aliases

An entry in the aliases file is usually of the form:

aliasname: mailaddress1, mailaddress2, mailaddress3...

The mapping of this line in the nis.mapping file is shown below:

Table: mail.aliases
...
Import:
	Extract:
		LINE =>$aliasNameT:$aliasListT
	Condense:
		rfc822mailMembersT=string2instances($aliasListT,",")
		trimrfc822mailMembersT=trim($rfc822mailMembersT)
		objectClassT=string2instances("top nisMailAlias", " ")
	Build:
		dn=cn=$aliasNameT,$BASE_DN
		cn=$aliasNameT
		rfc822mailMember=$trimrfc822mailMembersT
		objectClass=$objectClassT

In the Extract section, the keyword LINE shows the initial decomposition of a line in the aliases file. If in your aliases file you use a punctuation mark other than a colon to separate the alias name from the alias list, you must change the LINE definition to match your file format.

In the Condense section, the token definition for rfc822mailMembersT provides a further decomposition of the alias list. If in your aliases file you use a punctuation mark other than a comma to separate the elements in the alias list, you must change the token definition to match your file format.

The token definition for trimrfc822mailMemberT removes any unnecessary spaces from the result produced by the preceding string2instances operation on the alias list.

The token definition for objectClassT shows the inheritance hierarchy for the nisMailAlias object class.

In the Build section, the DN of the entry is created by concatenating the cn attribute and attribute value with the BASE_DN token. The BASE_DN token identifies the naming context under which the entry is created.

The rfc822mailMember and objectClass attributes are multi-valued. There is one occurrence of these attributes for each value resulting from the string2instances operations.

For example, the aliases file in the domain France.XYZ.com contains the following line:

dir-team: pdurand, jdupond, asantini, msmith, dphilippe, smartin

The DN of the directory entry created from this line in the aliases file is cn=dir-team, ou=Aliases, ou=Services, dc=France, dc=XYZ, dc=com. The attributes stored under that entry and their values are: