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aliases               Technical Information               aliases




File of users' aliases

/uussrr/lliibb/mmaaiill/aalliiaasseess
$HHOOMMEE/.aalliiaasseess
$HHOOMMEE/.ffoorrwwaarrdd

aalliiaasseess  is a  file that  holds  aliases by  which users  on your
system  and other  systems are known.   An ``alias'',  in effect,
gives another name  by which you can address a  mail message to a
user  on  either your  or  another  system.  It  can  serve as  a
mnemomic,  a ``mailing  list'', or  to spare  you the  trouble of
typing a complicated UUCP path name.

The format of each alias is


        alias_name:     target


where _a_l_i_a_s__n_a_m_e gives the  alias to which you mail your message,
and _t_a_r_g_e_t is the place where ssmmaaiill actually directs the message.
_t_a_r_g_e_t can  be a  login identifier on  your local system;  a mail
address of  a user on  another system, or  a cluster of  users on
your system, on remote systems, or both.

ssmmaaiill ignores differences in case when it compares a name with an
alias.  Lines  that start  with a white-space  character continue
from   the   previous  line.    ssmmaaiill   ignores  strings   within
parentheses, as well as any  text that appears after a pound sign
`#'.

Prior to delivering  local mail, ssmmaaiill checks file $HHOOMMEE/.ffoorrwwaarrdd
for forwarding instructions.  This feature can be used to forward
inbound mail  for a user  to another machine  or even a  group of
machines.

***** Examples *****

The following gives an example form of aalliiaasseess:


# this whole line is a comment



# "mail programmers" sends mail to local users joe, jack, and bill
programmers:   joe jack bill









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# same as above
programmers:   joe jack
               bill



# same as above
programmers    joe jack
               bill



# same as above
programmers    joe   # Joe Smith
               jack  # Jack Thomas
               bill  # Bill Williams



# and yet another way; note use of parentheses to comment text
programmers    joe (Joe Smith) jack (Jack Thomas)
               bill (Bill Williams)



# send a message to someone on another system
joe:           boston!widget!js



# send a message to users on both your and another system
programmers:   boston!widget!js   # Joe Smith
               chicago!gadget!jt  # Jack Thomas
               bill               # Bill Williams



# all members of "programmers" group work at site "widget"
programmers!widget  joe jack bill


Mailing lists are easily  handled by two forms of file inclusion.
The first form is the same as is supported by sseennddmmaaiill:


fredlist       :include:/usr/lib/mail/fredlist


ssmmaaiill adds each  entry in /uussrr/lliibb/mmaaiill/ffrreeddlliisstt to the alias for
ffrreeddlliisstt.

The  second form  allows /uussrr/lliibb/mmaaiill/aalliiaasseess  to  include other
aliases files:




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:include:/usr/lib/mail/morealiases


This adds  the contents of /uussrr/lliibb/mmaaiill/mmoorreeaalliiaasseess  to those of
/uussrr/lliibb/mmaaiill/aalliiaasseess as a regular alias file.

All aliases  are recursive, so you must  be careful when defining
them.  For example, the entries


bill:     joe
joe:      bill


causes  an infinite  loop.   ssmmaaiill attempts  to prevent  infinite
loops,  and to  guess  what you  intended to  do.  The  following
example illustrates how an alias can be used to deliver mail to a
remote user  as well as to  a local user having  the same name as
the alias being expanded.  ssmmaaiill expands the alias


mylogin:       mypc!mylogin  mylogin


to


mypc!mylogin mylogin


even though  the second occurrence  of mmyyllooggiinn matches  the alias
name.

Both forms of file inclusion  are recursive, too, and may lead to
infinite loops if handled carelessly.

***** See Also *****

mmaaiill, tteecchhnniiccaall iinnffoorrmmaattiioonn

















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