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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/mail 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 filename,
       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  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	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/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.

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:	2013-11-22 20:51:55 $		    ALIASES(5)

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | SEE ALSO | BUGS | HISTORY

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