NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

       forward - forward mail

SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]

       /var/adm/forward/username $HOME/.forward

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

       The  .forward  file  allows  a user to forward messages to
       another host, or to invoke programs (such as  vacation(1))
       to  process  their  mail.   It is formatted as a series of
       comma-separated addresses in the form: addr_1, addr_2, ...
       Alternatively, each address can be on a separate line.

       The  newer sendmail.v8 program also allows the use of comments
 (lines that begin with a ``#'') and blank lines.

       As with the aliases(4) file, mail  messages  can  be  forwarded
  to  another  host or given to programs for further
       processing.  The following is an example of  the  vacation
       program.  Assuming  that the user's name is myra, create a
       .forward  file  and  add  the   following   line:   \myra,
       "|/usr/bin/vacation myra"

       The  previous example forwards mail to myra (the backslash
       prevents an accidental aliasing loop), and  also  sends  a
       copy of the message to the vacation program.

       For  security  reasons, the file must be owned by the user
       or by root and it should be  writable  only  by  the  file
       owner.   In  addition,  the  file  must be readable by the
       owner (myra) or root.

       On traditional systems, only the  $HOME/.forward  file  is
       checked.   The  sendmail.v8  program allows the use of the
       system-wide  forwarding  directory  /var/adm/forward.   By
       default,  this  directory  is  checked  for a forward file
       prior to examining the users $HOME directory.

FILES    [Toc]    [Back]

       System-wide  forwarding  file.   The  per-user  forwarding
       file.

RESTRICTIONS    [Toc]    [Back]

       The  sendmail  command  can hang trying to read the user's
       $HOME/.forward file.  If the user's home directory is NFSmounted
  and  temporarily unavailable, sendmail will stall
       until the directory becomes available again.  The  use  of
       non-NFS mounted directories for the forwarding of files is
       recommended.

       The use of /var/adm/forward is  supported  only  by  sendmail.v8.


       The  actual  path  for /var/adm/forward is configurable in
       the sendmail.cf file.

       Incorrect file permissions/ownership are quietly  ignored.

       It  is  easy to create an accidental loop, for example, on
       host_a myra@host_b and on host_b myra@host_a

RELATED INFORMATION    [Toc]    [Back]

       Commands:  aliases(4), sendmail.cf(4),  sendmail(8)  delim
       off



                                                       forward(4)