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List:       qmail
Subject:    Re: Aliases
From:       Charles Cazabon <qmail () discworld ! dyndns ! org>
Date:       2000-12-19 18:03:12
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Alex Le Fevre <alexlefevre@yahoo.com> wrote:
> In installing qmail, I'm told to set up
> ~alias/.postmaster, etc., etc. Only problem is, I
> don't quite understand the alias concept as it relates
> to mail. I understand the idea of an alias for a
> directory name...but mail? Is there some standard
> directory I'm pointing to with this alias, or some
> other standard concept behind it?

Simplified:

In qmail, alias is a system user account.  qmail, when delivering mail to
a local user, will first check ~username for validity, .qmail file(s), etc.
If that fails, it will then check ~alias/.qmail-username(-default, etc).

Therefore ~alias/.qmail-root is a .qmail file (`man dot-qmail`) which 
controls delivery of mail to "root@localdomain".

A dot mail file (read the man page referenced above) consists of comments,
blank lines, and delivery instructions.  A delivery instruction can be
one of several things:

-instruction to deliver to a Maildir.  Starts with . or / and ends with /.
	./path/to/Maildir/

-instruction to deliver to an mbox file.  Starts with . or / and does not
end with /.
	./path/to/mbox

-instruction to deliver to a program.  Starts with |; `man qmail-command` for
details.
	|/path/to/my/script

-forwarding instructions.  Either starts with &, or doesn't fit one of the
above.
	&joe@example.com

Charles
-- 
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Charles Cazabon                            <qmail@discworld.dyndns.org>
GPL'ed software available at:  http://www.qcc.sk.ca/~charlesc/software/
Any opinions expressed are just that -- my opinions.
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