Mail Administration Guide

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. See 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 2-2 describes the four columns.

Table 2-2 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`	Reserved for future use
`comments`	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. Or you can use Administration Tool's Database Manager to administer NIS+ mail aliases.

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. See "To List Individual Entries in the NIS+ mail_aliases Table " for information about how to create a NIS+ mail_aliases table.

To use the aliasadm command, you must be a member of the NIS+ group that owns the aliases table or the person who created the table.