Setting up a Mail alias

Lemming

A question if I may.

I'm trying to set up an alias (eg. name2@mailaddress.com) for an existing user (eg. name1@mailaddress.com).

I'm using sendmail under RH 7.2 (which I have no choice over, so don't say "use another distro" ).

I'm unsure as to how to go about this. I can see the /etc/aliases file, but is this reading from other files for mail addresses or can I simply put the alias email address into this file, and then rebuild alisases.db

Kali

add it to /etc/aliases then just run newaliases.. depending on how sendmail is setup it could do it itself with a simple restart tho..

flamegrill

it depends, u can use /etc/mail/virtusertable to add these kinds of aliases, or you can use the aliases file. so an entry would be like:

user@doamin.tld: somename@hotmail.com

in the aliases file, and in the etc/mail/virtusertable they are very similar but without the :

so:

user@doamin.tld somename@hotmail.com
it can also do:

@domain.tld root # this is a "catch all" email address

Hope this helps, newaliases rebuilds the aliases file, and something like "hash -o /etc/mail/virtusertable" will make the db for the other option, but thats usually in the sendmail.cf config in either /etc or /etc/mail.

Sendmail is your friend dont ph33r it.


Regards,

Paul

Lemming

Originally posted by flamegrill

Sendmail is your friend dont ph33r it

Until you see the size of the README file and go "oh dear god!!..."

Cheers lads. I'll have a looksie at what you're all suggesting and let ye know how it goes!

Lemming

ANother question just before I do anything here .....

say the actual email address names are:

name@address.com

and I want to set up an aliasname of aliasname@address.com to point to the first address too.

in the /etc/aliases file I'm seeing settings such as name1 : name2 (without the @address.com bit after them).

My question is this. Is sendmail reading these full email addresses off of another file, or is there a setting somewhere that says all addresses inside this system are "@address.com" ??

Do I just put in a line reading as "name: aliasname", or can I put in the full email addresses? :-/

Kali

sendmail automatically picks up on the correct domain name iirc.. (most likely from /etc/hosts).. although you can change this manually in sendmail.cf but its not reccomended.

dahamsta

The aliases file is used /only/ for mapping system users, so you can put a full email address on the right-hand side, but not on the left. For example, if you have two domains, 'example.com' and 'example2.com', and you have a mapping for 'user', mail to both domain names will be caught by the 'user' mapping. If you want to map them to separate addresses, you need to use the virtusertable, in which you can put addresses on both sides.

The Red Hat docs are pretty good.

adam

Lemming

Originally posted by dahamsta
The aliases file is used /only/ for mapping system users, so you can put a full email address on the right-hand side, but not on the left. For example, if you have two domains, 'example.com' and 'example2.com', and you have a mapping for 'user', mail to both domain names will be caught by the 'user' mapping. If you want to map them to separate addresses, you need to use the virtusertable, in which you can put addresses on both sides.

The Red Hat docs are pretty good.

adam

Dahamsta strikes again!!

Ok, let me get this right (before I go trudging through the rh docs.

I have an address (name1@address.com). I want to make an alias address to direct to "name1", which will be "alias@address.com"

In the /etc/aliases file, if I put in:

name1 : alias@address.com

is it correct?

(bearing mind that alias@address.com doesn't actually exist as such. It would merely be a pointer, and not a redirect of another mail account to "name1")

Kali

as long as the two address.com are the same then /etc/alias will work... but you don't need to specify the domain.

just add the following to the file...

#sends mail to fakeuser@mydomain.com to realuser@mydomain.com
fakeuser: realuser


(btw you posted them the wrong way round )

Lemming

Thanx lads!! Much appreciated

Originally posted by kali

btw you posted them the wrong way round

Oh well .. I guess that Linux Certification exam is out of the question any time soon so

Lemming

Oops ..

got a(nother) question here (it's not my fault .. really .. people just came back to me and asked for it)

can the same alias be given to multiple users, or will I need to set up a mailinglist for that (or some such)?

Is there any particular syntax like:
aliasuser: realuser1; realuser2

dahamsta

can the same alias be given to multiple users, or will I need to set up a mailinglist for that (or some such)?

Is there any particular syntax like:
aliasuser: realuser1; realuser2

The syntax is wrong there anyway, the users on the right should be separated by a comma. With that example, mail for aliasuser@domain will be redirected by Sendmail to realuser1 and realuser2. If you want to use the same username@muliple.domains, you need to use the virtusertable.

`man aliases` for details on the aliases file.

adam