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System Administration Guide: Network Services

sendmail and Its Rerouting Mechanisms

The sendmail program supports three mechanisms for mail rerouting. The mechanism that you choose depends on the type of change that is involved.

Additionally, the rerouting mechanism that you choose can affect the level of administration that is required. Consider the following options.

  1. One rerouting mechanism is aliasing.

    Aliasing can map names to addresses on a server-wide basis or a name service-wide basis, depending on the type of file that you use.

    Consider the following advantages and disadvantages of name service aliasing.

    • The use of a name service alias file permits mail rerouting changes to be administered from a single source. However, name service aliasing can create lag time when the rerouting change is propagated.

    • Name service administration is usually restricted to a select group of system administrators. A normal user would not administer this file.

    Consider the following advantages and disadvantages of using a server alias file.

    • By using a server alias file, rerouting can be managed by anyone who can become root on the designated server.

    • Server aliasing should create little or no lag time when the rerouting change is propagated.

    • The change only affects the local server, which might be acceptable if most of the mail is sent to one server. However, if you need to propagate this change to many mail servers, use a name service.

    • A normal user would not administer this change.

    For more information, refer to Mail Alias Files in this chapter. For a task map, refer to Administering Mail Alias Files (Task Map) in Chapter 13, Mail Services (Tasks).

  2. The next mechanism is forwarding.

    This mechanism permits users to administer mail rerouting. Local users can reroute their incoming mail to the following.

    • Another mailbox

    • A different mailer

    • Another mail host

    This mechanism is supported through the use of .forward files. For more information about these files, refer to .forward Files in this chapter. For a task map, refer to Administering .forward Files (Task Map) in Chapter 13, Mail Services (Tasks).

  3. The last rerouting mechanism is inclusion.

    This mechanism allows users to maintain alias lists instead of requiring root access. To provide this feature, the root user must create an appropriate entry in the alias file on the server. After this entry is created, the user can reroute mail as necessary. For more information about inclusion, refer to /etc/mail/aliases File in this chapter. For a task map, refer to Administering Mail Alias Files (Task Map) in Chapter 13, Mail Services (Tasks).

    Note –

    Programs that read mail, such as /usr/bin/mailx, can have aliases of their own, which are expanded before the message reaches sendmail. The aliases for sendmail can originate from a number of name service sources, such as local files, NIS, or NIS+. The order of the lookup is determined by the nsswitch.conf file. Refer to the nsswitch.conf(4) man page.