Name-Rewriting Rules

Name-rewriting rules are the heart of name parsing in sendmail. They are an ordered list of pattern-replacement rules that are applied to each name. For example, rule set 0 determines which mailer to use. sendmail rewrites the message until it is in a form that can be parsed. When a pattern matches the rule is reapplied until it fails.

The configuration file also supports the editing of names into different formats. For example, a name in this form:

ucsfcgl!tef

might be mapped into:

tef@ucsfcgl.UUCP

to conform to the internal syntax. Translations can also be done in the other direction for particular mailers.