ALIASES(5)                                                          ALIASES(5)



NNAAMMEE
       aliases - aliases file for sendmail

SSYYNNOOPPSSIISS
       aalliiaasseess

DDEESSCCRRIIPPTTIIOONN
       This file describes user ID aliases used by sendmail.  The file resides
       in /etc/mail and is formatted as a series of lines of the form

              name: addr_1, addr_2, addr_3, . . .

       The _n_a_m_e is the name to alias, and the _a_d_d_r___n are the aliases for  that
       name.  _a_d_d_r___n can be another alias, a local username, a local filename,
       a command, an include file, or an external address.

       LLooccaall UUsseerrnnaammee
              username

              The username must be available via getpwnam(3).

       LLooccaall FFiilleennaammee
              /path/name

              Messages are appended to the file specified by the full pathname
              (starting with a slash (/))

       CCoommmmaanndd
              |command

              A  command  starts  with a pipe symbol (|), it receives messages
              via standard input.

       IInncclluuddee FFiillee
              :include: /path/name

              The aliases in pathname are added to the aliases for _n_a_m_e_.

       EE--MMaaiill AAddddrreessss
              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 newline.
       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 _n_a_m_e, sendmail then checks for an alias for
       _o_w_n_e_r_-_n_a_m_e.  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 _o_w_n_e_r_-_n_a_m_e.

       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/mail/aliases.db using  the
       program  newaliases(1).   A  newaliases command should be executed each
       time the aliases file is changed for the change to take effect.

SSEEEE AALLSSOO
       newaliases(1), dbm(3), dbopen(3), db_open(3), sendmail(8)

       _S_E_N_D_M_A_I_L _I_n_s_t_a_l_l_a_t_i_o_n _a_n_d _O_p_e_r_a_t_i_o_n _G_u_i_d_e_.

       _S_E_N_D_M_A_I_L _A_n _I_n_t_e_r_n_e_t_w_o_r_k _M_a_i_l _R_o_u_t_e_r_.

BBUUGGSS
       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.

HHIISSTTOORRYY
       The aalliiaasseess file format appeared in 4.0BSD.



                         $Date: 2004/07/12 05:39:21 $               ALIASES(5)
