NIS+ mail_aliases Table (System Administration Guide: Network Services)

System Administration Guide: Network Services

NIS+ `mail_aliases` Table

The NIS+ mail_aliases table contains the names by which a system or person is known in the local domain. The sendmail program can use the NIS+ mail_aliases table, instead of the local /etc/mail/aliases files, to determine mailing addresses. Refer to the aliasadm(1M) and nsswitch.conf(4) man pages for more information.

Aliases in the NIS+ mail_aliases table adhere to the following format:

alias: expansion # ["options" # "comments"]

Table 14–12 describes the four columns that are in an NIS+ mail_aliases table.

Table 14–12 Columns in the NIS+ mail_aliases Table


Column	Description
`alias`	The name of the alias
`expansion`	The value of the alias or a list of aliases as it would appear in a `sendmail` `/etc/mail/aliases` file
`options`	The column that is reserved for future use
`comments`	The column for comments about an individual alias

The NIS+ mail_aliases table should contain entries for all mail clients. You can list, create, modify, and delete entries in the NIS+ aliases table with the aliasadm command. To use the aliasadm command, you must be a member of the NIS+ group that owns the aliases table. For task information, refer to Administering Mail Alias Files (Task Map) in Chapter 13, Mail Services (Tasks). Alternately, you can use the Solaris Management Console to administer the NIS+ mail aliases.

Note –

If you are creating a new NIS+ aliases table, you must initialize the table before you create the entries. If the table exists, no initialization is needed.