ALIASES(5) File Formats Manual ALIASES(5)

aliases - Postfix local alias database format



newaliases










The aliases(5) table provides a system-wide mechanism to
    redirect mail for local recipients. The redirections are processed by the
    Postfix local(8) delivery agent.


Normally, the aliases(5) table is specified as a text file
    that serves as input to the postalias(1) command. The result, an
    indexed file in dbm or db format, is used for fast lookup by
    the mail system. Execute the command newaliases in order to rebuild
    the indexed file after changing the Postfix alias database.


When the table is provided via other means such as NIS, LDAP or
    SQL, the same lookups are done as for ordinary indexed files.


Alternatively, the table can be provided as a regular-expression
    map where patterns are given as regular expressions. In this case, the
    lookups are done in a slightly different way as described below under
    "REGULAR EXPRESSION TABLES".


Users can control delivery of their own mail by setting up
    .forward files in their home directory. Lines in per-user
    .forward files have the same syntax as the right-hand side of
    aliases(5) entries.


The format of the alias database input file is as follows:



The name is a local address (no domain part). Use double
    quotes when the name contains any special characters such as whitespace,
    `#', `:', or `@'. The name is folded to lowercase, in order to make
    database lookups case insensitive.


In addition, when an alias exists for owner-name,
    delivery diagnostics are directed to that address, instead of to the
    originator of the message. This is typically used to direct delivery errors
    to the maintainer of a mailing list, who is in a better position to deal
    with mailing list delivery problems than the originator of the undelivered
    mail.


The value contains one or more of the following:



  

  
Mail is forwarded to address, which is compatible with the RFC 822
      standard.

  
/file/name

  
Mail is appended to /file/name. See local(8) for details of
      delivery to file. Delivery is not limited to regular files. For example,
      to dispose of unwanted mail, deflect it to /dev/null.

  
|command

  
Mail is piped into command. Commands that contain special
      characters, such as whitespace, should be enclosed between double quotes.
      See local(8) for details of delivery to command.
    
When the command fails, a limited amount of command output is
        mailed back to the sender. The file /usr/include/sysexits.h
        defines the expected exit status codes. For example, use "|exit
        67" to simulate a "user unknown" error, and
        "|exit 0" to implement an expensive black hole.

  

  
:include:/file/name

  
Mail is sent to the destinations listed in the named file. Lines in
      :include: files have the same syntax as the right-hand side of
      alias entries.
    
A destination can be any destination that is described in this
        manual page. However, delivery to "|command" and
        /file/name is disallowed by default. To enable, edit the
        allow_mail_to_commands and allow_mail_to_files
        configuration parameters.

  












When alias database search fails, and the recipient localpart
    contains the optional recipient delimiter (e.g., user+foo), the
    search is repeated for the unextended address (e.g., user).


The propagate_unmatched_extensions parameter controls
    whether an unmatched address extension (+foo) is propagated to the
    result of table lookup.










The local(8) delivery agent always folds the search string to
    lowercase before database lookup.










This section describes how the table lookups change when the table
    is given in the form of regular expressions. For a description of regular
    expression lookup table syntax, see regexp_table(5) or
    pcre_table(5). NOTE: these formats do not use ":" at the
    end of a pattern.


Each regular expression is applied to the entire search string.
    Thus, a search string user+foo is not broken up into user and
    foo.


Regular expressions are applied in the order as specified in the
    table, until a regular expression is found that matches the search
  string.


Lookup results are the same as with indexed file lookups. For
    security reasons there is no support for $1, $2 etc. substring
    interpolation.










The local(8) delivery agent disallows regular expression
    substitution of $1 etc. in alias_maps, because that would open a
    security hole.


The local(8) delivery agent will silently ignore requests
    to use the proxymap(8) server within alias_maps. Instead it
    will open the table directly. Before Postfix version 2.2, the
    local(8) delivery agent will terminate with a fatal error.










The following main.cf parameters are especially relevant.
    The text below provides only a parameter summary. See postconf(5) for
    more details including examples.



  

  
List of alias databases that are updated by the newaliases(1)
      command.

  

  
List of alias databases queried by the local(8) delivery
    agent.

  

  
Restrict the usage of mail delivery to external command.

  

  
Restrict the usage of mail delivery to external file.

  

  
When delivering to an alias that has an owner- companion alias, set
      the envelope sender address to the right-hand side of the owner alias,
      instead using of the left-hand side address.

  

  
A list of address rewriting or forwarding mechanisms that propagate an
      address extension from the original address to the result. Specify zero or
      more of canonical, virtual, alias, forward,
      include, or generic.

  

  
Give special treatment to owner-listname and
      listname-request addresses.

  

  
Delimiter that separates recipients from address extensions.




Available in Postfix version 2.3 and later:



  

  
Update the local(8) delivery agent's Delivered-To: address (see
      prepend_delivered_header) only once, at the start of a delivery; do not
      update the Delivered-To: address while expanding aliases or .forward
      files.










RFC 822 (ARPA Internet Text Messages)








local(8), local delivery agent
newaliases(1), create/update alias database
postalias(1), create/update alias database
postconf(5), configuration parameters










Use "postconf readme_directory" or
    "postconf html_directory" to locate this information.


DATABASE_README, Postfix lookup table overview










The Secure Mailer license must be distributed with this
  software.








Wietse Venema
IBM T.J. Watson Research
P.O. Box 704
Yorktown Heights, NY 10598, USA
Wietse Venema
Google, Inc.
111 8th Avenue
New York, NY 10011, USA