner.	In  addition,  the
       file must be readable by the owner (myra) or root.

       On  traditional	systems,  only	the  $HOME/.forward file is checked.  The sendmail.v8 program allows the use of the system-wide forwarding
       directory /var/adm/forward.  By default, this directory is checked for a forward file prior to examining the users $HOME directory.

FILES

       System-wide forwarding file.  The per-user forwarding file.

RESTRICTIONS

       The sendmail command can hang trying to read the user's $HOME/.forward file.  If the user's home directory is NFS-mounted  and  temporarily
       unavailable, sendmail will stall until the directory becomes available again.  The use of non-NFS mounted directories for the forwarding of
       files is recommended.

       The use of /var/adm/forward is supported only by sendmail.v8.

       The actual path for /var/adm/forward is configurable in the sendmail.cf file.

       Incorrect file permissions/ownership are quietly ignored.

       It is easy to create an accidental loop, for example, on host_a myra@host_b and on host_b myra@host_a

RELATED INFORMATION

       Commands:  aliases(4), sendmail.cf(4), sendmail(8) delim off

																	forward(4)